Mamata Banerjee Quotes
Sometimes, when democracy has to fight with autocracy, what can be done? We have to fight; somebody has to.
Banerjee, Mamata. "Interview with Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of India's West Bengal state." Interview by Lally Weymouth. The Washington Post, 21 Feb. 2013.
This is a very important quotation because it illustrates a characteristic of most South American (and many other world) cultures. Namely, that respect and dignity are more important than freedom. There is even a Spanish term conveying the importance of respect: Respecto! This is very different from the Anglo-American tradition where if one has freedom, he is little concerned with what others think of him, and no amount of respect would offset the loss of freedom. The person who is free, has the dignity that he needs. The importance of respect over freedom was also a major characteristic of European Fascism in the 1930s.
Those who have fought against dictatorial governments for their basic human rights, found after victory and the overthrow of the dictator, that there was another force fighting for control which would deny citizens human rights based on a theocracy. They wanted the end of the dictator so they could use their interpretation of a religion as the excuse to deny all citizens basic human rights.
Mamata Banerjee is an Indian politician who is serving as the 8th and current Chief Minister of West Bengal since 2011, the first woman to hold the office. She founded the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC or TMC) party in 1998 after separating from the Indian National Congress, and became its first chairperson. She is often referred to as Didi (meaning elder sister in Bengali) by her followers and as Pishi (meaning paternal aunt in Bengali) by many of her critics.
