Joy Maa Kali: How BJP’s New Bengal Chief Is Helping Bury Its ‘Outsider’ Stigma

Prime Minister Narendra Modi usually starts his political rallies with ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ and ‘Jai Shree Ram’.

But the large crowd gathered at Durgapur’s Nehru Stadium was pleasantly surprised when Modi started his address there on Friday (19 July) afternoon with ‘Jai Maa Kali’ and ‘Jai Maa Durga’.

Modi did raise the ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ slogan, but the portrait of ‘Bharat Mata’ on the backdrop of the dais was the one made by Abanindranath Tagore. It depicted a sanyasin clad in saffron with her four hands holding rice paddy husks, the Vedas, a white piece of cloth and a rudraksha mala. These four symbolised shiksha-diksha-anna-vastra.

This was instead of the usual one that shows a Goddess holding a saffron flag seated on a lion against the backdrop of a map of akhand Bharat. There was also a portrait of Maa Kali on the dais.

This attempt at 'acculturation' of the BJP is part of a larger project initiated by Samik Bhattacharya, the new state party chief, immediately after he assumed office earlier this month.

Bhattacharya, a Rajya Sabha MP, realised that if the BJP were to effectively counter the Trinamool Congress, it would have to shed its ‘North Indian’ and ‘outsider’ tag.

Bhattacharya, who joined the RSS at a very young age, is known for his love for and mastery over Bengali literature and classics. He can quote Tagore and Tolstoy with equal ease.

He is soft-spoken and articulate, and is known for his sharp oratorical skills and the ease with which he articulates the party’s stand even in very difficult situations.

An intelligent person who believes in leading through consensus and taking everyone along with him, Bhattacharya hit the ground running by reaching out to estranged predecessor Dilip Ghosh.

Ghosh had been sidelined in the party after his marriage to a Mahila Morcha functionary, and his presence at the Jagannath Mandir at Digha on the day it was inaugurated by Mamata Banerjee had angered many in the party and the RSS.

Bhattacharya spoke to Ghosh, who was conspicuous by his absence at many BJP programmes, and requested his re-engagement with the party.

At the same time, Bhattacharya also realised the need to shed the perception that the BJP was a party of ‘outsiders’ that did not align well with the Bengali ethos and culture.

The Trinamool Congress has, ever since police in other states started cracking down on suspected Bangladeshi nationals working there, launched a vicious campaign against the BJP, accusing it of being anti-Bengali.

Led by Mamata Banerjee, the Trinamool has gone on the offensive with a high-pitched campaign accusing BJP governments in other states of targeting Bengalis.

Bhattacharya had to react quickly and challenge this narrative by pointing out that the BJP was not targeting Bengalis, but those of Bangladeshi origin.

The state BJP struck back at the Trinamool by pointing out that all those who had been arrested on suspicion of being Bangladeshis were Muslims. Many of them had been caught with fake documents and even with Bangladeshi passports.

Under Bhattacharya’s direction, the party’s social media handles, as well as those of the party’s sympathisers, launched a counter-attack on the Trinamool accusing it of shielding Bangladeshi Muslims.

Photos of the people arrested or rounded up in other states on suspicion of being Bangladeshi nationals were circulated, and it was pointed out that none of them were Hindus.

“The BJP cannot be against Bengal and Bengalis when we owe our origins to Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, a staunch Bengali nationalist. We are against the illegal Bangladeshi Muslim immigrants who pose a threat to Bengal’s demography, Bengali culture and traditions and our ethos. We need to realise this grave danger and act accordingly,” he told reporters soon after becoming the state party chief.

This counter-offensive is the result of Bhattacharya’s quick realisation that Mamata Banerjee’s campaign cannot be defeated by being defensive, but by going on the offensive and turning the tables on the Trinamool Congress by accusing it of shielding illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators.

This has started working, and there is a growing realisation amongst Bengali Hindus that the Trinamool’s opposition to the detention of migrants from Bengal in other states is aimed primarily at protecting its Muslim votebank.

Strategically, this dovetails neatly into the BJP’s efforts to mobilise Bengali Hindus.

A large majority—about 69 percent—of Bengali Hindus who exercise their franchise vote for the BJP. If the BJP can win the support of another five to six percent of Bengali Hindu voters, it will be able to defeat the Trinamool Congress.

Hence, Bhattacharya is laying the ground for next year’s campaign for the crucial Assembly elections by projecting the hard reality that demographic change caused by the large-scale influx of Bangladeshi Muslims, and their appeasement by the Trinamool Congress, is endangering Bengal’s culture and ethos.

The underlying message is that Bengali Hindus should unite and oppose this appeasement that could become a grave threat to their very existence in the future.

Protecting and upholding Bengal’s asmita (pride, self-respect and identity) has thus become the central theme of the BJP’s campaign against the Trinamool Congress.

Bhattacharya has crafted this new narrative in a short span of barely a couple of weeks since he took over as state party chief.

Prime Minister Modi alluded to Bengali asmita during his address at Durgapur last week. Stating that “Bengal’s asmita is of highest importance for the BJP”, Modi reminded Bengalis that it was the BJP which had given ‘Bangla’ the status of a classical language.

The state BJP chief has crafted this new narrative that Prime Minister Modi mouthed at Durgapur. The definition of Bengali asmita, according to a very close aide of Samik Bhattacharya, has been expanded to allude to Bengal’s past glory.

“Bengal was once the industrial and financial hub of the country. It birthed renaissance, and Bengalis were once foremost entrepreneurs, bankers, industrialists, scientists, engineers, doctors etc. Bengal was once known as the academic and intellectual capital of India. Bengal’s, and Bengalis’, achievements in all fields were stellar.

“But all that is in the past, and the industrial decline of Bengal from the 1960s and 1970s coinciding with the advent of the communists on Bengal’s political landscape also triggered its financial, educational, social and cultural decline.

“Today, the best and the brightest of Bengal leave the state due to lack of opportunities here. In the past, Bengal used to attract talent from all over the country. Today, people leave Bengal for livelihood in other states,” a close aide of Bhattacharya told Swarajya.

Thus, during his address at Durgapur last week, Prime Minister Modi spoke about Bengali stalwarts from various fields like Bidhan Chandra Roy, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, Kadambini Ganguly, Dwarkanath Tagore and Bishnu Dey and held out the promise to take Bengal back to its days of glory if the BJP is elected to power in the state.

An essential part of this new strategy involves projecting the Trinamool as a party of the corrupt who have perpetuated a ‘goonda raj’, ‘syndicate raj’ and ‘mafia raj’, which is completely out of sync with Bengal’s identity and culture.

“Whereas Bengal was once known as a cultural, industrial, commercial, academic and intellectual hub, the Bengal of today under the Trinamool Congress is known for hooliganism, poll violence, extortions, crime and decline in all fields,” a senior functionary of the state unit of the party who is cued in to the new narrative told Swarajya.

This contrasting of present-day Bengal under the Trinamool Congress with the Bengal of the past, coupled with the BJP’s promise of restoring the past glory and pride of Bengal by ushering in good and clean governance that will attract investments, lead to industrial and financial revival of Bengal and consequently arrest the flight of capital, including intellectual capital, out of Bengal has been framed by Samik Bhattacharya.

All this is also being subtly dovetailed into a narrative about the Trinamool Congress trying to protect illegal Bangladeshi Muslim infiltrators who pose a grave threat to Bengali identity, culture and way of life.

Bhattacharya has also been trying to bridge the divide between old-timers and newcomers in the party. A number of old-timers across the ranks, upset with the entry of newcomers (especially defectors from the Trinamool Congress and the CPI(M)) into the BJP, had moved away from the party and relegated themselves to the sidelines.

Bhattacharya, an old-timer himself, has been reaching out to the disgruntled old-timers and urging them to become active party workers.

“This is the time to sink differences and tide over all misgivings to work unitedly to save Bengal. If we do not forge unity now, we will face grave danger and will helplessly witness our very identity coming under grave threat in the very near future,” Bhattacharya told a small gathering of party old-timers recently.

What is significant is that Bhattacharya's appeal to unite and work to not only restore Bengal’s past glory, but also thwart the threat posed by the presence of millions of illegal Bangladeshi Muslim infiltrators, cuts across party lines to include the Congress and the CPI(M) as well.

“There are many people in these two parties who genuinely care for Bengal and realise the threat that Trinamool’s misrule and appeasement of minorities, including the protection it is giving to illegal Muslim immigrants, is posing to Bengal and Bengalis. They want to resist this and that’s why our state party chief has extended the invitation to them to join hands with the BJP and work for Bengal,” explained the senior BJP functionary.

What is also important is that Bhattacharya does not belong to any faction within the state BJP and does not have a loyal set of followers who are at loggerheads with those of other leaders. That has enabled him to strike a very good working relationship with Suvendu Adhikari.

“Suvendu Adhikari is a mass leader with grassroots connect and has very good organisational skills. He does not perceive a threat to his position from Samik Bhattacharya who possesses other skills that are complementary to Adhikari’s. So the two make a perfect jugalbandi,” a party old-timer who is also an MLA told Swarajya.

Bhattacharya’s elevation to the post of state party chief also sent out a strong signal to the old-timers who have harboured a lot of misgivings about the newcomers and had felt that their contributions to the party were being ignored and belittled.

Old-timers are now renewing their ties with the party and have started working actively for the party.

“This is a positive development that will help us in mobilising our supporters,” said the BJP MLA.

Bhattacharya’s elevation as state party chief, said a senior central BJP leader, will also help the party get the support of the urban middle-class Bengali Hindus, known loosely as the bhadralok class.

The Bengali bhadralok, especially in south Bengal (including Kolkata), has generally given the BJP a wide berth and the BJP has been trying very hard to win the support of this class.

“If the urban middle-class Bengali shifts support to the BJP, then the game will be over for the Trinamool Congress,” said political analyst Kunal Sengupta.

“An articulate and soft-spoken person like Samik Bhattacharya who can quote Tagore and other litterateurs with ease, and who is rooted in Bengali culture and Bengali middle-class values and is also the quintessential bhadralok, can appeal to the Bengali middle class and win their support,” said the BJP central leader.

Political scientist Debapratim Roy told Swarajya that making Bhattacharya its state party chief was a smart move on the part of the BJP.

“The sober, soft-spoken, articulate Bhattacharya presents a sharp contrast to the shrill, angry, mercurial and rabble-rousing Mamata Banerjee. This contrast will work in the BJP’s favour and help it project itself as a responsible and mature party and a strong claimant to power in Bengal,” said Roy.

Sociologist Amiya Basu pointed out that Bengal has always had chief ministers from the bhadralok class.

“Even the Marxist chief ministers that Bengal had—Jyoti Basu and Buddhadeb Bhattacharya—were from the bhadralok class. In that sense, Mamata Banerjee is an aberration and the Bengali bhadraloks are acutely aware of that. But they are put off by the overt Hindutva of the BJP, which they perceive as alien to Bengal’s culture and ethos.

“The loud and aggressive ‘Jai Shree Ram’ slogans typified the overt Hindutva of the BJP. Their replacement with ‘Joy Maa Kali’ and ‘Joy Maa Durga’, and Bhattacharya as the state president speaking of restoring Bengal’s past glory, will definitely resonate with the Bengali bhadralok class,” said Basu.

But while Bhattacharya’s bhadralok credentials, coupled with Suvendu Adhikari’s mass appeal and aggressive politics, makes for a good combination, that is not enough for the BJP to defeat the Trinamool Congress.

For that to happen, the BJP needs to go on an overdrive and strengthen itself at the organisational level.

Many BJP workers have disassociated themselves from the party and the BJP does not have units in most villages across the state. Without workers at the grassroots level, it will be impossible for the BJP to defeat the Trinamool Congress.

“In Bengal, without organisational muscle, it is impossible to win elections. Organisational muscle is necessary to counter rigging of polls by the ruling party, to counter the threats and intimidation of opposition workers and supporters by goons of the ruling party and to ensure that supporters of opposition parties can go to the polling booths and cast their votes without any fear.

“Thus, without a strong network of dedicated workers at the grassroots level, the BJP cannot win elections,” said political scientist Debapratim Roy.

Will the new state BJP chief succeed in rejuvenating and strengthening the party organisational structure in Bengal? That is a million dollar question, and an answer to this question will decide the fate of the BJP in next year’s Assembly elections.

Also read: Nearly One In Five Hindus In Bengal Voted For Trinamool Last Year: Here's Why