Before 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the dreams of BJP to spread to Bengal seems like a daydream. Read why:
Bengal will shine under BJP is what the national president of
the Bharatiya Janata Party asserted during his three-day visit as a part of the
programme taken up by the party to commemorate Deen Dayal Upadhyay’s birth
centenary.
With Thursday (April 27, 2017) marking the end of Shah’s
visit, what is left behind is a question. A formidable one especially if we
consider the party’s growth in terms of national politics. Will Bengal too be
shrouded in the saffron cloak?
Bengal is one of those few states of the country where the
BJP has yet not been able to make much inroads. But will it really be able to
carve out even a small portion of Bengal? This seems to be a distant dream, at
least till 2019. However, times may change post next Lok Sabha elections which
is no less important than another turning point in Indian politics as the
elections will either paint the country saffron or mar the vision of BJP.
My grandmother used to often paint a picture in my mind
through her stories of a village during sunset where cows returned to their
sheds raising a crimson dust with their hooves in the air thus shrouding the
entire village in a coloured dust which in Bengali is termed Godhuli and the BJP’s advancing steps
across the nation paints almost a similar picture in my mind. The difference,
however, is that the earlier one created a soothing effect in my mind while the
latter paints a rather threatening image and I quickly stir myself awake.
Post 2019 Lok Sabha polls, a BJP government in Bengal is not
absolutely unimaginable. More so, if the claims of EVM tampering are to be
believed. However, if the party tries to enter Bengal in a sane manner that is
without the alleged EVM tampering method, the party will have to cross a lot of
rough seas and chances of a major boat capsize is not unimaginable.
Bengal has never accepted any party which is even remotely communal.
One might call the Mamata Banerjee-government communal, one that spreads a
minority appeasing policy but I see no threat to any other religion in the
state as well.
The way the state has rejected the CPI(M) and even uprooted
it from its capacity of the principal Opposition in the Bengal Assembly, topped
by the deplorable condition of the Congress (the present principal Opposition
in Bengal), at the most the BJP can get a few more seats (more than Congress)
and be the principal Opposition.
Now, here
comes the twist. What next?
As said before, the party will not be able to gain much
ground till 2019 but the situation post 2019 entirely lies on how it fairs in
the Lok Sabha polls. If BJP comes back to power with a thumping victory, times
would really be hard for Bengal and a BJP-led Bengal government will not be a
surprise.
However, the kind of politics the BJP practices should be
nipped at the bud. Spreading lies, hatred in the name of religion (not directly
but definitely indirectly) is simply not acceptable.
Amit Shah during his three-day visit said that Bengal is the
only state in the country that has the maximum number of poor living. My
question is, how does he then term Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Manipur,
Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha, Bihar and Assam?
The BJP has been constantly spreading that Mamata Banerjee is
stopping processions on Ram Navami but is carefully not mentioning that the
state is opposed to the idea of brandishing swords and arms in any religious
procession which is at par with the law of the country. Thus, lies, in the name
of religion for political benefits will find least space in Bengal. And it is
high time a national party behaves like one and rather extends a helping hand
to all the states and let the regional parties function peacefully and not run
after realising its political ambitions in terms of spreading its tentacles
across the nation. After all, when we voted for Narendra Modi, we had expected
him to give us a better India, if not daydream about Rs 14 lakh in our
accounts!
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