Revision as of 16:04, 31 March 2021

Biswa Bangla logo

Abhisikta Ganguly, January 30, 2017: NoiseBreak

Symbol of Biswa Bangla

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

The BJP in West Bengal, 2016- Mar 2021
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

Saugata Roy, March 28, 2021: The Times of India

CPM/ Left parties in Bengal in 2016, 2019
From: Saugata Roy, March 28, 2021: The Times of India

Kolkata: The last time Aishe Ghosh had cameras trained on her, she had her head in a bandage and Deepika Padukone’s arms around her shoulders, after an attack by a stick-wielding mob that had stormed her university, JNU, on January 5, 2020.

More than a year later, Aishe is back on the battlefield. A very different one, it runs not through campus buildings but arid farmland, sponge iron units and open cast ‘rat-hole’ mines. The 26-year-old has graduated from JNU student leader to mainstream politics and is the CPM candidate from Jamuria (west Burdwan), part of the youth brigade the Left has deployed to reconnect with its voters. The other prominent faces are Srijan Bhattacharya (Singur), Dipsita Dhar (Bally) and Minakshi Mukherjee, who has been thrown into the biggest contest of the polls at Nandigram, where BJP has fielded Trinamool turncoat Suvendu Adhikari against chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

While the Left Front has been reduced to a faint shadow of its mighty past, the Left voter could make a difference in what pollsters have predicted to be a tight race between Trinamool and BJP. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, BJP’s trailblazing performance in Bengal (leaping from 2 seats in 2014 to 18 seats) was propelled by an extreme swing in voting pattern. From 30% of the vote share in 2014, the Left was reduced to 7.5% while BJP leapt from 17% in 2014 to 40%. Trinamool increased its vote share from 39% to 43% but the gain counted for little as the anti-Trinamool vote consolidated in BJP’s favour.

Aishe’s constituency Jamuria – a traditional Left bastion – is an example. CPM candidate Jahanara Khan won in 2016, bagging 67,214 votes. The Trinamool candidate came second with 59,457 votes. BJP (22,040 votes) was a distant third. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, this assembly segment illustrated the spectrum shift – BJP led with 76,051 votes and CPM dropped to a mere 15,549. Polarisation among voters, following riots in Asansol-Raniganj-Jamuria belt in 2018, could have been a factor.

The Left has been trying to regroup after the 2019 shock. This time, it has sought to inject energy into its ranks through young faces and made its own spectrum shift in the way it campaigns – ‘haal pherao, laal pherao’, one of its main poll jingles is set to the tune of the SRK-superhit ‘Lungi Dance’, a far cry from the revolutionary songs that once electrified its cadre.

Who’s meeting their demands?

Aishe is greeted with flowers at many places. But votes are a different matter. Vaishnavi, among those in a small welcome party for her, says she has made up her mind. “My four sons have left home looking for jobs. I voted for Didi in the last elections. I will vote for padma phool (lotus) this time,” she said. In a region with crippling joblessness, and angst about outsiders from Jharkhand taking up jobs at the sponge iron units, BJP’s promise of a “double-engine government” resonates.

At Arambag in Hooghly district, marginal farmer Sheikh Hasibul echoes the sentiment. “I have little land. I can’t support my family. I want a job. BJP leaders have promised jobs,” the CPM supporter told TOI.

Across Bengal, Left voters don’t shy away from voicing their aspirations and anger, whether it’s jobs, economy, Covid and lockdown, or culture and “attacks” on deep-rooted liberal values. But there’s scepticism about the winnability of Left candidates, forcing many to look elsewhere, at Trinamool, BJP and also Nota. A professor at St Xavier’s College in Kolkata explained his dilemma. “I don’t like the histrionics of Mamata Banerjee. At the same time, I don’t want BJP to come to power. I can vote for the Left. But they won’t be able to make it this time. Should I press the Nota button?” he said. Voters in Kolkata (11 assembly seats) largely went with Trinamool in the 2016 assembly polls and in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. BJP finished ahead of Trinamool in only three assembly segments — Shyampukur and Jorasanko in north Kolkata and Rashbehari in south Kolkata. Suranjana Bose, a teacher and resident of Dhakuria, believes the Left has done enough to bounce back. She thinks the alliance with Congress and the newly formed Indian Secular Front (ISF), Furfura Sharif cleric Pirzada Abbas Siddiqui’s outfit, will boost vote share. “The alliance will regain a portion of the minority votes it lost to Trinamool,” she said.

They know who they don’t want

In neighbouring North 24 Parganas, the densely populated suburban district that has most assembly seats in the state (33), minorities make up 25.8% of the population, and the political discourse around Hindu majoritarianism is unlikely to leave too many sitting on the fence. The division in opinion is sharp, deepening the Left voter’s dilemma. Often, it’s not a question of who to support but who to oppose.

Sujay Saha, a second-year commerce student at Bhairab Ganguly College in Belghoria, understands that CPM is trying to put together a revival act but doesn’t give the party a chance. “Fact is, the Left has been losing its vote share since the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. I believe a section of Left voters will vote BJP to remove Trinamool from office,” he said. At Behrampore town in Murshidabad district (which has 22 seats), Left supporter Abhijeet Roy is furious that communist parties have to lean on Congress and a debutant. “I don’t like this alliance. This will only harm the Left,” Roy said. It’s a concern Left observers air as well, especially in assembly seats which have a substantial population of Hindus who crossed over to Bengal from erstwhile East Pakistan after 1947 and after the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. Even in the disappointing 2019 performance, CPM and other Left parties retained substantial support in such seats, like Tollygunge, Jadavpur, Behala, Baranagar, Kamarhati, Panihati, Barasat and Siliguri. But the alliance with ISF is uncharted territory. The alliance will also have implications in several other districts. A potential three-way split in the Muslim vote will hurt Trinamool the most and play into BJP’s hands. However, in seats that saw sharp right swing, it may dent BJP’s prospects. An overall gain in vote share for the Left Front may also hurt BJP more.

Debkumar Medda, a resident of Pursurah in Hooghly and a member of the CPM-dominated All Bengal Teachers Association, said he will vote for Trinamool’s defeat. “I am going to vote for BJP because my party won’t be able to do that,” he said. Hooghly, which has 18 assembly seats, saw BJP gaining considerably in 2019, with actor Locket Chatterjee winning the Lok Sabha seat.

But at Bishnupur In Bankura (12 seats), high school teacher Payel Banerjee’s vote will go to Didi. Payel, the daughter of CPM card holder Swadesh Banerjee, who fought the Bishnupur civic polls twice, said, “BJP and Trinamool are in a close fight this time like never before. I will vote for Mamata. She has worked a lot for my district.”

Electrical engineer Romen Dutta, a resident of Burdwan (25 seats), is disturbed by the communal rhetoric that BJP leaders have brought into Bengal. “The R S S and BJP are a danger to our social fabric. I could have voted for Trinamool. But I am appalled with the manner in which Trinamool has handled education and employment. I will vote against both of them,” said Dutta.

Jobs, NRC and the need for a leader

Midnapore, staging ground for the battle of the Bengal election at Nandigram will also make a significant political statement with its 31 seats. With both BJP and Trinamool campaigning aggressively here, Left voters here are reticent about voicing their opinion. Prasun Pariya, headmaster of a school in Salboni, believes CPM will get back a share of votes that went to BJP in 2019. CPM candidate Minakshi Mukherjee has kept her message focused on jobs and livelihoods. “What will happen to this marketplace, to the grocers, farmers and transporters if young people have no jobs?” she said, accusing both Trinamool and BJP of depriving the state of much-needed industrial growth.

As one moves towards the north Bengal, polarisation of opinion becomes more apparent. A CPM voter in Malda (12 seats), the gateway district into north Bengal, suggested she has made clear choices. Romena Biwi, a homemaker, isn’t taking any chances. For her, the NRC (National Register of Citizens) scare remains a real one. “If BJP wins, we have to leave the country,” said Romena, adding she will vote for Trinamool.

In Darjeeling district (5 seats), where the two main Gorkha rivals Bimal Gurung – formerly aligned with BJP – and Binay Tamang are both supporting Trinamool, Mamata is eyeing a sweep while BJP is optimistic about Siliguri in the plain. Political science professor and Siliguri resident Gautam Tamang thinks the realignment in equations in the Hills may lead to some Left voters returning to the fold. “The Left can present a counter narrative to the policies of the Trinamool government and the BJP’s move against the public sector,” Tamang said.

(Additional reporting by Roshan Gupta, Subhro Maitra, Sukumar Mahato, Sujoy Khanra, Falguni Banerjee, Someswar Boral, Mohammad Asif & Sanjib Chakraborty)

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

Saugata Roy, Why BJP is eyeing a breach in Didi’s Bengal fortress, March 30, 2019: The Times of India

Voting patterns in Assembly elections, 2011-16 and Lok Sabha elections, 2009-14
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

Saugata Roy, In West Bengal, BJP takes up void left by Left, Congress, Aug 19, 2017: The Times of India

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

Blow for Mamata Banerjee as 2 TMC MPs quit, 2 more may join BJP, January 10, 2019: The Times of India

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 on Thursday, sought an investigation into how much funds have gone into the chief minister and her family's account.

2020

Defections from TMC, Cong. Left to BJP

Sujoy Khanra, December 20, 2020: The Times of India

The Bengal assembly before the defections of 19 Dec 2020
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.”