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| 'Dr' Banerjee almost there |
| Saubhadro Chatterji / New Delhi Dec 01, 2009, 20:41 IST |
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Ousting the CPI(M) is certainly Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee's prime passion. But over the years, the struggle against the red force has also brought another subject close to her heart—medical science!
One may argue it takes lot of efforts and studies to become a doctor, but for the Trinamool supremo, "I have spent so much time in hospitals and nursing homes due to the CPI(M)— be it recovering from physical attacks by their goons or after the Singur agitation—that now I feel I have almost become a half-doctor," Banerjee says jokingly.
So last week in her chamber in Parliament, the Railway Minister merrily gave "valuable tips" to colleagues, journalists and others on diet, exercises and even controlling diabetes. It's a different matter that two highly qualified doctors—her party MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and Ratna De Nag—stood in front of her and silently listened to their leader's 'medical science'.
"You should eat more eggs. If the egg is boiled there is no problem of cholesterol," Banerjee advised one reporter before noting down the name of a new diabetes medicine from another Trinamool minister Saugata Ray to prescribe to others.
Her aides fondly remember how, a few years ago, the caring lady even gave medicines to her former party MP, the late Ranjit Panja, arguably one of the best skin specialists of Asia. Panja and then Kolkata Mayor Subrata Mukherjee, keen to go back home while Banerjee held a marathon chat, complained of illness to her. Banerjee promptly went inside her bedroom and came back with a few unlabelled tablets and two glasses of water and told, "Take them. You will be fine by tomorrow morning."
Mukherjee recalls that a hapless Panja could only say, "so, Mamata, you will do even this?"
In her team of 20 MPs in the 15th Lok Sabha, Banerjee has four qualified doctors. Apart from Dastidar and Nag, there is Sucharu Haldar a retied Army doctor and a skin specialist. Even the associated MP of Trinamool, Tarun Mandal, is a doctor. While she loves to talk at length about medical science, Banerjee never forgets to shower compliments on the abilities of her colleagues. "Kakoli is India's best in ultrasonography. What other doctors will not find, she will easily find in the patient's body", Banerjee said as Ghosh Dastidar smiled.
Another close aide from Kolkata had put up at her Delhi residence a few years ago for almost a fortnight. Banerjee diagnosed that the man was 'undernourished' and the prescription was: mutton curry and rice for lunch and dinner. If that was not enough, Banerjee, then an MP in 14th Lok Sabha, used to wake him up from sleep daily at 3 am and served a plateful of apple and banana.
As her own diet is restricted, Trinamool's Didi is always concerned about the health and food intake of his colleagues. Tapas Pal, actor-turned Trinamool MP, is always on Banerjee's radar. "You should not keep your stomach empty Tapas and take a lot of carbohydrates," Banerjee tells him.
Her close associates claim in Trinamool's informal meetings Banerjee would invariably touch upon the health issue. Dinesh Trivedi, Minister of State in Health and one of the fittest member of Trinamool once described to his leader how he is using the treadmill for the almost 20 years. "Nonsense, I'll teach you how to use it," Banerjee told him.
One she was hospitalized after being hit on the head with an iron rod by a CPI(M) leader. Two years ago, she sat on hunger strike for 26 days against the Left Front government's forcible land acquisition in Singur. "It has permanently damaged the liver and digestive system", Banerjee says, "just as the physical attack has injured my nerves. But during my stints in hospitals, I have seen how doctors work and learnt a lot."
Thanks to CPI(M), Mamata Banerjee is now almost a 'doctor'!
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