New Delhi/Kolkata: The BJP has raised the ‘minority appeasement’ bogie to its hilt. The appeal against the well perceived ‘pro-Muslim tilt of the Mamata regime and also their predecessors, the Left, found resonance in the polls because it fed on mounting public revulsion.
Slogans need not make much difference to voters in West Bengal. The people are politically sensitive enough and they know that the real issue is not any battle between ‘Sonar Bangla’ of BJP and ‘Jai Bangla’ of Trinamool Congress. Mamata gave Kolkata the first Muslim mayor since independence, she also ensured a bigger number of Muslim legislators; but things might have boomeranged today.
The real issue could be much more fundamental. The real issue is either being citizens of ‘West Bengal’ or turning the state into ‘West Bangladesh’. Such declaration may not be an exaggeration actually because Trinamool leaders had termed ‘Muslims’ as ‘milching-cows’ in terms of vote garnering mechanism.
Mamata has advantage of the support of Muslim voters; but will they continue to oblige her ? The wrongdoers were often given political patronage. Why then so much hype about the role of Abbas Siddiqui and his newly floated party ISF?
Notably, the BJP is not running any extra mile to woo Bengali Muslims – something unlike its electoral strategies in other states. Rather there is an interesting phenomenon, the Hindutva card of the BJP has forced Mamata Banerjee to chant Hindu Mantras and visit temples. She has gone a step further – actually ‘reverse’ manner. As against 2016, the Trinamool supremo has cut down the number of Muslim candidates by one-third.
In this year’s elections, it is being estimated that even a 4-5 per cent swing in the Muslim vote bank against Trinamool or even ‘drop’ in the voters turnout could end up Mamata’s game. And if BJP leaders like Dilip Ghosh are to be believed, this has already happened. When the mandate for 2019 Lok Sabha polls came in, there was a major shocker for ‘champion’ of pseudo secularism, Mamata Banerjee. The BJP had won as many as 18 seats out of 42. Five years back, the BJP tally was two and that included Darjeeling – where it was the Nepali/Gorkha voters who reposed faith in a Sikh gentleman called S S Ahluwalia.
Another Bengali leader to win his seat in Asansol in 2014 (and also in 2019) is a playback singer-turned-neta Babul Supriyo. His victory was more seen as a salutation to the ‘celebrity power’ and that Bengali voters had not started reposing faith in the BJP. But the saffron party’s vote share had increased to 16.8 making a jump from negligible 6.1 in 2009.
In 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP’s vote count stood at around 10 per cent. In 2019, this vote share jumped to 40.3 – a bit shortfall of 43.3 percent of Mamata Banerjee’s outfit. These statistics do really reflect the political dynamism and what has gone through in voters’ mind all these years. It is true, the Hindus have historically not thought of themselves as a single community or nation. Bengali Hindus are no exception. Hindus are never a monolith; Bengalis too are not. They differ in the languages they speak, the beliefs and also the deities they worship.
Districtwise, Bengali dialects keep changing. Of course, different rituals and varying customs make their lives.
But this was made a ‘weakness’ and the political class have sought only to ignore them or take their ‘liberalism’ for granted.
The Leftists thrived for years despite blatant anti-Hindu stance and then the benefit of appeasing Muslims went to Mamata.
The Muslims, however, did not benefit much in terms of education and other social indicators, but ‘appeasement’ as a policy flourished under both the communists and the Trinamool Congress.
Under Mamata Banerjee, even skull cap wearing bike riders were allowed to violate traffic rules.
Mamata’s party had objections to use of words like ‘Ramdhanu’ for rainbow and Krishnakoli for a flower. Mamata Banerjee gave Kolkata its first Muslim mayor in independent India in 2018. There were other appeasement policies -bringing in numerous Muslims under ‘OBC list’. All these definitely left ‘Hindus’ aggrieved as they were deprived and betrayed.
Muslims rewarded Didi. The vote share among Muslims in the Lok Sabha elections for Mamata’s outfit simply jumped from 40 per cent in 2014 to staggeringly high 70 per cent in 2019.
The anxiety of the ‘bhadralok’ increased manifold as Mamata added 96 Muslim communities in the OBC list and even the OBC reservation quota was increased from 10 to 17. The Middle class Hindu voters started looking for alternatives. At times, Mamata’s ‘pro-Muslim tilt’ even surprised senior Trinamool leaders and a few of them had warned the party leadership that things could one day boomerang. The number of Muslim teachers in universities in West Bengal ‘doubled’ from what was in 2013 and what it stood by 2018-19.
If Hindus have a weakness of not voting on religious lines as a bloc, Muslims are different. The Muslims though abundantly have voted as a bloc, they also get carried away at times. The entry of Indian Secular Front of Abbas Siddiui has created a fear among Mamata and her party that split in Muslim votes would ultimately help the BJP.
This desperation has made her appeal to the Muslim voters to unite.
Of course, she got an EC notice for the same.
The Muslim voters and even sitting Muslim representatives are at crossroads. In the state assembly, Muslim representation increased to about 20 per cent in 2016. Mamata had herself give tickets to 52 Muslim candidates in 2016.
On February 28, the CPI(M)-led Left Front and Congress organised a major campaign rally in Kolkata’s popular Brigade Parade Grounds. The biggest star attraction was ISF chief Abbas Siddiqui and on the very stage, differences between ISF and Congress party came to the fore. So Muslims are certainly important stakeholders in the elections.
The ‘sickular’ and intellectual mindset are playing the fear mongering that the pluralist idea of West Bengal would be threatened.
Little did they admit that the Hindu polarization is taking place only after years of minority appeasement. Even Mamata’s poll strategist Prashant Kishor admits this phenomenon in Bengal politics.
