RSS irked as TMC cadres turn saffron, ABVP and BMS alert to misuse of outfits' name
Thousands, mainly those associated with the Trinamool Congress, became self-proclaimed activists of the BJP's student outfit and trade union after the May 4 Assembly election results.
It was first noticed on May 4, when a WhatsApp group of the TMCP with around 370 members suddenly changed its identity to the ABVP.
Once it was reported, the outfit lodged a complaint with the police. Since then, several TMCP units from different colleges and medical colleges have changed their identities and started claiming to be those of the ABVP.
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On May 5, a day after the election results in which the BJP swept the Bengal elections, a group of self-proclaimed ABVP activists stormed the Vidyasagar University campus, vandalised a part of the premises and allegedly forced the vice-chancellor to chant slogans.
The ABVP immediately clarified that those involved in the incident had no connection with it.
The "burden" of victory in the Bengal Assembly polls hasn't been limited to the BJP alone, but also to several RSS frontal organisations such as the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS).
Thousands, mainly those associated with the Trinamool Congress, became self-proclaimed activists of the BJP's student outfit and trade union after the May 4 Assembly election results.
While a large number of Trinamool student leaders attempted to project themselves as ABVP activists, several Trinamool workers who were not allowed direct entry into the BJP started claiming to be BMS members in a bid to take control of small unions such as those of autorickshaw and battery-driven rickshaw operators.
The state leadership of the ABVP said it had so far lodged 17 police complaints against new groups operating in the outfit's name and was continuing close surveillance across the state to identify such organisations.
On Thursday, the state unit of the students’ wing issued a press release regarding a fake ABVP letterhead that had allegedly been used to submit a memorandum to governor R.N. Ravi against certain activities of the Trinamool Chhatra Parishad (TMCP) and some proposals related to Burdwan University.
“Since the May 4 election results, many student unions belonging to the TMCP have changed their social media identities and started using the ABVP name.
Several social media groups that were earlier named TMCP have been using our name to mislead students. We have already registered 17 police complaints and are continuing awareness campaigns on social media to help people identify such fake outfits,” ABVP state secretary Neelkantha Bhattacharjee said.
“Those who are using our name to mislead students will not be able to continue this practice for long, as we have units in all districts and educational institutions. We are urging students who wish to join the ABVP to contact our organisational leaders directly,” he added.
West Bengal is not merely another Indian state.
Partitioned in 1947 on religious lines during the violent birth of India and Pakistan, it shares a border of more than 2,200 kilometres with Bangladesh and has long occupied a central place in India’s political imagination.
Muslims constitute roughly 27 percent of the state’s population and have historically voted strategically to block the BJP’s rise.
Kalitala, Malda Dist., West Bengal, May 2019: : An Ekal school with 25 kids under a giant banyan tree in a tiny hamlet, Kalitala, in Habibpur developmental block of Malda district, bordering Bangladesh. Photo: 'The Hindu' newspaper
As ideological barriers give way and political activists switch sides, the BJP is relying on its tried and tested ways of getting into the mainstream on the strength of a host of communal organisations.
In 2018, it was reported that it's not the RSS, but a splinter group, which has has come out of the organisation, that has become the force of Hindutva in West Bengal.
Hindu Samhati, the organisation created by former RSS pracharak Tapan Ghosh in 2008, was at the centre of the storm.
The organisation was found to be one of the forces involved in communal tension in Malda where miscreants had torched a police station and decamped with important police documents.
The forum made headlines again when its members clashed with a Muslim fundamentalist group in Basirhat.
Districts with large Muslim populations witnessed some of the highest voter deletions. The process lacked transparency, while AI-assisted “logical discrepancy” software disproportionately flagged Muslim names because of transliteration inconsistencies between Urdu, Bengali and English spellings.
The Supreme Court of India intervened several times but ultimately allowed the process to continue.
Millions filed appeals after discovering their names had disappeared from the rolls. Yet more than 3.4 million appeals remained pending before polling, with fewer than 2,000 cleared in time. The court ruled that voters whose appeals had not been decided would still be barred from voting in the election, although their names could theoretically be restored later.
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