Mr Bose and Mr Chatterjee (names changed) are neighbours in a housing complex in South Kolkata. Both are of similar ages and are responsible heads of their respective families. Yet despite these similarities, the two gentlemen hated seeing each other all these years.
Reason: Political ideology. While Mr Bose has always been a supporter of the Indian National Congress since his family has been traditionally so, Mr Chatterjee has always believed in Communism.
Despite breathing in the same air and following the same daily routine in life, the two veterans used to think each other as 'class enemies' who can never get along.
Post-2011, things started to change. Now, Mr Bose and Mr Chatterjee like each other's company and find a common topic in Mamata Banerjee, the current chief minister of the state, who both find despicable, to say the least.
The two gentlemen, who had in the past blamed the party the other supported for Bengal's woes, now agree without an iota of doubt that it is the Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief who is the root cause of all sufferings of the common Bengali.
The bhadralok class is now finding their old foes as friends, thanks to the 'sub-altern'
This is not the story of just the two above mentioned gentlemen but the entire bhadralok clan in Bengal – the old-timers who had a dominant view in the state's socio-political life once.
It may be mentioned here that till 2011 when the Mamata Banerjee's 'sub-altern' phenomenon overwhelmed the state, it was either the Congress (1947-67, 1971, 1972-77) or the Left (1967-69, 1969-70, 1977-2011) that had ruled the state.
Banerjee's rise to power was the first third possibility that Bengal's politics came to witness and it was no less than a vigorous blow for the erstwhile 'class enemies'.
The phenomenon, however, is more distinct among the urban middle class and more specifically, among the urban middle-class of Kolkata.
Those who have been traditional supporters of the Left believe that it is Banerjee who has halted the state's progress while one cannot deny the fact that it is the party of their choice, which did virtually nothing despite being in power for over three decades at a stretch.
From Roy vs Basu, the debate has now changed to Mamata or sanity?
Congress supporters, mostly a generation senior or those who have a family history of backing the grand old party, also feel somewhat the same as they still project the good work that Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy, the second chief minister of Bengal as well as its architect, had done during his stay in office between 1948-62.
The Left had their answer for Roy in Jyoti Basu who had ruled for 23 years and the 'Roy versus Basu' debate was once a hot subject of debate in the Bengali bhadroloks' drawing rooms.
Post-2011, that debate has been replaced by a new one: How much the state is suffering under its "worst" chief minister Mamata Banerjee?
The debate is more of a misleading one and gives the bhadraloks a reason to overlook the facts and find a convenient scapegoat in the current chief minister. It is true that Banerjee has so far not succeeded in bringing industries to the state, as many had expected, but to be honest, her job is as tough as resurrecting the dead.
Problem more with ruling or the ruler's identity?
Gentlemen like Mr Bose and Mr Chatterjee represent a class which is fundamentally stubborn and culturally snooty. Yet, after much boasting about Rabindranath Tagore and Satyajit Ray they find the mobility of the sub-altern Banerjee upwards too much to digest, even if it exposes the hollowness of their own political affiliations.
They find fewer problems with the previous Left Front's disastrous move towards industrialistion, which was virtually impossible to succeed and think Banerjee a bigger evil.
Oppositions in Bengal have always been militant. The same Left which was in the Opposition ranks when Dr Roy was in power, was no less sparing, but yet the then chief minister had shown the spine to do it for the state. The Jyoti Basus and the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjees were complete failures on that count.
The Bengali bhadralok, in a perfect manifestation of a doubld-standards, thinks today that anything is valid to see Banerjee lose.
In the last Assembly elections too, the vague coming together of the Left and Congress was seen by many who did not see eye to eye with the 'enemies' earlier as the only option left for the state to get rid of anarchy though that didn't eventually happen, thanks to the logical equations of politics that still work on the ground where Banerjee's real strength lies.
One can't deny that Banerjee's time has seen lawlessness gradually increasing in the state, but how much better was the situation during the Naxalite uprising in the late 1960s and early 1970s or towards the latter part of the Left rule, when Basu had virtually surrendered to the party's authority?
The bhadralok's frustration is understandable but who is to blame for that?
The bhadralok is feeling frustrated today to see the world moving forward fast while he himself is falling back. But the responsibility for this lies more with Banerjee's predecessors and not her.
Kolkata today has turned into an old-age home with educated youngsters feeling compelled to leave for greener pastures while their old or semi-old parents are staying back. The elderly bhadralok is also suffering from an insecurity complex over the departure of their children and finding the TMC's "misgovernance" the reason. But they are barking up the wrong tree.
Nevertheless, Banerjee has given the old-timers a fresh topic to debate, albeit unproductively
However, they should also find solace in the fact that Banerjee has provided them with more ammunition in their leisurely purposeless afternoon debates that were turning increasingly insipid after both the Left and Congress were made irrelevant in the state's politics.
The TMC and BJP are the new realities in the state and while the aam bhadralok of Kolkata are yet to have a taste of the saffron party as it is, they are certainly finding it suitable to target a sub-altern who has dashed their political philosophies in one lifetime.
That way, old, secluded Kolkatans are finding a way to make or rather discover new friends even without logging on to Facebook.
Visit a Durga Puja stall or a family function, people who had the most opposite of beliefs are engaging in less controversial discussions for almost all of them think that Banerjee has done their 'beloved' state a considerable harm.
Who says Mamata Banerjee only multiplies enmity?
