Bankim ‘Da’ to haunt Modi ‘da’ in West Bengal until Assembly election

Poor Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been at the receiving end of some savage trolling since his Lok Sabha speech on 150 years of Vande Mataram on Monday, 8 December. It was the PM who wanted the debate on the national song, convinced that it could be weaponised against the Congress and the main Opposition party blamed for not accepting the entire poem — penned by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay — as the national song even before Independence, in 1937.

The Opposition corrected the factual errors in his speech and Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra pointed out the hypocrisy of the Sangh Parivar, at whose behest the Rajya Sabha last week banned chanting of 'Vande Mataram' in the House.

It is, however, the prime minister’s attempt to claim a certain degree of intimacy and familiarity with the late poet and novelist — who passed away in 1894 — that has set the troll ball rolling. It is, of course, not known how the trolls would have reacted had the prime minister addressed late chief ministers Jyoti Basu and Buddhadeb Bhattacharya as Jyoti da or Buddha da, the suffix used to address older brothers/ acquaintances in Bengali.

‘Da’ is short for ‘dada’ or elder brother, an affectionate term used informally for someone older, familiar or respected. Calling someone ‘Bankim Da’ feels friendly and familiar. ‘Babu’ is a more formal and respectful way of addressing revered personalities. However, addressing cultural icons like Bankim Chandra Chatterjee with such familiarity sounded odd and forced.

Corrected after the fourth time by TMC MP Saugata Roy, the PM reverted to Bankim ‘Babu’ — akin to addressing Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel as Sardar Ji — adding to the general mirth. Also, the damage was already done.

Union minister for culture Gajendra Singh Shekhawat made it worse by calling Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay as Bankim ‘Das’ Chatterjee and fumbled repeatedly while naming the poet and author of Anandamath.

It was, therefore, no surprise when the TMC gleefully jumped in to berate the PM and the BJP. The party’s official X handle described it as a ‘fish-out-of-water’ moment in Parliament for the BJP.  “…For years these interlopers have tried to dishonestly appropriate Bengal’s cultural icons, hoping that borrowed reverence might compensate for their utter political bankruptcy in the state. Each attempt has only exposed how grotesquely alien they are to Bengal’s cultural consciousness, history, and vocabulary.”

The party handle delved into the past to recall how BJP president J.P. Nadda had claimed Rabindranath Thakur was born in Santiniketan and not in Jorasanko, Kolkata; how Union minister and BJP leader Sukanta Majumdar described Swami Vivekananda as an ‘ignorant leftist’ and how BJP workers had vandalised the bust of another cultural icon of Bengal, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar.

Referring to the prime minister addressing the author of Anandamath as Bankim Da, the handle scathingly stated, “No, Modi ji, Bengal does not casually slap the suffix “da” onto figures it venerates. Only a cultural illiterate would think that sounds respectful.”

Squirming BJP Bengal leaders have tried to brush aside the controversy by stating that the PM had no intention of disrespecting the late author; that it was just the ‘North Indian’ way of addressing every Bengali as ‘dada’.

Bengal BJP leaders have often landed in trouble because of their poor grasp over the Bangla language and ignorance of historical and cultural figures, including misspelling their names. The ‘Bankim Da’ fiasco may well haunt them and the PM until the upcoming Assembly elections are over.