For Bengal BJP, why the Sharmistha Panoli case was a timely one
While the social media influencer, arrested over communal posts, is out on interim bail, her case illustrates that the BJP is sticking to its strategy of labelling the TMC as an “anti-Hindu” party.
Sharmishta Panoli was arrested from her Gurgaon residence on Friday afternoon. (Express Photo) 
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Sharmistha Panoli walked out of a Kolkata prison last Friday, a day after the Calcutta High Court granted her interim bail in a case of communal posts. With this, the BJP in Bengal, which took up the case to target the Mamata Banerjee government over alleged police high-handedness and Muslim “appeasement”, claimed victory and Leader of Opposition in the state, Suvendu Adhikari, said justice had been served.
Adhikari alleged the police never acted against Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders, from Mamata Banerjee to Mahua Moitra and Firhad Hakim, who had made “objectionable remarks” about Hindu deities and festivals, whereas Panoli’s comment, which she “later deleted and apologised for”, attracted police action. “Where is this same zeal when idols of Hindu deities are vandalised in West Bengal? When stone-pelting happens on Ram Navami & Hanuman Jayanti processions…,” he asked.
Not just Adhikari, other senior BJP leaders, including Union Minister and state unit president Sukanta Majumdar also came out in Panoli’s support, saying, “The 30% have to be defeated, 30% have to be convinced of the power of traditional Hindus, so let’s organise a united voice across your social media, ‘I want the liberation of traditional Sharmistha.’ #istandwithsharmishtha …”
As the top BJP leaders threw their weight behind the 22-year-old, with BJP MLA Agnimitra Paul and state BJP legal cell member Sanjukta Samanta filing police complaints against Wajahat Khan, whose complaint had led to the influencer’s arrest. Paul alleged that the police were shielding Khan because of “Muslim appeasement”. A fringe Hindu outfit calling itself the Shree Ram Swabhiman Parishad wrote a letter to the Jail Superintendent of Alipore Women’s Correctional Home, alleging a threat to the 22-year-old’s life and demanding better security arrangements for her.
The BJP’s pushback was in line with its strategy of painting the TMC as anti-Hindu and claiming that its Muslim appeasement politics is marginalising the majority community in the state. This strategy has been apparent in the party’s public positioning since the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government in Bangladesh last year — the party and the larger rightwing ecosystem drew parallels between the situation in the neighbouring country, where Hindus were reported to have come under attack, and the state. Its allegations gained momentum after the communal violence in Murshidabad in April, following protests against the amended Waqf law, in which three people were killed. And as the Trinamool looked to have weathered the storm — the inauguration of a Jagannath temple in the coastal town of Digha in Purba Medinipur district was a signal to the Hindu voters in the state — came the Panoli case.
The TMC’s dominance in West Bengal has been fuelled by a combination of factors, including the consolidation of minority votes, the votes of women due to its social welfare initiatives, and the success in painting the BJP as a party of outsiders. It has also been helped by the fact that there has not been a counter-consolidation of Hindu votes behind the BJP and this is something that the Opposition party appears to be trying to change ahead of the all-important Assembly elections next year.
The TMC has responded to the BJP, alleging that Panoli had knowingly put up the posts for social media clout and to gain rightwing attention. Party spokesperson Riju Datta said the Kolkata Police had done its duty by “carrying out the court’s warrant” and appealed to the youth and their parents not to get “influenced by the RW cabal run by BJP IT Cell … they will earn their salary hiding behind a cellphone but your children’s lives will be spoiled forever”.
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