As BJP rises in Bengal, Opposition looks lost and rudderless

First, a clarification. Yours truly hasn’t turned into an overnight columnist on domestic politics. I did write a piece on the change of guard in West Bengal and the end of Mamata Banerjee’s despotism, but that was more of a cathartic release. I promise you, dear readers, that this one will be the end of my detour.

That said, what prompted this unplanned column is a post on social media by Sanjay Raut on Friday morning. A member of the Opposition Shiv Sena (UBT) in Maharashtra, Raut took umbrage at US president Donald Trump’s gesture of congratulating prime minister Narendra Modi for BJP’s win in West Bengal, and proceeded to lecture him that the elections in India were not “free, fair and credible”.

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Raut’s “open letter” is not only a study in contradiction – since he began by telling Trump that his ‘endorsement’ of Modi is ‘interference’ in “internal matter of India’s federal democracy” – but also a sad reflection of the Opposition’s cluelessness and pessimism.

Raut ended up ‘appealing’ to Trump to revise his opinion, since, according to the Shiv Sena (UBT) leader, the polls were marred by “atmosphere of fear, intimidation, and systemic pressure” and the “Election Commission” “appeared to favor the BJP.” That his allegations were high in rhetoric sans evidence do not need retelling, but that’s not the point.

Raut’s ‘public appeal’ to Trump invites foreign validation into India’s democratic process. For some reason, the UBT leader seems to think the Indian public will find this endearing. Along with similar statements of denialism from key Opposition leaders such as Akhilesh Yadav, Tejashwi Yadav and Rahul Gandhi, the message being sent to the voters is that the Opposition is in disarray, bereft of ideas and plumbing newer depths of utter despondency.

Some of it is perhaps understandable. BJP’s win, and such a handsome one at that, in West Bengal is a momentous development and a tectonic shift in domestic politics. It not only completes the party’s aim of governing Anga (Assam), Banga (West Bengal) and Kalinga (Odisha), but in terms of outreach, the super majority in Bengal puts an end to the notion that BJP is predominantly a party of the ‘Hindi belt’.

Bengal’s ‘exceptionalism’ -- its distinct cultural and socio-political mores, or the Shakta tradition of Hindu Bengalis where even the Brahmins consume non-vegetarian food and meat and fish find pride of place among offerings for our divinity, had long made it possible for regional parties such as TMC to focus its campaign on a xenophobic identity politics and paint the BJP as ‘outsiders’ (bahiragoto). That ploy has been thrown into the dustbin for good.

BJP’s win, therefore, is a telling blow to the rival political forces in India that are suffering their lowest moment with another stalwart, DMK strongman MK Stalin, falling in Tamil Nadu. For the first time since Independence, it is not just BJP’s electoral footprint that looms large over the length and breadth of this vast nation across regional and cultural barriers, but an even bigger challenge for the disjointed Opposition is the BJP’s ideological supremacy.

The rival political forces, in contrast, appear unmoored to ideals, opportunistic, time-serving and steeped in dynastic politics where nepotism takes precedence over electorate’s concerns.

This difficulty should spur the Opposition into creative thinking, deep introspection on the way ahead. Nothing in permanent in politics. The BJP had 3 seats in 2016, moved up to 77 five years later and has now gained trust of the people to bag 207 seats. This journey alone should instil hope among the Opposition.

Instead, what we are witnessing is a parade of self-deception, defeatism and a series of rank falsehoods. By dismissing a historic 92.93% voter turnout in West Bengal as a ‘sham’ to a foreign audience, or by raising meaningless doubts over the electoral process, Raut, Akhilesh and their ilk are showing contempt for people’s verdict, alienating millions of citizens whose participation defined the mandate.

This act of framing a free and fair democratic expression as ‘product of coercion’ rather than agency, this reliance on ‘victimhood’ signals acute lack of faith in India’s Constitution, its autonomous institutions and ironically reinforces BJP’s charge that the opposition is out of touch with the nation and its people.

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav called on Mamata Banerjee, the former chief minister, and claimed without providing an iota of evidence that votes in West Bengal were “cast out of fear” and voters were apparently “scared with bullets”.

In comments that appeared little more than a delusional, unhinged rant, Akhilesh claimed: “When the election happened honestly, she (Mamata) won, but this time, because of the multi-layered 'mafiagiri' that happened in the election, no one could have imagined that this kind of fraud could be done by the BJP, the Election Commission, their associates, the spies, and the underground people together, to do such elections...”

Statistics tell a completely different story. West Bengal not only recorded the highest-ever voting percentage, women’s participation at 92.28% surpassed male participation rate of 91.07%, indicating high voter confidence and a lack of “fear-based” voter suppression. BJP’s very campaign slogan was ‘bhoy out, bhorsha in’ (fear is out, trust is in).

Overall, violence during polls, a toxic culture imbibed from the CPM and sharpened by the TMC, saw a steep decline. Data from Election Commission of India (ECI) and security agencies indicate a drastic reduction.

The ECI had deployed a record 200,000-plus Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) personnel and implemented strict financial monitoring and technological oversight. For the first time in a West Bengal state election, 100% of polling booths were under live webcasting, monitored directly by the Chief Electoral Officer’s (CEO) office and the ECI.

In 2021, in the immediate aftermath of TMC’s return to power, 1,934 complaints of post-poll violence poured in from 23 districts. These included 29 instances of murders, 12 sexual assaults/rapes (likely under-reported), 391 cases of grievous hurt, 940 cases of arson/vandalism, and 562 cases of intimidation. FIRs were not registered in 60% of complaints, found an NHRC (National Human Rights Commission) probe.

Some of the horror stories that unfolded are enough to result in sleepless nights.

And yet, the likes of Akhilesh or Rahul Gandhi had nothing to say about the incidents, ostensibly because ‘their side’ had won. The NHRC, acting on a directive from a five-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court, constituted a seven-member inquiry committee that visited 311 spots across 23 districts over 20 days. The NHRC committee’s final report, submitted on July 14, 2021, recorded that most complaints originated from Cooch Behar, Birbhum, Bardhaman, North 24 Parganas, and Kolkata and a “large number of people” fled to neighbouring states of Assam, Jharkhand, and Odisha. Around 80,000 people fled to Assam alone.

The NHRC stated in its report: “Violence was retributive. It was in retaliation to those who ‘dared’ to vote or support the major opposition party. Victims were helpless and hopeless.” In its conclusion, the panel wrote, “The spate of violence shows a pernicious politico-bureaucratic-criminal nexus. Criminals indulged in violence against political rivals while the bureaucratic edifice was complicit in various degrees.”

The Opposition leaders uttered not even a pipsqueak in condemnation. They should understand that voters are not naïve. They see through this chicanery. Mamata’s refusal to tender resignation contravening India’s democratic tradition, her baseless accusations, the reckless comments by INDI Alliance leaders, the ‘public letter’ to Trump, reek of a fatalism that run bone-deep among Opposition ranks.

Here’s what The Economist, no friend of Modi or the BJP, had to say on Mamata’s defeat and TMC’s uprooting.

“No one should mourn the exit of Mamata Banerjee, ejected by voters in West Bengal… For 15 years she presided over failure. Though the economy booms nationally, for the 100m people in her state it stagnates. An average Bengali now has an income just half of someone’s in Gujarat, the home of Narendra Modi, the prime minister. Just as bad were Ms Banerjee’s thuggish tendencies. She silenced critics and jailed opponents. Her party ran extortion rackets. Allegedly, its goons sometimes got away with rape. Businesses were forced to pay bungs for land and licences. No wonder many left.”

Since the Opposition places so much importance on foreign validation, perhaps they would be well advised to heed the British newspaper’s observations.

(Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.)