West Bengal: Political history
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Biswa Bangla logo
Abhisikta Ganguly, January 30, 2017: NoiseBreak
Biswa Bangla is an initiative to promote the state’s dying arts and crafts. With brand Biswa Bangla, which as its tagline goes, is where the world meets Bengal, chief minister Mamata Banerjee has taken it forward to: ‘What Bengal does today, India does tomorrow.’Though the depth and reality can be a matter of debate, but a new doubt has been shown up!
Who does Biswa Bangla belong to? This question has started to rise. The normal answer can be, government. There’s no doubt about that Biswa Bangla Marketing Corporation Limited was the brain child of Chief Minister Mamata Bannerjee. The logo of Biswa Bangla is being used in every West Bengal government website and advertisement. This is not at all questionable.
But did you know, the applicant person for the trademark of Biswa Bangla is not associated with any post or any level of the government? Even, his name isn’t on the list of the Board of Directors of Biswa Bangla. The organization has no official connection with the applicant person. Even long before the creation of the organization, that person had applied for Biswa Bangla trade mark.
Now you do want to know who he is, don’t you? He is the prince of Trinamool Congress and dearest nephew of Bengal’s ‘didi’, Abhishek Banerjee. His position is immediate after the CM in Trinamool. Mamata Banerjee claimed in Nabbanna press conference that Prime Minister Narendra Modi wanted to arrest Abhishek. He is the most influential leader of Trinamool. But does he holds a position of the state government? What is his relation with the Biswa Bangla Marketing Corporation Limited?
Information from Register of Companies (ROC) has raised the puzzle. Official information said, the application of Biswa Bangla had come from 30B, Harish Chatterjee Street, Kalighat, Kolkata-700026, from Abhishek Banerjee. The date of the application was 26th November, 2013. A Kolkata firm, C.J. Associates had submitted the application on behalf of Abhishek. Application number was 2633532. Abhishek’s name was given on the place of ‘business name’ in the application form.
Though, Biswa Bangla Marketing Corporation Limited was established on 31st December, 2014. The category of the company said that it’s a governmental organization with registration number-204751. Authorized capital shown of the organization was Rs. 2crore. Though paid up capital was only Rs. 1lakh, which is undoubtedly surprising.
And there’s one more thing. The company didn’t have the records of income and expenditure. The address given for the company was Newtown Rajarhat Action Area-3, Karigari Bhavan, and Plot No. B/7. The present status of Biswa Bangla trademark is abandoned. By Trademark Registration law, if you get a logo on the basis of an application, you have to apply for renewal within 18 months. Practically state government hasn’t submitted any application.
So, questions have started to rise on the transparency of Biswa Bangla logo. There are five members in the Board of Directors of Biswa Bangla, Harshbardhan Neotia (additional director), Rudra Chatterjee (additional director), Subal Chandra Paja (director), Rajib Sinha (director), Mohua Banerjee (director). But none of them have applied for the logo, Abhishek did.
In 2013, he hasn’t became MP of Trinamool Congress, he was related with a Commercial Organization. He then was the dearest nephew only. He made an appeal of the official logo on basis of the relation with CM? Can it really be done at all? If no, then the whole thing is illegal. Any person, who is not associated with the organization can’t apply for trademark.
Government claimed that turnover of Biswa Bangla was 15 crore on the very first year. But why is Abhishek Banerjee the applicant? None of the BOD had given the answer of this question. However, the answer wasn’t given by the nephew, either.
An officer of the Information and Cultural Department said, “I don’t know how this happened but he is the family member of Chief Minister! May be it has happened.”
And more interesting information is after applying for the trademark of Biswa Bangla, application was submitted on 29th June 2015 for Jago Bangla and on 3rd July 2015 for all India Trinamool Congress trademark. The address of the applicant was also the same as Biswa Bangla.
On 30th January 2015, CBI interrogating Mukul Roy at CGO complex, screenplay of Mukul Roy’s so-called distance with Mamata Banerjee, the speed of CBI’s Sarada investigation suddenly became slow, and all those thing happened nearly at the same time. Strange, isn’t it?
Mamata Banerjee created the logo, free
Didi says she created ‘Biswa Bangla’ logo, November 30, 2017: The Times of India
Breaking her silence over the Biswa Bangla logo controversy, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday told the state assembly that she created the logo and gave it free to the government.
She also said the West Bengal government could use the logo as long as it wanted to.
The chief minister’s first comments on the issue came a day after Trinamool Congress MP and her nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, filed a defamation case against his former colleague and now BJP leader Mukul Roy saying he would quit politics if the charges that he had applied for ownership of the logo with the approval of his aunt were found true.
“Some people are spreading canards on this issue. The Biswa Bangla logo is my creation. This was my dream and a dream cannot be sold. I gave it to the state government for using it free of cost. The Biswa Bangla brand is our pride,” the chief minister said, without naming Roy.
BJP
2016- Mar 2021
March 27, 2021: The Times of India
From: March 27, 2021: The Times of India
Bengal, a Left citadel till 2011, is akin to a final frontier for BJP, which has thrown the full might of its formidable election machinery into the state with the promise of a ‘double engine’ government. The saffron party has also taken its social engineering template to Bengal and has been assiduously stitching together a coalition of the marginalised. As a result, a host of castes and communities — like Matuas, Aguris (Ugra Kshatriya), Poundra Kshatriyas, Mahisyas, Bauris, Rajbanshis and Kudmis — have made their way into the political space. Sensing a threat in the seats dominated by these communities, Trinamool has been racing BJP to woo them.
Both parties have kept an eye on the demography while fielding candidates. Mukherjees, Banerjees, Chakravartis, Mitras and Dasguptas, who typically had the major pie, have ceded space to Dalits and OBCs on candidate lists. Aspirations of communities — the machhuaras (fishermen) in South 24-Parganas and Kudmis in Jangalmahal, for instance — have never found as much political representation as they have this time.
Micro-messaging by PM, CM to touch hearts
Modi used a Kudmi greeting from the political dais while addressing a rally in Kharagpur when he said, “Jai Goram” – a powerful personal touch from the Prime Minister not just in a district (West Midnapore) where Kudmis have sizeable presence but also for members of the community in Bankura and Purulia. At Jhargram, home minister Amit Shah promised a Jangalmahal Development Board dedicated to Santhals, Oraons, Mundas and Bhumijs. “We are also looking at bringing the Mahisyas and the Tilis under the OBC category,” Shah said.
Before this, at a meeting in Gosaba (South 24-Parganas), Shah had promised a special annual support to the Jele community (fishermen) along with direct benefit transfers (DBT) of Rs 18,000 to farmers under PM Kisan. “Mamata didi has deprived farmers of Bengal when those in other states have got it (the DBT). The BJP government will transfer the amount to each farmer account without cuts the day it assumes office in Bengal,” Shah said.
Trinamool has been agile in its response. Mamata keeps saying “Jai Johar” at her rallies (a greeting used by Adivasis, mainly of the Kherwal clan). She has also announced a “Jai Johar” state scheme and allocated land for Johar thans (religious places for Santhals). The CM has also been swift off the blocks in setting up development boards for backward communities – Rajbanshis in north Bengal, Lepchas in the Darjeeling hills, Nashya Sheikhs in Dinajpur, who speak the Rajbanshi language but are Muslims who migrated from Bangladesh, and the Matuas concentrated in North 24-Parganas and Nadia.
The new equations after 2019 Lok Sabha vote
BJP has been building on the deep inroads it made in the 2019 Lok Sabha election in which it emerged as the leading party in more than half of Bengal’s 81 reserved constituencies (now 84). From just one seat in the 2016 assembly polls, the saffron party leapfrogged to 46. It came at the cost of the Left, which went down from 12 to a blank, but mostly the Trinamool that won 59 in 2016 but found itself as the leading party in only 34 assembly segments in 2019.
The shift in the voting pattern was significant because Dalits, SC/ST and Muslims have largely stood by the parties in office, Trinamool since 2011, the CPM-led Left Front before that. The aim of BJP’s caste coalition is to splinter Trinamool’s Dalit-Muslim base and woo Dalits and Adivasis. It worked to a large extent in Alipurduar, West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia and Bongaon, the Bangladesh border division in North 24-Parganas, in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. BJP is looking to extend those gains in the assembly polls into south Bengal – to East Burdwan and Kolkata’s two adjoining densely populated suburban districts of North and South 24-Parganas. These three regions are home to a 70% of the state’s scheduled caste population.
Why Rajbanshis & Matuas are important
The race for the Rajbanshi and Matua votes has been a gripping one because Rajbanshis and Namasudras – of whom Matuas are a part – constitute 74% of the SC population in the state. Besides a Development and Cultural Board and Kamtapuri Bhasa Academy for the Rajbanshis, the state government has named Coochbehar University after Rajbanshi icon Panchanan Barma. Mamata also announced setting up of a Narayani battalion in West Bengal Police, which Shah countered by promising to raise a Narayani battalion in the Army.
For the Matuas, other than setting up a board, the Mamata government has undertaken development of the Matua Thakurbari temple and the Thakurnagar railway station in North 24-Parganas. Mamata has also named a new college after Matua gurus Harichand Thakur and Guruchand Thakur. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, BJP trumped Trinamool in the Matua belt, promising citizenship through CAA to refugees, including the Matuas, who migrated from Orakandi in Bangladesh. Modi will be the first PM to visit the seat of Matua religion at Orakandi on Saturday.
Mamata’s counter-attack and the Yogi factor
Mamata has been a vocal opponent of the CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act). “Matuas are already citizens. Don’t you have a voter card, a ration card, a land patta? If the people you voted for are citizens, you are also citizens,” the CM said at a Bongaon rally. A Matua member said hundreds of Matuas settled in the Bongaon North assembly constituency don’t have voter cards. “They are harassed when they apply for a passport. They won’t get sarkari jobs unless the Citizenship Act, 2003, is replaced by the CAA,” said the Matua member. BJP has promised to take up the CAA at the first cabinet meeting if it is voted to office in Bengal.
The CM has also been reciting the Chandipath and as well as Saraswati bandanas at her election rallies to counter BJP’s Hindutva narrative. BJP, meanwhile, is losing no opportunity to highlight Mamata’s “changed stance” as a fallout of her “tushtikaran (appeasement)” politics. In polarised regions like Malda and Nandigram, which have a substantial Muslim population, BJP has parachuted in UP CM Yogi Adityanath. “You are greeting me with Jai Shri Ram. But your CM gets angry with the chant. I would like to tell the Bengal CM that you don’t like Ram bhakts but have gathbandhan with jihadis, who are a threat to the country’s security,” Yogi said at a Malda rally.
It’s over to the voters now.
CPM/ Left parties
2016, 2019
From: Saugata Roy, March 28, 2021: The Times of India
See graphic:
CPM/ Left parties in Bengal in 2016, 2019
The Left, led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
1977-2021
Armaan Bhatnagar, May 18, 2021: The Times of India
From: Armaan Bhatnagar, May 18, 2021: The Times of India
From: Armaan Bhatnagar, May 18, 2021: The Times of India
Lead image: Reuters
This means that for the first time in the history of post-Independence Bengal, the Left Front – which is dominated by the CPM and has Forward Bloc, Revolutionary Socialist Party, Communist Party of India and Marxist Forward Bloc as its constituents – will have no voice in the state assembly.
The vote share of the CPM has shrunk to an all-time low of 4.7% in 2021 from 19.7% in 2016. This is less than one-tenth of Trinamool Congress’s (TMC’s) vote share of 47.9%. Collectively, the Left Front managed to bag just 5.7% of the total votes.
Leading Left ideologue Dipankar Bhattacharya, general secretary, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation says the debacle in 2021 seems more pronounced considering the Left was in power in the state for 34 years.
He was referring to the uninterrupted Left rule in Bengal from 1977 to 2011, which saw the longest-serving communist government in any Indian state so far. Certainly, in this context, the pitiful drubbing of the Left does evoke a sense of disbelief.
How can a party that was so deeply entrenched in the state manage to vaporise in such a short span of time? But the Left's downfall is not just a story of a single election. The CPM did hit its nadir in 2021 but its undoing began years ago, much before even Mamata Banerjee emerged as a powerful force.
Domination to decimation
To understand the reasons behind the Left's fading electoral and ideological footprint in West Bengal, we need to trace our journey back to the beginning of its rule in the 1970s. From supporting land reforms to leading food movements in the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s in Bengal, the CPM-led Left had become the voice of the people's revolution and built strong moral capital long before coming to power.
This culminated in a landslide victory in the 1977 assembly elections under the charismatic leadership of Jyoti Basu. Congress, the dominant party till then, was pushed to the sidelines and relegated to a weakened role of an opposition.
Meanwhile, the CPM continued to work for the poor and tribals and rolled out the much-celebrated Operation Barga — the highly successful land distribution and tenancy reform policy.
Simultaneously, it strengthened itself in the rural pockets with the establishment of the three-tier panchayat system. This helped the CPM build a strong organisational presence at the grassroots level and opened a gateway into the everyday lives of the people.
Every form of interaction in the rural areas was channelled through this organisational structure nurtured by the party. So much so that it turned into a breeding ground for powerful local leaders, who helped mobilise support during elections.
But with rising unemployment and lack of industrial growth towards the end of the 1980s and the early 1990s, the tide started turning against the CPM government.
The turning point came in the early 1990s when it was forced to join the bandwagon of competitive federalism during the liberalisation era.
Blinkered vision "The Left – which was historically opposed to the economic reforms – felt entrapped as it imagined that it had no choice but to compete with other states during the post-liberalisation era," says Dwaipayan Bhattacharya, professor of political science at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, and acclaimed author of 'Government as Practice: Democratic Left in a Transforming India'.
The CPM-ruled Bengal was forced to undergo a major policy transition during this period and the Left government started courting private investment while pushing for major industrial reforms.
Suman Nath, assistant professor in the anthropology department at Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Government College in Kolkata and author of a book on everyday politics in West Bengal, says that the CPM started changing its tactics during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
It was worried about the negative perception building among the people spurred by the lack of jobs and industrialisation in the state. "When Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee came to power [in 2000], he was a man in a hurry. He wanted to keep up with the neo-liberal policies," Nath says.
This rushed and uncritical adoption of industrialisation invariably aided the opportunists in the opposition parties, who eventually emerged as the heroes of civil society movements of Nandigram and Singur.
Rahul Verma, a fellow at Delhi’s Centre for Policy Research, believes that the anti-land acquisition movements of Nandigram and Singur during 2006-07 led to a seismic shift in Bengal.
The movements helped Mamata Banerjee, then a rising star, gain a groundswell of support in rural pockets that the Left once dominated. As a result, the Left's seat share was reduced by over a half in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections and nearly one-fourth in the 2011 assembly elections.
"Electoral dominance brings some sort of hubris where you fail to see the contradictions built up in the system. This was seen during the Nandigram and Singur movements, which led to a massive anti-Left mobilisation in West Bengal," Verma says.
Hubris and the cabal within Dwaipayan Bhattacharya says that the Left's lack of connection with voters on the ground during these movements resulted in a switch in perception in the state.
However, the blunders of Nandigram and Singur incidents alone weren't responsible for the Left's downfall. Political observers also blame its ubiquitous style of functioning and lack of proportional representation. Centre for Policy Research’s Verma says that CPM was always viewed as a party that wasn't just ruling the state at the top but interfering in every aspect of the local life in Bengal.
"The party was so deeply ingrained in the society that its grassroots-level leaders were involved in all spheres of life — from marriage to jobs to local elections," he says.
This, Verma says, may have slowly built an undercurrent of resentment against the then CPM-led Left Front government.
Ujal Mookherjee, a Kolkata-based research scholar who politically identifies himself as a Leftist, says that people started to feel suffocated by the misuse of the deeply rooted structures by local party cadres. This organisational structure meant that everybody was under the radar of the local party leaders and would be kept out of government schemes if they supported anybody else.
Academic Nath says that there was a realisation among the people that if they weren't part of this Left regime, they would not get benefits from any government schemes.
"People started disliking this type of politics," he says. Moreover, the lack of mass-based representation in the Left ranks also had a deep electoral impact in the long run.
Unlike Kerala, where several other backward classes (OBC) leaders rose up the ranks in the CPM – chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan being a prime example – the Left's rank and file in Bengal hardly included a strong Dalit or tribal face.
Economist and political activist Prasenjit Bose says that the CPM failed to address this problem and it led to a severe under-representation of Dalits, adivasis, Muslims and women at the decision-making level of the leadership.
Deluded efforts After losing power in 2011, the CPM contributed to its own failure in emerging as a strong opposition force that could have dislodged the TMC.
There was never a proper review of what went wrong after the anti-land acquisition movements of Nandigram and Singur, says Bose. Observers feel that the CPM was stung by a sense of disbelief after it lost power in Bengal and failed to assume the role of an effective opposition party.
Bose says that CPM continued to believe and propagate that the events leading up to its downfall in the state were simply a result of an opposition conspiracy.
"Neither was anybody held accountable for its errors nor was any rectification attempted," he says.
CPI (ML)'s Dipankar Bhattacharya says that once out of power, the challenge before the CPM – and the wider Left Front – was to reinvent itself as a principal opposition party.
But the CPM in Bengal thought of itself as a natural ruler due to its long and continuous reign. This hubris was absent in the Kerala unit, where power alternated between the Left and Congress.
"Rather than reinventing themselves as an opposition party, they continued to stay in 'government-in-waiting' mode. That mindset has proved to be extremely costly," adds Bhattacharya.
The dismissive attitude of the Left towards the public mandate laid the groundwork for TMC's consolidation and helped Mamata Banerjee as she went after its support base.
"After losing its grip on Bengal in 2011, the CPM did not work enough on its ground game. On the other hand, in her desire to decimate the Left, Mamata undertook a relentless campaign to woo its rural and Muslim support base," says Rahul Verma.
Getting the moves wrong Recently Kolkata-based newspaper The Telegraph quoted some CPM leaders as saying that the party's biggest mistake had been its desperate and deluded efforts to return to power by any means rather than admit the errors of the last few years of Left rule.
Thus, in the 2016 assembly elections, the CPM formed an alliance with the Congress in what appeared to be a futile effort to return to power. "They thought alliance was a way to come back to power," says economist Prasenjit Bose.
Moreover, the CPM failed to read the pulse of the voters in 2016 and launched an anti-corruption campaign against Mamata which did not strike a chord with the voters.
Consequently, the Congress became the primary opposition party in the state and the CPM slipped to the third spot. Since the Congress was not in a position to consolidate and challenge the TMC, some of the Left cadres got frustrated and eventually turned to the BJP.
The panchayat polls of 2018 and the widespread violence leading to it was yet another nail in the Left’s coffin.
Nearly one-third of all the seats were won by Mamata's party unopposed and the Left cadres claimed they were targeted by the marauding TMC mobs.
The Left's failure to protect its ground-level workers compelled many of them to flock to the BJP for protection.
Thus, the BJP became the default beneficiary of Mamata's desire to decimate the Left, says Verma of Centre for Policy Research.
Time for reinvention? In 2021 too, the CPM failed to learn from its past mistakes and again formed an alliance with the Congress. Only this time, the partnership also included a strange bedfellow in Abbas Siddiqui's Indian Secular Front (ISF). The outfit is perceived as communal.
Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Government College’s Nath suggests that while some people were looking for an alternative to the identity-based politics of the BJP and TMC, the CPM's alliance with ISF did more harm than good.
The party committed another blunder by equating the TMC with the BJP, further alienating the traditional Left base.
The voters rejected their campaign against a fictitious entity called "BJmool" (a hybrid of BJP and Trinamool), says Dipankar Bhattacharya. In the end, the CPM and its fellow leftists failed to capture a single seat in the assembly and was reduced to an all-time low.
Does this signal the end of the road?
In a state where progressive Left politics has thrived for many years, the collapse of the CPM raises questions about the long-term future of the Left itself.
Many political observers, as well as supporters, feel that CPM cannot continue in its present shape or form and might have to completely reinvent itself if it hopes for a revival.
Nilanjana Gupta, professor of English at Jadavpur University, is banking on Bengal's strong tradition of Left politics but does not think the CPM is necessarily the party that will bring the Leftist forces together.
She adds there is a possibility for some other manifestation of the Left in the state.
CPI (ML)’s Dipankar Bhattacharya feels the only way out for the Left is to play an active role outside the assembly by working on the ground and raising the voice of the people.
Meanwhile, Nath describes CPM as a "company that has completely lost its goodwill" and sees no future for the party unless it undergoes a complete transformation — even a change of name.
Shackled to tradition Younger voters too feel disgruntled with the way the CPM has been functioning, with some saying they feel an ideological disconnect with the party.
Md Zafar Sadique, a Kolkata-based law student, says that CPM did not do much groundwork in 2021 and formed hasty coalitions in a desperate bid to win votes.
"There was no grassroots connect. The campaigning reflected that the whole aim was to grab votes and it did little to show voters what they stand for," he says.
Two traditional Left voters, who voted for Trinamool this year, expressed indignation over the Left not standing up to the BJP and "implicitly" allowing the saffron party to make inroads in Bengal.
"The 'Ekushe Ram, Chhabbishe Baam' [Ram in 2021, Left in 2026] slogan was doing the rounds and the CPM leadership never clarified its stance. They never came out and said how stupid this idea was," said one.
Research scholar Ujal Mookherjee feels that the Left's patriarchal mindset and lack of female representation are also a problem. "The CPM lacks a female face. The organisation comes across as very patriarchal to the common public. There's a big disconnect," he says. The sentiment was echoed by a Kolkata-based law professor, who believes the old guard now needs to make space for the younger generation.
Avik Nath Chowdhury, a content writer based in Kolkata, says that while the CPM did well to project young faces this time, it erred in announcing them very late. "We hardly knew anything about them or what they had been doing," he says.
Some Left-leaning voters, however, do believe that the 2021 election is not the end of the Left in Bengal and the CPM, or some other Leftist party, can regain relevance in the state.
But for that the denizens of Kolkata’s Alimuddin Street – CPM’s state headquarters – have to start looking within. For too long the party (and its allies) has held on to an ideology that is well past its sell-by date. It’s high time the party cleaned its Augean stables.
Political songs, jingles, slogans
As in 2021
Priyanka Dasgupta, April 19, 2021: The Times of India
On the sidelines of Bengal's barb-strewn poll battlefield, a thousand songs have bloomed, pitting ideology against invective, sarcasm against slurs, the puerile against the profound, and those supposedly neutral versus the party faithful.
Election season in a state where creativity is always looking for the next outlet means there will be a jingle to match every political motive. What's different this election is that production has almost entirely shifted from the hands of paid professionals to amateurs armed with nothing other than a smartphone and a fresh spin on politics.
Quite a few of the more popular poll songs and jingles have been sung by previously unheard-of voices. The videos – smart or silly – are also mostly the handiwork of those who claim to be in it for their ideology rather than financial gain.
In 2016, singer-songwriter Anupam Roy had written and composed TMC’s "Paanch bochore bodle geche banglar mukh (the face of Bengal has changed in the last five years)". The two-minute video highlighting the work done by the Mamata Banerjee government in its first five years was directed by Bangla band Chandrabindoo's frontman-turned-filmmaker Anindya Chattopadhyay. Both artistes maintain it was a paid assignment.
Cut to 2021, neither Anupam nor Anindya has been associated with a single such assignment for any political party. They along with Tollywood celebs Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Anirban Bhattacharya, Kaushik Sen, Santilal Mukherjee, Riddhi Sen, Piya Chakraborty, Rwitobroto Mukherjee, Rudraprasad Sengupta, Arun Mukhopadhyay, Sabyasachi Chakrabarty, Suman Mukhopadhyay and Surangana Bandyopadhyay were instead involved in the making of their version of a say-no-to-fascism song called "Nijeder motey nijeder gaan". The video, featuring several other celebrities, went viral within hours of its release.
Anupam does not want to call this a poll jingle. "This song was supposed to release a year ago during the anti-NRC-CAA movement. It is a coincidence that our song released during the 2021 elections," he said.
Though he doesn’t quite like most of the poll jingles out this year, Anupam acknowledges the popularity of Debangshu Bhattacharya’s "Khela hobe (game's on)" song for TMC to go with Mamata Banerjee's primary slogan. Debangshu, the general secretary of Trinamool Youth Congress, is not a familiar name in Tollywood’s music studios. But his song, which was remixed by DJ Bulbul, has become a sensation. "I consciously avoided poetic language. I emphasised on simple lyrics that have a mass connect," Debangshu said, adding that his original inspiration was a Tagore poem and a speech by Mamata against the new farm laws.
"I felt TMC needed a slogan that could counter ‘Jai Shri Ram’. Without having any overt political connection, 'Khela hobe' suggests the presence of TMC. When I wrote the song, I didn’t know that the two words were earlier used in a political speech by Bangladesh politician Shamim Osman. However, he never used it as a slogan," said the 24-year-old civil engineer, who joined TMC in 2019.
On January 6, Debangshu wrote the lyrics of the song, recorded the audio on his phone and shot the video in front of Coochbehar ABN Seal College. A day later, he shared it on his Facebook page. The video went viral instantly, garnering 40 lakh views. The first four lines of "Khela hobe" talk about "baire theke borgi (outsiders)" coming to Bengal every month. It goes on to iterate that Bengal won't change – "Amar mati soibe na/UP-Bihar hoibe na/Bangla amar Bangla robe".
TMC’s Asansol South candidate Saayoni Ghosh describes "Khela hobe" as an "anthem" that reflects the spirit of the people of Bengal. She believes the song itself has come a "long way" since it hit social media. "I have heard it being played inside a Merc in Kolkata as well as a toto in Asansol. The song appeals to all age groups. The lyrics are very Bengali while the tune is catchy and modern. It can be sung easily. Besides, ‘khela hobe’ is a term which everyone in Bengal can easily relate to."
In the case of "Nijeder motey nijeder gaan", the one line that has resonated with many is, "Aami onnyo kothao jabona ei deshetei thakbo (I am not going anywhere. I will reside in my motherland)." Actor Rwitobroto Mukherjee, who has co-directed the video with Riddhi, said, "For a section of people who receive news a little later, the party at the Centre has successfully created a narrative where the word ‘intellectual’ has now become slang. They have made India seem like their father’s property. They are commanding when I will come and leave this country. But that can’t happen. I don’t exist because of their permission."
That’s why another line from the song – "tumi sob dhoroner onko Pakistan diye gun korechho (All your explanations begin and end with Pakistan) – has struck a chord with many. "I have reservations about this idea of being banished to other countries, most importantly Pakistan, at the drop of a hat. My point is that I will go there on my own terms, not on their orders," Rwitobroto said.
PARODY VS ORIGINAL
Twenty-two-year-old Nilabja Niyogi, who graduated in Bengali from Presidency University, is a Left supporter. Apart from singing the viral "Tumpa Brigade chol", he has also lent his voice to "Haal pherao laal pherao", which is a parody of the "Lungi dance" song. That apart, Niyogi has sung the poll parodies of "Uri uri baba" and "Tunir Maa" for the Left Front. "We have composed five original songs and five parodies. The advantage of using parodies for polls is the easy connect of an already popular number. The idea was to parody popular numbers to reach out to the young generation. Interestingly, even seniors have loved and shared these songs. Rahul Pal’s lyrics of the parodies are not poetic. Rather, they are consciously colloquial and speak the language of those the Communist party has been talking about," he said.
Left inclined Soumik Das, whose songs like ‘Hobu Master’, ‘Magojdholai’, ‘Brigade’ and ‘Vote Nodi’ have gone viral, has made one-shot videos shot in his own studio for this election BJP, too, has relied on parody. The party released a short, animated video called "Pishi jao" – a spin-off from the Italian protest song "Bella Ciao" that had been the staple of every Leftist student union's protest in Bengal for years and was recently recreated for the Netflix series Money Heist. Bhowanipore’s BJP candidate Rudranil Ghosh calls it his "favourite" poll jingle.
Actor-turned-BJP functionary Rupa Bhattacharya is part of a new BJP poll jingle titled "Boro jotno kore mithye bole bikrito kore itihas" along with Ghosh and MP Babul Supriyo, who is contesting the Tollygunge seat. "I have known the director of the video for years. He asked me to come to the studio and record two lines. I agreed. No remuneration was involved. I am part of BJP. Since this song was commissioned by my party, I thought it was my duty to be a part of it. This is my labour of commitment," she said.
Then there is 32-year-old Jadavpur University alumnus Anamitra Roy, a writer-filmmaker who shot to fame with his parody of Jingle Bells that took a dig at BJP state president Dilip Ghosh. "We are politically conscious without being aligned with any party. When the anti-NRC protests were going on, (musician) Saikat Bandopadhyay and I came out with parody of Jingle Bells," he said.
On February 1, Anamitra and his team released a video parody of Raj Kapoor’s "Jeena yahan marna yahan’, targeting PM Narendra Modi. More recently, they released a video titled "Haridasi", an original on "love jihad" and the alleged hate campaign in Bengal. Left-inclined Soumik Das, who did his Phd in computer engineering from Jadavpur University, first shared the video of his political satire titled "Jananeta" in March. “I used to write political essays and skits, but wanted to reach out to the masses through songs since people don’t read that much. I use colloquial language that speak about the issues people must know before casting their votes. I have 20 years of work in independent music. All my videos are self-made. They are one-shot videos shot in my own studio,” said the 38-year-old, whose songs "Magojdholai", "Brigade" and "Vote Nodi" have gone viral.
WOOING NEW VOTERS
Another interesting departure is the way parties have moved beyond their known territories to woo new voters by choosing lyrics and parodies of songs that are a far cry from the tunes they were associated with. Soon after BJP released "Pishi jao", the Left took a leap of faith from the banal "Tomar naam aamar naam Vietnam" of 60s vintage to appropriating the popular "Tumpa Sona" for Nilabja’s Brigade song. The experiment evoked mixed reactions, but Nilabja doesn’t buy the argument that parody doesn’t suit the Left. "Why should there be a situation of one song replacing another? We can have both Salil Chowdhury and my parody playing. Let people choose what they want," he said. According to film-maker Kamaleshwar Mukherjee, there is no harm in reaching out to new voters. "Every political party will have an idea of the target audience. At the cocktail parties of pseudo intellectuals in Kolkata, they initially hum Harry Belafonte numbers and dance to Yo Yo Honey Singh at the end. Instead of debating with them and discussing their reservations, I would say that the true assessment of an art form takes long. I am happy that the lingo of jingles has changed this election. I am also so happy that this election has seen a lot of poll jingles being released," he said.
"Populism plays an important role in communication. I have directed ‘Meghe Dhaka Tara’ and ‘Chander Pahar’. My peer circle likes the former. In that circle, 80% have loved it without believing in the philosophy of Ritwik Ghatak. If I go outside my peer circle, I am known as the director of ‘Chander Pahar’. It’s the same with ‘Toke niye brigade jabo Tumpa’. That’s become the most popular and I have no problems accepting it," he said.
Rudranil is satisfied with the benchmark that BJP’s "Bella Ciao" parody has set. According to him, the Left has forever tried to act as a "guardian of Bengal’s culture without truly doing anything for art and artistes". "The Leftists talk about fascism but are intolerant enough to drop a theatre actor from a play after he joins BJP. They made everyone believe that ‘Bella Ciao’ belongs only to them. By using a parody of the ‘Bella Ciao’ and replacing the original lyrics with the words ‘Pishi jao’, BJP has also creatively hit back at both the Left and the TMC," he said.
The debate over which among the many innovative poll jingles created the most traction this election could well continue long after the winner in the battle for Bengal is declared.
Political violence
2018-2021 Feb
Bharti Jain, March 4, 2021: The Times of India
A home ministry report with exhaustive data on political violence in West Bengal citing 693 incidents and 11 deaths during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, and 23 deaths on polling day and the preceding night in the 2018 panchayat elections, helped the Election Commission decide on an unprecedented eight-phase assembly polls in the state.
Even after the parliamentary polls, between June 1 and December 31, 2019, as many 852 incidents of political violence were reported, in which 61 people, including 35 from Trinamool and 20 from BJP, died and 1,508 were injured (800 BJP and 584 Trinamool), the report said.
The home ministry put the total incidents in West Bengal during 2020 at 663, in which 57 people, including 27 from BJP and 25 from Trinamool Congress, were killed and 1,314 injured, including 706 from BJP and 527 from Trinamool. Also, between January 1 and 7, MHA reported 23 clashes, in which one worker each of BJP and Trinamool were killed and 43 people were injured.
Sources said the MHA report dated January 9 served as a key input for the EC in gauging the risk of political violence during the assembly elections and accordingly assessing the requirement of central forces and other security measures in West Bengal. During the panchayat elections in May 2018, the MHA report said no polling was held for 203 zila parishad seats, 3,059 panchayat samiti seats and 16,814 gram panchayat seats, as the “opposition could not field candidates”.
It added that 23 people died in incidents of political violence in the night before and on polling day.
Most incidents during the panchayat polls were in districts where BJP has made inroads, the report said, adding that “violence in these areas was aimed to prevent BJP from deploying its polling agents and restricting voter turnout at the polling booths”.
Among the notable incidents mentioned in the MHA report were pelting of stones on BJP president J P Nadda’s convoy (December 2020), attack on Union minister Babul Supriyo at Jadavpur University (September 2019), killing of three BJP workers in firing (June 2019) and the mob attack on Babul Supriyo’s convoy(May 2019).
Religion and politics
Sri Ram in the politics and society of Bengal
Saugata Roy, ANALYSIS - BJP and the rise of Lord Ram in Bengal , May 8, 2017: The Times of India
Lord Ram was never a historical figure in Bengal as people believe in parts of north India. Perceptions vary in Uttar Pradesh and Bengal on this issue. For people in east UP, mostly avid readers of Ramcharitmanas by Tulsidas, Ram is as real as the sun, but it's not so in Bengal. In fact, Tagore wrote “Kobi tobo monobhumi Ramer janmasthan, Ayodhyar cheye satya jeno (the poet's mind is the birthplace of Ram which is more real than Ayodhya).“
Yet, the spurt in celebra tion of Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti in parts of Bengal, including Tagore's land Birbhum, has caught eyeballs, pointing to a shift in the state's socio-political narrative.Speakers at the rallies use the occasion to assert their Hindu identity, although at the grassroots, the deprived lot look at Ram as the icon against “injustice and terror“ by the ruling Trinamool Congress.
If you discount this as a “passing phase“ of saffron euphoria after UP polls, think again. For, it appears to be a building up of a new narrative in which Hinduism stands for patriotism and secularism means Muslim appeasement. Unlike in 1992, when Kolka ta saw a surge in Hindu passions after the Babri Masjid demolition, the VHP's rallying for Ram Janmabhoomi this time got some a social sanction. It touched the minds of a section of the educated middle class that's either irritated with, or insecure about, the rise of jihadi Islam.
Knee-jerk reactions to the saffron brigade from the Trinamool are adding to polarisation. A change in Bengali word `Ramdhanu' (rainbow) by the government in school books is one such instance. Environment lessons in Bengali in government approved textbooks for Class III have changed the word `ramdhanu' to `rongdhonu' to get rid of Ram.
If this is one facet, the other move is just the reverse. The recent South Contai assembly bypoll is a case in point, in which the BJP emerged as a clear second -far ahead of the Left and Congress that lost their deposits. The BJP's gain has a direct correlation with the vote shift from the Left. The Lok Sabha bypoll in Coochbehar held in 2016 showed similar trend.
The Left seems to be caught in a time warp, failing to rally people under its broad class politics paradigm. Also, the Left's inability to inspire youth has added to their woes.
“We've seen others, Congress, CPM and Trinamool.Let's see what Modiji can do,“ said IT manager Saikat Mitra.Modi has a package for every one -Ram Navami for the insecure middle-aged bhadralok, and development for the youth. The Mamata government has, in a way , paved the way for religious polarisation.The CM's donning hijab in public programmes and announcing honorarium for imams have stoked pent-up passions among Hindus in a state where many people have “crossed over“ from Bangladesh. With the Communists unable to read their minds as they had for decades, sections of bhadralok are gravitating towards saffron due to fears of being overrun by Muslims.Jihadi activities in Khagragarh have added to the fear.
“The bhadralok in Bengal were never secular. Most of them wouldn't like their sons or daughters to marry a Muslim. It's deep in their minds despite the fact that the two communities in Bengal have stayed in peace for all these years, notwithstanding occasional outbursts in 1964, 1992, and in recent times,“ said a retired government official, Debashis Sanyal.
Presidency University emeritus professor Prasanta Ray believes that this is only a slice of public opinion. “This is true for a section of the middle class, but not all. The middle class is in disarray . Most of the times they go unheard.“
What's new is the BJP's inclusion of Dalits in the scheme of things. To send out the message to the ranks, BJP president Amit Shah had lunch at Raju Mahali's house at Naxalbari digressing from the past when the BJP was seen as an upper caste party . “Even backward Muslims are our target group,“ said state BJP spokesperson Sayantan Das.
Shah, in his meeting with intellectuals in Kolkata, strummed the strings of cultural nationalism -an indigenous concept far removed from the idea borrowed from the West. The sub-text to this view calls for change in the secular, socialist tenets of the Constitution.
The `Hindu Rashtra' has little space for the other view. “It's often said Muslims who do not respect Bharat Mata should leave this country . I make my students sing the national anthem. But some want us to sing Vande Mataram which I can't enforce,“ said a Muslim teacher in Kolkata.
Voting patterns
2009-16
From: Saugata Roy, Why BJP is eyeing a breach in Didi’s Bengal fortress, March 30, 2019: The Times of India
As Vote Share Rises, Party Sees Chance In TMC ‘Disgruntlement’
In the last Lok Sabha election, when the Modi wave carried BJP and NDA to a brute majority in the Lok Sabha, BJP won just two of Bengal’s 42 Lok Sabha seats. It was just one seat more than the 2009 election, when it won only Darjeeling, but the preview to an emerging story lay in the BJP’s vote share: from just 6.1% in 2009, it rose to 16.8% in 2014.
Five years on, BJP is talking up Bengal as one of the states where it will make gains. At a rally in North Bengal’s Alipurduar on Friday, BJP chief Amit Shah said the party will win 23 seats. On the other hand, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, who has emerged nationwide as the face of anti-BJP opposition, has set an all-42 target for her party.
There is no doubt that BJP is a growing force in Bengal. In the 2016 assembly elections, it increased its vote share (10.3%) to within touching distance of Congress (12.4%). In terms of seats, the party bagged only three of the 294 in the assembly, but compared with 2011 when it won no seats, its vote share was up by 6%. And as BJP grew, CPM suffered the heaviest losses — in a state it ruled for three decades, CPM’s vote share fell by 10% or more in both the 2014 Lok Sabha and 2016 Assembly polls.
In subsequent polls, BJP has improved further. The party came second in municipal elections such as Durgapur and Cooper’s Camp in Nadia and was ahead of CPM and Congress taken together in the 2018 panchayat polls.
But it’s not the CPM or Congress which BJP needs to worry about in Bengal. Mamata’s Trinamool Congress bagged nearly 40% of the votes in the 2014 LS election and a whopping 45.3% in the assembly polls of 2016. It improved its vote share significantly as well in both elections, sealing its position as the overwhelmingly dominant political power in Bengal, where it currently holds 34 of the 42 LS seats and 211 of the 294 assembly seats.
While Mamata focuses her attack on the Modi government on issues like demonetisation, intolerance, and using central agencies against the opposition, the BJP camp is galvanised too because it feels it has sensed a “groundswell” against Trinamool. It wants to turn the tables on Mamata riding the post-Balakot sentiment; it is aiming at a counter-consolidation of the majority community against Trinamool’s perceived “minority appeasement” and “vote bank” politics.
The perception is growing in some areas, manifest in communal incidents in at least 10 places in post-2014 Bengal. In the Cooch Behar and Uluberia Lok Sabha bypolls and Kanthi and Noapara assembly bypolls, BJP made significant gains and came second. Some of the seats where BJP is eyeing a good show, if things work to plan, are Cooch Behar, Alipurduar, Raiganj, Balurghat, Malda (North), Krishnanagar, Ranaghat, Purulia, Midnapore, Asansol, Kolkata (North), Howrah, Barrackpore and Bongaon.
But BJP is yet to gain the mass base and organisational muscle to take on Trinamool in many seats. It has eroded Left and Congress vote banks but is yet to make a dent in the Trinamool’s ascending vote share, except in pockets. The party had a 20% and above vote share in as many 12 Lok Sabha seats in 2014 even at the height of the Modi wave. After Balakot, BJP has often used “anti-India” and pro-Pakistan” labels for the opposition.
Mamata, meanwhile, has her problems. The opposition hasn’t united in Bengal; Left and Congress continue to be her vocal political rivals. There’s also wariness on disgruntled Trinamool workers and violent intraparty feuds. Security has been increased for as many as 17 Trinamool leaders, showing that the party is not confident about its own men.
2017: BJP takes up void left by Left, Cong
HIGHLIGHTS
BJP is fast occupying the space of the Left and Congress across West Bengal.
BJP has been gaining mass support in West Bengal since the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
However, TMC still has a good lead over others, including BJP.
In West Bengal, BJP takes up void left by Left, Congress
KOLKATA: Bengal politics is taking a bipolar course with BJP fast occupying the space of the Left and Congress across the state. The defining trend is evident from the results of the recently held seven civic polls in which Narendra Modi's party secured a 41.7% vote share in Jalpaiguri's Dhupguri municipality for the first time, a spectacular jump from the 8.6% share in 2012.
Dhupguri has a sizeable scheduled caste (Rajbanshi) and scheduled tribe population. It is 95km from Naxalbari, where BJP chief Amit Shah in April visited an adivasi family whose members were later forced to join Trinamool. Despite this, BJP has made inroads among Rajbanshis and SC/ST across the seven municipalities.
In terms of vote share, the party is ahead of the Left and Congress taken together in Haldia, Dhupguri and Panskura municipalities, and has come second in Durgapur and Nalhati. Its vote share is the same as that of the Left in Cooper's Camp. The surge in BJP's vote share is enough to put to rest the debate over the Left-Congress handholding to keep BJP at bay in Bengal.
Polls held under West Bengal State Election Commission have never been above controversy, and the polls in question are no exception. The opposition's clamour against rigging by Trinamool gains ground from the 43.4% hike in Trinamool's vote share in Cooper's Camp in Nadia compared to 2012, a 38.4% spurt in Haldia and a 26% spike in Durgapur. All these gains can't be explained by Congress leader Sankar Singh joining Trinamool in Cooper's Camp and Lakshman Seth leaving CPM in Haldia. In these places, Trinamool seniors Sankar Singh, Suvendu Adhikari and Aroop Biswas might have taken former CPM leader Anil Basu's route in Hooghly's Arambagh that once gave him the highest margins in Lok Sabha votes.
Yet, the Left and Congress can't hide their eroding base by blaming rigging. Even if Left leaders keep heaping allegations on the Trinamool toughs who had driven out CPM polling agents from booths in Haldia and Durgapur, such a situation was not unforeseen by Alimuddin Street. CPM state secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra had appealed to party activists and supporters a day before the polls to stay around the booths and foil efforts to loot votes. With more than 1 lakh party card holders in Bengal, CPM has now come to a stage where it can hold impressive rallies but can't attract people. The situation is the reverse for BJP. It has been gaining mass support since the 2014 Lok Sabha polls but doesn't have able organisers and a credible Bengali face to give the final push to Trinamool.
All these have gone to the advantage of Trinamool that won 140 of the 148 wards, averting the anti-incumbency getting transferred in the EVM. Mamata Banerjee will sail safe with the divided opposition as long as BJP remains a distant second.
2018
First birth certificate secured through blockchain
Udit Prasanna Mukherji and Suman Chakraborti, December 20, 2018: The Times of India
Month-old Divit Biyani has become the first in the state to get a birth certificate, secured through blockchain.
Divit’s father Varun, who owns a start-up company, Super Procure, received the hi-tech certificate on Tuesday. Issued by the New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA), the birth certificate was showcased at the two-day global blockchain congress in the city. “I’m glad the government is implementing new technology like this to secure information and prevent manual manipulation,” said Varun.
Blockchain is an incorruptible digital ledger that is tamper-proof. A virtual block representing the information, in this case the person’s date of birth, is created and stored in the decentralised ledger.
Explaining the difference between a normal birth certificate and one based on blockchain, state IT&E additional chief secretary and NKDA chairman Debashis Sen said the blockchain-based certificate had an added level of security and was immune to cyber-attacks due to multi-level encryption.
2019
2 TMC MPs quit
Ahead of the general elections, Trinamool Congress suffered its first-ever defection in the Lok Sabha with its Bishnupur MP Soumitra Khan + joining the rival BJP on Wednesday. Bolpur MP Anupam Hazra is expected to follow suit.
A BJP leader said apart from Khan, “at least six TMC MPs are in touch with us”. Even as the Bengal BJP refused to name them, speculation is rife that Arpita Ghosh and Satabdi Roy, too, could desert TMC. Sources said the disgruntled TMC MPs are known to be close to the party’s former No. 2 Mukul Roy, who had joined BJP.
The rumblings within the TMC come 10 days before CM Mamata Banerjee’s January 19 Kolkata rally aimed at giving shape to an anti-BJP platform. TMC was quick to expel both Khan and Hazra for anti-party activities, while accusing them of corruption. The buzz about both the MPs joining BJP had been on since the monsoon session last year as it was clear TMC would not re-nominate them in the Lok Sabha polls.
Training his guns on the CM, Soumitra Khan said TMC was no longer a party but a “private company” of Mamata and her nephew Abhishek. “A syndicate raj and police raj are going on hand-in-hand in Bengal,” he said.
Abhishek, an observer for Bankura, said, “Soumitra was a ‘jote’ (Trinamool and Congress) candidate in 2011, switched to Trinamool and became an MP in 2014. He should provide accounts for MPLAD expenditure. He’s accountable to people.”
Khan’s decision to quit TMC came soon after Bankura SDPO Sukomal Das registered a case against him following complaints of corruption in recruitment of primary teachers. A day earlier, the MP’s assistant Susanta Dan was arrested.
The Bishnupur MP had met BJP president Amit Shah before joining the party in the presence of Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Khan has been assured a BJP ticket in the general elections, BJP sources said. Khan’s entry will give a fillip to BJP in Bankura, where the party had won 234 gram panchayat seats.
Cabinet reshuffled as 1 TMC MLA, 50 councillors join BJP
May 29, 2019: The Times of India
After BJP stunned Trinamool in West Bengal by making big gains in the state in the Lok Sabha elections, chief minister Mamata Banerjee rejigged her 43-member cabinet with her focus firmly on North Bengal and Jangalmahal, where her party faced huge reverses.
Mamata’s damage control exercise came barely a couple of hours after three Bengal MLAs and 50 civic councillors joined BJP at a press conference at its central headquarters in Delhi. While the MLAs are from Trinamool, Congress and CPM, all the councillors are from Bengal’s ruling party.
The MLAs who crossed over included Subhrangshu Roy, the son of Mamata’s erstwhile confidante and now BJP leader Mukul Roy. Tusharkanti Bhattacharya (Congress) and Debendra Roy (CPM) are the other two MLAs.
BJP threatened more damage to Trinamool. “We will induct people from other parties in phases, just like elections in Bengal were held in seven phases. Tuesday’s was the first phase. Many more are in touch with us,” party general secretary and Bengal in-charge Kailash Vijayvargiya said, referring to PM Narendra Modi’s statement during the campaign that over 40 TMC MLAs were in touch with BJP.
The 'cut money' controversy
June 28, 2019: The Times of India
What's the 'cut money' that Bengal is angry about?
NEW DELHI: Amidst allegations of corruption against the West Bengal government, the new word trending in the state's politics is 'cut money'. As BJP corners the government on cut money, CM Mamata Banerjee has inadvertently admitted to corruption in the ruling Trinamool Congress. But what is cut money and how does it qualify to be categorised under corruption?
Cut money is the unofficial commission charged by local politicians for getting government grants for local area projects approved — so named for the 'cut' of the total money given by the government department. So for instance, if the government releases Rs 100 toward financing a particular project, the local area politician, who many times are elected representatives, will take, say, Rs 25, as 'charges' for helping get the grant. This cut is shared all the way up from the lowest grassroots level politician to the senior most in the ruling party's food chain.
Is it official?
Not at all, but since when did that stop anything. The cut is usually taken in cash, to prevent any records of the money coming on the taxman's radar. Given that funds released for a project run into several crore, the cut money from a single project could run into many lakh — as evident from the fact that an All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) booth president Trilochan Mukherjee returned over Rs 2.25 lakh cut money taken from 141 labourers from their eight months' wages.
Besides, it's not like the malaise is limited to just the AITC or West Bengal — a transparency international report last year revealed that bribery in India grew 11% in one year, with government officials of Punjab, MP and UP the most corrupt.
Controversial cut
West Bengal chief minister and AITC founder Mamata Banerjee stirred a hornet's nest when last week, at a meeting with party workers, she warned them to return the cut money or get ready to go to jail.
The warning, a tacit admission of the corruption that has seeped in AITC, has also led to a lot of heartburn among the grassroots level workers who feel that they are being cornered to return their cut of the money while there's no word on the senior leaders of the party to whom a percentage of the cut was also given.
In fact, AITC MP Satabdi Roy criticised Banerjee's directive, saying that "a person who has taken cut money directly is only the front man. There are others who are behind him. They have also taken their share, so the money has to be returned according to this chain."
The jam she caused
While Banerjee may have thought she was pre-empting an opposition move to nail her government on corruption, the legacy of cut money is believed to be a carry-over from the decades of Left party rule in the state. Apart from the opposition — the Congress, the Left and the BJP — who have cornered the Banerjee government on the issue in the state assembly, locals across the state are coming out in protest demanding a return of the cut money. This has, in turn, created a law and order issue, forcing the police to ask protestors to file a police complaint against people who have taken cut money, in order to get a 'refund'.
The state police registering cases against the state's ruling party MLAs? That ought to be interesting!
Meanwhile, BJP MP Saumitra Khan, who raised the issue of cut money in the Lok Sabha, sought an investigation into how much funds have gone into the chief minister and her family's account.
TMC sweeps bypoll 3:0; credits NRC
Nov 29, 2019: The Times of India
Trinamool Congress made a clean sweep of the bypolls in three assembly constituencies of Bengal, wresting a seat each from BJP and Congress as CM Mamata Banerjee declared her party’s triumph a “mandate against NRC” while BJP took its loss as “a wake-up call” before the 2021 assembly battle.
While BJP highlighted why it wants the NRC in Bengal, TMC conveyed the message that even Hindu refugees in the border seats wouldn’t be safe if such an exercise were to be carried out. Mamata said, “The mandate is very clear. It is against NRC. People have voted against NRC. I do not want any NRC in Bengal and it should not happen anywhere in the country.”
BJP’s Kaliaganj candidate Kamal Chandra Sarkar blamed the loss on the NRC issue. “We have lost despite a massive lead in the Lok Sabha polls. We lost as there has been confusion over NRC implementation in Bengal, PTI quoted Sarkar as saying.
BJP national secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, however, attributed TMC’s hattrick to “booth-jamming with the help of local police”.
2020
Defections from TMC, Cong. Left to BJP
Sujoy Khanra, December 20, 2020: The Times of India
From: Sujoy Khanra, December 20, 2020: The Times of India
In an unprecedented pre-poll churn in West Bengal that Union home minister Amit Shah ter med “just the beginning”, former heavyweight Trinamool Congress minister and Mamata Banerjee aide Suvendu Adhikari on Saturday led a batch of 10 turncoat MLAs and one MP — eight of them Trinamool deserters, two from Left and one Congress — to the ranks of BJP.
A total of 60 other councillors, zilla parishad and panchayat samiti members from various parties switched to saffron in the presence of Shah, whom Adhikari referred to as “my elder brother”.
“You will be left alone by the time Bengal goes to polls,” Shah said, alluding to Mamata, at a rally in Midnapore, considered Adhikari’s bastion.
TMC taking recourse to ‘politics of fear’ to stay in office: Shah
Two-time East Burdwan MP Sunil Mondal rounded off BJP’s day of gains at Trinamool’s expense. Arch-rebel Adhikari had travelled to Midnapore from Kolkata along with Shah on the latter’s chopper. “Nobody from the party I served for 22 years called me when I was quarantined at home after contracting Covid. Shah called me twice. Mukulda (Mukul Roy, who joined BJP from Trinamool in 2017) used to tell me that I would not be able to stay in that party with self-respect,” he said.
After accepting BJP flag from Shah, Adhikari stressed the need for Bengal to discard the “anti-Centre narrative” of Left and TMC in favour of Centre-state synergy. “I believe both Kolkata and Delhi should have governments under Modiji’s party for the sake of Bengal’s development,” he said.
Countering Trinamool’s “traitor” tag for Adhikari with Trinamool’s history, Shah said, “Didi, what did you do when you quit Congress to form Trinamool?” Shah charged the state government with taking recourse to “the politics of fear” to stay in power. “More than 300 BJP workers have been killed. They threw stones at BJP chief JP Nadda’s convoy. Didi thought we would give up. We will not,” he said. Shah had visited freedom fighter Shahid Khudiram Bose’s family before reaching the Midnapore College ground, indicating a resolve to shake off the “outsider” label that Trinamool has stuck on BJP’s central leadership.
Adhikari reminded his critics that Trinamool could not have survived without former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s support. “Trinamool was part of the NDA then.”
