The storm ahead!

The storm ahead!

The message was cryptic, a purported survey of a shock result for the ruling party in the hottest seat of Bengal. It could be a fake post but bore a screenshot of a famous strategist. Was I surprised? No.

Mamata Banerjee has been a fearless fighter all along, taking risks that none other would. Sometimes, such perilous adventurism boomerangs and paralyzes a well-established system. Mamata’s choice of Nandigram was faulty to the core. She has no other faces as strong as hers to campaign and is direly needed elsewhere and everywhere in the State to prop her candidates’ chances.

The BJP, on the contrary, had trapped Mamata largely in a single constituency. Added to this, Mamata has been confined to a wheelchair, severely arresting her movements on and off the dais. Strategically, it is a climbdown for Didi to change from a fiery striker in a soccer final to a defender. The BJP is tiring her out, and the desperation is telling on her speeches, laced more intensely with uncharacteristic abuses and personal attacks. Everything around her seems cinematic, and instead of invoking sympathy, the pull-push and the diatribes seem unprofessional and comical.

Mamata’s promises of jobs and industries sound hollow. What could not be achieved in ten years may be difficult to achieve until 2024, when the BJP would still be running the Central Government. The secular pundits are ranting over the dangers of opting for the BJP as an alternative. My question to them would be, who else? The disproven Left, non-existent Congress and a communal ISF combine?

‘Jai Shri Ram’ is not a religious chant. It is a form of protest against the misdeeds of the Mamata Government. Those chanting are jobless youths, people dislodged by cyclone Amphan, the poor who were denied the relief monies usurped by party leaders and such. Merely to keep her minority vote bank happy, Mamata feigned anger at people shouting JSR, which further enthused her opponents. The chant soon became a political weapon to polarise the citizens. JSR is way better than “Hum kya chahte -Azadi (what do we want- freedom) and ‘le ke rahenge-Azadi’ (we shall seize – freedom) that resonated during the Shaheen Bagh protests in Delhi.

Neither religion nor nationalism driven fundamentalism can feed hungry bellies. TMC needs the courage to introspect and admit its failures rather than camouflaging them in blue and white paint.

While I wish the deserving party and their candidates to win, I pray that Bengal does not deliver a hung house to further slide down into the inglorious horse-trading or allowing entry of not so secular ISF to become the kingmaker.

Sampath Kumar
Intrépide Voix