File photo of CM Mamata Banerjee of Bengal and PM Narendra Modi.
Evidently, the BJP is brainstorming media ideas to invade and usurp not only physical political spaces, but even virtual ones previously occupied by Mamata Banerjee.
- CNN-News18
- Last update: October 13, 2020 8:46 PM IST
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Sougata Mukhopadhyay
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to address the nation on the eve of Durga Puja via a special webcast called ‘Puja Ki Baat’ on October 22 is in fact his first.
It also shows that the BJP is willing to seize every available opportunity to strike the hearts and minds of the people of West Bengal in the run-up to the high-stakes 2021 state elections.
Obviously, the party is brainstorming ways and means to invade and usurp not only physical political spaces, which it is continually pressing anyway, but even virtual ones previously occupied by the chief and supreme minister of the Trinamool Congress, Mamata Banerjee.
The inauguration of the Durga Puja pandals in Kolkata has been Banerjee’s stronghold for many years. His pandal takeover spree in some of the previous years started even before the Mahalaya, clearly to accommodate the growing requests from puja organizers from all over Kolkata, and continued all the way to Panchami, the eve of the great puja days. Banerjee singing the Chandi Mantra from the puja platforms before a crowd is now a family show during the season.
Many believe that Banerjee’s use of puja platforms to reach the carnival masses is also a not-so-subtle means of establishing his position in the traditional Hindu culture and rituals that Durga Puja embodies. Constantly accused by the BJP of “minority appeasement”, Banerjee praying with folded hands before the Goddess or climbing raised platforms to paint the third eye of the Divine Mother undoubtedly made the counter-optician more impressionable.
The start of the coronavirus pandemic has forced the head of the Trinamool Congress to physically stay away from inaugurating pandales this year and instead complete the formalities virtually from the secretary of state, Nabanna. You have reserved October 15 and 17 for this purpose.
In fact, what Banerjee appears to have lost in terms of physical presence in the pandals, it may have more than made up for the large number of sops it distributed to community bidding committees this year.
His announcement to double the annual grant from Rs 25,000 last year to Rs 50,000 this year to 37,000 bidding committees across the state was met with loud applause from participants in the Netaji Indoor Stadium meeting with representatives of the bidding committee. That was quickly followed by announcements of a total city tax exemption and a 50 percent exemption from electric bills for committee members who gladly accepted them.
It is a direct hit of nearly 200 crore rupees to the public treasury in a cash-strapped state that is crying hoarsely for its Center fees on GST involvement and Amphan relief. But few doubt the political efficacy of such a move in an election-bound state.
It is in this space that the BJP wants to sink its teeth. Therefore, it is not surprising that the state unit of the party decided to send a proposal to the PMO for Modi to make a special speech for the people on the morning of Sasthi when the majority of the citizens of Bengal would be inclined to temporarily leave the pandemic anguish in the background and wait for the five days of festivities.
All ears, therefore, on what PM Modi has to say to capture the popular imagination.
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