The winds that had left its sail bloody and tattered after the 2021 Bengal Assembly elections have again started blowing in the BJP’s favour. In the last year or so, hundreds of crores of cash have tumbled out of houses of Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee’s men and women and hundreds of houses have tumbled out of the swindlers’ invisible safes in full public view, showing it up as one of the most recklessly corrupt regimes in recent memory. The trust of even hardworking Trinamool supporters has been shaken. To Bengal’s poor — that is a staggering multitude, as according to the World Bank, “West Bengal grew at an even slower pace than the country’s other low-income states” — such vulgar loot is a cruel joke.
The other spectre that the Ram Navami violence has brought back for Mamata Banerjee is Muslim appeasement. Howrah erupted with stone-pelting by Islamist mobs who resented Hindu religious processions during the festival. The CM has been desperately trying to offset her pro-minority and anti-majority image lately. From chanting Chandi slokas to calling herself a “staunch Brahmin”, and from deciding to build replicas of Jagannath and Vaishno Devi temples in the state to holding Ganga aarti along the Hooghly, Mamata Banerjee has embarked on a massive image-correction among Hindu voters.
But perhaps the loss in the Assembly bypoll in Sagardighi, which has a 65 percent Muslim population, alarmed her about disenchantment setting in among her electoral “milch cow” (her own words), the Muslims.
And so, despite Muslim mobs laying violent siege on Ram Navami, she invoked “Allah tala” and chastised Hindus for entering “Muslim areas” on Ram Navami. Months before the panchayat polls, she has walked right into the trap of her own image.
Also, the alleged roughing up of NCPCR chairperson Priyank Kanoongo by cops at the Tiljala police station reinforces the blemish on the state as a law-and-order hellhole. Kanoongo was in Bengal to probe two separate cases of rape and murder of children.
But is the BJP ready to take complete advantage of the Zephyr flowing its way? The reaction of the party to the Howrah violence and thrashing of the NCPCR head has been a meek threat to file a public interest litigation in court. Its stock response to the frequent slash of the sword has been to wield an inexorably slow legal process. It has resulted in the loss of hundreds of lives in pre- and post-poll violence.
The BJP perhaps reckons that its cadre repeatedly taking the onslaught will draw voter sympathy and electoral dividends. It also perhaps still counts on Mamata Banerjee’s covert support to its bills and policies in Parliament and does not want to go for the kill till it feels it is strong enough.
But the politics of Bengal can be unfathomable for those sitting in Delhi. The need of the hour is to unite the fractious party with floating, self-serving elements and take to the streets against a weakening TMC. If Mamata were the leader of the state opposition, she would overwhelm the ruling party with street protests and a barrage of drama for the media to lap up.
The Bengal BJP has lacked that gall. It has also not been able to mobilise the state’s women, Mamata’s silent strength. The BJP needs to prepare and empower its cadre to take up the street challenge. Bengal does not back those who fail to defend themselves, however oppressive the regime. With rural and general elections approaching, it might want to rethink and decisively rearrange things.
Abhijit Majumder is a senior journalist. Views expressed are personal.
Read all the Latest Opinions here
Comments
0 comment