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‘Will pay back, inch by inch’: BJP sets tone for Bengal assembly polls, it’s violent
Violence has marked all recent elections and the crucial Assembly elections in 2021 are unlikely to be an exception.
Marking a radical change in public posture, the Bengal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has adopted aggression since Friday, with use of words such as revenge and payback causing discomfort for the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC).
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, BJP won 18 of the state’s 42 seats, marking the party’s highest ever growth in Bengal. Violence has marked all recent elections and the crucial Assembly elections in 2021 are unlikely to be an exception.
“If another party worker of ours is touched we will burn down the Danton police station,” BJP state general secretary Sayantan Basu said at a demonstration in West Midnapore district on Saturday, triggering a strong reaction. Basu made the inflammatory remark in the presence of BJP state president Dilip Ghosh. The duo led the agitation to condemn the murder of a local party worker.
In what is being seen as a chain reaction, Basu’s convoy was obstructed in Hooghly district by agitating TMC workers on Sunday. “Since the last panchayat polls, 104 BJP workers have been murdered in Bengal. Had I not stopped the angry people in West Midnapore, all policemen present at the spot would have been lynched. Police stations have become TMC offices. We will pay back, inch by inch” said Basu.
Significantly, the aggression in BJP’s approach surfaced on Friday when Ghosh tweeted a new slogan: “Badla o hobe, badal o hobe.” (There will be revenge as well as change). The slogan appeared with Ghosh’s photo and a map of West Bengal.
With all eyes fixed on the Assembly polls, the new slogan became a direct reply to Banerjee’s slogan before the historic 2011 polls in which she overthrew the 34-year-old Left govt. “Badla noi, badal chai” (We need change, not revenge) Banerjee had said, implying that if TMC came to power it would not seek revenge for the political killings during the Left regime headed by the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
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By raising a completely different slogan with the same words, Ghosh wants to fan aggression, said political observers. Ghosh, however, stood his ground.
“People understand only the language they speak. Cowards talk of forgiveness. Only violence can be the reply to violence,” Ghosh told reporters on Sunday on the sidelines of a World Yoga Day event. Though Ghosh referred to China, his statement was read with a different connotation altogether.
“BJP is like the Jaish-e-Mohammed. They are terrorists. People should keep them out. They will destroy Bengal,” quipped the mayor of Kolkata and urban development minister Firhad Hakim.
“Ghosh’s new slogan will definitely increase violence. It is time to observe how voters react to it,” said Tapas Roy, minister of state for parliamentary affairs.
“These are signs of insanity. Mamata Banerjee came to power saying there would be no badla or revenge but she did just the opposite. The same TMC people who perpetrated violence are now with the BJP,” said Sujan Chakraborty, CPI(M) legislator from Jadavpur and leader of the Left Front in the Assembly.
Incidentally, on June 9, Union home minister Amit Shah sharpened his attack on the chief minister, saying that while democracy has strengthened its roots in the entire country West Bengal remains the only state where political violence is propagated.
Shah made the remark during his ‘West Bengal Jan Samvad’ virtual rally. Paying homage to party workers who lost their lives since 2014, he said, “I pay my respect to their families as they’ve contributed to the development of Sonar Bangla (golden Bengal).”
BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha said, “Banerjee’s slogan ‘Badla noi, badal chai’ gave an assurance of peace to people who were tired of the CPI(M)’s politics of violence. TMC came to power as a savior of the masses but eventually betrayed them. People are tired of this violence. BJP wants to establish peace and development.”
“Ghosh’s slogan does not reflect a politically civilised attitude. The common man wants peace above everything else. Voters don’t expect their representatives to propagate violence,” said Udayan Bandopadhyay, a Kolkata-based professor of political science.
Before coming to power in 2011, Mamata Banerjee promised to end political violence but killings and turf wars continued.
The 2018 panchayat polls saw a spate in violence. While only 10 people died on the day of polling, against an all-time high of 76 in 2003 and 39 in 2013, the elections stood out because of rigging, booth capturing and burning of ballot papers in front of the media and policemen. More people were killed after the elections.
TMC, which won 34 % of the panchayat seats uncontested, was blamed for resorting to violence because the state election commission had been asked by the Calcutta high court and the Supreme Court to ensure free and fair elections. The poll results triggered the rise of the BJP.
