October 23, 2019
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee Bubbles of violence
Ma, Mati, Manush and Poriborton covered the entire spectrum of political issues
that Ms Banerjee used to mobilise and detach voters from the CPI(M).
Effectively, the cut-money story has turned into an extension of the "syndicateâ€
story, used by Mr Modi and Amit Shah to discredit Ms Banerjee on the grounds
that a "political syndicate rules in the land of ‘Vande Mataram’ and ‘Jana Gana
Mana’â€.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee Bubbles of violence are
erupting all over West Bengal; on July 6, no fewer than 10 clashes,
confrontations and altercations between the Trinamul Congress and the Bharatiya
Janata Party occurred in almost as many districts. If it waits till the end of
the Trinamul Congress’ term in office, it will be 2021 before it can hope to be
in power in West Bengal. The big and dangerous difference is the injection of a
quasi-religious sentiment by invoking "Shri Ramâ€. Sentiment is high and the BJP
is working hard to keep it at boiling point, to keep the focus on its proximity
to the people and highlight the growing distance and distrust of the electorate
from the Trinamul Congress.
Well before and during the just-concluded elections,
sentiment was stirred by the danger to the nation and the heroic efforts of
Narendra Modi to safeguard it, from dangers outside its borders and from
elements within, like Mamata Banerjee who opposed him. The confrontations, 10 or
more in one day, is reminiscent of the pre-2011 run-up by the Trinamul
Congress.The BJP is seems is in a fix over West Bengal. If that were to happen,
the BJP needs to be sure that it can collect the spillage.By the BJP’s
reckoning, or least one section of it, namely Babul Supriyo, the ex-minister and
Member of Parliament from Asansol, West Bengal is already in the throes of a
situation that can be deemed as a breakdown of law and order, or as is in the
Constitution, the situation in West Bengal is, at the moment, such that "the
government of the state cannot be carried on in accordance with the provisions
of this Constitutionâ€. For the BJP’s purposes, sentiment is stirred by linking
every point in its political attack strategy to a single sentiment — that the
principal ruling party or even the Opposition has, in the present as in the
past, betrayed the people, one way or another.
If the Trinamul can fight it off,
it will succeed in postponing its overthrow. It would swing sympathy in favour
of Ms Banerjee and the BJP would become the bad guys. By declaring Ms Banerjee
an "anti-national†for defying the Prime Minister&screw
barrel of injection moulding machines Manufacturers39;s call for a
collective push for development, as in sabka vikas, the die was cast for the
current chapter of the anti-Trinamul Congress campaign, namely "cut-moneyâ€, or
the percentage of funds deducted by ruling party functionaries from payouts to
beneficiaries under various government schemes.
The BJP’s positioning of itself
as the harbinger of change is exactly what Ms Banerjee promised, Poriborton. In
# politics, that is a long time.The track that the BJP has chosen is a well-used
one; shorn of the religious wrap, it was a track laid by the Trinamul Congress
as it raced to oust the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front and
the Congress in West Bengal and emerge as the big party or the supreme force.The
sentiment quotient in politics has zoomed in the past five years, across the
country and in Bengal. It needs to calibrate its tactics to fit the sentiments
of a body of voters about whose allegiance it has no real confidence.On the
other hand, the volatile appeal of the Jai Shri Ram slogan could become harder
to handle.
If it fails, the BJP will sweep to power in West Bengal.The
construction of an oppressed people, cowering from the Trinamul Congress’ bully
boys needing to be released from their enslavement by the protective, powerful,
nationalist and assertively righteous bhakts of the Sangh Parivar is a tactical
manoeuvre. The spurt in BJP's claims of deaths due to political clashes, within
a matter of weeks, from 54 in May to over 200 in July, is also a photocopy of
the how Ms Banerjee effectively reduced the CPI(M) to a ruthless killing machine
intent on remaining in power by whatever means.. Whereas Ma, Mati, Manush was
inclusive, Jai Shri Ram is definitively divisive. Low-level violence, that
bubbles and bursts, is how the BJP seems intent on keeping its pot boiling. In
contrast, Jai Shri Ram is specific in its appeal; it is directed at stirring the
Hindu awake and shouting out his/her allegiance.
The question that BJP or at
least Mr Supriyo and his handlers need to answer is if indeed the situation in
West Bengal is as dire as they claim, then ought not the Narendra Modi
government take a decision to restore governance in accordance with the
provisions of the Constitution? Instead of calculating the political risk of
imposing President’s Rule, should not the BJP government at the Centre relieve
West Bengal from the oppressive government of the Trinamul Congress immediately?
Does the BJP need to make cynical calculations of political expediency on saving
West Bengal from the Trinamul Congress? Does timing the ouster of the Trinamul
Congress matter more for the BJP than giving relief to the people of West
Bengal?On this, the BJP is most explicit; Mr Supriyo and others are open in
admitting that invoking President’s Rule now would politically boomerang.The
only glitch in this linear progress, from Opposition to ruling party, is the
BJP’s indecision on how soon it wants to occupy Writers’ Buildings or Nabanna,
whichever structure it chooses as its seat of government.
As much as the
anti-incumbency sentiment against Ms Banerjee could climb steeply, so could the
anti-incumbency feelings against the Narendra Modi government and the BJP in
West Bengal. It is a tool that has no ideology, except that of the user.The
sentiment quotient in politics has zoomed in the past five years, across the
country and in Bengal. Jai Shri Ram as BJP’s war cry is as incoherent in West
Bengal’s cultural universe as was the equally incoherent construction of Ma,
Mati, Manush used to brilliant effect against the CPI(M) by the Trinamul.
Political violence, irrespective of just how many people have died, given that
the BJP’s version of the head count grows by leaps and bounds, could spiral out
of control. The danger is that at some point, the bubbles could join up and the
pot could boil over
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