Decoding BJP’s Bengal Debacle: Part 2

BJP failed to Catch the Dangerous ‘Khela Hobe' Signal

BJP Took Bengal for Granted

The saffron party thought Bengal needed them more than they needed Bengal. It became apparent from one of the public speeches of Party President J P Nadda. Shri Nadda elucidated that BJP offered shelter to politically oppressed people of Bengal. BJP assumed rescuer’s role & hence strategized Bengal poll with an upper hand over Bengal kaaryakartas. National leaders like Kailash Vijayvargiya, Shivprakash Jha, Arvind Menon, Amit Malviya domineered over Bengal kaaryakartas in decision making. They included Dilip Ghosh in the process, however, Ghosh perhaps had no determinant say on it & was left with Hobson’s choice in accepting National leaders' dictates. National leaders in charge of Bengal strategized Bengal Assembly Poll in 'go as you like' mode. No other poll in recent past has been seen taken so erratically by BJP.

Did BJP Want to Teach Bengal A Lesson? 

Thinking from BJP's perspective, such hypothesis (Bengal needed BJP more than BJP needed Bengal) was not baseless. Keeping in mind the huge loan burden on West Bengal treasury, last 13 years pending dearness allowance to Government employees & absence of audited figures of the State's welfare schemes due to regular defalcation of accounts by top bureaucrats, BJP perhaps knew even if they won Bengal, it would be a crown of thorns. To set Bengal straight, if BJP would adopt as robust an approach as Central BJP’s, the Party wouldn’t be able to avoid taking several bitter decisions & chew many bullets as Bengal didn’t see true good Governance since 1967. Looking at it from the political party’s interest, it is no wrong that Bengal needed BJP more than BJP needed Bengal. However, from Nationalistic viewpoint, BJP needed to think otherwise. The saffron party needed to rescue Bengal from the grip of rogues as the rogue State is not limiting itself only in West Bengal but affecting the rest of India. A nationalist party should have plunged into Mission Bengal less politically, more ideologically. However, BJP’s National leaders in charge of Bengal didn’t think this way. They didn’t associate themselves with Bengal, rather appeared to have tried to teach the State a lesson & they did it. The State was marred with post poll violence which was exactly similar in nature to Bangladesh violence during Durgapuja, 2021 responsibility whereof the saffron party couldn’t deny. While TMC signalled 'khela hobe' from the very beginning, BJP either couldn’t catch the dangerous signal or didn’t do enough to prevent it.

Bengal's Subaltern Hindus Got Ravaged

Bengal was poised to choose BJP this time. Blowing wind whispered a victory for the saffron party. The State stretched its support to BJP as much as it could. 62% of casted Hindu votes went in favour of the nationalist party. This is a big thing for a State which has been grilled by communists for 5 decades. No other State of India except Kerala ever absorbed the toxin of communism, leftism & ultra-leftism as much as West Bengal did and impact that of in public psyche was harrowing. General intellect of people got compromised yet they grew arrogant & supercilious in thoughts and actions as a result. Had Bengal secured a bit of empathy from BJP leaders in charge of Bengal, people who faced Bengal Violence as front liners could have been saved. Unfortunately, front line sufferers of Bengal Violence are plainly & mainly BJP voters & workers. Even if the saffron party tried to teach Bengal a lesson, who did they want to teach? The subaltern Hindus of Bengal constituting 62% of casted Hindu votes which went in favour of BJP? Did BJP’s national leaders in charge of Bengal want to teach a lesson to those who, wanting to oust the tyrant, picked up BJP flag at the earliest opportunity in spite of facing grave intimidation on the ground thereafter? Or those who still voted for the tyrant TMC & the diminishing Lefts constituting 38% of casted Hindu votes? While these 38% who didn’t vote for BJP didn’t suffer from ruler's wrath, Bengal's subaltern Hindus through whom the saffron party dreamt of ANTODAYA, were ravaged by the political goons. Savage persecution shattered them emotionally and devastated their courage to elect as per own democratic choice. This was visible in the results of end October by-poll. BJP’s deposit was forfeited in both Gosaba & Dinhata as both the constituencies faced dreadful post poll mayhem. In Dinhata by poll, TMC candidate got 86% of votes. Democracy? It doesn’t require much effort to realize that making people so vulnerable was injustice done by BJP to those who, living in the terror-raj of an ultra-left party having Muslim consolidation behind, dared to trust the saffron party. This is why doubt skulked in whether BJP Bengal in charges were in a nexus with TMC. Post poll Bengal Violence has perhaps ensured BJP’s conclusive defeat in coming local body elections too. Moreover, would BJP be able to retain the 18 Loksabha seats the party gained in 2019? Not quite likely. The saffron party must not be expecting more than one or two seats in 2024.

Jealousy, Moles, Sabotage, Treachery

BJP generously used both Narendra Modi & Amit Shah in their election campaign in 2021 West Bengal poll. Defeat thereafter has reduced potency of the two tallest leaders of BJP in the mind of Bengal. Who facilitated all these undesirable yields in this State? Bengal in charges of the saffron party for sure. Did they sabotage Bengal BJP from within? Did they sabotage Modi-Shah too in order to let Mamata Bandyopadhyay rise as a potential anti-Modi face? Impossible is nothing. Kailash Vijayvargiya was vividly intimate with Mukul Roy who now is time-tested to be the ‘Trojan Horse' piloting group of TMC soldiers in BJP camp. Did Roy convince Vijayvargiya about the 'greater goal' of promoting Banerjee as anti-Modi face in Delhi? Not impossible as Banerjee never believed in Modi-principle of “Na Khaungaa Aur Na Khane Dunga”. (There’s no reason not to speculate that there are leaders in BJP who are jealous & uncomfortable about the invincible Modi-Shah duo.) Did Vijayvargiya agree with Roy's any such proposition? If he did, what was the price tag? If he didn’t, what acted as adhesive between Vijayvargiya and Roy in spite of that? Would it be correct to assume Vijayvargiya failed to gauge Mukul Roy's real intention? Even if he did, why was Vijayvargiya chosen back as Bengal observer? Did BJP endorse the fact that Mukul Roy was cleverer than Vijayvargiya? Was he rewarded for being checkmate by Roy? Many such questions remained unanswered. It was Kailash Vijayvargiya who hurried up to “admit defeat” as early as 12.30 pm on May 2 in front of the media after which post poll violence broke out. Why did Vijayvargiya hurry up? Was his media statement a signal in reality for those who unleashed violence? Likewise, Jaiprakash Majumdar of BJP, sitting in BJP Party Office at Kolkata, “admitted defeat” in Nandigram in a press conference. While Vijayvargiya’s media statement could ensure BJP’s defeat in the State, Majumdar’s press conference couldn’t ensure the same in Nandigram. The equation appeared too complex in Bengal. Who became more treacherous to the saffron party? Roy or Vijayvargiya? 

Khela Hobe: Who Played the Real Game? 

Did BJP play Bengal Poll as a gain-gain game? Gain if BJP won the election & gain if BJP lost it too. While TMC sloganeered “khela hobe”, did the saffron party play the real ‘khela'? Did BJP take a calculated step towards Bengal-defeat? Defeating BJP was supposed to boost Banerjee’s confidence to project herself as 'the anti-Modi face' in Delhi. Her doing so is an opportunity for the BJP to have opposition votes further divided ensuring a BJP victory in 2024 Loksabha. However, even if Bengal defeat truly was a calculated game plan by BJP, how well did it become a nationalist party to make such a game plan that ended up demanding lives & livelihood of vulnerable common mass of Bengal? Especially those who rested their confidence in BJP? However, such a speculation is less probable to have happened. If Bengal defeat was a calculated game plan by BJP, neither the saffron party would have used Narendra Modi so many times for campaigning here nor would Modi have agreed to it. Or wasn’t even Narendra Modi aware of such game plan? Bengal exposed many things, instigated too many speculations.

Had BJP strategized correctly, the subaltern Hindus of Bengal could have toppled the Kolkata-centric, elitist rule of an ultra-left party having the support of entire Communist-Islamic ecosystem. This didn’t happen. (to be continued… )