Trying to know 'Bengali mind' - both social and political - may be it's always easy if one reflects upon and takes a closer look at some of the pioneering films such as the 'Jana Aranya' (People's jungle in rough translation).
This film was made by maestro Satyajit Ray in 1975. It was the year of Emergency imposed nationwide and Kolkata symbolised an era of mixed politics of Congress and Communists. The film epitomises the mood of the 1970s. Joblessness is the broad theme and how an educated youth is led to turn into a 'businessman' and later an unethical one. The film portrays corruption as a vice but as a bitter truth - a reality.
A character asks the principal protagonist - "Do you come from a family where no one has done anything wrong ever... Such things did not exist even in the times of Mahabharat". The moral centre of the film is a retired school teacher and an aging father. Even his plea to discuss the need of a higher set of values is dismissed by his employed elder son.
In another instance, the protagonist is told --- 'the stationery supply order' business is like a launching pad and then he should aim for money and simply move upwards.
At one point - Ray cuts to the father -- sitting in candlelight in the absence of electricity and on background comes a Tagore song -- "Darkness is gathering over the forest".
(scenes from Jana Aranya)
This also talks about a typical Bengali mindset.
The same slant existed. In general sense - we may call it pro-Communists sentiment or bias.
Now, Politics and the games in the Corridors of Power.
Even a decade back - that is 2016 -- the BJP was no where in West Bengal politics. But there was desperation in the saffron camp .... to appear 'more relevant' in Bengal politics. But the likes of Amit Shah and others did also realise that the Bengali voters were culturally, intellectually and essentially pro-Left.
Hence -- what we had was -- Mamata Didi's story was the contemporary Bengal's political history.
But no more. In 2026 -- the Lotus party may actually pose a serious threat to Mamata Banerjee. The latest political oneupmanship is real.
We are making this claim amid ED-raids fiasco and Mamata Banerjee still not facing the long or short hand of the law for disallowing ED do their job.
Notably; the same Bengal has stopped voting for the Leftists and thus CPI-M and other powerful Left parties and Congress scored zero in 2021 assembly polls.
In short -- we may say the Left Front may be huffing and puffing !!
Of course - the BJP finished winning over 70 seats in 294-member assembly in 2021 and so it's determined to give a real fight in 2026. But Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress has emerged a formidable force in the state since 2011 due to multiple reasons.
And hence the BJP still faces more than a jigsaw puzzle and Herculean challenge to unseat Mamata Banerjee - who has in some ways turned more Left than the communists.
Dadagiri of the communists has been replaced by Trinamool's very own syndicate mechanism. But apparently people are fed up.
The BJP has its Hindutva politics and also its politics of neo-nationalism and liberal economic policies --- but are they enough in the context of West Bengal's electoral arithmetic ?
In 2026 -- the BJP strategists say they are no longer up against basic "ideological barriers" as was the case in 2016. But aAs compared to TMC; the Lotus party has organisational weaknesses and also virtual isolation from the Muslim support base.
 |
| Reality Check for Mamata as Delhi crowd gave her rally a miss in 2014 |
Now reports suggest over 500 BJP/RSS karyakartas from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Bihar and Haryana may fan around most assembly segments by mid-January.
As far as the electoral battle goes --- in Assam of 2016 itself -- the pro-Hindutva slant always had acceptance among upper caste Assamese. The BJP could come to power by working out a right social engineering with Bihari and Bengali Hindus and also tribals.
On the other hand; till 2016-17; the Bengali voters and even others in the state had been pro-Left ideologically, culturally and intellectually.
This made things difficult for the BJP in West Bengal.
But once Tripura was snatched away from the Marxists in 2018 -- the saffron party started dreaming about West Bengal too -- a state that sends as many as 42 MPs to Lok Sabha.
The going was tough for the BJP in Bengal till 2016. But once Tripura was managed -- also a province with large sections of Bengali Hindus -- things appeared to have become much easier.
In 2021 itself; the BJP poll managers believed that the party had come near a striking distance and in 2019 Lok Sabha polls - they had taken the battle to the TMC camp by winning as many as 18 seats.
Of course in 2024 - BJP lost eight seats and could manage only 10 from Bengal.
The Congress and the Left are still limping and almost appear to be mere vote-cutter parties.
In Assam, it was revealed that the upper caste Hindus were able to relate to the Brahminical appeal of the RSS and the BJP.
In contrast, the upper caste Bengali 'Bhadrolok' was for decades been associated with Marxist politics.
One reason why Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee cornered what was once a solid Left vote bank and why she remains popular is that she never portrayed herself as anti-Left.
She has been cautious about it despite being the biggest political foe of the Marxists.
During the Marxist misrule when Singur and Nandigram happened and Tatas could not set up a car factory; the people of Bengal actually saw Trinamool Congress as genuine followers of Communist ideology.
The so-called protecting the farmers' interests.
This was more than the just turning point of Bengal politics. The Trinamool leaders even started mocking CPI-M leaders around 2011 as "pseudo followers" of Karl Marx.
*** Slowly people in Maoist-hit areas also developed courage and faith in democracy and in the leadership of Mamata Banerjee.
Thus, when Mamata Banerjee played to the hilt her pro-farmers card against the failed industrialisation attempts of the Left, she appeared to the people as a more genuine political leader than the Marxists.
This also made easier the task of those Left cadres who decided to opt for Mamata Banerjee -- and her Trinamool Congress and abandon the 'Marxist politics'.
Mamata also deliberately cultivated an image of 'a pro-poor leader' who wore rubber 'chappals' and a cotton sari.
This actually challenged the Leftists' proletarian claims. But today, while Mamata still moves in chappals, no body believes that she is pro-poor.
There is a contradiction in perception also as suitcases full of currencies have been recovered from more than one TMC leaders and their associates and girl friends.
Nobody believes the Trinamool does not have enough funds.
Of course many of Mamata's party colleagues are no less than 'crorepatis'.
There is another political dimension.
There was an acceptance that a higher vote share for the BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls actually helped the CPI-M.
As stated above -- when the CPI-M suffered much ... Trinamool's return to power in 2021 became easier.
For instance, in Raiganj seat in 2014 -- CPI-M's Mohammed Salim defeated Deepa Dasmunshi of the Congress by just 1,634 votes even as BJP candidate Nimu Bhowmick polled over two lakh votes.
A few years back veteran Trinamool MP, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, had said --- "We understood from the very beginning that the Left Front could not be defeated in Bengal from a rightist platform."
Hence his explanation was that despite the best attempts personally from Atal Bihari Vajpayee and strong opposition from the likes of the late Ajit Panja, the Trinamool Congress quit the BJP-led NDA.
 |
| Check and game -- Democracy |
No comments:
Post a Comment