While she is eying for national posturing, the Bharatiya Janata Party is slowly and surely giving a dent to her fortified rule
Asim Kumar Mitra
As Panchayat polls approach in Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Bannerje and her party Trinamool Congress (TMC) find it difficult to face public ire generated due to their anti-Hindu acts. Disturbed over the unprecedented saffron upsurge seen during the Ramanavmi celebration, the TMC government first tried to suppress it by denying permission in South Dum Dum, but when it had to allow the celebration following the High Court directions on April 4, it directed its cadre to join the Ramnavami celebration. The TMC supporters carried out Ram Navami processions in Darjeeling, Alipurduar and East Midnapore. Mamata herself went on saying in Bankura, “For years, Ram Navami is being celebrated by various organisations. It has no connection with the BJP at all.”
West Bengal : You have your soul to lose, Bengal!
The exciting and sudden sweep of Ram Navami celebrations is seen as nothing but early signs of a saffron upsurge in Bengal, as there has been a distinct undertone of defiance and assertion of one’s religious identity. Defiance at the state government’s failed attempts to discourage and put a lid on Ram Navami celebrations, and assertion of one’s Hindu identity which has been, till now, frowned upon by Communists, Congress and TMC. Sociologists interpret this year’s Ram Navami celebrations as a show of opposition by Hindus to Mamata’s blatant minority-appeasement and defiance of attempts by her government to restrict and curtail the religious freedom of Hindus.
The ruling TMC’s shameful attempts to curtail religious freedom of Hindus has a long history. From disallowing a Durga Puja in a village due to objections from Muslims,
giving stipends to muezzins and imams of mosques, thrashing school kids wanting to worship Devi Saraswati to imposing restrictions on immersion of idols of Goddess Durga (which was struck down by the Calcutta High Court), diverting a major share of the state’s scarce resources for Muslims and condoning widespread attacks on homes and temples of Hindus by Muslims across the state, the hijab-clad Banerjee stands accused of being anti-Hindu simply to appease hardline Islamists. Six years of blatant minority appeasement has led to a build-up of rage among Hindus and this rage is now finding expression in Hindus of Bengal taking to celebrating Hindu festivals with such fervour.
Mamata Bannerjee has become so much perturbed with the ‘Mission Bengal” programme of BJP that she recently called a meeting of her party satraps to discuss the latest political development. The assembly election results of five states, especially the results of U P also brought a sea change in the thinking of Mamata Banerjee. When, in the last assembly election, the Trinamool Congress won more than two hundred seats , Mamata gave a clarion call to step out from the boundaries of the state and look forward to capture the seat of power in Delhi. But when she saw that almost all the national parties and their cronies in the conglomeration in different states have decimated to zero and on the other hand, BJP alone had won more than three hundred assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh, Mamata could realise that enough was enough. No more grappling for power at the Centre. So she decided to set her own house in order.
On the other hand, before the Bengali new year on April 15, forty central level BJP leaders are coming to Bengal with varieties of assignments and their ultimate goal is to take on TMC in the Panchayat elections. The message has already gone to the people of rural Bengal that BJP would fight in all 66,000 seats of Gram Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti and Zilla Parishad. The other day political pundits of Bengal used to laugh it away as an impossible proposition. But now they are also saying that ‘the political scenario of Bengal has totally changed. This election is going to experience a new voting pattern’. So the BJP’s Mission Bengal has already come into the talking point among both general and political circles.
Although the BJP has taken a decision to take a great leap forward, it is not that easy at this juncture. The
memory of tortures to political opponents by Congress, CPM and TMC are so painstaking that general political workers are generally afraid of goons belonging to
consecutive ruling parties. So, the state president of BJP Dilip Ghosh said that they would go for low key publicity of their ‘Mission Bengal’ programme. Citing an example, he said in Birbhum district alone the ruling TMC had slammed 200 criminal cases against 3,000 BJP workers during 2014 and 2015 alone. They all were involved in
agitational programmes against ruling party. At one point of time, state BJP chief Dilip Ghose said that ruling party leadership was successful in frightening BJP workers. But now things have started changing. BJP is getting very good response in “Booth Committee Formation” programme.
So-called Maoist—infested areas of Medinipur and Jhargram are showing special interest to join with the BJP. Same is the mentality of people in border districts (8 in total) of the state. The spontaneous response in favour of BJP from disturbed areas of the state e.g. Kaliachak, Malda, Murshidabad, Khagragarh, Burdwan, Nadia, Dhulagarhi, places of North and South 24 Parganas are showing positive mood towards BJP. But on the part of BJP, it has not yet finalised its final Action Plan. Already large number of people are approaching the party for getting nomination to fight the Panchayat elections.
