Dipak Kumar Ghosh, a former IAS officer and once-trusted aide to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, revealed some dark secrets of the TMC supremo in a book about her. Ghosh described how Mamta Banerjee ate chicken and vegetable sandwiches, fish fingers, and chocolates throughout her 26-day-long hunger strike in 2006.
The book named “Mamata Banerjee- As I have known her or the Goddess that failed,” was published on May 18th, 2012.
Today, September 19, 2022, Twitter user @Aryan_warlord Tweeted an excerpt from former TMC leader Dipak Kumar Ghosh’s book to revisit Mamata Banerjee’s 16-year-old secret.
#MamataBanerjee used to eat chicken / cheese sandwich, fish fingers , chocolates during her 26 day long hunger strike – Former IAS and TMC leader #Dipakghosh writes in his book .
— Ninjamonkey 🇮🇳 (@Aryan_warlord) September 19, 2022
Must say I’m completely with Didi on diet plans. In this one thing I’m far more with Didi than Modi pic.twitter.com/SsTjI5HFsn
16-years-ago, on 4 Dec 2006, Mamata Banerjee sat on a 26-day long hunger strike in Kolkata opposing the ‘forcible acquisition’ of farmland in Hooghly district’s Singur by the then Left Government for the Tata Motors’ proposed Nano car factory.
In the 8th chapter of his book, titled “Fast with sandwich as dinner and chocolate throughout the day”, Dipak Kumar Ghosh wrote, “Mamata Banerjee’s close associates called her 25 days’ fast (from December 4 morning to midnight of December 28, 2006) as historic and claimed that she had outdone Gandhiji.” He then revealed how Banerjee’s 26-day hunger strike in 2006 was a total charade, with her discreetly eating sandwiches and fish fingers for dinner and chocolates during the day.
Ghosh revealed how Mamata Banerjee, initially for the first 2-3 days of her fast, drank lemon and glucose water but after that, she secretly started eating sandwiches and fish fingers sneaked in at the protest site by her personal assistant (PA) Gautam Basu.
He wrote how she made her PA Gautam Basu secretly get her 4-5 chicken and veg sandwiches and fish fingers from the Dalhousie Institute of Jhowtala courtesy Derek O’Brien for dinner.
He further exposed Mamata Banerjee by revealing how she kept lots of imported chocolates under her pillow and secretly ate them whenever she felt the need.
“But, what did Mamata do all these record days of fast? She had some lemon water, glucose water etc. during the first 2/3 days. But, after Sonali vanished from the scene, she would get 4/5 chicken/cheese sandwiches and fish fingers, secretly brought by her P.A. Gautam Basu (the poor fellow died in 2008) from the Dalhousie Institute at Jhowtola courtesy Derek Obrien for her dinner. Mamata made Derek Obrien a Rajya Sabha M.P. in July, 2011,” Dipak Kumar Ghosh wrote in the 8th chapter of his book- Mamata Banerjee- As I have known her or the Goddess that failed
“She also kept lots of costly chocolates under her pillow to secretly put these into her mouth whenever she felt the need. This writer found this out, when one afternoon Amitava Bhattacharya had brought his little son on the stage. Mamata called him to her side and put a chocolate in his little hand. This writer noticed it and thus discovered the truth,” Dipak Kumar Ghosh added.
How Mamata Banerjee rode on the successes of the 2006-07 Nandigram and Singur agitations
In 2006-07, there was a massive protest against land acquisition for the Tata Manufacturing plant, which escalated into violence and bloodshed when police forces under the Left Front government opened fire at the protesters. Mamata Banerjee, as the primary opposition then, led the charge against the same.
Mamata Banerjee, who acted as a farmers’ rights crusader while protesting Tata Motors’ “forceful” land acquisition for the Nano project at Singur, went on to stage a 26-day hunger strike at Kolkata’s Metro Channel ground in the Esplanade area, only to force Ratan Tata to withdraw his dream project in October 2008.
In January 2007, Mamata Banerjee eagerly exacerbated the Nandigram crisis. The movement gathered traction, culminating in the deaths of 14 poor farmers in police shootings, which aided Mamata in mobilising artists like Mahasweta Devi, Aparna Sen, and anti-Gujarat ‘activists’ like Medha Patkar against forcible land acquisition.
Years after the Tata Manufacturing plant was shifted out of West Bengal’s Singur to Gujarat’s Sanand, the farmers involved in the agitation against the Tata behemoth have expressed their regret for the agitation. However, Mamata rode on the successes of the anti-land acquisition movements in Nandigram and Singur to get a historic victory in the 2011 West Bengal elections against the long-ruling Left government.
