Mamata Banerjee at The Telegraph-Calcutta Club National Debate on Saturday, where she told the packed house: ‘Bhoy pawar kono karon nei (there is no reason to be afraid).’ Picture by Pradip Sanyal

Calcutta, Nov. 7: Mamata Banerjee today told those who dread continued Left rule but are terrified about what might happen should she take over: “Bhoy pawar kono karon nei (there is no reason to be afraid).”

Beneath some familiar sound and fury, Mamata outlined at The Telegraph-Calcutta Club National Debate the contours of what her Bengal would look like.

The motion — “A resurgent Bengal is an impossible dream” — was rejected, partly because, well, she told the house how it should vote or else….

But Mamata used the opportunity to reach out to a somewhat unfamiliar audience and addressed the unspoken fear playing on its mind: “A reformed Mamata is an impossible dream.”

Shorn of the pyrotechnics and the clenched fist, Mamata’s message reads something like this: she is the leader of Bengal, not of the Trinamul Congress alone, and might even try to end partisan politics given an opportunity.

She also touched upon specifics — at least on one pet theme of the CPM, education — making a pointed reference to the state government’s refusal to grant autonomy to Presidency College.

Mamata was not short on symbolism either: dare to dream was her theme, empathising with the plight of the young and entreating them not to be despondent.

She made no concession to the sophistication of the Calcutta Club environment and though some people laughed at her, rather than with her, she tried to reassure them.

“Infrastructure toiri kortey hobey, number one hotey hobey, amader shob achhey, pahar achhey, jongol achhey, shomudro achhey, talented youth achhey tara bairey choley jachchhey, amar shonar bhaiboney ra achhey, tara shonar Bangla toiri kortey parey eta ami bishwas kori. Bhoy pawar kono karon nei (we need to create infrastructure. We have to become Number One. We have everything. We have mountains, we have forests, we have the sea, we have talented youths who are going away. My golden brothers and sisters are here and I believe that they can make a golden Bengal. There is no reason to be afraid).”

She seemed to be answering the question whether things would be different if the “chief minister-in-waiting” fulfilled her apparent destiny.

Asked later, a Calcuttan among the audience translated the statement as he understood it. “Come on, you know me, I am Mamata. I may not, unlike most of you, have gone to a posh English-medium school, but under this simple cotton attire, I am a nice person, really, so there is no reason to be afraid.”

Mamata also kept her key constituency in mind, insisting she was right on Singur, and, if it came to protecting farmland, she would do it again.

Mamata persuaded the audience to reject the motion by invoking the power of dreams and turning almost to Shakespeare: “Those who cannot dream, still let them sleep.”

Then she did her finger-wagging routine: “We have no need for them.”

She burst into Bengali: “Bhango jader swapno nei, ei negative attitude ke bhango. Jara swapno dekhtey janey na tader bolo tumi ghumao ma, tomader amader proyojon nei. Jara swapno dekhtey janey tader niye egiye jabo tar karon egiye jabar naam jibon aar bondho ghorey boshey thakar naam moron. Mortey amra chai na, jotodin benchey thakbo, kaajer modhye thakbo ebong Banglay manush abar notun korey joy korbei.”

A translation: Break those who don’t have dreams, break their negative attitude. Those who cannot dream, tell them “You sleep, ma, we don’t need you.” We will move ahead with those who know how to dream because moving forward is life and sitting inside a closed room is death. We don’t want to die. As long as I live, I shall do my work and the people of Bengal will gain a new victory.

For the motion — that is, they believed Bengal was more or less in intensive care — were Suhel Seth (who would have spoken just as eloquently had he spoken against this motion or, for that matter, any other motion); Abhirup Sarkar, professor of economics at the Indian Statistical Institute; Bibek Debroy, a professor at the Centre for Policy Research; and Sagarika Ghose, who did well enough, though she must take care in future not to read from a set text.

Those who urged the audience to “kick out this motion” (Mamata’s instructions) — included Harsh Neotia (calm, reasoned and impressive); actor Dhritiman Chaterji (determined to read Bengali poetry because he had convinced himself the populace wanted their money’s worth); the suave N.K. Singh (again, good value); and, of course, the lady herself.

The minister for railways was the last to arrive but she was not late — 6.28pm — at the packed garden of Calcutta Club for the 6.30pm start of play.

Abhirup Sarkar offered what wasn’t a bad joke. The Bihar chief minister asked God when things would improve in his state. He wept when told it would happen but not in the chief minister’s lifetime.

Mamata was busy sending text messages on her mobile and so might have missed the punch line about the Bengal chief minister asking God the same question. This time it was God who started weeping: “Not in my lifetime.”

Something revealing happened after the formal proceedings had ended. “Don’t fall over,” Mamata solicitously warned a photographer teetering on the edge of the platform.

Maybe she realised the photographer was a metaphor for Bengal.

Wake up and smell the dream

Mamata’s defining debating points

● Bhango jader swapno nei, ei negative attitude ke bhango. Jara swapno dekhtey janey na tader bolo tumi ghumao ma, tomader amader proyojon nei (Break those who don’t have dreams, break their negative attitude. Those who cannot dream, tell them ‘You sleep ma, we don’t need you’)

● We need to create infrastructure. We have to become Number One. We have everything. My golden brother and sisters are here and I believe that they can make a golden Bengal. There is no reason to be afraid

● If we talk about Presidency College… it has been 32 years… why haven’t they been able to get autonomy and become a university?