In what has been seen as a crisis management move, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee summoned poll strategist Prashant Kishor to help her counter BJP's criticism of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government's alleged mismanagement of the Covid-19 crisis in the state.
Prashant Kishor, who had been cooling off his heels in Delhi after his public outreach campaign in West Bengal, 'Banglar Garbo Mamata', went on a freezer following the lockdown, reached the state in a cargo flight. He reached Kolkata around the same time as the Inter-Ministerial Central teams (IMCT) sent by the Modi government arrived in Kolkata to inspect how the lockdown is being implemented in the state.
Prashant Kishor rushed from Delhi after an SOS message from TMC MP and Mamata Banerjee's nephew Abhishek Banerjee.
According to party sources, Abhishek was burning the midnight oil in his office, a stone's throw away from Mamata Banerjee's residence, to welcome Prashant Kishor and make some planning in advance for briefing the chief minister in the morning.
Prashant Kishor will supervise the counter-offensive campaign to take on the saffron onslaught on social media and in media channels, which have been raving against Mamata Banerjee for allegedly failing to contain the coronavirus pandemic.
For more than a fortnight the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been accusing Mamata Banerjee of faltering in tackling Covid-19.
While the BJP IT cell went puncturing holes in the seemingly all-well and under-control picture Mamata projected, BJP big shots were vocal against the West Bengal government for not carrying out sufficient tests (which is 66 per million in Bengal as against the national average of 198 per million) and suppressing facts about Covid-19 deaths and active patients.
Fingers were also being raised against the ruling TMC leaders for using the PDS to practice dole politics among party supporters.
Social media pages started shooting off videos and stories of how the Bengal chief minister allowed dilution of lockdown norms in Muslim-dominated areas and how Tablighi Jamaat returnees were being shielded without being quarantined at the cost of putting the entire population of Bengal under risk.
Moreover, ministers like Babul Supriyo, MP Swapan Dasgupta, BJP state president Dilip Ghosh took turns to bombard Mamata Banerjee and her government for messing up the situation in Bengal by being slack on rules and not being transparent about the overall health scenario.
As against this, a section of doctors and health workers in their individual capacity went all out to show the true picture of the health sector: doctors having to fight Covid-19 without adequate kits, PPE, masks and gloves.
Doctors and frontline warriors of renowned city hospitals shared on social media how the entire medical fraternity, on the one hand, was being exposed to coronavirus in the absence of sufficient safety gears. They alleged they were being forced to work against medical ethics by withholding the causes of death from a patient party and in the general public even though they were writing death certificates.
Mamata Banerjee had constituted a five-member committee comprising bureaucrats and doctors, close to the government, to take a call on the Covid-19 deaths and make them public in the health bulletin.
With such attacks and lampooning going on from all end, Mamata Banerjee seemed to be losing her cool.
Criticisms apart, the pressure was mounting on her as national and international media started rolling some of these stories and Ministry of Home Affairs under Amit Shah kept the heat on by sending central government teams to keep a hawk's eye on her movements and the activities of her administration.
People were beginning to see reflections of a jittery and irritable Mamata Banerjee, running out of patience, composure and reserve, like in June 2019 when BJP won big in the Lok Sabha elections and the Jai Shriram shouting brigade left her unnerved.
It was in one of those trying times that Prashant Kishor was summoned to help and guide Mamata Banerjee to tide over the crisis: a muscle-flexing the BJP getting too close for comfort and stop the BJP from poaching into TMC.
For the moment, the crisis was avoided and Mamata let her hair down, allowing PK to give the party and its leaders an image makeover in corporate style and bring a change of perception for Bengal under Mamata Banerjee.
This time too, Prashant Kishor had been rushed in to take charge of TMC's social media platform so that it can retort back and counter the charges being fired at from all quarters.
With less than a year left for the 2021 assembly election, Mamata Banerjee cannot possibly afford to lose the ground at this juncture.
Failing to tackle a health emergency will be a big blot on her political and administrative career and when she's all set to seek a mandate for a third consecutive term, she cannot fumble and falter.
Source: India Today dated 2020-04-23 by Romita Datta.
Prashant Kishor, who had been cooling off his heels in Delhi after his public outreach campaign in West Bengal, 'Banglar Garbo Mamata', went on a freezer following the lockdown, reached the state in a cargo flight. He reached Kolkata around the same time as the Inter-Ministerial Central teams (IMCT) sent by the Modi government arrived in Kolkata to inspect how the lockdown is being implemented in the state.
Prashant Kishor rushed from Delhi after an SOS message from TMC MP and Mamata Banerjee's nephew Abhishek Banerjee.
According to party sources, Abhishek was burning the midnight oil in his office, a stone's throw away from Mamata Banerjee's residence, to welcome Prashant Kishor and make some planning in advance for briefing the chief minister in the morning.
Prashant Kishor will supervise the counter-offensive campaign to take on the saffron onslaught on social media and in media channels, which have been raving against Mamata Banerjee for allegedly failing to contain the coronavirus pandemic.
For more than a fortnight the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been accusing Mamata Banerjee of faltering in tackling Covid-19.
While the BJP IT cell went puncturing holes in the seemingly all-well and under-control picture Mamata projected, BJP big shots were vocal against the West Bengal government for not carrying out sufficient tests (which is 66 per million in Bengal as against the national average of 198 per million) and suppressing facts about Covid-19 deaths and active patients.
Fingers were also being raised against the ruling TMC leaders for using the PDS to practice dole politics among party supporters.
Social media pages started shooting off videos and stories of how the Bengal chief minister allowed dilution of lockdown norms in Muslim-dominated areas and how Tablighi Jamaat returnees were being shielded without being quarantined at the cost of putting the entire population of Bengal under risk.
Moreover, ministers like Babul Supriyo, MP Swapan Dasgupta, BJP state president Dilip Ghosh took turns to bombard Mamata Banerjee and her government for messing up the situation in Bengal by being slack on rules and not being transparent about the overall health scenario.
As against this, a section of doctors and health workers in their individual capacity went all out to show the true picture of the health sector: doctors having to fight Covid-19 without adequate kits, PPE, masks and gloves.
Doctors and frontline warriors of renowned city hospitals shared on social media how the entire medical fraternity, on the one hand, was being exposed to coronavirus in the absence of sufficient safety gears. They alleged they were being forced to work against medical ethics by withholding the causes of death from a patient party and in the general public even though they were writing death certificates.
Mamata Banerjee had constituted a five-member committee comprising bureaucrats and doctors, close to the government, to take a call on the Covid-19 deaths and make them public in the health bulletin.
With such attacks and lampooning going on from all end, Mamata Banerjee seemed to be losing her cool.
Criticisms apart, the pressure was mounting on her as national and international media started rolling some of these stories and Ministry of Home Affairs under Amit Shah kept the heat on by sending central government teams to keep a hawk's eye on her movements and the activities of her administration.
People were beginning to see reflections of a jittery and irritable Mamata Banerjee, running out of patience, composure and reserve, like in June 2019 when BJP won big in the Lok Sabha elections and the Jai Shriram shouting brigade left her unnerved.
It was in one of those trying times that Prashant Kishor was summoned to help and guide Mamata Banerjee to tide over the crisis: a muscle-flexing the BJP getting too close for comfort and stop the BJP from poaching into TMC.
For the moment, the crisis was avoided and Mamata let her hair down, allowing PK to give the party and its leaders an image makeover in corporate style and bring a change of perception for Bengal under Mamata Banerjee.
This time too, Prashant Kishor had been rushed in to take charge of TMC's social media platform so that it can retort back and counter the charges being fired at from all quarters.
With less than a year left for the 2021 assembly election, Mamata Banerjee cannot possibly afford to lose the ground at this juncture.
Failing to tackle a health emergency will be a big blot on her political and administrative career and when she's all set to seek a mandate for a third consecutive term, she cannot fumble and falter.
Source: India Today dated 2020-04-23 by Romita Datta.
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