On February 11, Amit Shah will signal a Cooch Behar rally in North Bengal. (Archive)
Calcutta:
Until now, roadshows were the BJP’s great campaign tool in Bengal: leaders atop an open truck adorned with marigolds traveled short distances. But the party is now stepping on the gas in the race for the Bengal assembly and rolling out the chariot.
Five rath yatras are planned, the first this Saturday by BJP President JP Nadda from Nabadwip in South Bengal. On February 11, Amit Shah will signal a Cooch Behar rally in North Bengal. The other three starting points are Jhargram, Kakdwip, and Tarapith. The rallies will span the 294 assembly seats in Bengal. Each rally will last about 25 days.
The move has sparked controversy.
Rath yatras they are legitimate political tools, says the BJP. Provocation, says Trinamool. The state government has diverted the BJP’s inquiries about the “peaceful conduct” of the yatra and public demonstrations along the route to the “local administrative authorities.” A lawyer from the Calcutta High Court filed a petition saying that rath yatras it will cause communal tensions and should not be allowed. He may appear on the hearing list on Friday, February 5.
The BJP claims that these are steps to stifle the voice of the opposition.
“The opposition has the right to address the people in a democracy. But the Mamata Banerjee government always tries to silence them,” said Kailash Vijayvargiya, the BJP’s national secretary general. “The yatras will expose the corruption in the Mamata Banerjee government for coal scam, cow smuggling, tolabaji“.
The BJP has invoiced these yatras “parivartan yatras“or demonstrations for change. Bengal BJP spokesman Samik Bhattacharya said:” This yatra is for politics only. This rath yatra is not for building Ram Mandir or any other temple. This is simply for ‘parivartan‘(change). “
Parivartan was Mamata Banerjee’s motto in 2011 when she overthrew the Left Front government, which was in power for 34 years. The BJP is now asking “Parivartan from Parivartan“.
Trinamool is being cautious with BJPs rath yatra plan. After Mamata Banerjee’s outburst against Jai Sri Ram slogans in 2019, the BJP had turned it into a rallying cry, one that resurfaced at Netaji’s birth anniversary event at the Victoria Memorial on January 23.
Trinamool has been careful not to attack openly rath yatra plan and allow the BJP to play the victim.
Trinamool Secretary General Partha Chatterjee said: “Permits for the rath yatra it is a completely administrative matter. Let management decide. We don’t want to destroy our culture. We must protect the secular value of the state. “
Trinamool Minister Bratya Basu said: “Every move by the BJP aims to polarize Bengal and create a division in Bengal.”
Few doubt the provocative potential of a rath yatra in an already polarized state commonly.
The BJP since 2014 has repeatedly accused Mamata Banerjee of minority appeasement. In the past five years, the state has seen major riots in Dhulagarh, Bashirhat, and Asansol.
Political science professor and commentator Biswanath Chakraborty says the BJP has timed the rath yatras well.
“By the time they are launched, the model code of conduct will be in place and the central security forces will be in place, minimizing the chances of violence. I also think the government’s strategy is to give permits in some districts and not in districts dominated by Muslims”.
However, some BJP initiatives in the past have caused tensions. In April 2017, the Bengal BJP launched sword rallies at Ram Navami, turning the generally low-key festival in Bengal into a brazen political duel.
Some Trinamool leaders had ended up holding their own sword rallies to compete. Cases were brought under the Gun Act against leaders of both parties.
For the BJP, it paid dividends in 2019: the party jumped from two parliamentary seats in the state to 18.
The petition against rath yatras it can derail the plan. In 2019, the Supreme Court had said no to the yatras, citing the state’s concerns about public order issues.
Even if the cars finally don’t roll, BJP’s rath yatra The plan is now firmly part of the electoral conversation in Bengal.
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