Somewhat uncharacteristically, the feisty TMC leader had raised the level of expectations prior to her long-awaited public rally. Of late, the Maoists and their supportive organisations like the People's Committee against Police Atrocities (PCPA) have started taking potshots at her and her party in their statements to the press. A few TMC supporters have also been killed.

Never one to back off from a challenge, real or fancied, Ms Banerjee reacted typically. She announced her plans to hold a public rally in the disturbed zone come what may, and dared both Maoists and the administration to stop her.

The administration lifted restrictions under Sec 144 to enable her to hold the meeting, with good reason: it gave the shaky, witless state administrators an opportunity to test the prevailing political temperature in an area where their official writ hardly runs these days — that too at the expense of an opposition party! True, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had also addressed a meting or two long ago in Midnapore in connection with CPI(M) party programmes. But those had been held in “safe” areas amidst saturation security coverage.

If the state administration co-operated with Ms Banerjee for doing their hard work for them, the PCPA and the Maoists were in quandary. Ms Banerjee was virtually calling their bluff by physically invading a space they had come to regard as their own backyard for some time. There is hardly any administration in parts of Midnapore, as admitted by the state government itself, which blames Maoists for the prevailing lawlessness. As for the CPI(M) and its much-vaunted mass organisations, it is common knowledge that for some years now, Left leaders as well as supporters have retreated from the interior villages and live in the relative safety of Midnapore and Kharagpur towns.

So in effect, Ms Banerjee, by organising her Jhargram meeting, was really winning back the space for conventional, parliamentary style of politics once more. Only, the initiative should have come from the ruling Left Front and the State Government, both being entities which, observers feel, could do with more courage and enterprise, at a time when central paramilitary forces were helping maintain law and order.

Presumably acting on a suggestion from the think tank of intellectuals and ex-officials who help her these days, Ms Banerjee made excellent use of this hard-earned opportunity to deliver a straight, aggressive political message to the people of Midnapore, reeling under a reign of Maoist terror for almost two years.

The PCPA, rising to the new threat to their domination posed by the resurgent TMC, went on the backfoot and called a parallel meeting to counter the TMC rally, at some distance away. Also it called upon the people to boycott the TMC meet.

In the event, the TMC rally drew at least three times as many people as the PCPA's poor show. Ms Banerjee was at her strident best. She sympathised with the tribals for their hard lives, even after three decades of Left rule. But she wanted people to return to their normal lives and not to support the Maoists whom she called upon the surrender arms and join a dialogue with the Centre. The TMC would do its best to ensure planned economic development of the region.

She delivered a strong message to the Maoists, saying that they had no authority to kill people or hold anyone to ransom at gunpoint. Asking them not to use landmines or disrupt railway services, she declared that she would be back within days to begin padayatras and other programmes at Lalgarh and other areas. And she dared them to stop her! If necessary, all gun-wielding cadre would be driven out of the state by the people themselves, she warned.

Ms Banerjee's gesture was highly appreciated in most circles. Not for the first time, she had shown courage, while left leaders had simply issued statements from their cosy party offices in Kolkata and the administration had behaved in a cowardly manner, unable even to lead central forces into Maoists strongholds.

For once, angry statements from the PCPA and the Maoists condemning Ms Banerjee and the TMC lacked conviction. Clearly, they were not equipped to combat any leader gutsy enough to carry the fight to their very den!

The CPI(M) district unit was graceless and opportunistic in its reaction. Long after Ms Banerjee had done her hard work, they whined that the PCPA had not attacked Ms Banerjee's gathering because the TMC was enjoying “secret links” with them. Observers felt they would have been better advised to arrange similar mass meetings in the Maoist strongholds now that the TMC had shown the way. But for that, the CPI(M) leaders and cadres must be bold enough not to run away from their offices in the rural interior areas of West Midnapore! (IPA)