BENGAL: BEHIND DIDI’S LIGHTER SHADE OF SAFFRON
The Trinamool Congress supremo has adopted a Hindutva-lite formula to widen her party’s vote base in the state
Jai Shri Ram ‘Ram Lalla’s pran sarva allowance from 2020 after Banerjee faced criticism from BJP and Sanatan Dharma loyalists. The allowance was initially ₹1,000 but even after a hike of ₹500 for religious clerics of both the communities in August 2023, announced by the chief minister at a press conference, the Hindu priests continue to receive ₹1,500 less than their Muslim counterparts.
The Durga puja allowance to local clubs was also increased manifold. Banerjee started giving the allowances in 2018 as a quick damage-control exercise to stem BJP criticism before the 2019 Lok Sabha election. Subsequently, she announced a special grant of ₹25,000 for each of the thousands of community Durga pujas. The grant is revised every year. Today it stands at ₹70,000 plus waiver of electricity bills and corporation taxes. According to Banerjee, her government spent ₹300 crore in 2023-24 on Durga puja allowances.
Despite such Hindu outreach initiatives, BJP kept portraying TMC as a party that had a soft corner for Muslims, goading it into the loud adulation of Ram during the 2024 Ram Navami festival.
TMC leader and former minister Purnendu Bose rationalized the move: “We have been observing the need and desire for a Ram Navami holiday among a section of the people. These people are religious and have a genuine demand, but they are being wrongly used by some to suit their Hindutva narrative.”
He added, “The state government is sensitive to the needs of all sections of people, and by recognizing the needs of a particular section, we have yet again proved that we believe in democratic secularism.”
Banerjee had realized that a demand was growing among people, especially the one crore domiciled Hindi speakers, for due recognition of their culture, traditions and even festivals, gods and goddesses. Even Bengali Hindus appeared to be displeased with the narrow provincial walls growing between gods. Indeed, there was massive fervour for the Ayodhya Pran Pratistha ceremony across socio-economic demographics throughout the state. Even places where BJP hardly has a torchbearer were lit up with home-made diyas, and decked with marigold and flags. Daily-wage earners took a day off to stay at home and be part of the historic event.
“We celebrated on our own initiative. BJP leaders gave us ₹500-1,000. But we
put up giant screens and arranged for community lunches, cultural programmes and feasting,” said Rahul Parbat, a resident of Dhamua in South 24 Parganas district.
It was not about a Hindi heartland god, as was the initial political debate. As professor Prasanta Ray, professor emeritus of Presidency University, put it, “Mamata and Modi are in a copy-cat game. When Mamata came to power, she did not have to play the religion card. But now things are different. I would say Modi has succeeded in engaging her in the narrative on religion and she’s having to balance both. She cannot afford to simply ignore Hindus.”
TEMPLE RUN
Banerjee realized the Bengal government’s apparent apathy to the Ayodhya event could give BJP fresh ammunition to fire appeasement salvos against it. In a hurriedly called press conference at the state headquarters, Nabanna, she reeled out a list of temples that her government
The 2019 general election saw a close fight between Trinamool and BJP PARTY PERFORMANCE 2014 34 2 4 2 0
PARTY PERFORMANCE 2019 22 18 2 0 0 9.58 4.62 5.61 7.46 3.4 16.84
39.35 had constructed and renovated during her decade-long rule. “We have spent ₹700 crore for renovation, repair work and construction of various temples and Shakti peeths in our state. The Kalighat Kali temple and skywalk is a significant one. Though Reliance Group has been involved, we have sunk in ₹165 crore and they are investing ₹35 crore,” she said.
Though renovation of temples and construction of new ones had been undertaken after TMC’s electoral debacle in 2019, Banerjee had never announced it from the rooftops to avoid making the minority community nervous.
In 2020, as a damage-control exercise, the chief minister started promoting ‘religious tourism’, an initiative to develop and expand religious sites by upgrading infrastructure and having a corridor of preferred destinations. As part of the revamp, a skywalk connecting Dakshineswar Kali temple with railway and metro routes was designed.
The government allocated ₹65 crore for the project. Similar revamps were laid out for the Tarapith (Birbhum district), Tarakeswar and Hanseswari (both in Hooghly district) temples.
In the 2022-23 budget, Banerjee announced an investment of ₹300 crore to restore the Kalighat Kali temple and another ₹400 crore for the construction of a Jagannath temple along the lines of the main temple in Puri, Odisha. According to Debasish Sen, former chairman of HIDCO, the nodal agency developing Rajarhat-New Town, a township on the north-eastern fringes of Kolkata, 20 acres in Digha in East Midnapore district have been transformed to give the entire area the look of the Puri temple. So far, ₹205 crore has been put in by the state government.
In addition, it has budgeted ₹25 crore for the Saint Loknath Baba temple, ₹31 crore for Jalpesh temple in Jalpaiguri district, as well as several crores for the Madan Mohan temple in Cooch Behar and the Debi Chaudhurani temples in Jalpaiguri, Kankalitala and Bakreswar in Birbhum district and Fullara temple, also in Birbhum.
The government is ready to loosen its purse strings even for a Kali temple in Varanasi and a temple in Deoghar, Jharkhand.
The TMC government has also been generous in allocating land for temple projects. The state’s budget documents for 2019-20 show that the Iskcon temple at Mayapur in Nadia was given 700 acres free of cost, while three bighas of abandoned land in Behala, a locality in Kolkata, are being transformed for a Vaishno Devi temple and eight temples for communities from Rajasthan and Gujarat.
It is perhaps not surprising then that Kirti Azad, TMC candidate from Bardhaman-Durgapur seat, goes about town saying he’s from Mithila (in neighbouring Bihar), the land of Sita, even though he may be an outsider in BJP’s eyes. And in Jadavpur constituency, big billboards proclaim that Sayooni Ghosh will hold the biggest Ganesh puja in the city in her constituency in times to come.
Asked if Banerjee’s approach to Hindutva stands a chance against BJP’s claim that Hindus are second-class citizens in Bengal, the TMC’s Jawhar Sircar, a Rajya Sabha MP, said: “Hinduism is a tolerant and inclusive religion, and what Mamata Banerjee is doing is not soft-pedalling any religion but reminding us of this essential tradition, to ward off predatory distortions.”