Is Maradona a Mere ‘Political Pawn’ For Mamata Banerjee’s Govt?

Maradona is obliged to be a PR pawn, even if he pockets a king’s ransom when fetching up anywhere on an invitation.

Diego Maradona, gestures to media as he attends a football clinic and workshop for young aspiring soccer players in Kadambagachhi, about 45 kilometers (28 miles) north of Kolkata, on 12 December 2017.

(Photo: AP)

Nine years ago, when West Bengal's shrewd – and ruling – Marxist leaders sussed it out that unchecked unemployment was driving youths away from the CPI (M), legendary Argentine footballer Diego Maradona was called to turn the tide.

They would have thought that the idea was a cracker jack. Sports minister Subhas Chakrabarty took the initiative to stage a series of high-profile public appearances by Maradona, each worth Rs 22 lakh to the habitual headline-grabber, aimed at setting off a buzz that would lure the disillusioned ones back.

Earlier this month, Maradona returned to Kolkata with Trinamool legislator Sujit Basu. Subhas Chakrabarty’s right-hand man in the Leftist party was organising programmes where the emphasis was on pulling in people by emphasising the Latin American legend’s stellar appeal. The more, the merrier.

Diego Maradona gestures as he attends a football clinic and workshop for young aspiring soccer players in Kadambagachhi, about 45 kilometers (28 miles) north of Kolkata, on Tuesday, 12 December 2017. (Photo: AP)

It is said by the Kolkata Maidan's habitués that the current set of rulers’ way of staving off a putative surge by the BJP is following the footsteps of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) when it felt threatened by Trinamool. These people know what they are talking about, given that some of them, in accordance with the requirement of the times, are Trinamool loyalists.

The august personage at the center of the kaleidoscope, Diego Armando Maradona, is a World Cup-winner.

Now he's obliged to be a PR pawn, even if he pockets a king's ransom when fetching up anywhere on an invitation.

Kolkata’s Maradona Connection

I remember the meeting where Subhas Da set forth his agenda, making it clear that his basic objective was political. He had been given the green light by Alimuddin Street, and all stops were pulled out. 

CPI (M) activist to The Quint

The CPI (M) activist added, “Of course, money was no problem as the party was in power at the time. He pulled it off all right, in that wherever Maradona went, people simply went wild. They had given up on ever seeing him in the city where Brazil and Argentina could stir raw emotions.”

And, from all accounts, Maradona's 2017 visit was only marginally less spectacular.

Maybe some people had seen through the political game at the heart of the matter.

Someone who's close to Trinamool's notional sport wing, insisting on anonymity said, "It was all about making some people sit up and take notice while the others made a beeline for wherever Maradona had shown up. At Barasat, where he showed flashes of his famous close-range control and still-unimpaired skills, the stands were hollering for
more of it. The experience was electrifying and everyone went home happy."

No ‘Appearance Fee’ for Maradona

But then, Maradona, even though reduced now to a state where he could have been foraging for crumbs, doesn't like being taken for granted.

This time around, he simply refused to get off the car at a big bash in south Kolkata’s Bhowanipur area. When he reached the venue, Maradona realised that Mamata Banerjee’s brother, Swapan, had ‘pulled strings’ for this visit, and there was no prospect of an ‘appearance fee’.

Nine years ago, when a Maidan factotum rolled up at Kolkata’s Grand Hotel (where he had been put up) to escort him to a programme at Mohun Bagan, Maradona had made the mistake of coming in 10 minutes too soon. Maradona let it be known, by telephone, that he wouldn't get down until it was time.

Some Rs 8.5 crore is said to have been spent on the Maradona ‘show’ on his recent trip, including the cash splurged on flying him in and putting him up in a luxury hotel, among the best that Kolkata can afford.

Spending Money They Don’t Have

Bose, it's said by his acolytes, has had no problems raising it. While people close to the local game at more modest levels regret the high expenditure when the Indian game is awfully short of money, the Maidan's clubs aren't grumbling. Not at all. They know that when the time comes again, the chief minister will chip in for them, armed with the government's occasionally bottomless wallet.

Mamata Banerjee has been generous to them as well, but knows full well how the CPI(M), in spite of the spending spree, came a cropper during the polls afterwards.

(The writer is a Kolkata-based senior sports journalist. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)