West Bengal politics: A change of tone and tactics

There is a marked shift in political battle cries in the state — from the more Hindutva-oriented slogans like 'jai Shri Ram' and 'Bajrangbali ki jai' to the more culturally-rooted 'jai Ma Kali' and 'jai Ma Durga' — with Prime Minister Modi himself taking the lead at his public meetings in the state this month.

The tone, too, is markedly different from last time. The BJP, unlike its aggressive and overbearing self in 2021 — when it appeared overconfident about winning — is far more restrained this time. The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC), in contrast, is more strident, having identified the BJP as its main and only adversary in the state.

At the annual Shaheed Divas rally on 21 July — which marks the death of 13 Youth Congress workers in police firing in 1993 — West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee linked the “persecution” and “witch hunt” of migrant workers from Bengal in BJP-ruled states to the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar — and the distinct possibility of it being rolled out in West Bengal next month.

She recalled that though the 1993 rally was organised to put pressure on the then government to introduce photo electoral identity cards [to prevent the CPI(M)’s 'scientific rigging'], she will not allow an exercise like SIR to create a ‘curated’ electoral roll that will work only in favour of the BJP.

Rubbishing claims by the Delhi, Odisha and Maharashtra governments that the Bengali-speaking people detained — and in some cases, pushed back to Bangladesh — were illegal migrants, Banerjee claimed they were poor Muslims from West Bengal who had migrated in search of jobs. She was also quick to condemn the BJP’s efforts to impose Hindi hegemony on Bengal’s culture under the garb of national security.

Banerjee also announced that the TMC would contest next year’s assembly election on the plank of Bengali asmita (pride). “We will launch another mass movement to protect Bengali language, pride and self-respect. We will not give up until we defeat the BJP next year,” Banerjee thundered. Exhorting supporters to carry the message right down to the booth level, her nephew and TMC second-in-command Abhishek Banerjee boasted, “We will reduce the BJP to zero.”

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The TMC’s new push appears aimed at consolidating both Hindu and Muslim Bengali-speaking voters, especially among the poor and marginalised.

“Delhi Police detained a family of six, including three minors, on 26 June. They were pushed into Bangladesh without informing West Bengal and without any due process,” alleges Samirul Islam, TMC Rajya Sabha member and chairman of the West Bengal Migrant Welfare Board.

Such actions have made 22 lakh migrant workers from West Bengal working in different states insecure and vulnerable, he claims, adding that thousands of Bengali-speaking workers from the state are in detention camps, accused of being infiltrators from Bangladesh.

Party leaders believe this sense of vulnerability can translate into political support. Not everyone, however, agrees.

“If Mamata Banerjee wants to position herself as the saviour of Bengal and Bengali, why does she have to import people like Shatrughan Sinha, Kirti Azad and Yusuf Pathan and make them MPs from Bengal?” asks veteran CPI(M) leader Rabin Deb. Recently replaced state BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar asks with a touch of sarcasm when these MPs will recite Bangla poems in Parliament.

Both believe that pandering to Bengali sentiments is designed to divert attention from the strong anti-incumbency in the state driven by the government’s poor performance on the law and order, health, education and employment fronts.

With new state unit president Shamik Bhattacharya at the helm, the BJP seems to have gone back to the drawing board. “We are working on a completely new strategy and will not project the election as a Mamata-versus-Modi contest. The focus instead will be on people’s grievances and the performance of each MLA from the ruling Trinamool,” a senior state BJP leader said.

The RSS, meanwhile, is watching cautiously and closely. It’s West Bengal general-secretary Jishnu Basu says they are still waiting to see how the TMC’s ‘Bangla movement’ unfolds.

Undoubtedly, a sizeable number of Bengalis are tired of both the TMC’s lumpen syndicates as also the BJP’s communal rhetoric. Traditionally aligned either with the Congress or the Left, this section of bhadraloks and bhadramahilas can influence narratives. But devoid of a political platform or leadership, they have chosen to vent their frustration online from tony homes and gated communities.

Sourabh Sen is a Kolkata-based independent writer and commentator on politics, human rights and international affairs