WEDNESDAY, MAY 22, 2024
Kajal Chatterjee
“Patriotism cannot be our final spiritual centre, my refuge is humanity. I will never allow patriotism to triumph over humanity for as long as I live" , "Nationalism is a great menace. It is the particular thing which for years has been at the bottom of India's trouble" -- this is the take of Rabindranath Tagore on BJPs "pet" words of "patriotism" and "nationalism" through which the self-declared guardians of India evaluate the "dedication" or "betrayal" of the citizens towards the country!
I wonder how can BJP afford to sing praise of Tagore whose mindset stand in exact opposite pole of the saffron brigade! How can BJP dare to take the name of the epitome of humanity named Tagore despite dividing the country in the name of religion or citizenship! Isn't humanity getting blatantly trampled upon through the invocation of NRC-CAA which are nothing but discriminatory tools dividing humanity between Muslims and the rest or between "bonafide" citizens and alleged Bangladeshi or Rohingya settlers who might have taken refuge in the country out of sheer desperation to escape fangs of communalism or hunger! Hadn't Tagore sung the praise of that Bharat which embraces all streams of humanity from across the world in her lap! And all these measures, decisions, policies are being undertaken in the name of Tagore's much hated words of "nationalism" and "patriotism" with those Indians daring to protest it being regarded as "anti-national"!
Actually when paying tribute to Tagore forms nothing but a mere lip service with clever eyes fixed on upcoming Bengal election, it is quite natural that the bard would "take birth" in a place which itself got established 60 years after his year of birth! Or is BJP writing a new history of Bengal after attempting the same in Rajasthan "enabling" Rana Pratap to "defeat" Akbar at Haldighati!
The "remarkable revelation" --- "Tagore taking birth in Visva-Bharati" --- coming out from the BJP ecosystem has once again proved (after Vidyasagar scandal) that in the socio-cultural scenario of Bengal, BJP is nothing but a stark outsider!
What Mamata Banerjee means by the term "outsider" in context of BJP is nothing but intrusion of ethos sensitivities and culture alien to Bengal. It is a well established truth that communalism revolving "Gomata", murderous assault by cow vigilantes etc are intrinsically associated with saffron ideology with "love jihad" being the latest poison getting churned out. And thanks to the secular humanitarian legacy of Rabindranath Tagore-Kazi Nazrul Islam, West Bengal has remained an oasis of harmony. So seen from this context, if BJP ethos is not alien to Bengal, then what it is!
Irrespective of what Banerjee says, the fact remains that not a single true-blue humanitarian secular Bengali will even imagine to vote for such a party zealously demonising the minorities; barbarically associated with communal episodes and of course staunch anti-Bengali which terms Bengal as "Kangal" and "sponsor of terrorists traffickers criminals", associated with ruthless demolition of Vidyasagar bust to pieces, hobnobs with the Gorkha parties desiring to break up Bengal! Not to forget dirty politicisation of deaths following two simultaneous fatal assaults upon Bengal namely Covid and Amphan!
