Get A Grip: Mamata Banerjee's appeasement politics, high-handedness and alienating the majority are now hurting her
Didi read the signals all wrong. She also failed to sense the inroads the BJP was steadily making in Bengal.
Caste-based politics never made much headway in Bengal. Although discrimination was not unheard of, still it was not a big player. Whatever little effect it had was almost eliminated during the Left rule, who were atheists by religious grouping. They preached equality, and for the first two decades of their rule, the leaders from the older generation practised it too.
The incumbent Bengal CM inherited this relatively 'caste-less' society in 2011.
When she came to power, the entire focus was on ensuring the total decimation of the Left and Congress as a political force in the state. Her lieutenants and foot soldiers did their work zealously and succeeded. The vote share of the BJP kept rising — but why would a hugely successful chief minister care about a party of 'outsiders'? Secure in her power, Mamata turned towards securing the electoral loyalty of the minorities. The majority was already with her — or that is what she thought.
They were initially, but with each expanding welfare scheme targeted for Muslims, resentment started to simmer. It was okay to idolise Mamata Didi as a saviour from the Left, but the decimation of the Left did not make their legacy go away. Few jobs, almost nothing in the manufacturing sector and no investments made matters worse. To stir this simmering cauldron, the BJP played the 'religion' card.
Which one is better — caste-based mobilisation or one based on religion? Neither actually, because any mobilisation automatically triggers a counter-polarisation.
That is what has happened in Bengal.
But religion, unlike caste, is a highly potent opiate. It appeals to more base human instincts and if the majority is fed the idea that their religion is under threat, it is just a matter of time that a response will be triggered.
Mamata Didi either overlooked it or miscalculated the levels of her popularity. That has ensured that for the first time in its history, Bengal elections have been sharply fractured along religious lines. Her kneejerk reactions have made matters worse. That she has little respect for democracy or rights is reflected in the dozens of coercive administrative action against opponents — sometimes professors and students even.
Although she is credited with uprooting the Left, she is a believer in the Left concept of 'zero opposition'.
Her over-the-top reactions on 'Jai Shri Ram' chants on May 4 and 30 simply reinforce the point.
The question is — why is a sitting Chief Minister unable to ignore a few slogan-shouting people? Is she rattled? Is there some truth in the grapevine whispering that if her 'enforcers' had not intervened, the tally could have been worse?
Since the elections, she has spoken about 'taking back', 'throwing out' 'outsiders' who ensured her party lost 12 seats more than 2014. The language has remained appalling for a poet and unacceptable from a constitutionally elected Chief Minister. And these are not 'outsiders' — that the BJP is a party of 'outsiders' is a carefully concocted myth. Just take a look at the list of members. You shall know.
Mamata is making another mistake. In harping about retribution rather than reconciliation, she is further alienating the majority — which still makes up 70% of the population. The more she pushes back, the more will be the exodus to the other side. The opposition has a huge foothold in the state now, the workers are buoyed up and the new Home Minister will probably be less amenable to arm-twisting and threats.
That the shifting of Left and Congress votes resulted in a rich BJP haul is not the whole truth. Yes, it is a good excuse to have — but even Trinamool votes have shifted. They have shifted because of the high-headedness of the Chief Minister and her enforcers. They have shifted because of her sworn allegiance to one community. Why barely hours after the poll results had she reportedly said that she would stick to 'appeasement'?
Inclusiveness cannot be a one-way street. It is imperative that Didi starts practising it and immediately. Time is running out fast. Bengal is one of the two places in the country that has seen the vilest, cruellest face of communalism, over seven decades ago. It has seen unimaginable suffering. Those memories are not yet dead. Don't rekindle the fire — for when a city burns, even the gods in temples are not safe.