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Correspondent

21 August 2024 at 10:20:16 am

Grim Reckoning

The heckling of Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee during the latter’s visit to Sonarpur is a stark reminder that fear has an expiry date. For years, West Bengal’s politics has been defined by intimidation. First the Communist, and later during Mamata Banerjee’s TMC regimes, the state’s political discourse has been overwhelmingly accompanied by violence, cadre dominance, partisan policing and a culture in which dissenters were expected to keep their heads down and their opinions to...

Grim Reckoning

The heckling of Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee during the latter’s visit to Sonarpur is a stark reminder that fear has an expiry date. For years, West Bengal’s politics has been defined by intimidation. First the Communist, and later during Mamata Banerjee’s TMC regimes, the state’s political discourse has been overwhelmingly accompanied by violence, cadre dominance, partisan policing and a culture in which dissenters were expected to keep their heads down and their opinions to themselves. Whether in villages, municipalities or university campuses, countless Bengalis, especially the Hindu community, have complained that political power was exercised not only through the ballot box but through fear during the TMC rule. Against this backdrop, the scenes that unfolded during Abhishek Banerjee’s Sonarpur visit was a symbolic moment. The TMC political class that once inspired fear suddenly found itself confronting fearlessness and the ire of ordinary citizens. Trinamool leaders accustomed to hectoring and threatening the public were forced to face its ire as Abhishek was heckled and pelted with eggs. The Trinamool Congress would be mistaken if it dismisses the episode as an isolated incident. Across West Bengal after the polls, there is a palpable anger against TMC leaders and their henchmen. That simmering rage appears increasingly difficult to contain. For years, Abhishek Banerjee had projected himself as the heir apparent to Bengal’s ruling establishment, speaking haughtily with the confidence of a man convinced that power was permanently on his side. Now that the TMC is out of power, Sonarpur offered a starkly different picture. It showed what happens when politicians who are accustomed to commanding the public are suddenly confronted by it. From the horrors of Sandeshkhali to the public fury unleashed after the R.G. Kar outrage, West Bengal witnessed episode after episode that laid bare the TMC’s intimidation and moral corruption. The crowd that confronted Abhishek Banerjee at Sonarpur was venting years of accumulated resentment against a political culture many Bengalis had come to associate with arrogance, patronage and strong-arm tactics. They reflected what a significant section of the public has increasingly come to see as the moral bankruptcy of a political order that believed it could rule indefinitely through fear and organisational muscle. Abhishek Banerjee, more than any other TMC leader, had became the face of that system. The hostility he encountered in Sonarpur was political payback delivered by a public no longer willing to whisper its anger. While no civilised society should endorse mob violence, no politician can expect public sympathy after years of bullying and intimidating citizens. He or she must realize that political arrogance has consequences and that public anger, when it finally erupts, grinds even the most powerful dynasties to dust. Abhishek Banerjee’s reception in Sonarpur may therefore prove to be more than an embarrassing political episode. It may become the defining image of Trinamool’s final decline and fall.

A Grand Gamble

The Mahagathbandhan gears up to take on Narendra Modi’s juggernaut in Bihar, but unity may prove more elusive than slogans suggest.

Bihar
Bihar

Ringing in Bihar’s election season, the Mahagathbandhan (or ‘Grand Alliance’) has plunged into a frenzy of activity. Opposition leaders are crisscrossing Patna and beyond, holding strategic meetings to rally the ranks and craft a credible challenge to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its regional ally, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his Janata Dal (United). Yet beneath the surface of photo opportunities and declarations of unity, cracks are already beginning to show, and time may not be on the alliance’s side.


The immediate goal of this week’s gatherings is to steal some of the spotlight from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is set to visit Madhubani on Thursday. Over two days, the alliance’s key figures, including Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav, Congress leaders, and leftist parties, will deliberate on a common programme and attempt to project an image of cohesion. It is an image that the Mahagathbandhan desperately needs to project if it hopes to mount a serious challenge.


At the last such meeting, Yadav was appointed coordinator for the alliance’s activities in a symbolic, if not uncontested, endorsement of his leadership. The idea, insiders said, was to ensure that the campaign would not degenerate into a personality clash between Tejashwi and the NDA, but rather be seen as a broad coalition effort. Even so, the underlying tensions were apparent: while RJD veterans speak confidently of Tejashwi as the face of the coalition, Congress leaders are markedly less enthusiastic.


The Congress, never an easy partner, is demanding clarity on seat-sharing at the earliest – a demand echoed by the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist). In private, Congress functionaries fret that the RJD will attempt to corner the lion’s share of the constituencies by invoking its voter base among Yadavs and other Other Backward Classes (OBCs).


In 2020, Congress contested 70 seats, only to suffer a drubbing, winning just 19. This time, party bosses, including national president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, are pressing for an equal or higher share, emboldened by internal calculations that the BJP’s alliance with Nitish Kumar has weakened its hold on Bihar.


While Kumar, once hailed as ‘Sushasan Babu’ (Mr. Good Governance), is indeed a diminished figure, the BJP’s formidable election machinery remains a daunting force.


Meanwhile, the Mahagathbandhan’s internal messaging remains muddled. In public, senior Congress figures in Bihar, like Akhilesh Prasad Singh, declare Tejashwi Yadav the undisputed chief ministerial face. In the same breath, others, like Bihar Congress in-charge Krishna Allavaru, insist that no final decision has been made. The RJD sees Tejashwi’s projection as crucial for energising the youth and OBC vote base that it traditionally banks on.


Adding to the confusion is the lack of a coherent narrative. Leaders like Mukesh Sahni of the Vikassheel Insaan Party and Kunal of the CPI(ML) speak passionately about unemployment, migration and Bihar’s chronic underdevelopment. But these issues risk being drowned out in an election season dominated by caste calculations and political intrigue. Worse, the Opposition’s critique of the NDA government sounds hollow unless accompanied by fresh solutions.


The Mahagathbandhan’s great advantage is its caste arithmetic. With the RJD commanding Yadav-Muslim votes, the Congress tapping into upper-caste minorities, and the Left and regional parties courting Dalits and other OBC groups, the alliance has the theoretical numbers to challenge the NDA. The risk, however, is that the alliance’s heavy dependence on caste groups may alienate younger voters, who yearn for economic opportunity rather than symbolic representation.


If the Mahagathbandhan fails to sort out its leadership questions and seat-sharing headaches before campaigning begins in earnest, it will once again find itself outgunned, outspent and outmanoeuvred.


For now, Bihar’s Grand Alliance is betting that common cause against PM Modi and Nitish Kumar will be enough to keep its squabbling partners tethered together. History, however, suggests otherwise. In Indian politics, unity forged in opposition often shatters under the strain of ambition.

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