Economist Column Eco-friendly technology in Agriculture Loud Thinking Dial M for Mamata

There seems to be no method in her madness now. Ms Mamata Banerjee has openly tried to strangulate herself, slapped police officers, indulged in all sorts of dramatics remotely possible by human nature but even as the elections draws near, the moon seems to be casting its spell on her. On Friday, Ms Banerjee came out with gem which will go down in the annals of rubbish history as one which can remain quite unparalelled unless the lady herself chooses to upstage herself. She said the chief minister, Mr Jyoti Basu, before going abroad had given his green signal for a plot to murder her and had even ``assigned'' a top CPI(M) state secretariat member to do the dirty job. Her party MP, Mr Bikram Sarkar, went one up and in proving to be more loyal than the queen herself , dashed off a fax message to the Union home minister, Mr L.K.Advani, detailing the ``plot'' and even pinpointed the explosive nature of the allegation by saying that RDX would be used to eliminate the Trinamool leader. Not much, naturally, has been heard from Delhi since then which means that even her ally, the rulers in the Capital, may have taken her allegations with more than a pinch of salt. Ms Banerjee even said that there ``more than just mystery'' in the sudden shifting of her personal guard and that this time the CPI(M) was out to finish her off for good. While this may be good histrionics in the face of waning public sympathy, Ms Banerjee seems to have fallen on real times to have made herself the subject of ridicule by making such crime thriller genre allegations.

The CPI(M) state secretary and Politburo member, Mr Anil Biswas, was quick to point out that Ms Banerjee was only trying to reap ``fast harvest'' and that perhaps she had ``gone mad, after all.'' The CPI(M) leader dubbed her allegations as ``outrageous''' and said that they reflected the ``delirium of a lunatic.'' While the CPI(M) obviously is not not shaken by such allegations, the mystery, however, deepens. The elections are on us and the people are waiting for a clear verdict to emerge. Almost all political leaders of any stature have ventured to say that personal slander and malicious campaigning should be shunned though may be not totally avoided. Ms Banerjee seems to be the first politician to take this on face value. If nothing else, then this story of the plot to kill her should be a pointer as to what type her brand of electioneering will be.