Despite significant electoral gains in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and the 2021 Assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party continues to read the Bengal psyche wrong. It has given fodder to the Opposition – as it did in 2021 – to allege that the ruling party is essentially a non-Bengali construct that doesn’t care to understand Bengali sensibilities.
The BJP had managed to corner Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress by exploiting the allegations of land grab and sexual violence against Sandeshkhali TMC strongman Sheikh Shahjahan. But at the same time, it secured a self-goal by fielding Bhojpuri actor-singer Pawan Singh from West Bengal’s Asansol constituency to appeal to non-Bengali BJP voters in the state.
Posters of Singh’s old films surfaced soon after his nomination, featuring derogatory titles objectifying Bengali women. Offensive lyrics from some of his old songs also did the rounds on X and Facebook, igniting debate on social media. Singh then decided to not participate in the polls. “I thank the BJP leadership for trusting me and announcing my name as the candidate from Asansol, but I won’t be able to contest the election for some reason,” he tweeted on Sunday.
But the damage has already been done.
Pawan Singh, who?
Many Bengalis, including BJP supporters, had never even heard of Pawan Singh until he was fielded as BJP’s Asansol candidate for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. And soon after, in customary fashion, the internet left no stone unturned in scrutinising the man. Even vocal BJP supporters expressed disgust over the party’s choice.
Seemantini Bose, an avowed fan of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, tagged the PM on X, tweeting that it’s better to do nothing and lose West Bengal than to do this and win. “Shameful that this repeat offender having no respect for natives of the state and its women is not only getting away with it but also being rewarded by your party,” she further wrote, with screenshots of Singh’s film posters.
This is Pawan Singh who makes vulgar songs on Bengali Women. TMC will make this not an Asansol issue, but a whole Bengal issue in next 2-3 months. The counter to Shatrughan Sinha need not have to be this joker. pic.twitter.com/zrHU0vHGNi
— Sudhanidhi Bandyopadhyay (@SudhanidhiB) March 2, 2024
Bengal BJP ex-chief and former Tripura and Meghalaya governor Tathagata Roy tweeted saying that he used to know a different Pawan Singh of Asansol. “I don’t know this one. Central Election Committee please take note of the comments from committed BJP voters and do some rethinking.”
I used to know a different Pawan Singh of Asansol, and first thought he had been selected. I don’t know this one. Central Election Committee, please take note of the comments from committed BJP voters and do some rethinking. Asansol is NOT IN BIHAR.@BJP4India @AmitShahOffice https://t.co/PK2pjNEU03
— Tathagata Roy (@tathagata2) March 3, 2024
TMC National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee called the withdrawal of Singh’s candidature a result of “the indomitable spirit and power of the people of West Bengal.”
Also read: Sheikh Shahjahan’s arrogance is worrying. He can return before you say Jack Robinson
Old grouse in new avatar
Singh’s nomination is just the latest in BJP’s string of missteps since the 2021 Assembly polls.
Supercharged by its best-ever Lok Sabha performance in Bengal in 2019 – where it secured 18 out of 42 seats– the BJP entered the run-up to the 2021 election with the attitude of a sure-shot victor. It sensed a wave of anti-incumbency against the Mamata government over political violence, corruption, and misappropriation of Cyclone Amphan relief funds. But, while trying to capitalise on that, BJP leaders from outside Bengal forgot one simple fact: Bengali exceptionalism and the pride that they take in their language and culture.
National leaders descended upon Bengal, attempting to woo Bengali voters by mouthing lines by their forever icon Rabindranath Tagore. BJP, in its desperate bid to connect with Bengalis over their history and culture, ended up doing the exact opposite. It appeared to Bengalis that the party was either in a hurry to win over the state or simply indifferent to their culture.
Three months before the 2021 Assembly elections, journalist Sujata Anandan wrote: “I am surprised – though not really—that Narendra Modi’s BJP should make so many faux pas in and about Bengal. Now the BJP president (Amit Shah) should at least have ascertained where the greatest icon of Bengal Rabindranath Tagore was born, which was not in Santiniketan, and that Vishva Bharati was a university set up by Tagore as a confluence of India with the world.”
There was a sense in Bengal that a party with roots in North and Central India was trying to take control of the state. Mamata’s campaign machinery, aided by political strategist Prashant Kishor, countered BJP’s muscle flexing with a simple slogan: “Bangla nijer meyekei chay (Bengal wants her own daughter)”. TMC soon scored a landslide victory, grabbing 213 out of 294 seats. The BJP became the official Opposition with 77 seats, despite many exit polls predicting a close contest.
Bengali pride, among other factors, seemed to have bested the BJP.
Tricky terrain of subnational pride
Bengal is not what it used to be. An article in the Economic and Political Weekly published on 27 December 2008 examined the slow decline of a once prosperous state. It said that, in terms of per capita state domestic product (SDP), West Bengal was the richest Indian state in 1960. “By the end of the last millennium, the SDP (per capita) rank of the state declined to 9. In 1947, the share of the state in the total industrial production of the country had been 24%. By the time the LF came to power, it had already reduced to 11.9%,” the article read. Things went further downhill after over three decades of Left rule, with the flight of industry from the state and the gradual shift toward unorganised labour.
When Mamata became the first female Chief Minister of West Bengal in 2011 with the promise of Poriborton (change), there was much cheer. How much she succeeded is a matter of much debate but what has remained unchanged through the decades of Bengal’s steady economic decline is the sense of Bengali-ness, pride in one’s language, culture and tradition.
As a famous song from Srijit Mukerji’s film Autograph says: Amake amar moto thakte dao, ami nijeke nijer moto ghuchiye niyechi (Let me be the way I am, I have arranged myself according to me).
This sense of Bengali-ness has often bordered on bigotry, with pejorative terms for most “non-Bengalis”. The word Hindustani should include Bengalis too. But funnily, it is used only to address speakers of the Hindi language. College campuses and political gatherings in Bengal often push back against the imposition of Hindi, Hindu, and Hindustan by the BJP. And not just because the TMC says so.
Pawan Singh’s “Hassena Bangal ke” will hardly help the BJP’s cause in Bengal.
Deep Halder is an author and journalist. He tweets @deepscribble. Views are personal.
(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)