The high decibel walkout by Mamata didi from her recent TV interview isn’t the first of its kind by a politician. In fact, it made me reminiscent of the country’s walkout politicos over the years. Walkouts which were a study in rage and outrage by the politicians, followed by astonishment and some abject grovelling by our tough-as-nails interviewers. There’ve been various instances of outraged politicians walking out of TV appearances and their reasons for their hasty exits range from uncomfortable questions to unacceptable viewpoints, but the drama never changes. Maybe these perfectly-timed walkouts are from all the practice they’ve got while Parliament is in session?

CNN-IBN’s now infamous interview with Mamata Banerjee was meant to mark the first anniversary of her government being in power in West Bengal, after 34 years of Left rule. It was also after a long time that a chief minister of the state was ready to sit amidst the public and talk to them and answer their questions. And CNN-IBN had landed the ‘exclusive’. So it was a big deal for everyone involved – Mamata, the audience and of course, the channel concerned. Which was soon a concerned channel, because we all know how that interview ended.

It’s not like Mamata suddenly decided to indulge in some Maoist name-calling. It was a slow and steady boil up to her actions and reactions. The labelling and the Maoist murmurs creep into her answers. And it’s not just Mamata’s behaviour which is bizarre. The interviewer, Sagarika Ghose, by the end of it seems as out of sorts as Mamata was. The hollowness of the claims made by Sagarika in her initial monologue makes this entire interaction seem like a tragi-comedy on the functioning of the news media in India today.

After Mamata flounces off, leaving a flustered Sagarika in her wake, matters are made worse by Sagarika telling a student, “You don’t look like a Maoist”. Now who’s labelling whom? How does one look like a Maoist in the first place? Not all of them hold a placard saying Laal Salaam!

And ironically, despite the unexpected turn of events, the audience seemed to hold their composure and make more insightful comments on both Banerjee’s behaviour as well as her rule, than the host did.

In terms of noisiness of walkouts, only Ram Jethmalani comes close to Didi’s performance, though. Take a look as he storms out of Karan Thapar’s show, Devil’s Advocate leaving the host gob-smacked. To his credit, Thapar looked remarkably calm although a little dumbstruck after that walkout. Almost as if he expected it. Or was in shock. One wonders though, if his speech later was just a face-saver and delivered only after he’d taken a few deep breaths and had a gulp of water off-camera.

Thapar’s monologue is interesting in itself. It seems he didn’t want his research to go to waste. So, despite Jethmalani not being there to answer or rebut his statements, Thapar just went ahead and regurgitated all his points to the camera. He even mentioned a newspaper article that had not yet been published. Was Jethmalani’s ire justified? After all Thapar’s obvious bias against Jethmalani joining the BJP was quite apparent. Not the most objective of questioning.

But then again, maybe Thapar looked so calm and composed after Jethmalani’s walkout because Thapar isn’t a walkout novice. In 2007, three years before Jethmalani’s interview, Narendra Modi famously walked out within five minutes of Thapar’s questioning. Simply stating in that calm practised tone of his, “Dostana bana rahe bas”. At the time though, Thapar was just left fumbling and repeating quite plaintively, “Modi saab, Modi saab”, quite like Sagarika Ghose’s, “Didi, Didi, Didi…”. Watch this.

Another politician who has walked out over questions about his behaviour and decisions is Suresh Kalmadi. In an interview with Rahul Kanwal of Headlines Today, Kalmadi insisted that he’d had enough of this “trial by the media” and would explain himself before that last refuge of every politician – the committee.

To be fair, if I was found spending more than Rs 2000 on a single plug point, I wouldn’t just walk, I’d run, and hide.

There are politicians and then there is Abhishek Manu Singhvi. While others walk out when faced with difficult questions, Mr Singhvi got affronted when someone called his considered views “nonsense”. Take a look.

I’m still not clear whether Singhvi is angry with what Abhinandan Sekhri said or with Goswami calling it a good point? (Full disclosure, I work for Abhinandan Sekhri. And I must say, I empathise totally with Singhvi.) But still, if you can’t take some angry words, how do you go out and meet voters and ask for votes? Wait! Manu Singhvi is a Rajya Sabha member. In which case, others don’t matter. He just needs to make sure he doesn’t walk out of a chat with Sonia-ji.

Arnab to his credit handles it surprisingly well. Almost bidding the former Congress speaker goodbye as he says, “I won’t come on your channel ever again”. We are quite sure Arnab isn’t holding his breath.