West Bengal Election 2021: The Bharatiya Janata Party’s emergence as a potent force in West Bengal has been one of the most notable elements in this election. A win or not, the BJP, in its quest for Bengal, has set the stage for additional expansion. Mamata Banerjee, who stormed to energy ending the 34-year-rule of the Left, saw ground slipping beneath her feet in the Lok Sabha elections in 2019, when the saffron party marked its arrival by winning 18 of 42 seats with 40.7 % vote share – it was large!
So what explains the BJP’s rise in 2021? Reasons are several but in a nutshell, people’s anger against Mamata Banerjee and her party leaders is converting into BJP votes, says Deep Halder, the author of two books on Bengal — Blood Island: An Oral History of the Marichjhapi Massacre, and BENGAL 2021: An Election Diary.
“This is about syndicate raj, cut-money, jobless-ness — these things have made people fed up. Then there is Muslim appeasement and infiltration.” Halder says today, if one is constructing a home, he/she will have to go via TMC persons. This is one thing that Dinesh Trivedi, former TMC leader, had also talked about quickly just after quitting the Trinamool Congress. Trivedi had stated that he felt ‘suffocated’ as he could not do something for his persons regardless of getting an MP. He had stated that he was obtaining calls from his constituency that nearby TMC leaders have been demanding funds for letting one to construct a home. Even a TMC MP could not guard its persons from the ‘syndicate raj’ and ‘cut-money gang’ of the TMC.
Halder says that points beneath Mamata’s rule had reached a tipping point and the BJP has emerged as a sturdy political force, getting political expression in the assembly election. “In 2016, there was no alternative. The BJP was not so strong organisationally.” But points changed just after the BJP won 18 seats in 2019. The exodus of TMC heavyweights like Mukul Roy and Suvendu Adhikari have been the most significant losses for Mamata. “The BJP became strong, and people saw an alternative to the TMC in the state,” Halder explains.
Halder says that when he was researching for his book, one factor that kept coming was the loot of Amphan relief fund funds. “Aap Amphan ka paisa maar loge…aap Amphan ka paisa kaise maar sakte ho (you will siphon-off Amphan relief fund money, how can you take away Amphan fund money,” the author says recalling his conversation with persons in South 24 Parganas. He says that even although Amphan did not impact all the regions, the anger more than corruption in it could be felt in a huge portion of the state. “To me that was the tipping point,” says Halder.
Was religion never ever the discourse in Bengal and was it taking place only simply because of the BJP? Halder, who grew up in Kolkata in the 80s, says that the Left far as well lengthy denied religiosity. “Left’s land reform — Operation Barga — was successful. Then it brought this concept of class enemy. Sidestepping caste and religion, the Left also told the poor people that landowners were their enemy. The Left projected landowners as enemies in villages and factory owners in the city. The Left told the poor that they were not being given minimum wages. They shut factories on small issues. They invented the concept of class enemy. The people in villages and migrant workers in the city felt that the Left was with them, and therefore they supported.”
“But godlessness of the Left and pitching Hindu religiosity as backwardness never went. Kolkata’s ‘talk circuit’ made Durga Puja a carnival, and they were also okay with azaan being played in pandals — but this was a thought process of just a section of people of the city. This is not like that Left has suddenly become Right. The RSS has been working in Bengal for years. Hindu religiosity was always there but people of Kolkata never talked about that. And due to Left’s class enemy concept, jobs started disappearing, businesses stopped coming in Bengal. As the Left politics started declining, that Hindu religiosity started finding expression,” says the author.
So what is the most significant transform in Bengal? Now, Bengal is speaking, says Halder. “Discourse happening outside Kolkata is coming out. Bengal has 294 seats, of these just 11 are in Kolkata. But so far only Kolkata decided what will be the discourse. But that’s not how it should be. Now, the discourse of the entire Bengal is coming up, rightly so.” He says Bengal is demanding jobs, improvement in law and order predicament, freedom from Muslim appeasement, they do not want infiltration, village economy is currently stressed, if persons from outdoors get settled right here financial crisis may well occur — these are the points persons are speaking about. “People are now talking beyond the simple binaries of secular vs communalism and Left vs Right,” Halder adds.
“If you ask me what is the biggest change in one line, I would say the entire Bengal is speaking – that might not be liked by everyone. We have this Khan Market gang in Delhi, in Kolkata it is the intellectual class (Bengali Bhadralok) that decided the narrative. If you come from outside, they will show you Park Street, Victoria Memorial — but that is not Bengal. That Bengal is speaking up is the change. Kolkata’s Bhadralok circle is not deciding anymore,.” Halder says. So what would be causes if Mamata loses? The rise of Abhishek Banerjee, says Halder, of course, with all other causes combined. “First the corruption, syndicate raj, cut-money, Amphan money loot, Muslim appeasement. But the final nail in the coffin was — rise of Abhishek Banerjee. He became de-facto number two. It angered many senior leaders within the party and organisation weakened,” says the author.
Halder also disagrees that the castes and religion divide never ever existed in Bengal. It was there often but was not applied in politics as the Left ruled right here for so lengthy. In truth, Halder lately recalled his conversation — throughout the analysis of his initially book on Marichjhapi massacre — with Dalit writer Manoranjan Byapari, now TMC candidate, who told him that the Left could do what it did simply because they have been Namasudras, placed at the lowest strata of society. Bypari also told Halder that caste-hatred had led to Marichjhapi massacre, in which some 10,000 Hindu Dalits who had come from Bangladesh have been killed throughout the Left’s rule in 1979. So, it is not that caste and religion never ever existed in Bengal. “It’s a beautiful lie,” says Halder.