Mamata Banerjee debuts on Twitter: Five reasons why we should all celebrate

Mamata Banerjee has decided to make 2015 special for her admirers and haters alike. On New Year’s Day she has joined Twitter much to the delight of the Modi4Everything brigade we can guess. Given Didi’s penchant for shooting off her mouth it will be fun to see if she tweets first and then thinks about it later. Didi has already tweeted “Think positive. Speak positive.” (And we assume tweet positive as well). But for sure it will make for a much more interesting Twitterverse. Within one day of joining she has over 6,000 followers. Derek O’Brien leads the pack tweeting out “a very warm welcome” while Suhel Seth has tweeted “Delighted that Mamata Banerjee is now on Twitter. Twitter needs to worry now.”

But don’t worry, be happy. We list five reasons why Twitterati in India should thank Banerjee for appearing on Twitter:

1. New hashtags galore. Hello #BaansBehen 

Now, lets give it to the Twitter intelligentsia. Had it been not for them, the world would have been devoid of delightful words like ‘sickular’, ‘presstitutes’, ‘libtard’ and Sajid Khan would have been feeling a little lonely in his annoying-beyond-repair corner of the world. Also ‘Feku’, ‘Pappu’ and ‘Khujliwal’ are such old news now. With Banerjee’s many talents – at poetry and invective alike – she opens out a broad new horizon for the hashtag-makers on Twitter to work on. Since Twitter doesn’t have much of a taste for Bengali, she might be in for a funky name, inspired by her love for the unsung heroes of our ecology – bamboos. And yes, if she happens to come across names such as these, she can’t threaten to whip people on Twitter. She can call it a conspiracy of course.

2. Let the games begin. ‘Amit bhai, I am Didi and I have come to Twitter’

Imagine the fireworks you can hope for with Bengal’s favourite didi and Gujarat’s favourite bhai, coming together on the same platform. In the best tradition of playing Twitter anti-cupid, there will be a bunch of Amit Shah fans tagging him and our Didi in the same post. You know, stuff like the following: ‘Hey@MamataOfficial, @AmitShahOffice is coming, hide your sickular posteriors #ModiMaatiManush. We suggest a few breathing exercises reserved to deal with such tweets in the initial teething days. After that it can be like a Roman gladiatorial circus as Didi tweets “Who is @AmitShahOffice? #Dangababu” and Shah responds “Run Didi run”. The 2016 elections in Bengal will now have a whole new virtual front.

3. Happy Onam everyone. Our one stop festival calendar is here
Didi is even more pro-active than the PMO when it comes to observing festivals. She knows them all and observes them all. Hers is the only account you need to follow to know when it’s Fateha-dwaj-daham or Vasant Panchami. Didi will observe them all along with birth anniversaries of various Bengali poets and singers. We will know when it’s Jamai-shoshti or son-in-law day and when it’s Bhai-phonta or Brother’s Day. Surely Didi will post cool pics of herself observing all these occasions. And be ready for an inspiring Tagore quote to start the day and a Vivekananda quote to end the day.

4. Happy birthdays will never be the same again

You might not have caught our Didi wishing too many happy things to people lately, but let’s not forget how generous she is really. Just try looking at metro station names in Kolkata and you’ll know, she is quite expansive with people she likes. Maybe, she could trying extending this generosity to living people too. And Twitter is great for that. Remember, PM Modi tweeted to Sonia Gandhi on her birthday – she who he called ‘Madam’ with the same earnestness with which Arnab Goswami asks the nation what it wants to know. What a great a PR win will it be for Banerjee to wish Modi, Shah and Sonia happy birthdays on Twitter? And it’s far cheaper than flying to Delhi to wish a Pranab Mukherjee a speedy recovery.

5. The Bong mafia can regroup

Once upon a time, Mamata Banerjee and Pranab Mukherjee used to be like Shah Rukh Khan and Farida Jalal, making Bengalis weepy with nostalgia by their undaunted Bengalification of English words. Then, Mukherjee became the president, Mamata fell out with Congress and now Modi and Mukherjee are BFFs on Twitter. There is a reason that Banerjee is following just three people on Twitter – Derek O’Brien, her nephew and TMC. That’s because she is a bit of an Ajay Devgn in the political circles – with not too many friends to party with. Or as Suhel Seth tweeted “In honour of Mamata Banerjee joining Twitter, Twitter to remove ‘following’ from her profile. She is the leader and cannot follow anyone!” Maybe, she should take back her old friend Mukherjee by wishing him happy new year? And slyly add ‘Please RT’ to the tweet?

But acchey din are here for Twitter. As @GreatBong says “What a smashing beginning to the new year with Didi on twitter. Since twitter is colored light blue and white, no corporation tax also.” This is what we call win-win.