Interior Minister Amit Shah is on a two-day visit to West Bengal to campaign for the BJP
Calcutta:
A part of Interior Minister Amit Shah’s Day 2 in West Bengal was a retaliation against the “outsider” label bestowed on the BJP by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The former BJP chief, the architect of a string of electoral victories beginning with the 2014 general elections, chose Shantiniketan as the centerpiece of his Day 2 in Bengal.
Shantiniketan Visva Bharati University was established in 1921 by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, an icon of the state, and the university and its surroundings comprise one of the largest cultural centers in the state.
Shah, whose party has always been targeting young voters, visited the university where he paid tribute to Rabindranath Tagore at Rabindra Bhavan on the university campus.
At noon he visited the home of a singer Baul. The Baul folk tradition, which focuses on the welfare of mankind, beyond caste and creed, is an area of pride for the state and today many of these wandering minstrels have settled in a Shantiniketan around .
At Basudev Das Baul’s home, Shah and his entourage ate lunch, a sumptuous vegetarian meal including the famous rip, tomato chutney, poppy seed fritters, lentils and vegetable curry.
The Bauls are the perfect reflection of our rich and versatile Bengali culture, best known for its songs and poems to the God who dwells within us.
Thank you Basudeb Das ji for your amazing hospitality, I am truly mesmerized. pic.twitter.com/ofc6gLZPgG
– Amit Shah (@AmitShah) December 20, 2020
Bengal has been the big challenge for Shah, who had set the BJP state unit a target of 200 out of 295 seats after the party’s big victory in the northeast.
Mamata Banerjee had initially responded to the BJP’s challenge with disdain, labeling them as outsiders who don’t know much about Bengal and are therefore not in a position to rule it.
While she and her Trinamool Congress built on it over the years, yesterday it lost a portion of its local leaders, including Suvendu Adhikari, to the BJP.
Adhikari, who had retired from the ruling Trinamool Congress earlier this week, had derided this form of politics as superficial.
Bengal is part of India and “people who come from other states cannot be treated as outsiders,” he said, adding: “For us, we are first Indians and then Bengalis.
Trinamool’s stance hardened when the BJP agreed to eight ministers from the Center and the states to focus on campaigning in Bengal. The party has accused the Trinamool Congress of creating and fostering a culture of violence, accusations the ruling party has vehemently denied.
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