Icons are BJP’S new weapon in Bengal
places from where the idea of nationalism spread across India,” said Syed Tanvir Nasreen, a member of the SPMRF and professor of history and head of women’s studies, University of Burdwan.
A BJP leader said Shah had instructed the party to do a careful study of Bengal’s history. “During 2014-15, we were stepping up cow vigilantism. But the party’s policy makers found out that a similar movement in the early 1950s found no resonance in Bengal. So, our cow protection cell was asked to maintain a low key,” said a state committee member who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The gradual shift to identifying with the Bengali psyche will also see more and more BJP leaders taking an active role in organising Durga Puja and Kali Puja.
The Sangh Parivar’s main religious events in Bengal so far have been Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti.
Winning at least 22 out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal is one of BJP’S key objectives.
In the Lok Sabha elections held in 1952, the newly founded, Mookerjee-led Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the political wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, won three seats, two of which were from Bengal. Currently, it has two MPS from Bengal and never had a higher number.
In the 294-seat Assembly it has three MLAS, the highest since the Jana Sangh won nine seats in 1952.
According to Dasgupta, Mookerjee’s untimely death in 1953 left the Jana Sangh in Bengal leaderless and the Left, taking this opportunity, brought under its fold the refugees from East Pakistan who the Hindu nationalists hoped would be their largest constituency. Thereafter, Leftist influence overwhelmed ‘Bengal’s collective thinking’.
“Winning over Bengal intellectually is no less important than winning votes. A Left liberal consensus in Bengali psyche is undeniable. Winning it over is going to take time,” said Dasgupta.
The saffron camp has also decided not to antagonise Left supporters. “None can deny the sacrifice and contribution of Left leaders of early days. We are pointing out degeneration among present-day leaders,” Jisnu Basu, general secretary of south Bengal RSS, said. “It is with Left supporters and sympathisers that we want to engage in debate.”
According to political analyst Debasish Sarkar, principal of Chandernagore College, the BJP is bringing forth sociocultural issues to duck economic questions. “They are trying to make an entry
by striking a cultural connect, but what will they answer when the youth ask them about PM Narendra Modi’s promises in 2014? Economic questions will haunt them even without the existence of an opposition,” remarked Sarkar.
State Congress chief and Berhampore MP Adhir Chowdhury thinks the BJP’S plan will fail. “Highlighting a particular part of history is part of their divisive agenda. However, in Bengal, the common people believe in secular and liberal ideals unshakably,” he said.
The Left agrees. “If the BJP wants to present a partial view of history, it will be soon thoroughly exposed,” said Sujan Chakraborty, leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) legislative party in the West Bengal Assembly.