West Bengal polls: Mamata spices up TMC campaign with Hindutva to counter BJP
From reciting Sanskrit mantras from Chandipath to declaring herself "a Hindu girl", West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has spiced up the TMC's poll campaign while countering the BJP which has made Jai Shri Ram one of the poll cries.
Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday declared herself "a Hindu girl". This came as she tried to counter the BJP's charge of Muslim appeasement in a state where the minority community comprise around 30 per cent of the total voters. Mamata Banerjee recited Sanskrit mantras from Chandipath, a very popular book of hymns dedicated to Goddess Durga at Nandigram, from where she is contesting the Bengal polls.
Hindutva is now one of the key factors in the West Bengal Assembly election. The BJP has been trying to take Hindutva campaign deep in Bengal with robust returns in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. That election also changed the way Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee perceived the BJP's challenge in her backyard.
MAMATA'S SHIVA TO BJP'S RAM
The TMC had already said the party would release its poll manifesto on Mahashivaratri (literally meaning, the Great Night of Shiva), a popular Hindu festival celebrated in the honour of Lord Shiva, who is believed to perform a heavenly dance on this night. At Nandigram, Mamata Banerjee told her party workers that she would be in the town on Mahashivaratri.
This is yet another attempt by Mamata Banerjee to counter the BJP, which has made Jai Shri Ram one of the poll cries in West Bengal. The slogan gained popularity during the Ayodhya movement for the construction of a Ram temple at the site where medieval era Babri Masjid stood until December 6, 1992 in Uttar Pradesh.
Mamata Banerjee has appeared irked over the chanting of this slogan at public events. The BJP has pitched Mamata Banerjee's reaction to it as her anti-Hindu political approach. With the Maharashivaratri pitch, Mamata Banerjee looks to counter the BJP's Jai Shri Ram campaign.
WHY MAMATA TURNED TO HINDUTVA
Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress won more seats compared to the BJP in the Lok Sabha election - 22 to 18 - but a perception emerged of the BJP getting better of the TMC in Bengal. Mamata Banerjee looked for a course-correction. Among other things, the TMC roped in election strategist Prashant Kishor for the 2021 Bengal Assembly polls.
The TMC think tank found that the BJP's rise was aided by party's pro-Muslim image. Mamata Banerjee turned to announce a number of measures that qualifies as 'soft Hindutva' clearly under the pressure of increasing footprints of the BJP across Bengal.
MAMATA'S SOFT HINDUTVA TALE
In September 2020, Mamata Banerjee announced a monthly stipend for poor Brahmin priests from October and promised construction of houses for them. The announcement incidentally came days after BJP president JP Nadda accused her of being anti-Hindu alleging she imposed a lockdown in Bengal on the day of Ram Mandir's foundation stone laying ceremony in Ayodhya.
Mamata Banerjee had then said, "We held four meetings in the recent past. A list of 8,000 poor priests has been prepared who will be given Rs 1,000 each per month. Besides, the state government will construct homes for them under the state's housing scheme for the poor."
However, the BJP leaders in Bengal were quick to shot back saying Mamata Banerjee took eight years in announcing financial aid to Brahmin priest while she even found a way to route financial assistance to Muslim clerics despite a high court order in 2012.
In yet another BJP-like move, the TMC government announced to revamp the Hindi academy, and reconstitute party's Hindi cell. Promotion of Hindi has been a core theme in the BJP's Hindutva agenda. The BJP is understood to have benefitted from the increasing number of Hindi-speaking voters in Bengal in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
On the Hindi Divas last year, Mamata Banerjee extended "best wishes" emphasising that her government had taken "various initiatives to strengthen Hindi Education, Culture and Welfare of the community in Bengal".
My best wishes to all on #HindiDiwas. We should respect all languages and cultures equally. We may learn many languages but we should never forget our mother-language— Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) September 14, 2019
This was also the time when Mamata Banerjee's short video clips made to social media platforms showing her visiting homes in slums and talking to people in Hindi.
The Mamata Banerjee government also announced in 2019 financial assistance of Rs 10,000 each for 28,000 Durga Puja committees, and a reduction of power tariff by 25 per cent for the puja pandals. The Durga Puja event had been a political battleground after the TMC government announced halting of the idol immersion for Muharram.
Besides, Mamata Banerjee's TMC organised a Brahmin Sammelan not long after the Lok Sabha election shocker. The Brahmin rally was officially held by the Paschim Banga Rajya Sanatan Brahmin Trust in Kolkata in August 2019. Mamata Banerjee's minister Rajib Banerjee attended the rally.
In January 2020, TMC held a Brahmin Purohit Sammelan in Bolpur, where Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore's Shantiniketan is situated. The event was organised to expose the BJP for wrongly interpreting Hinduism.
At Nandigram, a day before filing her nomination papers, Mamata Banerjee said, "Those who are dividing us among Hindu-Muslim must remember that I am a Hindu too. Our Hinduism teaches us to love everybody." Bengal is now a stage set for a battle of ballots over Hindutva in eight phases of assembly polls between March 27 and April 29.