This is an archive article published on September 8, 2017

Opinion Stage frights

Mamata Banerjee lets down her own, and the Opposition’s, cause by playing tit for tat politics with the BJP

Shyam rangeela, modi comedy video, pm modi, Great Indian Laughter Challenge, modi spoof taken down, indian express

September 8, 2017 12:15 AM IST First published on: Sep 8, 2017 at 12:15 AM IST

Mamata Banerjee, TMC Mohan Bhagwat, RSS, Amit Shah event cancelled, RSS event cancelled, Indian Express

Amit Shah has promoted a look east policy as part of the BJP’s preparation for the general elections in 2019.

Two events in West Bengal, where BJP national president Amit Shah and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat were the star attractions, have been cancelled. Bhagwat was to deliver the keynote address at the popular Mahajati Sadan in Kolkata, at an event commemorating Sister Nivedita’s 150th birth anniversary, but the booking was withdrawn by the authorities on the plea of repairs. Shah was to preside over a seminar at the state capital’s biggest venue, the Netaji Indoor Stadium, and his party was told to put in a formal application. When it was duly filed, the BJP was apparently told that the stadium was booked outright. Given her declared antipathy to the right, the hand of state chief minister Mamata Banerjee is not ruled out by the BJP and RSS.

To be sure, Banerjee was hit hard when the CBI filed chargesheets against almost the entire top leadership of her party over the Narada scam, and had threatened to jail BJP leaders in retaliation. Besides, Amit Shah has promoted a look east policy as part of the BJP’s preparation for the general elections in 2019, and the party’s presence in West Bengal has been growing. The most visible sign was aggressive Ram Navami celebrations, a novelty in Bengal’s cultural landscape. The BJP’s strategy takes advantage of Banerjee’s industrious cultivation of the Muslim vote, and has forced her to take evasive action by visiting the Puri temple and celebrating Hanuman, even as Trinamool Congress workers have joined in the Ram Navami game. Both sides in the contest for West Bengal appear willing to go right down to the wire.

But in getting down and dirty, Banerjee, who brought the Left low in West Bengal, may be doing a disservice not just to the rules of the game, but also to her own cause. Nitish Kumar’s absorption into the NDA alliance has left a void in the Opposition at the national level. However, to be a credible candidate for the role, which requires the width of view and the statesmanship to get divergent regional parties and interest groups with all their separate compulsions and contradictions to agree, she must rise above the pettiness which is seen to have typified West Bengal politics in recent years. The impression that she is denying the political right a voice in Kolkata by giving them stage frights, so to speak, cannot be a compelling credential to take to the national level.