MAA DURGA

Durga , meaning "the inaccessible" or "the invincible"; durga) is a popular fierce form of the Hindu Goddess or Devi. 

She is depicted with multiple (variously, up to eighteen) arms, carrying various weapons and riding a ferocious lion or tiger. She is often pictured as battling or slaying demons, particularly Mahishasura, the buffalo demon.For the Goddess-worshipping Shaktas, Durga is sometimes equated with Mahadevi, the Supreme Goddess. Her triumph as Mahishasura Mardini, Slayer of the buffalo Demon is a central episode of the scripture Devi Mahatmya. Her victory is celebrated annually in the festivals of Navaratri and Durga Puja.


Mahasura Attacks the Devi Page from an illustrated manuscript of the Devi Mahatmya .Durga Slays Mahishasura, Mahabalipuram sculpture.The word Shakti means divine energy/force/power, and Durga is the warrior aspect of the Divine Mother/Brahman(Supreme Absolute Godhead).As a goddess, Durga's feminine power contains the combined energies of all the gods. Each of her weapons was given to her by various gods: Rudra's trident, Vishnu's discus, Indra's thunderbolt, Brahma's kamandalu, Kuber's Ratnahar, etc.
In Jain Texts, she is referred to as Durga or Kushmaandi devi and is the yakshini of 22nd tirthankar of Lord Neminath or Arishtanemi.According to a narrative in the Devi Mahatmya story of the Markandeya Purana text, Durga was created as a warrior goddess to fight an asura (an inhuman force/demon) named Mahishasura. Brahma had given Mahishasura the power not to be defeated by a male. Mahishasura had unleashed a reign of terror on earth, heaven and the nether worlds, and he could not be defeated by any man or god, anywhere. The gods were helpless. Shiva, realizing that no man or god (male) can defeat Mahishasura, made a request to his wife Parvati to take the role of a female goddess warrior in order to slay the demon. Parvati took his request and went to the Ashram of priest disciple named Katyayan to assume the role of a warrior. Meanwhile, the gods went to Brahma for help and, with Brahma, then made their way to Vaikuntha—the place where Vishnu lay on Ananta Naag. They found both Vishnu and Shiva, and Brahma eloquently related the reign of terror Mahishasur had unleashed on the three worlds. To save the worlds, Vishnu, Shiva and all of the gods emitted beams of fierce light from their bodies. The blinding sea of
light reached Parvati at the Ashram of the priest Katyayan and Durga emerged from this pool of light.
The goddess Durga took the name Katyaayani from the priest. She introduced herself in the language of the Rig-Veda, saying she was the form of the supreme female aspect of Brahman (the male aspect being Shiva) who had created all the gods. Now she had come to fight the demon to save the gods. They did not create her; it was her lila that she emerged from their combined energy. The gods were blessed with her compassion.To combat the evil Mahishasura, she had appeared in a great blinding light, to combat this demon and end it for all to be in peace. Mahishasura had gravely underestimated her, thinking: "How can a woman kill me, Mahishasur—the one who has defeated the trinity of gods?". However, Durga roared with laughter, which caused an earthquake which made Mahishasur aware of her powers.And the terrible Mahishasura rampaged against her, changing forms many times. First he was a buffalo demon,
and she defeated him with her sword. Then he changed forms and became an elephant that tied up the goddess's lion and began to pull it towards him. The goddess cut off his trunk with her sword. The demon Mahishasur continued his terrorizing, taking the form of a lion, and then the form of a man, but both of them were gracefully slain by Durga.Then Mahishasur began attacking once more, starting to take the form of a buffalo again. The patient goddess became very angry, and proclaimed to Mahishasur in a colorful tone "Roar with delight while you still can, O illiterate demon, because when I will kill you, the gods themselves will roar with delight".[this quote needs a citation] When Mahishasur had half emerged into his buffalo form, he was paralyzed by the extreme light emitting from the goddess's body. The goddess then resounded with laughter before cutting Mahishasur's head down with her sword.Thus Durga slew Mahishasur, thus is the power of the fierce compassion of Durga. Hence, Mata Durga is also known as Mahishasurmardhini—the slayer of Mahishasur. According to one legend, the goddess Durga created an army to fight against the forces of the demon-king Mahishasur, who was terrorizing Heaven and Earth. After ten days of fighting, Durga and her army defeated Mahishasur and killed him. As a reward for their service, Durga bestowed upon her army the knowledge of jewelry-making.The goddess, as Mahishasuramardini, appears quite early in Indian art. The Archaeological Museum in Matura has several statues on display including a 6-armed Kushana period Mahisasuramardhini that depicts her pressing down the buffalo with her lower hands.
 A Nagar plaque from the first century BC - first century AD depicts a 4-armed Mahisamardhini accompanied by a lion. But it is in the Gupta period that we see the finest representations of Mahisasuramardhini (2-, 4-, 6-, and at Udayagiri, 12-armed). The spear and trident are her most common weapons. A Mamallapuram relief shows the goddess with 8 arms riding her lion subduing a buffalo-faced
demon (as contrasted with a buffalo demon); a variation also seen at Ellora. In later sculptures (post-seventh Century), sculptures show the goddess having decapitated the buffalo demon.

 Durga Puja
The five day long (Sasthi to Dashami) Durga Puja is the biggest annual festival in Bengal, Assam, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand and Nepal,where it is known as Dashain. It is celebrated likewise with much fervour in various parts of India, especially the Himalayan region,but is celebrated in various forms throughout the Hindu universe.The day of Durga's victory is celebrated as Vijayadashami (Bihar, Bengali), Dashain (Nepali) or Dussehra (Hindi) - these words literally mean "the Victory Tenth" (day).
A traditional Durga idol at a pandal in Kolkata

A 51 second sample of Durga Puja Mantra recited in Sanskrit.

In Kashmir she is worshipped as shaarika (the main temple is in Hari Parbat in Srinagar).The actual period of the worship however may be on the preceding nine days (Navaratri) followed by the last day called Vijayadashami in North India or five days in Bengal (from the sixth to tenth day of the waxing-moon fortnight). Nine aspects of Durga known as Navadurga are meditated upon, one by one during the nine-day festival by devout Shakti worshippers. In South India especially Andhra Pradesh Dussera Navaratri is also celebrated and the goddess is dressed each day as a different devi like Sraswati, Parvati, Laksmi etc. for the nine days.In North India, the tenth day, signifying Rama's victory in his battle against the demon Ravana, is celebrated as Dussehra - gigantic straw effigies of Ravana are burnt in designated open spaces (e.g. Delhi's Ram Lila grounds), watched by thousands of families and little children.In Mysore Karnataka, she is worshiped as Chamundeshwari, the patron goddess of the city during DussehraIn Gujarat it is celebrated as the last day of Navaratri, during which the Garba dance is performed to celebrate the vigorous victory of
Mahishasura-mardini Durga.The Goddess Durga is worshipped in her peaceful form as Maha Gauri, The Fair Lady, Shree Shantadurga also known as santeri, is the patron Goddess of Goa. She is worshipped by all Goan Hindus.In Maharashtra, Tulja Bhavani and Ambabai is worshipped as Mahishasur Mardini and is patron goddess of land. Bhavani is known as Tulaja, Amba, Renuka, Yamai, Saptshrungi, Jogai in different places of Maharashtra. She is inspirational goddess of Raja shivaji. As per legends, Bhavani revealed to Shivaji and blessed him to form a kingdom.In Bangladesh also the four-days long Sharadiya Durga Puja  is the biggest religious festivals for the Hindus and celebrated across the country with Vijayadashami being a national holiday.Some early Western accounts refer a deity known as Deumus, Demus or Deumo. Sailors first came to face with the idol of Deumus at Calicut on the Malabar Coast and they concluded it to be the deity of Calicut. Deumus is sometimes interpreted as an aspect of Durga in Hindu mythology and sometimes as deva.It is described that the ruler of Calicut (Zamorin) has a murti of Deumus in his temple inside his royal palace. The temple was two paces wide in each of the four sides, and three paces high, with a wooden door covered with gods carved in relief. At the centre of the temple, there was a metal idol of Deumus placed in a seat also made of metal.Western accounts also describe the ruler of Calicut worshiping an ultimate god called Tamerani ("Tamburan"). The accounts also describes a misunderstood form of the "hook-swinging" ritual once commonly performed as part of some popular Hindu religious festivals. puja of kolkata,malda,shilliguri are most famous and a big buggeted puja aroun Rs.15,00,000

THE NEW STAR IN WORLD CRICKET SUNIL NARINE

    Full name:  Sunil Philip Narine
         Born:    26 May 1988 
                           Trinidad, Trinidad and Tobago
Batting style: Left-handed
Bowling style: Right arm off break
         Role: Bowler



Sunil Philip Narine (born 26 May 1988) is a Trinidadian cricketer who plays for the West Indies. Primarily an off-spin bowler, he is also a left-handed batsman. Domestically, Narine has played for Trinidad and Tobago since 2009 and made his One Day International debut in December 2011, and Test debut in June 2012. Narine's participated in the 2012 Indian Premier League where he represented Kolkata Knight Riders and was named Player of the Tournament in his first season.

Career

Narine played in the 2006 U-19 Cricket World Cup in Sri Lanka and made his debut in first-class cricket for Trinidad and Tobago in February 2009 during the Regional Four Day Competition, bowling thirteen overs without taking a wicket.He did not play another first-class match until nearly a year later,
 and after going wicketless in the first innings claimed a single scalp in the second, that of tail-ender Lionel Baker.On 19 January 2011, during the Caribbean Twenty20, Narine played his first Twenty20  match but did not bowl as the match was rained off before Trinidad and Tobago could bowl. T&T won the competition and Narine managed five wickets at an average of 13.40. By virtue of winning the competition Trinidad and Tobago qualified for the 2011 Champions League Twenty20 held in September and October, in which Narine was one of three bowlers to take ten or more wickets. He made his List A debut on 20 October 2011 in the Regional Super50, claiming figures of one wicket for 35 runs (1/35); his wicket that of opening batsman Miles Bascombe. Trinidad and Tobago won the competition and Narine was the leading wicket-taker in the competition with 15 scalps, five more than the nearest competitor, fellow spin bowler Nikita Miller.When the West Indies toured India in November and December 2011 Narine was included in the squad. He made his One Day International debut in the third fixture on 6 December, taking the wickets of Virat Kohli and then Ravichandran Ashwin to help the West Indies to a 16-run victory. Playing in the final two matches (both won by India) Narine took one more wicket while conceding a further 87 runs.Back in the Caribbean, Narine played three of T&T's six matches in February 2012 in the Regional Four Day Competition, taking 31 wickets at an average of 9.61, and finishing as the team's leading wicket-taker and seventh overall. Australia arrived in the West Indies in March, and their tour began with five ODIs.
 Narine and West Indies fast bowler Kemar Roach each finished with eleven wickets and were joined leading wicket takers in the series which was drawn 2–2.The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) bought Narine for US$700,000 at the player auction held in January for the 2012 Indian Premier League; at the time he had played just three ODIs and the successful bid was far above the base price of US$50,000. The IPL clashed with the Test leg of Australia's tour of the West Indies, and as Narine did not have a central contract with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) could chose whether to be available for the Tests of to play for KKR. Though Narine could have been called into the Test side based on his form in the ODIs, he chose to play in the IPL. KKR won the tournament . As the 2012 IPL's second highest wicket-taker with 24 dismissals and the second-best economy rate (conceding runs at a rate of 5.47 per over), Narine was named Player of the Tournament.Following an injury to fast bowler Kemar Roach, and the conclusion of the 2012 IPL, Narine was drafted into the West Indies squad for the third and final Test against England in June 2012. At the time he had played just six first-class matches, managing 34 wickets at an average of 11.88.Replacing fellow off spinner Shane Shillingford in the side, Narine made his Test debut on 10 June 2012. Due to his performance in the IPL Narine was much hyped by the media, though Kevin Pietersen and Ian Bell negotiated him with ease.A superb performance by Narine of five wickets for 28 runs on 16 July 2012 helped the West Indies beat New Zealand by 20 runs in their fifth and last ODI and win the current series 4-1 at Basseterre, St. Kits. Playing only in his second Test he was adjudged the Man of the Match after he picked eight wickets which included his maiden five-wicket haul.

in 2012 ICC world T20 ,held in Srilanka, he played a very important role. In the Final , he took 3 Wikets in3.4 over spending only 9 runs. And west Indies after 31 years, won any World Cup.

THE POWERFULL LEADER MAMATA BENERJEE

Mamata Banerjee ;
                  born 5 January 1955, is the 11th and current Chief Minister of West Bengal. She is the              first woman to hold the office.

Banerjee founded the party All India Trinamool Congress (AITMC or TMC) in 1997 and became its chairperson, after separating from the Indian National Congress.She is usually called "Didi" . In 2011 Banerjee pulled off a landslide victory for the TMC in West Bengal by defeating the world's longest-serving democratically-elected communist government, the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front government, bringing to an end 34 years of Left Front rule in the state.Banerjee previously served as a Minister of Railways twice and is also the first women Railway Minister of India, Minister of Coal, and Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Department of Youth Affairs and Sports and Women and Child Development in the cabinet of the Indian government.She opposed forceful land acquisition for industrialisation by the then communist government in West Bengal for Special Economic Zones at the cost of agriculturalists and farmers.In 2012, the Time magazine named her one of the "100 Most influential People in the World".In September,2012 Bloomberg Markets magazine listed her among the 50 most influential people in the world of finance .

Banerjee was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata), West Bengal in a Bengali Hindu Kulin Brahmin family to Promileswar Banerjee and Gayetri Devi.She grew up in a lower middle class family, and her father died when she was young. Banerjee became involved with politics while still in school, joining the Congress Party in West Bengal and serving in a variety of positions within the party and in other local political organizations.
 As a young woman in the 1970s, she quickly rose in the ranks to become the general secretary of the state Mahila Congress (1976–80).She was a college student in the mid-1970s.
Banerjee graduated with an honours degree in History from the Jogamaya Devi College, an undergraduate women's college in southern Kolkata. Later she earned a master's degree in Islamic History from the University of Calcutta. This was followed by a degree in education from the Shri Shikshayatan College. She also earned a law degree from the Jogesh Chandra Chaudhuri Law College, Kolkata. Throughout her political life Banerjee has maintained an austere lifestyle, always dressing in simple traditional Bengali cotton sarees called 'tant', while wearing none of cosmetics or jewellery and always has a cotton bag slung on her shoulder. She has remained single throughout her life.

Early political career

Banerjee started her political career in the Congress party, and as a young woman in the 1970s, she quickly rose in the ranks of the local Congress group,and remained the General Secretary of Mahila Congress (I), West Bengal, from 1976 to 1980.In the 1984 general election, Banerjee became one of India's
 youngest parliamentarians ever, beating veteran Communist politician Somnath Chatterjee, from the Jadavpur parliamentary Constituency in West Bengal. She also became the General-Secretary of the Indian Youth Congress. Losing her seat in 1989 in an anti-Congress wave, she was back in 1991 general elections, having settled into the Calcutta South constituency. She retained the Kolkata South seat in the 1996, 1998, 1999, 2004 and 2009 general elections.In the Rao government formed in 1991, Mamata Banerjee was made the Union Minister of State for Human Resources Development, Youth Affairs and Sports, and Women and Child Development. As the sports minister, she announced that she would resign, and protested in a rally at the Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata, against Government's indifference towards her proposal to improve sports in the country. She was discharged of her portfolios in 1993. In April 1996, she alleged that Congress was behaving as a stooge of the CPI-M in West Bengal. She claimed that she was the lone voice of reason and wanted a "clean Congress".

Trinamool Congress.

Mamata Banerjee speaking to the elected members and party workers at Bongaon stadium after the West Bengal panchayat elections.In 1997, Mamata Banerjee left the Congress Party in West Bengal and established the All India Trinamool Congress. It quickly became the primary opposition party to the long-standing Communist government in the state.On 11 December 1998, she controversially held a Samajwadi Party MP, Daroga Prasad Saroj, by the collar and dragged him out of the well of the Lok Sabha to prevent him from protesting against the Women's Reservation Bill.In 1999, she joined the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government and was allocated the Railways Ministry.
In 2002, Mamata Banerjee presented her first Railway Budget. In it she fulfilled many of her promises to her home state West Bengal.She introduced a new biweekly New Delhi-Sealdah Rajdhani Express train and four express trains connecting various parts of West Bengal, namely the Howrah-Purulia Rupasi Bangla Express, Sealdah-New Jalpaiguri Express, Shalimar-Bankura Arannyak Express and the Sealdah-Amritsar Superfast Express (weekly).She also increased the frequency of the Pune-Howrah Azad Hind Express and extension of at least three express train services. Work on the Digha-Howrah Express service was also hastened during her brief tenure.She also focused on developing tourism, enabling the Darjeeling-Himalayan section with two additional locomotives and proposing the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited. She also commented that India should play a pivotal role in the Trans-Asian Railway and that rail links between Bangladesh and Nepal would be reintroduced. In all, she introduced 19 new trains for the 2000–2001 fiscal year.In 2000, she and Ajit Kumar Panja resigned from the cabinet to protest the hike in petroleum prices,and then withdrew their resignations without any reason.

Split with NDA

In early 2001, after the Tehelka expose, Banerjee walked out of the NDA cabinet and allied with the Congress Party for West Bengal's 2001 elections,amidst speculation that the move could unseat the Communist government.

Return to NDA

She returned to the NDA government in January 2004, and held the Coal and Mines portfolio till the Indian general election of 20 May 2004, in which she was the only Trinamool Congress member to win a Parliament seat from West Bengal.On 20 October 2005, she protested against the forceful land acquisition and the atrocities clarification needed] on local farmers in the name of industrial development policy of the Buddhadev Bhattacharya government in West Bengal. Benny Santoso, CEO of the Indonesia-based Salim Group had pledged a large investment to West Bengal, and the West Bengal government had given him farmland in Howrah, sparking protest. In soaking rain, Banerjee and other Trinamool Congress members stood in front of the Taj Hotel where Santoso had arrived,shut out by the police. Later, she and her supporters followed Santoso's convoy. A planned "black flag" protest was avoided, when the government had Santoso arrive three hours ahead of schedule.Mamata Banerjee suffered further setbacks in 2005, when her party lost control of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and the sitting mayor defected from her party. In 2006, the Trinamool Congress was defeated in West Bengal's Assembly Elections, losing more than half of its sitting members.On 4 August 2006, Banerjee hurled her resignation papers at the deputy speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal in Lok Sabha. The provocation was the speaker (Somnath Catterjee)'s rejection of her adjournment motion on illegal infiltration by Bangladeshis in West Bengal. The motion was turned down by the speaker on the ground that it was not in the proper format.In November 2006, Banerjee was forcibly stopped on her way to Singur for a rally against a proposed Tata Motors car project. Mamata reached the West Bengal assembly and protested at the venue. She addressed a press conference at the assembly and announced a 12-hour shutdown by her party on Friday. The Trinamul Congress MLAs protested by damaging furniture and microphones in the West Bengal Assembly. A major strike was called on 14 December 2006.

Alliance with UPA

Before the 2009 parliamentary elections she forged an alliance with the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) led by Indian National Congress. The alliance won 26 seats. Banerjee joined the central cabinet as the railway minister (second tenure). In the 2010 Municipal Elections in West Bengal, TMC won Kolkata Municipal Corporation in a margin of 62 seats. TMC also won Bidhan Nagar Corporation in 16-9 seats margin. In 2011, Banerjee won a sweeping majority and assumed the position of chief minister of the state of West Bengal. Her party ended the 34-year rule of the Left Front.After the Big Bang reforms declared by UPA , TMC expressed it disappointment on the reforms. TMC threatened to withdraw support from UPA and gave 72hrs for withdrawing the Reforms. On 18 Sep, 2012 Evening Mamata Banarjee declared her party has withdrawn support from UPA and will run independently. The TMC's Minister will be submitting his resignation on Friday 21 Sept, 2012.

Nandigram protests

The Nandigram violence was an incident in Nandigram, West Bengal where, on the orders of the Left Front government, more than 4,000 heavily-armed police stormed the rural area in the district of Purba Medinipur with the aim of stamping out protests against the West Bengal government’s plans to expropriate 10,000 acres (40 km2) of land for a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) to be developed by the Indonesian-based Salim Group. The police shot dead at least 14 villagers and wounded 70 more.The SEZ controversy started when the government of West Bengal decided that the Salim Group of Indonesia would set up a chemical hub under the SEZ policy at Nandigram. The villagers took over the administration of the area, and all the roads to the villages were cut off. A front-page story in the Kolkata newspaper, The Telegraph, on 4 January 2007 was headlined, "False alarm sparks clash". According to the newspaper that village council meeting at which the alleged land seizure was to be announced was actually a meeting to declare Nandigram a "clean village", that is, a village in which all the households had access to toilet facilities. The administration was directed to break the Maoist-backed Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee's (BUPC) resistance at Nandigram and
a massive operation with at least 3,000 policemen along with armed cadre of the Marxist ruling party was launched on 14 March 2007. However, prior information of the impending action had leaked out to the BUPC who amassed a crowd of roughly 2,000 villagers at the entry points into Nandigram with women and children forming the front ranks. In the resulting mayhem, at least 14 people were killed.Many people of the lower classes were made homeless due to this political carnage.A large number of intellectuals protested on the streets and this incident gave birth of a new hope for movement to ouster the left from government
headed by the CPI(M) clarification needed]. Mamata Banerjee wrote letters to the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil to stop the violence promoted by CPI(M) in Nandigram. Agitation in Nandigram subsided, after the state government shelved the proposed chemical
hub project.

2009 Indian election

Trinamool Congress performed well in the 2009 parliamentary election, bagging 19 MP seats, among them 5 women (including Banerjee), reiterating its faith in the Women's Reservation Bill. Its allies in congress and SUCI also got six and one MP seats respectively marking the best performance by any opposition party in West Bengal since the start of the left regime. Until then, the Congress victory of 16 seats in 1984, by the sympathy vote after the death of Indira Gandhi, was considered the best show of opposition.

Railway Minister (second tenure)

In 2009, Mamata Banerjee became the railway minister for the second time. Her focus was again on West Bengal. She neglected her duties as a railway minister to concentrate on electioneering in West Bengal.
She led Indian Railways to introduce a number of non-stop Duronto Express trains connecting large cities besides a number of other passenger trains, including women-only trains. The Anantnag-Qadigund railway line of the Kashmir railway that has been in the making since 1994 was inaugurated during her tenure. She also declared the 25-km long line-1 of Kolkata Metro as an independent Zone of the Indian Railways for which she was criticized.Reuters reported that "Her two-year record as railway minister has been heavily criticized for running the network into more debt to pay for populist measures such as more passenger trains." The Indian Railways became loss-making in her two-year tenure.Even before stepping down as railway minister to become the Chief Minister of West Bengal, she declared that she would be able to handle both the portfolios together.Her nominee Dinesh Trivedi from her party succeeded her as railway minister.

Controversies

Fake Doctorate Degree

Mamta Banerjee claimed to hold a doctorate degree from East Georgia University. However it was later discovered that the university with such name did not exist. she always flow the rain of promise, but she failed   to keep those.

Railway minister resignation

On 14 March 2012, Dinesh Trivedi announced the annual rail budget 2012 that included an all over hike in passenger fares, ranging from 2 paise to 30 paise per kilometre for reasons of safety, along with network expansion and associated modernisations. The rail fare had not been hiked for nearly a decade  putting Indian Railways in ICU as far as its financial viability was concerned. The proposed fare hike would have added 4200 crores to railways income, which while paltry compared to its expenses, would still have saved railways from becoming bankrupt. The budget received enthusiastic support from a wide cross section of society including the general public, industry groups and all five Rail Unions. However, the fare hike proposal in the budget was fiercely opposed by Mamata Banerjee. Although Trivedi initially tried to defend the budget by pointing out that it was necessary for making Indian Railways stronger, Mamata Banerjee forced him to resign as Railway Minister on 18 March 2012.

Sacking railway minster

On hearing of the incident, noted Indian woman entrepreneur and Chairman & MD of Biocon, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw tweeted that "Mamta is a dangerous, populist demagogue: economically illiterate but politically astute - deadly combo!". She added that "Mamta is a sad reflection on just how feudal
our society and culture is - talk of human rights!" and "Mamata is behaving like a mad despot. Political leadership is in deficit with such irrational behaviour that can only harm the poor." Industrialist Rahul Bajaj opined that ""It was a very bold budget and he is a brave man to take such a tough call of increasing fares after ten years. I would have wished to see him around as the Railways Minister. However, it is very unfortunate that his own party is now distancing him." Veteran journalist, Vivian Fernandes reported that,
 "It is getting clearer by the day that Mamata Banerjee's poribortan is not a change for the better. Like the communists, she can only tear, not build."  Trinamool MP Kabir Suman came out in open support for Trivedi and expressed his solidarity with him, saying “My respects for the Chief Minister and other party leaders notwithstanding, I must say that it defies parliamentary decorum to get a Railway Minister removed simply because he has acted in the country’s interest.”

Eruption of cartoon incident

Ambikesh Mahapatra, a professor of Jadavpur University was assaulted, then arrested and forced to spend a night in police custody for allegedly circulating 'defamatory' cartoons of Mamata Banerjee. While Prof. Mahapatra, as the victim of the assault was forced to spend a night in police station, his attackers - Amit Sardar, Arup Mukherjee, Sheikh Mustafa and Nishikanta Gharai – allegedly Trinamool Congress
activists of the New Garia area on the southern fringes of Kolkata, were arrested on the next day and they were released on bail after being produced before the court. Mamata Banerjee defended the professor's arrest.

Abruptly stopped interview

Mamata Banerjee stormed out off the stage in a huff during an interactive programme organised by CNN-IBN TV channel on Friday 18 May 2012 at the Kolkata Town Hall, Kolkata without answering questions from audience (which consisted a large number of students). Mamata alleged that the students were Maoist cadres. Moments after walking off the stage,the Chief Minister instructed the police to take photographs of those in the audience who had asked questions.“The students are only asking Maoist questions and the CPI(M) questions,” she complained as the programme moderator sought her answer to the issues raised. “They are the Maoist students."Mamata Banerjee stormed out off the stage in Town Hall, Kolkata
Some publications, in their editorials characterized Mamata Banerjee as "Dictatorial" and her rule as "Mamata's growing dictatorship",citing her forcing Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi's resignation, and the professor Ambikesh Mahapatra cartoon incident, as examples of this tendency. She is often cited by a section of the media and critics to be as "megalomaniac, eccentric and populist politician".

Chief Minister of West Bengal

Main article: West Bengal state assembly election, 2011 .In 2011, the All India Trinamool Congress along with SUCI  and the Indian National Congress won the West Bengal legislative assembly election against the incumbent Left Alliance by securing 227 seats. TMC won 184 seats with the INC winning 42 seats and the SUCI secured one seat. This marked the end of the longest ruling democratically elected Communist party in the world.


Mamata Banerjee at Milan Mela ground after inauguration of the 'Infocom 2011' an IT fair in Kolkata.

Taking the Oath at Raj Bhavan, Kolkata

Mamata Banerjee takes the oath of office as Chief Minister administered by Governor M. K. Narayanan on May 20, 2011.Banerjee was sworn in as Chief Minister of West Bengal on 20 May 2011. As the first woman Chief Minister of West Bengal, one of her first decisions was to return 400 acres of land to Singur farmers. "The cabinet has decided to return 400 acres to unwilling farmers in Singur,
" the chief minister said. "I have instructed the department to prepare the papers for this. If Tatababu wants, he can set up his factory on the remaining 600 acres, otherwise we will see how to go about it," she added.
She has also been credited to solving the longstanding "Gorkhaland Problem" by setting up the Gorkhaland Autonomous Council.She has started various reforms in education and health sectors. Some of the reforms in the education sectors include release of the monthly pay of the teachers on the first of every month which was started during the last gov. bt she demand that she launch this, and quicker pensions for retiring teachers. In health sector "A three-phase developmental system will be taken up to improve the heath infrastructure and service,” Mamata Banerjee said."In fact she was instrumental in the rollback of the petrol price hikes and the suspension of FDI in Retail Sector until a consensus is evolved. In a bid of improve the law and enforcement situation in West Bengal, Police commissionerates were created at Howrah, Barrackpore,
Durgapur-Asansol and Bidhannagar. The total area of Kolkata Municipal Corporation has been brought under the control of Kolkata Police.Even before assuming the role of Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee had shown keen interest in making the public aware of the state's history and culture. She had named several stations of the Kolkata Metro after freedom fighters, and plans on naming upcoming stations after religious leaders, poets, singers and the like. One of her unprecedented moves as Chief Minister has been to arrange for the playing of Rabindra Sangeet at traffic signals in Kolkata.

On 16 February 2012, Bill Gates, of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, sent a letter to the West Bengal government praising Mamata Banerjee and her administration for achieving a full year without any reported cases of polio. The letter said this was not only a milestone for India but also for the whole world.
Mamata Banerjee's Tenure as railway minister is now being questioned as most of the big-ticket announcements made by her last year when she was the railway minister, have seen little or no progress. In June 2012, she launched a Facebook page to rally and gather public support for A.P.J Abdul Kalam,
 her party's choice for the presidential elections.Mamata didi gave her party support to Pranab Mukherjee for the post of President of India after a long drama over the issue,She also said" she was personally a "great fan" of Mukherjee and wished he grows from strength to strength".She is against calling bandhs but she had called many of them when she was in opposition. Mamta banerjee took on congress for fuel price hike and other controversial decisions by starting her agitation in Jantar Mantar on 1,october,2012.

THE FIRST BENGALI PRESIDENT OF INDIA

Born: 11 December 1935
          Mirati, West Bengal, India

Political party: Indian National Congress (Before      1986; 1989-2012)
       Rashtriya Samajwadi Congress                             (1986–1989)

Spouse(s): Suvra Mukherjee

Alma mater: University of Calcutta
Religion: Hinduism

Current position: President of India from 25th of July,2012

Early life:  He belongs to a Bengali Hindu Kulin Brahmin family.His father Kamada Kinkar Mukherjee was a member of AICC, and West Bengal Legislative Council (1952–64), and President, District Congress Committee, Birbhum (WB).
He attended the Suri Vidyasagar College, Suri (Birbhum), then affiliated with the University of Calcutta.

He holds a Master of Arts degrees in History and Political Science & has a degree in law from the University of Calcutta.
In 2011 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by University of Wolverhampton.

Professional career :  Mukherjee began his career as a college-teacher and later as a journalist.
His height is only 5 feet 1 inches.He worked for noted Bengali publication Desher Dak (Call of Motherland).
He also became trustee of Bangiya Sahitya Parishad and later President of Nikhil Bharat Banga Sahitya Sammelan.


Political career: He has a parliamentary career of over four decades, which began as a member of Rajya Sabha (upper house)
from the Congress Party in 1969; he was re-elected in 1975, 1981, 1993 and 1999. In 1973,
he joined the cabinet as Union Deputy Minister, Industrial Development.
He rose through a series of cabinet posts to become the Finance Minister of India from 1982 to 1984.
His term was noted for India not withdrawing the last billion instalment of an IMF loan.
Dr. Manmohan Singh was serving Reserve Bank of India as Governor during Pranab's term as Finance Minister.
 He was not included in Rajiv Gandhi's cabinet after Lok Sabha election held subsequent to Indira Gandhi's assassination.
He was pushed out of the Congress party for a brief period, and during this period he formed his own political party Rashtriya Samajwadi Congress,
 but later merged it with Congress party in 1989 after settlement with Rajiv Gandhi. His political career revived when P.V. Narasimha Rao chose to appoint him as deputy chairman of the planning commission and subsequently as a union cabinet minister.He served as External Affairs Minister for the first time from 1995 to 1996 in Rao's cabinet. In 1997 he was voted Outstanding Parliamentarian.

He was the President of the West Bengal state unit of Congress since 1985[citation needed],
but resigned in July 2010 due to work-load and was succeeded by Manas Bhunia. In 2004,
when the Congress formed a government at the head of a coalition the new Congress Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was only a Rajya Sabha MP. So Pranab Mukherjee was made Leader of the House in the Lok Sabha when he won the Lok Sabha elections for the first time from Jangipur (Lok Sabha constituency). He also has the distinction of being a Minister for various high profile Ministries including Defence, Finance, External Affairs, Revenue, Shipping, Transport, Communication, Economic Affairs, Commerce and Industry. He also heads the Congress Parliamentary Party and the Congress Legislative Party which consists of all the Congress MPs and MLAs in the country apart from being Leader of the House in Lok Sabha, Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee President and the Union Cabinet Minister of Finance in the Council of Ministers under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the Congress-led Government. Pranab played crucial role in steering the Cabinet pre Lok Sabha elections when the Prime Minister underwent by-pass surgery by taking additional charges as chairman of the Cabinet Committee Of Political Affairs and Union Minister in Finance Ministry despite already being Union Minister of External Affairs.


International role: Pranab Mukherjee played a central role in the implementation of the Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement. Mukherjee and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signed the Section 123 Agreement on October 10, 2008. He has been a member of the Board of Governors of the International Monetary Fund, of the World Bank, of the Asian Development Bank, and of the African Development Bank.

In 1984, he chaired the Group of 24 attached to the IMF and World Bank. Between May and November 1995,
he presided over the SAARC Council of Ministers Conference.

He was the first appointed by the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, to ease issues over the campaign initiated by Anna Hazare on day 8 of his fast, that is 23 August 2011.


Political party role: Mukherjee is very well respected within the party social circles.
Other media accounts describe him as having "a reputation as a number-crunching politician with a phenomenal memory and an unerring survival instinct. After Sonia Gandhi reluctantly agreed to join politics, Mukherjee was one of her key mentors, guiding her through difficult situations with examples of how her mother-in-law, Indira Gandhi would have done things.Mukherjee's unfailing loyalty and competence have led to his closeness to Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh, and helped him gain the position of Minister of Defence when the party came to power in 2004.
He has also held the position of Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission from 1991 to 1996.
His talents were on display during the negotiations for the Patent's Amendment Bill in early 2005.
The Congress was committed to passing an IP bill, but their allies in the United Progressive Alliance from the Left front had a long tradition
of opposing some of the monopoly aspects of intellectual property. Pranab Mukherjee, as Defence Minister, was not formally involved but was roped
in for his negotiation skills. He drew on many old alliances including the CPI-M leader Jyoti Basu, and formed new intermediary positions,
which included product patent and little else. Then he had to convince his own colleagues including commerce minister Kamal Nath, at one
point saying: "An imperfect legislation is better than no legislation.Finally the bill was approved on March 23, 2005.



Foreign Minister:  October 2006 Pranab Mukherjee with US President George W. Bush in 2008.

On 24 October 2006, he was appointed as the External Affairs Minister of India.
 His replacement in the Defence Ministry is A. K. Antony, a senior Congress Party politician and former Chief Minister of the southern state of Kerala.
Mukherjee was briefly considered for the post of the largely ceremonial Indian presidency.
But his name was subsequently dropped after his contribution in the Union Cabinet was considered practically indispensable.Among Mukherjee's current legacy was the successful signing of the U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Agreement with the US government and
then with the Nuclear Suppliers Group, allowing India to participate in civilian nuclear trade in spite of not having signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. He is also awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian honor in 2007.

Finance Minister: Pranab Mukherjee, Finance Minister of India addressing the delagates at Regional Conference of Institute of Chartered
Accountants of India Pranab Mukherjee's first stint as the Finance minister of India was during the Indira Gandhi government in 1982.
He presented his first annual budget in 1982-83. In the second government of Manmohan Singh, he again became the Finance Minister of India,
a job he had held earlier, in the 1980s. On July 6, 2009, he presented the government's annual budget. In it, he announced many tax reforms,
such as the scrapping of the 'irritant' Fringe Benefits Tax and the Commodities Transaction Tax. He announced, that the Finance Ministry,
 was well on track, to implement the Goods and Services Tax, a tax, that has been praised by major corporate executives, and economists.
He also expanded funding for social sector schemes, like the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, girl's literacy, and health care. Also,
 he expanded infrastructure programmes, like the National Highway Development Programme, expansion of electricity coverage, and the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. However, many people, expressed concern, about the rising fiscal deficit, the highest since 1991. Mukherjee said, that the expansion in government spending was only temporary, and he said that the government, was committed to the principle of fiscal prudence. He presented the 2009 Union budget of India as well as 2010 Union budget of India and the 2011 budget.The 2010-11 budget includes the country's first explicit target to cut public debt as a proportion of GDP and he is targeting a budget deficit reduction to 4.1% of GDP in fiscal year 2012-13, from 6.5% in 2008-09.


Views and opinions:   On corruption In an interview to rediff.com in 1998, he was asked about the sleaze in the Congress government, in which he was the Minister for External Affairs. He replied:
Corruption is an issue. We have dealt with it in the manifesto.
 But I am sorry to say that these scams are not confined to the Congress or the Congress government alone.
There are so many scams. So many leaders of various political parties are involved in them. So it would be too simplistic to say that the Congress government was involved in scams.Controversies, allegations and accusations
Mukherjee was a Minister in Indira Gandhi's Cabinet during the infamous Emergency and was held by many to be personally responsible for some of the excesses.He was summoned before the Shah Commission but followed Mrs. Gandhi's lead in refusing to resign before it. A police case was registered against him which was withdrawn when Mrs. Gandhi returned to power. Gurumurthy and Arun Shourie exposed how Pranab Mukerjee, the then Finance Minister of India helped Reliance Industries against Bombay Dyeing through differential taxation by influencing the Income Tax Department in textile industry.As a result Bombay Dyeing was almost decimated.
Mukherjee was involved in handling Taslima Nasreen's house arrest in Delhi, as the Foreign Minister.
 Dealing with a situation involving her expulsion for Kolkata, anger from Islamic radicals, and her protection in a safehouse, Mukherjee received criticism for actions leading to Nasreen's eventual departure from India in March 2008.
He has also been accused of threatening banks if they invest in Gujarat by sending the Income Tax Department sleuths after them, a state governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party

Personal life: Pranab Mukherjee married Suvra Mukherjee on July 13, 1957 and has two sons, Abhijit and Indrajit and a daughter. He is inspired by Deng Xiaoping & has quoted him quite frequently.His hobbies are reading, gardening and music.

Honours, awards and international recognition: In 1984, he was rated as the best Finance Minister of the World according to a survey of Euromoney magazine.
In 2010 he was awarded "Finance Minister of the Year for Asia" by Emerging Markets,
 the daily newspaper of record for the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
 In December 2010 The Banker recognised him as "Finance Minister of the Year" after making significant inroads into budget deficit reduction,
 throughout a turbulent year.


Awarding organization

2011 : Best Administrator in India Award  K. Karunakaran Foundation.

 2008 : Padma Vibhushan  President of India.

 1997 : Outstanding Parliamentarian Award  Indian Parliamentary Group.