As a great turmoil, India is going through the convulsions of the Indian variety of the coronavirus pandemic. As if tracing it, an Indian variety of state elections and the consequent violence is almost reminding one of the convulsions of epilepsy. Although several states in India’s East and South took part in the state-wise franchise as if being true to the earlier saying ‘what Bengal thinks today rest of India thinks tomorrow’ Bengal took the lion’s share of the media descent. It's not that Bengal itself did not enhance the media interest. Of course, it did. Surely, its Chief Minister’s left right and centre screams and curses on the BJP folks and their lackey the election commission made daily headlines even far away from the state. Yes, Modi patents the accusation of stifling freedom of expression in general, but in Bengal, it would be like the Russian guy using it to shout abuses against Reagan on top of his voice from the top of the Kremlin. When push came to shove it would be quite different. Indeed, almost reversing the love Jihad and extending freedom of expression even to lies, its CM would claim the marriage between a Hindu BJP and a Muslim Hyderabadi. So much so that almost as a first time in the Indian media a secular Hyderabadi would retort to an equally secular didi. Yes, he muttered ‘You got me alone to say so?’ With her distressed mind going the wrong way in trying to please both the Hindu Goddess and the Muslim Allah through prayers, as confusing as the questions like which leg or why plaster for just one day it did not make clear which angry divine did the accident bit. With her claiming and then flip-flopping the cause of the incident, even the doctors had to share the ridicule in the melee. Possibly being the product of her strategist, she did not succumb to it. Her attachment to the wheelchair indeed helped her physically and electorally. Unless you are the voter in Delhi or in Bihar that run in pre-election gimmicks, victory usually needs good deeds. With infrastructure remaining stagnant, industries running out from the ‘socialist’ regime and high unemployment pushing educated ones to other states to bring in the sustaining cash there was not much to show in the logbook of progress. There were no major roads or constructs to boast of. Disregarding the land’s unfortunates but being more ‘star struck’, yes the little thinking Indian intellectuals saw and praised her as the goddess Narayani after the victory. It is not their first though. Disregarding the plight of the average Biharis and Delhiites, and the stagnation of India’s progress they did praise the Lallos and the Kejriwals too. India would have progressed a lot since independence if only intellectuals cared about the cheated voters rather than seeing the power and glamorising the cheating leaders. Here, however, not quite bringing in the female jealousy to the fore, but more of the rape epidemic and the faced daily insecurity made Bengali women see no women’s power in the TMC leader to support her. Instead, her lack of action or even verbal concern about their plight despite being a woman did the icing on the cake of dislike. Men in general weren’t happy either. Like the communist party member in the USSR, of course, being a TMC member brought in the laurels. When the good lady asked for the cut cash return, it did make the ‘cut culture’ as certain as the tax. Yes, the centre sent goodies were prioritized to the members. Thus, unless cuts were paid, the rest of the goodies were not guaranteed to the rest. Although collectors cherished it and that made the TMC support base strong, it sounded like Jijya to the ordinary people, both in terms of the loss and the threat. The pattern was so similar that when the TMC talked about Bengali culture it was about this culture that was burrowed from the earlier comrades. Verily, the similarity was so uncanny that her decimation of the communists almost proved that two communists cannot stay in one place! The win did not depend on that pattern alone though. Like the Congress, as a secular party, the TMC was entitled to use Muslim appeasement without being called communal. Towing this line wasn’t difficult, for she could easily be bitchy against the Muslim vote bank feast spoiling Hyderabadi and even incur an Islamic sin by uttering Islamic prayer as a non-Muslim. As an attempt to please both communities, towing the BJP line and uttering mistake laden Devi mantra at the same time wouldn’t be easy either. But then, there was more in her coffers. Almost reminding the late PC Sarkar, as if by magic her party could make illegal Bangladeshis card carriers now. It was a different matter, why they would come to this economically deprived land in the first place! Yes, she had all these, but neither were the appeasement and the dummy cards legal nor would they be enough to give her even a victory – let alone or thumping one. Even the addition of cash in the pockets of the remote voters would not have added a victory. The rest of the voters had to be pleased for a victory, let alone get a result that would shock all including the TMC itself! Even if she boasted about the ‘Bengal ki beti’, ‘Bengali culture’ and ‘us vs them’ slogans, she neither showed the character of a beti nor that of a bhadra mahila as the Bengali culture demands. Not only that her constant badmouthing of the election commission, paramilitary forces, the BJP leaders and even the highest official of the nation, the PM, wouldn't make any decent Bengali, who calls himself/herself Bhadralog/mahila, feel that she was worthy of Bengal’s CM. Far from being an angel, a visionary, a stateswoman or even an admired leader to attract votes, her retorts and curses were making her a laughing stock - if not them being against the spirit of the constitution. Like her words, her deeds were not there to save her either. Yes, with there being no industry, major roads or constructs to boast of and the local unemployed graduates having to flee the state to support families her deeds weren’t tempting either. Yes, a strong Bengali culture even disregarded ummah for Bangladesh and in the 'us vs them' battle it did pull even the Bengali Muslims in the ‘us’ fold. Also, as opposed to an insider CM yes the BJP had an outsider PM’s face. And adding gender and culture, as stated above, she even made a khichadi of Bangal ki beti out of it – a killer strategy for some. But as an answer, the contesting candidates were local Bengalese on both sides and there were many Bengal ki betis – even a very poor Bengal ki beti in the BJP camp - as opposed to the rich Mamata. Moreover, reminding Haj subsidies, when Bengalese could accept the outsider given goodies, why could they not accept goodies and livelihood uplifting ‘outsider’? Their CM would be an insider any way. Furthermore, the outsider’s gatherings were larger than the insider ones. Even her strategist agreed that Modi was more popular than the TMC leader. Besides, she herself lost against the ‘outsider’ party’s candidate in Nandigram! Yes, the BJP might have received bad apples from the TMC - as argued, but TMC was full of cut snatching bad apples anyway. Also, the Communist/Congress combo, disenchanted with the election later on, through a secret deal or due to giving up may have helped the TMC, but if their Muslim votes went to TMC Hindu votes did come to the BJP too.

Post election violence in West Bengal

Mamata Banerjee

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