Mamata’s sorrows have multiplied after playing the seasonal Hindu card while BJP is at an advantage already in battleground West Bengal

 

Battleground West Bengal has heated up and how! The clash of the titans is no longer just about who wins the high-stakes eastern state but with four phases having culminated already, the election has become a monumental battle of pride for the competing forces. 

On the one side is the mercurial Chief Minister of the state Mamata Banerjee, who in her latest wheelchair-bound avatar post the controversial accident she was involved in during her campaign trail in Nandigram last month, has baffled one and all by recently making a reference to her gotra in order to please Hindu voters. Although, earlier in January, she got upset with ‘Jai Shri Ram’ chants at an event in Kolkata held to pay tribute to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on his 124th birth anniversary. 

And on the other hand is the supremely confident Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the forefront of a boisterous campaign, presenting itself as the choice that will change the fortunes of the state and trying to convince Bengal’s electorate that the Trinamool Congress’s (TMC) victory in the assembly polls will neither be in their interest nor in the larger national interest. 

image source : tv9hindi.com

West Bengal’s political configuration saw a paradigm shift from left to right in the 2019 general elections when the BJP won 18 out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats from the state with a vote share of nearly 41 per cent, emerging as the second-largest party after the Trinamool. The party will look to better its performance in the 2021 Bengal assembly polls by swinging the vote share further in its favour as compared to 2019. Poll pundits predict that a 2 per cent positive swing in its vote share will see the BJP triumphing over the TMC.

Be that as it may, the Bengal verdict is still some distance away with four more phases to go. The picture will become clear in the next couple of weeks but for now, the battle is as intense as it gets. The script could not have been any more dramatic. The Mahayudh has forced Didi to reach out to the Hindu vote bank at the cost of Muslim appeasement which comes more naturally to her brand of politics and also at the expense of antagonising Muslim leaders such as Asaduddin Owaisi of the AIMIM. 

image source : indiatvnews.com

Mamata’s sorrows 

Mamata Banerjee’s election campaign has been a saga of desperation and paranoia. After blaming BJP supporters for allegedly attacking her during her campaign trail in Nandigram on March 10 - an allegation which the Election Commission found baseless and called the episode an accident instead of a planned attack - Mamata has made her anxiety pretty evident through her recent statements like “Ek paye Bangla joy korbo, dui paye Delhi agami dine (Will win Bengal with one foot, will win Delhi with both feet in future.” Her far-fetched political ambitions have made her oblivious to the reality that her fortress is under siege. If anything, this is a telltale sign of a tall political leader who has lost touch with ground reality and trying arduously to win over voters by promising something she cannot deliver. 

image source : theweek.in

By portraying herself as a devout Hindu and the custodian of the Bengali culture while accusing the BJP of being anti-Muslim and ignorant of Bengal’s heritage, Mamata Banerjee has committed a trademark mistake that the anti-Modi lobby constituted by the Congress and other left parties does in every election season. This lame formula of playing the regional card or the Muslim card or both together has only played into the hands of the BJP, which has tasted electoral success in assembly elections in recent years on more occasions than one. By resorting to the same tactic, the West Bengal CM may only have further ruined the chances of her reelection. 

Another peculiar fact to have emerged from TMC’s poll campaign is Mamata Banerjee’s rather uncharacteristically apologetic attitude, albeit just pretence for political gains. The party’s fear of losing out on its voter base in its traditional bastions is perceptible. Mamata implored Hooghly voters last week to retain faith in the party despite the goof-ups, as admitted by her, done by her close aide and Saptagram MLA Tapan Dasgupta. Notwithstanding her audacious demeanour, Mamata’s gestures have made it abundantly clear that she is cognizant of the chinks in her armour. What this means in the broader context is that a possible defeat at the hands of the BJP looms large in the mind of the West Bengal CM. 

Seasonal Hindu

Wooing Hindu voters by masquerading as dedicated Hindus during elections has become a reprehensible trend in India’s recent electoral history as far as the opposition politicians are concerned. The Hindu card has been blatantly abused by the Hindu-hating lobby purely with the intent to overpower the BJP’s colossal popularity within the Hindu community - a party that has rightly dominated the Hindu sentiment in India for decades.

image source : freepressjournal.in

In a bid to embolden the chances of her return to power, Mamata Banerjee jumped into the same bandwagon of political opportunism by making an unprecedented reference to her Gotra, calling herself a Shandilya, during the last leg of TMC’s poll campaigning in Nandigram. This was enough to irk the BJP and people like Asaduddin Owaisi alike who castigated the TMC chief for being a seasonal Hindu. The two sides of the ideological spectrum coming together to unequivocally accuse Mamata Banerjee of being a desperate politician, who resorts to communal politics to retain power, speaks volumes of the nature of governance that West Bengal has witnessed over the years under its current CM. 

Quite rightly, according to the BJP leader Giriraj Singh, the apprehension of facing a possible defeat at the hands of the BJP has brought out the periodic Hindu in Mamata Banerjee in the form of her mention of her gotra but what about the gotra of Rohingyas and infiltrators who she has backed throughout her tenure as the chief minister of West Bengal. Are they Shandilya too?

This is all but a laughable political gimmick which will, in all likelihood, get its answer once the result is out on May 2. 

 

 

Political colour gained by farmers’ agitation is more conspicuous than ever, reminiscent of the controversial birth of AAP post the historic Lokpal campaign

Turn the clock back a decade to the historic Jan Lokpal agitation that captured the imagination of the Indian public and there can be little debate on the point that the biggest, although perhaps not the most pleasant, consequence that emerged from the campaign was the stupefying birth of a political outfit in late 2012 called the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) under rather controversial circumstances. 

The riveting turn of events in the past that led to the creation of a political heavyweight in his own right, the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, is reminiscent in many ways of the political colour that the current scenario vis-a-vis the so-called farmers’ protest has gained. 

Lately, the theatre has shown some of its principal protagonists throwing their weight behind the political competitors of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the regions that soon go to polls. Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait’s recent rant against the Modi government and the BJP in West Bengal, where Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the BJP under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi are locked in a fierce electoral battle, is a case in point. 

image source : oneindia.com

Have Rakesh Tikait and the like gradually become to the farmers’ agitation what Arvind Kejriwal and his team eventually became to the Lokpal struggle? It is a pertinent juxtaposition, make no mistake. Both scenarios hint at the use of public sentiment or the aspirations of a particular section of the society for the furtherance of one’s personal or collective political ambitions, which can by no means be considered to fall within the bounds of morality or propriety. 

Another common denominator that reflects an uncanny resemblance between the Kejriwal-AAP saga and the maneuverers taken by Rakesh Tikait is the manner in which the latter recently took a dig at the opposition for not coming out in full support of the agitation by farm unions due to fear of being targeted by the Modi government. 

While addressing a farmers’ mahapanchayat at Pipar in Jodhpur, Tikait minced no words in castigating the UPA for their ambivalent and lacklustre commitment to the famers’ cause, stating “their (opposition’s) old deeds are coming in their way and they are scared, in case they get entangled in any issue or investigation.”

One can draw a parallel between the scenario mentioned above and the equidistance that the Aam Aadmi Party in its infancy maintained from the BJP and the Congress, albeit only to align with the Congress when Kejriwal’s party formed its first government in Delhi post the 2013 Assembly elections in which AAP won the second-highest number of seats after the BJP in a hung assembly. 

Only time will tell whether Tikait’s castigation of the Congress and the UPA at large is a sign of the protesting farm groups eventually banding together to enter the political fray as it happened in the case of AAP. But the massive political overtones that this so-called democratic movement has garnered in recent weeks is yet another evidence to the fact that the agenda of the protest is by no means to fight for the rights of the farmers. The ulterior motive is to make political inroads and jeopardise the Modi government’s reformist vision pertaining to new farm laws. 

image source : English.jagran.com

The borders of the national capital have witnessed chaos and commotion ever since the protests began in November last year against the three reformist farm laws introduced by the Modi government - Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; the Farmers Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.

The Long haul 

There have been media reports galore this month about concrete houses being built near Delhi’s borders for the agitating farmers. The Kisan Social Army has been reported to have erected 25 permanent brick houses at the Tikri border near Haryana and the farmers are having to shell out just Rs 20,000 - 25,000 as the construction cost for each house. This is because they only bear the cost of the raw material and not the labour which is being offered to them free of cost. According to reports, there are plans to build around 2000 such concrete structures in the coming weeks. As per some reports, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) has confirmed that masons from Punjab have especially been assigned the task of helping to build two-storeyed ‘pucca’ houses for farmers at the Singhu border.

image source : tribuneindia.com

With the agitation expected to be continued for months to come, the construction of permanent shelters has been attributed to an exorbitant summer in the offing as building concrete houses will protect the protesting farmers from the intense heat once the temperatures start soaring. 

Clearly, the idea is to keep things on the boil and adopt a multi-pronged approach in order to render as much publicity to the misplaced agitation as possible. After blocking highways, setting up makeshift shops and gymnasiums at protest sites, having pizza brunches, etc - the intention to now stamp authority, as a perpetually agitating group by constructing permanent shelters, is more conspicuous than ever. It is a deliberate ploy to engross the government further in the developments of this farcical protest that aims to sabotage agricultural reforms in the country. 

Hence, it is not intriguing at all that the chief architects of this anti-establishment agitation such as Rakesh Tikait - who at a Mahapanchayat in Kolkata earlier this month accused the Modi government of deceiving the farmers of the country and tried to stir up anti-Modi sentiments within the farmers’ community in Bengal - are going a level up by openly appealing the electorate in poll-bound states like West Bengal to cast their votes against the BJP. 

The game is simple. Whatever hurts the government’s plan of action with regard to the new farm laws will be employed as a tool in the name of democratic dissent by protesting groups such as the BKU. 

Moreover, it is cherry on the cake if the same helps put roadblocks against the BJP’s acceleration in the poll-bound states of West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and the Union Territory of Puducherry.

 

Nationalists must repose faith in Modi government’s J&K policy which is gradually reaping dividends, cynicism and skepticism will only hurt the nationalistic cause

Talk about the separatist lobby in Kashmir gradually losing their mojo and becoming irrelevant in the larger scheme of things! The current scenario reflects a conspicuous representation of the same. 

Oddly enough, despite having tasted electoral success in the District Development Council (DDC) elections - the first-ever democratic exercise post the abolition of Article 370 and 35A and bifurcation of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir - there has hardly been any resuscitation of the wily secessionist agenda which the mainstream separatist politicians in Kashmir have been running overtly and covertly for years. 

One could attribute this oddness to a host of factors but arguably one of the biggest factors is the clarity and efficacy with which the Modi government has approached its Kashmir policy in the last two years, giving a clear-cut answer to detractors and antagonists. 

image source : peoplesreview.in

In his address to the Parliament earlier in February, National Conference Chairman and Lok Sabha MP Farooq Abdullah invoked Nehru and Patel while playing the Muslim card like a broken record and condemning the scrapping of J&K’s special status as an effort to estrange Kashmir’s majority Muslim community. Abdullah’s rant was a reiteration of duplicity which India has witnessed for decades - stating how “faithful” and “loyal” the NC and other Kashmiri political birds of the same feather are to the Union of India. 

However, his speech reeked of the desperation of a stalwart Kashmiri political leader who has now reduced to a shadow of his former self, sending out a strong impression those in the valley with separatist and anti-establishment leanings have resigned to the fact that the times of treating Kashmir as a cottage industry to ensure its delineation from the rest of India are long gone. 

image source : greaterkashmir.com

The Modi government and those working towards the nationalistic cause can take heart from the fact that even after managing 110 seats in the DDC polls as against the BJP’s 75 although the former failed to cross the halfway mark of 140, the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) looks lacklustre and deterred by the manner in which J&K is amalgamating with the Indian mainstream in this new chapter in the region’s modern history.

NC, which is the principal party in the Gupkar alliance, and other frontline players such as the PDP are languishing in the same old boat of separatism while masquerading as political parties pledged to the Indian constitution, without having a fresh narrative to offer to their voter base in Kashmir. 

The alliance has turned itself into a bunch of cats on a hot tin roof, whose anxiety to maintain political relevance is easy to gauge. In the absence of a new blueprint, the alliance is having to resort to the old tricks in the book which have become obsolete in the Modi era. It is fair to argue, therefore, that despite having consolidated themselves as a unit and done reasonably well in the DDC polls, the Gupkar lobby is at its weakest today. 

If the current scheme of things does not beckon the advent of a new era in J&K's political landscape ensuring unadulterated allegiance to the Indian Constitution, it is difficult to tell what does. If this does not infer that the Modi government’s renewed Kashmir policy after the abrogation of Article 370 is slowly but steadily reaping the desired harvest, it is difficult to tell what does. 

The restoration of 4G internet services in all parts of J&K and the passing of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill 2021 in February, which brings around 170 central laws in the UT, are developments that demonstrate the return of not just political normalcy in the region but also stability in a holistic sense.

Speaking in favour of the bill in Lok Sabha, Home Minister Amit Shah reiterated and reassured in unambiguous terms that the government was committed to restoring J&K’s full statehood “at an appropriate time”. Shah made it abundantly clear, as he and PM Modi always have, that the union territory status of J&K is temporary and the region will return to its earlier status of a state once the government is convinced of a conducive and harmonious atmosphere in Kashmir. 

image source : newsonair.com

Delimitation and resentment among separatist Kashmiri leaders 

NC’s refusal to associate with the Delimitation Commission hints at the broader strategy of the Gupkar lobby to create roadblocks in process of J&K’s political recovery. In February, NC Members of Parliament - Farooq Abdullah, Muhammad Akbar Lone and Hasnain Masoodi informed the Delimitation Commission about their inability to be a part of the commission and urged against the delimitation exercise, as the J&K Reorganization Act 2019 is under judicial scrutiny in the Supreme Court of India. 

Delimitation has been high on the agenda for a long time as far as the Modi government is concerned and for the right reasons. It is an exercise that is imperative to put an end to years of dichotomy in political representation between Jammu and Kashmir wherein the former has perennially been treated as the lesser, with its seat share almost always less than its share of population and electorate. All the chief ministers in the erstwhile state of J&K, barring Ghulam Nabi Azad, have been Kashmiri-speaking Muslims belonging to Kashmir. 

Through delimitation, the government hopes to address longstanding concerns about Jammu’s political underrepresentation and guarantee adequate representation to Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs). An increase in the number of assembly constituencies, the introduction of reservation for STs, the extension of the right to vote in assembly elections to West Pakistan refugees in the region and border alterations have led to the indispensability of a timely delimitation. 

Delimitation will ensure that the regions of Jammu and Kashmir attain political parity. Naturally, the idea of delimitation does not go down well with the Muslim-majority separatist political fraternity in Kashmir and hence the resentment. 

But despite the clarity of purpose in the government’s J&K roadmap - 

there seems to be a growing trend of pessimism and mistrust regarding the same among a section of cynics and skeptics in India’s nationalistic circles, not just within the lobby and the united political opposition. This sudden surge in dislike for the Modi government’s Kashmir blueprint, particularly among Kashmiri nationalists who have adopted a critical tone against the administration’s approach, is misplaced.

This is the time for Kashmiri nationalists and nationalists spread across India and everywhere in the world to repose faith in Modi’s Kashmir vision, although with constructive criticism wherever necessary. However, reckless and unwarranted criticism unleashed by nationalists will only play into the hands of the pseudo-secular lobby who lick their lips at any opportunity of creating rift and confusion among the ones devoted to Indian nationalism.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfazed by lobby’s intimidation and propagandist commentary by western activists and celebrities, the Modi government stands resolute in its push for agri reforms

 

Two weeks since the unprecedented Republic Day violence hit the streets of the national capital at the hands of extremists and arsonists masquerading as farmers fighting for their rights, the so-called farmers’ agitation has witnessed plenty of new twists and turns. 

Following the Government’s decision to clear the protest sites in the aftermath of the mayhem that erupted in Delhi on Republic Day - from a despondent and whimpering Rakesh Tikait of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) - one of the principal protagonists of the protest that has often turned belligerent - to some American pop stars, even porn stars and teenage climate activists intriguingly tweeting their support to the protesting farmers to a flop ‘Chakka Jam’ call by agitating farm unions on February 6 amid a simmering resurgence of protests activities - the extraordinary saga of the Modi government’s three reformist farm bills will be remembered for decades, especially for the unwarranted chaos and pandemonium that was unleashed against the progressive legislation.  

image source : PTI

A disturbing reality to have emerged from the ongoing propaganda movement is the efficacy with which the leftist-extremist lobby has been able to arouse anti-establishment emotions within a small section of the vast population of Indian farmers and amalgamate this minuscule faction with rowdy trouble-mongers in order to achieve the obnoxious goal of creating instability and anarchy in India through unruliness and disinformation. Unfortunately, it would not be wrong to admit that the lobby has been successful in their evil endeavour to a great extent. 

By now it is crystal clear that the rancour witnessed in and around Delhi is anything but a movement started and sustained by farmers. Foreign hand, working in collusion with India’s political opposition and the lobby at large, in the orchestration of a vicious anti-Modi anti-India campaign is more conspicuous than ever.

Considering all that has transpired in the last two months vis-a-vis the sham agitation against agri reforms, it is fair to argue that the present commotion is only a precursor of a malignant anti-India movement that is to follow, aimed at wreaking havoc in the country through whatever means possible. 

Sadly, this battle against a global syndicate that is constantly engaged in a virulent exercise of dishonouring and subverting India comes at a time when the Modi government has devoted itself to the task of remedying more than six decades of apathy and misgovernance. 

The hostile forces are aware that India is on the cusp of a major social, economic and political revolution. With CAA and farm laws being mere curtain raisers, some of the biggest reformist legislation in the form of uniform civil code, population control/regulation among others are in the pipeline. Therefore, the underlying motive is to blackmail and pressurise the government into pursuing a non-reformist agenda in the name of secularism and liberalism.  

However, the resolute Modi government has always been up to the task. The government was determined to stand by the Citizenship Amendment legislation when the bloody anti-CAA protests rocked Delhi and it is just as unwavering in its approach now while dealing with the farm laws protests. 

PM Modi has time and again reiterated his administration’s commitment to the farmers’ cause while at the same time standing his ground as far as the legitimacy and benefits of the three farm laws are concerned.

The government is aware that if they surrender to undue pressure now, it will become a precedent that imperils the practice of bold lawmaking aimed to reinvent India. 

A silly attempt that backfired 

Misguided commentary of backing the farmers’ agitation by American pop singer Rihanna, teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg and porn star Mia Khalifa has exposed the ill-intent of the international lobby against India. With speculation being rife that these self-proclaimed advocates of human rights were paid a huge sum by extremist Khalistani groups to add fuel to the fire, it is only heartening to find out that the dirty ploy has backfired for them badly. 

image source : Wikimedia, News18, Rihanna/Facebook

When India comes to the aid of the impoverished and the underprivileged world in pandemic times by supplying them the COVID-19 vaccine while rich countries indulge in hoarding vaccine doses, these celebrities do not come forward to admire and congratulate India for its humanitarian effort. But when it comes to tarnishing India’s image through false anti-establishment narrative, some of them are always at the forefront.

Although less could not be cared about the opinions of foreign pop stars and porn stars or media-hyped child activists over India’s internal matters, the brazenness with which the lobby has endorsed their misplaced and critical views hints at the level to which the lobby can stoop to satisfy its visceral hatred for the Modi government. 

image source : countercurrents.org

However, the one good thing that the controversy counterintuitively did was that it galvanised all right thinkers, patriots and nationalists of India into action. Hashtags such as #IndiaTogether and #IndiaAgainstPropaganda trended massively on Twitter with some of the biggest Indian celebrities pledging support to India’s unity against all extraneous and propagandist elements and calling out the western world for its hypocrisy and duplicity with regard to India. 

image source : thequint.com

The controversy also exposed political trouble makers - the Congress party and other UPA members. In a bid to express solidarity with the ill-informed western commentators, the united opposition ended up insulting the legendary Sachin Tendulkar, who incidentally was nominated to the Rajya Sabha by the same Congress party under the Manmohan Singh government, only because Tendulkar chose to stand for the unity of India in response to the divisive tweets sent out by Rihanna and the like supporting the farmers’ agitation. 

If that was not despicable enough, Maharashtra’s Maha Vikas Aghadi government earlier this week followed it up by ordering a probe into the pro-India tweets by Mumbai-based personalities - Sachin Tendulkar, Lata Mangeshkar, Akshay Kumar and others. The purpose of the investigation is to ascertain whether the Modi government coerced the personalities into tweeting their nationalistic feelings and condemning the agenda-driven foreign commentary on India’s domestic matters. 

As shocking as it gets - the Maharashtra government, in its attempt to make petty political gains, has stooped to a new low by hailing foreign commentary on India’s internal affairs while humiliating India’s Bharat Ratnas - Tendulkar and Mangeshkar - for expressing their nationalistic spirit. It is nothing but indicative of how deep and dirty the game of dividing and destabilising India is. 

The same Congress party, along with its allies, which takes the unmerited credit for being the chief architect of India’s independence despite having done precious little to prevent the country’s bifurcation, is now trying to promote disunity in the country using the anti-farm laws protests as a tool.

In the wake of the current turbulence, PM Modi’s recent “andolanjeevi” remark in the Rajya Sabha reflects the lobby’s ulterior aim to push India into a constant state of agitation and disharmony. Make no mistake, the jibe was not targeted at the farmers but the lobby-extremist nexus which has been shooting off the farmers’ shoulders. 

It also reaffirms that the Modi government stands as firmly to push agri reforms in India as it did before the protests had started and that it will not be swayed away from its primary objective of pursuing an overall reformist and progressive agenda in times to come.