dna edit: All dressed for vote-catching

The Trinamool Congress’s latest diktats to cadres verge on the bizarre. The party has now asked women campaign workers to refrain from using lipstick and avoid wearing matching bindi with sari. One is forced to wonder if such rules apply to the party’s star candidates as well. Moon Moon Sen, the fashionable daughter of Suchitra Sen, contesting from Bankura, never steps out of home without make-up. Ditto for yesteryear heroines Shatabdi Roy and Sandhya Roy.

Since when has a bit of pancake come in the way of power? Banerjee may be a model of austerity, but to deny women the right to wear make-up is taking things a bit too far.

Men, of course, have been spared the sartorial fatwa. But they will have to abstain from alcohol and regulate their hours of playing carom — no late-nights. Carom is very popular in Bengal, often played outdoors on the sidewalk, with an overhead bulb hanging from a wire drawn from a neighbour’s house for illumination. It is essential to male bonding.

However, what takes the cake in the list of don’ts is the ban on sunglasses. Shades spell haughtiness, and Banerjee won’t put up with them, even in the blinding sun.

The party believes that these sacrifices will improve its image and bolster Banerjee’s chances of staking claim to power in Delhi. The Chief Minister’s need to discipline the rank and file stems from a paranoia that loose talk and arrogance of workers could jeopardise TMC’s prospects. Still, she failed to crack the whip on superstar Dev. The Ghatal aspirant, whose insensitive comment comparing the frenzy surrounding his candidature to being raped — ‘either you enjoy it or shout’ — has been roundly condemned. It renders Banerjee’s sudden emphasis on what she perceives to be propriety and politeness, hollow.

The steep decline in quality in public discourse — in which all parties have played their parts — doesn’t portend well for democracy. Real issues have been replaced with personal attacks — both verbal and physical. Each day marks a new low in the conduct of politicians.

Banerjee’s inane directives make it clear that she is loath to take chances, even when there is little doubt over the party’s expected landslide in the elections. After sweeping the panchayat polls, her grip on the grassroots has become much stronger. The Congress has long been a spent force, and the Left’s marginalisation is evident even to an outsider. If there is a disenchanted middle class — as some observers harp on — a lack of credible alternative puts paid to their hope for a change. She has single-handedly decimated all opposition.

That said, her real challenge will be to rein in the party’s lumpen elements during elections. Bengal is a politically sensitive state where an altercation can open old wounds and lead to a fresh bout of bloodletting. The last panchayat elections had claimed 21 lives, denting her credibility as an administrator and alienating some of Banerjee’s ardent supporters.

This time, the Chief Minister should be at the forefront in maintaining calm, urging partymen not to give in to provocation. The police must be allowed to do their duties without any interference. If people realise that the rule of law applies to all and sundry, and that no act of violence will be condoned, they will look for democratic means to register protest. Banerjee should enforce political propriety and not a meaningless appearance code.