Calcutta, June 9: If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Mamata Banerjee won’t find a better flag-bearer than Biman Bose.

The Bengal CPM chief today chanted “maa, mati manush”, Mamata’s mantra that has gained currency with successive poll victories over the Left.

Bose did not grimace but the seemingly innocuous reference could go down as the “humble-pie moment” of the Left. Especially since chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had derisively referred to the slogan as “Oh! It’s a jatra!”

But Bose today sang the triple-M theme song without batting an eyelid while addressing the media at the CPM headquarters on Alimuddin Street.

“They should do so in the interest of maa, mati, manush,” Bose said, appealing to non-Left MPs to oppose the UPA government’s civil nuclear liability bill in the wake of the Bhopal gas tragedy verdict. The Left is against the bill as it seeks to limit the liability of a nuclear plant operator in the event of an accident.

When chief minister Bhattacharjee, whose cultural credentials cannot be called to question, took the jatra swipe, he was drawing a parallel with a rash of shows that mushroomed after the Nandigram movement. Some of the jatras sported titles like Maa Matir Lorai and Langal Chalai Maatir Maa.

Before the 3M slogan came to be associated with Mamata, it did have its roots in a jatra. In 1975, when Mamata was 20 and Bhattacharjee was being groomed for bigger things in life, a jatra called Ma-Mati-Manush, scripted by Bhairab Gangopadhyay, was topping the charts in Bengal.

If the coinage has struck a chord among Bengal’s electorate, it appears to be haunting the chief minister.

During the run-up to the civic elections, Bhattacharjee had said: “Every day, some new train is being inaugurated like duronto, uronto, jhulonto, dubonto (fast, flying, hanging, sinking). What is happening? Is this maa, mati, manush?’’

But Bose seems to have found the slogan quite agreeable, unable to resist another reference.

“Our duty is to look after the interests of our country’s people, our country’s land and our mothers and sisters. If our country’s mati and its people are made targets of attack by foreign countries, particularly imperialist forces, we should not sit back and watch that happen. Our job will be to protect them,” the CPM state secretary said.

Asked whether he had found virtue in Mamata’s election slogan, the Left Front chairman said that it wasn’t a question of “using it’’ but standing up for mothers and sisters .

“It’s not an issue of using someone’s slogan. Our party also wants to protect our country’s land and its people. If foreign corporations spread disease in our country, it will lead to the birth of deformed children. In that event, our mothers and sisters will suffer,” Bose added.