IN 1873, a play by Kiran Chandra Banerjee sparked the imagination of people in Britain-ruled Bengal. It told the story of a woman and her husband, inspired by Bharat Mata, leading a rebellion against the British. Moved by the play, a retired deputy magistrate of Midnapore, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, wrote the novel Anandamath, in which Bharat Mata sings Vande Mataram. The British banned the book.
The British also banned Abanindranath Tagore’s painting of Bharat Mata. Such was the power of the idea of Bharat Mata then. But when Narendra Modi invoked Bharat Mata in 2014, not many in Bengal chanted along. Now they are chanting ‘Bharat Mata’ and ‘Jai Shri Ram’ with fervour.
Exasperated by chants of ‘Jai Shri Ram’, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee recently got out of her car in Paschim Medinipur and confronted the chanters. She said they were “abusing her”.
On May 14, there were violent clashes between student wings of the RSS and the Trinamool during BJP president Amit Shah’s road show in Kolkata. Trinamool supporters allegedly threw stones at the procession while it was passing Calcutta University. Their rivals, in retaliation, allegedly tried to break the gate of the nearby Vidyasagar College and vandalised the statue of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar there. “I will not spare them,” Mamata said at a rally in South Kolkata.
Mamata reportedly has ambitions of leading a coalition government at the Centre, for which she has to win most of the 42 seats from West Bengal. Many parts of the state, however, have seen a saffron surge during the election campaign. Leaving nothing to chance, the chief minister has gone on a fierce barnstorming across the state, much like she had done when she was opposition leader two terms ago.
Mamata knows her Trinamool party is nothing without her. Wherever she goes, the street-fighter is met with saffron flags of the BJP, the Vishva Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal. Such is the popular mood in Bengal that Mamata has apparently told her lieutenants to adopt soft hindutva.
The saffronisation of Bengal began soon after the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The BJP deployed RSS stalwarts Kailash Vijayvargiya and Shiv Prakash as state in-charges. The duo strengthened RSS branches and even the VHP and Bajrang Dal.
Battle mode: While many expect a straight fight between the Congress’s Deepa Dasmunsi (above) and CPI(M)’s Mohammad Salim in Raiganj, there is a clear saffron surge on the ground | Salil Bera
In the past five years, the RSS has opened 3,000 branches in the state and many schools in far-flung villages and tribal areas. Numerous shakhas with school and college students as members also came up.
“They have spread no doubt,” said state minister Siddiqullah Chowdhury. “They are fighting Mamata as no other leader in India has done what she has done to Hindu radicals. If they get a large number of seats, it would be most unfortunate for us, our government and the state.”
Said Subrata Mukherjee, Mamata’s mentor and the Trinamool candidate in Bankura: “As the CPI(M) and the Congress have virtually disappeared, the BJP has taken that space. What the BJP is doing by inciting and threatening people is hurting its growth in the long run. Bengal would not accept politics based on religion.”
The BJP brought in leaders long ago to manage all 74,000 polling booths. One national secretary, Suresh Pujari of Odisha, was put in charge of the western districts and another, Ram Lal, made frequent visits to coordinate with the Sangh on the ground. Then, national executive member Arvind Menon took charge of the election preparations in the state, reporting directly to party president Amit Shah. Menon was assisted by Mukul Roy, the Trinamool deserter, who was made the election in-charge. Menon first focused on north Bengal, and blended the BJP with the Sangh all along Darjeeling to Malda.
The polarisation they aimed at could be seen, for example, in Raiganj in north Bengal, where 47 per cent of the voters are Hindu and 53 per cent Muslim. Hindus were up in arms last September over the killing of two ABVP members, allegedly in police firing. There was violence again, and two more deaths, when the state government appointed Urdu teachers to the posts left vacant by science teachers at a high school. Local people buried, not cremated, the two dead bodies so that they could be exhumed for re-investigation if the BJP came to power. “Our government will ask the CBI to investigate,” said Sujan Das, a local BJP worker.
The BJP candidate from Raiganj, Debashree Chowdhury, has tapped into this sentiment. “Don’t be afraid if they try to prevent you from casting your votes,” she said at a rally in Bajitpur village. “Just chase them away with lathis.”
The saffron sentiment has taken hold of neighbouring regions, too. Travelling from Raiganj to Siliguri, one might think that the BJP is ruling the state. The BJP flag is omnipresent. The working class voter in north Bengal does not seem upset with decisions such as demonetisation or the Goods and Services Tax. Religion, apparently, has made them forget their losses. Or perhaps it is the hatred for Mamata.
“Didi is not fair to all of us,” said Ratan Das, a folk singer in Bhagdamur village in Raiganj. “She does not trust Hindus and would not let us vote in any state election. We have decided to fight back, and the Bajrang Dal is helping us greatly.”
He said the resistance started when Trinamool workers allegedly snatched their voter IDs during the 2018 panchayat elections. “We could beat them back because the BJP and its friendly organisations had armed us with lathis and motivated us,” he said.
Debashree Chowdhury is confident that this support will translate into votes. “Of seven assembly constituencies, I will take big leads in six,” she told THE WEEK. “Not sure about the seventh. But I hope that it will also come.”
She is up against CPI(M) MP Mohammad Salim, Kanhaiyalal Agarwal of the Trinamool and Congress heavyweight Deepa Dasmunsi. For outsiders, it would seem to be a straight fight between Salim and Dasmunsi. On the ground, however, it is a saffron wave, and Dasmunsi blames Mamata for this: “Even today there is a tacit understanding between the BJP and the Trinamool, despite her verbal aggression against the BJP.”
Even Muslim voters, who traditionally support Mamata, seem to have turned against her. Mohammad Taiyab Alam, who teaches at a local high school, said Mamata had fielded a former RSS man—Agarwal—who had recently left the Congress. “She thought that the Muslim votes will go to her easily,” he said. “So, she played the soft hindutva card by fielding an RSS-minded man. We will try our luck with Salim, but not with a fake Muslim sympathiser like her.”
The BJP’s aggressive stance has helped other parties, too. For instance, in many places in Uttar and Dakshin Dinajpur districts, some opposition parties could not campaign for the 2014 elections, allegedly because of the hostile Trinamool cadres. “This time, however, the situation is not bad. At least we could campaign,” said Tayiub Islam, a CPI(M) supporter.
To win back the Muslim vote, the Trinamool brought Bangladeshi actor Ferdous Ahmed to Raiganj. But it only helped unite the Hindus further.
In the Maldaha Uttar seat, the BJP could do better this time, thanks to its rivals. The family of the late Congress leader Ghani Khan Choudhury has split, and his niece Mausam Noor, the sitting MP, has joined the Trinamool. She is pitted against her own cousin, Isha Khan Choudhury, in the seat. This is likely to split the Muslim vote, too. “She made a mistake,” said Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury, the Congress candidate in Maldaha Dakshin and brother of Ghani Khan. “She joined the Trinamool and that forced us to field a candidate against her. The BJP has no doubt benefitted.”
The Maldaha seats aside, Mamata’s popularity seems to be waning in most of the Muslim-dominated seats in the state. The Congress is more popular there. A divided Muslim vote would benefit the BJP, which is also hoping to benefit from Hindu consolidation.
The extent of saffronisation was evident in the way Ram Navami was celebrated in various parts of the state this year. In Siliguri, for instance, several lakhs hit the streets not just to celebrate the festival, but also to make a vow to end Mamata’s rule. Interestingly, many of them were from the working class and the unorganised sector, to the surprise of the ruling party. “We are not the party of any particular groups any more,” Arvind Menon told THE WEEK. “Our agenda of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas is working. Bengal is poised for a big change.”
Kolkata also saw such vows on Ram Navami, with the roads choked for hours by saffron-clad workers.
The hunger belt of Bengal—places such as Purulia, Bankura and Paschim Medinipur—have also transformed. These areas make up the Junglemahal region, which was a Maoist zone about a decade ago. In the last panchayat elections, the BJP had won the most number of seats here. Fearing a repeat in the Lok Sabha elections, Mamata has changed all but one of her candidates in these seats. The numerous Sangh flags and Ram temples in Junglemahal point to the right turn the region is taking.
Though Mamata had a crucial role in bringing peace to the region, she has not been able to play it up. The presence of many former Maoists in her party has alienated the people. Many villagers said the saffron surge was a result of the betrayal by “fake Maoists” who surrendered and were given state protection.
“The people here are traitors,” said Deb Kumar Santra, whose sweet shop was a haunt of intellectuals who came here to hold peace talks with Maoists. “I used to throw away hundreds of kilos of rotten sweets because there was no business for months. I am ashamed that our people have forgotten those days.”
Despite the return of peace, the region remains undeveloped. Apparently, the ego clash between Mamata and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has prevented prime Central projects from being implemented here. Mamata has reportedly shunned the Central projects as they carry Modi’s photos or name.
As for state projects, many leftists said they had to join the Trinamool to get the benefits. “Local leaders asked me to join their party in 2014,” said Tapas Patra, a former CPI(M) activist of Harmasra village in Bankura. “I did and I received the money (025,000) for my daughter [under a government scheme] in 2017.”
On the other hand, those who have refused to toe Mamata’s line were allegedly ignored. Phagu Mandi, an old tribal woman, did not get housing aid “because she went to vote in the panchayat election escorted by Bajrang Dal,” said Jaladhar Mahato, a Jharkhand Party worker in Jhargram district, which borders Bankura. “She died homeless last month.” Though his party is not an ally, the BJP has been reaching out to such outfits to counter Mamata’s “atrocities”.
In the adjoining villages, some people had to bribe officials to get schemes. It is for such reasons that voters in the three constituencies in Junglemahal could turn against Mamata this time.
Anti-Mamata sentiment was evident at Malida village in Paschim Medinipur district, where thousands of CPI(M) workers have joined the BJP. “The local Trinamool leaders asked us to join their party,” said Dulu Doloi, a villager. “When we refused, we were beaten up and our houses ransacked. We were then slapped with false criminal cases and put in jail. BJP leaders and the Bajrang Dal gave us money to fight our cases in court.”
Across the Medinipur constituency, ‘inquilab zindabad’ has been replaced with ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’. But how are the former leftists here dealing with the new slogan? “We are illiterate,” said Dulu. “We are asked to chant slogans by the parties. We do not understand their meanings.”
Another flashpoint is Asansol, which was one of the two constituencies the BJP won in 2014. Last year, a Muslim youth was killed during Ram Navami celebrations, and the region is still tense. Actor-singer Babul Supriyo single-handedly won the seat last time, and trying to repeat the feat, he has asked the central leadership not to send anyone, except Modi, to campaign for him. “I am not taking too many youth with me,” he told THE WEEK. “It’s a small campaign and I am fighting on my own. Look at the aggressiveness of Trinamool and its torture. I cannot take any chances.”
He was blasting a campaign song he created through loudspeakers, even though the Election Commission had banned it. Two FIRs have been filed against him. “I am not shaken by the FIRs,” he said. “I am here to shake things up.”
Leaders like him have shown the resistance that the leftists had failed to display.
A few kilometres away, in the heart of the town, a tea shop sign reads: “Please don’t discuss politics”. Said Amit Singh, the owner: “Every day, there were quarrels that led to fighting. All chaiwalas do not have 56-inch chests.”
What does he think will be the result in Asansol? “It would be a repeat of last time,” he said with a smile. “No doubt.”