Mamata Banerjee has become the first serving chief minister in the country to argue a petition in the Supreme Court. Having filed an interlocutory application in her individual capacity, Ms Banerjee decided to appear as petitioner-in-person to present her case in which she hurled charges of various incongruities against the Election Commission of India that is conducting the controversial Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. In a year in which Bengal goes to assembly polls, Ms Banerjee’s move can only be seen as a form of potent political messaging. The SIR has caused considerable public heartburn in Bengal, principally owing to the EC’s unbending — imperious? — attitude towards aggrieved citizens. Ms Banerjee listed some of these alleged infirmities. The ‘mismatch’ in titles and surnames — such as differences in ways of spelling a surname or a change in the daughter’s surname on account of marriage — the grounds for citizens being summoned to correct ‘logical discrepancies’, is one instance of such bureaucratic insensitivity. Significantly, the top court seems to have concurred with Ms Banerjee on this point, observing that such differences cannot be the rationale for deletion of voters’ names. Ms Banerjee also alleged that micro-observers appointed by the EC were removing voters’ names and that Aadhaar cards, despite a directive by the Supreme Court, are not being accepted as a document for validation in Bengal. The apex court would undoubtedly deliberate on these accusations. But Ms Banerjee appears to have succeeded in her immediate goal; conveying to the gallery, as it were, that she is the people’s petitioner, a leader unafraid to take up the cudgels on behalf of the discriminated. There are reports that thousands of people — those who faced inconveniences in SIR queues — watched the proceedings on television to see a chief minister give voice to their struggles.
Bengal’s Opposition, which walks a step behind Ms Banerjee when it comes to harnessing optics, has dismissed the chief minister’s day in court as theatrics. But in an age when politics is usually shaped more by the art of messaging than the message itself, Ms Banerjee, it must be said, has stolen a march on her rivals. The Bharatiya Janata Party would find itself cornered the most. It has been a vocal proponent of the SIR and, in the public eye, appears rather indifferent to the plight of the people across faiths on account of the SIR. With elections on the horizon, the BJP would not like to play catch-up to Ms Banerjee.