Kolkata: After West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s action against members of her own party, Trinamool Congress accepting “cut money”, a Bengali pop singer named Nachiketa released a video of him singing a satirical song on YouTube based on this.
‘Cut money’ is a percentage that is illegally charged by government officials and party workers to give people services. It can be recalled that recently, CM Mamata Banerjee ordered her party members to pay back the ‘cut money’ and in several viallges across the state, villagers gheraoed Trinamool leaders at the panchayat level and demanded that they pay back the cut money.
The video posted by singer Nachiketa is a very informal one showing him seated on a cot strumming his guitar and singing from a notebok, a song asking the political leaders to pay back the ‘cut money’. The video has gone viral and was even shared by singer and Union Minister Babul Supriyo on Twitter.
The minister thanked the singer for the “satirical song” and for saying what the “people feel”.
Through the song, Nachiketa warns that those who took ‘cut money’ should be prepared to face the wrath of the people.
While the song makes no references to any political party, there are references to dada and didimoni (CM Mamata Banerjee is popularly referred to as Didi).
Mamata’s crackdown on ‘cut money’ comes after it was identified as one of the many reasons why the Trinamool Congress lost votes in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections. They won only 24 seats this time, while the BJP won a whopping 18 seats.
