In the aftermath of the NDA victory in the Bihar Assembly elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a typically bombastic speech. “The river Ganga flows to Bengal via Bihar. And the victory in Bihar, like the river, has paved the way for our victory in Bengal,” he boasted.
This comparison of geography and electoral politics reveals Modi’s view of elections. He believes poll victories are “conquests” over territories, imperial dominance over geographical regions, an arrogant capture of dominions which are then added to the BJP’s empire of land grabs. Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah see electioneering as an Ashwamedh yagna, the uncontrolled charge of a majestic victorious horse, galloping from area to area.
The BJP leadership does not see elections as the modern exercise of individual freedom of choice, but as the march of a conquering army over swathes of landscapes, an exercise in empire-building. So, Bengal and Bihar are nothing more than terrain, land, which the BJP will inevitably dominate, just as a massive river surges relentlessly through topography. After the “conquest” of Bihar, Modi seems to believe Bengal will follow.
Sorry, Mr Prime Minister, but you have got this wrong. Bengal is not Bihar and will never be Bihar. The BJP will never “conquer” Bengal. Here are some reasons why.
Unbeatable leader
First and foremost, leadership. In Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has no equal. No BJP face—or member of any other party—can match her on either stature, achievement, or connection with the people. She remains one of India’s last great mass leaders, a unique political phenomenon: a lone woman without supportive male ancestors, who has created a party and a movement entirely through solitary struggle.
Banerjee fought the fearsome Left Front machine for over three decades, confronting it fearlessly on the streets. She has stayed connected to the people on a daily basis, visiting different parts of West Bengal every week, a friend in need for the poor, a helpmate during natural disasters. Didi never leaves the people’s side. Didi is always there.
Spartan in her personal life, she has not let the trappings of office change her identity. A recent Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) report showed that she is the “poorest” of all Chief Ministers.
Mamata Banerjee is a three-time CM, a seven-time MP, and has been a four-time union minister, making her one of the most experienced administrators alive today. In Bihar, it was the likeable persona of Nitish Kumar—his long years of service to the state, his clean personal record, and his outreach to women—that pushed the NDA to victory. The BJP rode on Kumar’s coattails. Bihar was his win, not Modi’s.
In today’s Bengal, Mamata Banerjee’s leadership and her arms-outstretched charisma are unbeatable. BJP has no Nitish Kumar-like figure in Bengal. Suvendu Adhikari, the party’s face, poses no challenge at all; not only is he a former TMC member, but his rough, incoherent speech, public outbursts, and unlikable, aggressive behaviour rule him out as an alternative for the sophisticated Bengal voter.
Mahila factor
The second reason why the BJP can never win Bengal like Bihar is the mahila factor. In Bihar, the BJP alliance offered a pre-election bribe of Rs 10,000, as part of Mukhyamantri Mahila Rozgar Yojana, in which money was being disbursed through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) even as elections were on. As a result, the turnout of women voters in Bihar was almost 10 per cent higher than men.
In Bengal, women’s empowerment and welfare have been front and centre of the Mamata Banerjee government. The Bengal government’s Kanyashree Prakalpa programme is over a decade old and has received a United Nations Award for public service.
A raft of other schemes, such as the Rupashree Prakalpa, Lakshmir Bhandar scheme and the innovative Swasthya Sathi programme, in which medical insurance is disbursed, recognising the woman as the head of the household (smart cards are given to the eldest woman in the family), have built a solid multi-faceted platform for the overall welfare of women. Such schemes in the state focus on educational opportunities, funds for small businesses, and healthcare funds. Bengal does not give just one-time payments to women ahead of elections. Instead, a woman-centric approach is a systematic government policy.
Political representation of women does not lag in Bengal, unlike in Bihar, where the new cabinet has only three women. Today, almost 40 per cent of Trinamool Congress (TMC) MPs in the Lok Sabha are women. TMC’s chief whip and deputy leader in the Lok Sabha are women. The party fields women candidates in winnable seats; nine women hold ministerial berths in the Bengal government, including high-profile portfolios such as Finance and Commerce& Industries.
Mamata Banerjee, like former Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalithaa, thus wins the unshakeable support of women—a vote that stands with her like a rock. It is next to impossible for the BJP to wean women away from Mamata Banerjee, especially when even Modi has been heard unleashing misogynist “Didi-oh-Didi” catcalls. In Bengal, you can’t catcall women and expect their vote.
“Unsafe” myth
Third, in Bihar, the BJP successfully painted the Lalu Prasad Yadav years as “jungle raj”, a period of lawlessness and violence when Yadav strongmen terrorised the public. The BJP and its misinformation and propaganda machine are now straining every nerve to brand Bengal as “unsafe”. Mainstream TV anchors stage screaming “Bengal Horror” shows at every provocation. But the truth is winning.
The so-called “mass rapes” in Sandeshkhali, projected by the BJP, proved false. The culprit in last year’s rape and murder case at the R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital was swiftly arrested, and the recent Durgapur assault incident was misreported to some extent. A vocal BJP, which turned up in Durgapur to “protest,” has now suddenly fallen silent.
The Kolkata Police is highly effective, not only cracking down on crime but managing vast crowds—deploying a 10,000 to 15,000-strong force to manage the millions-strong crowd during Durga Puja without stampedes. Bengal passed the tough Aparajita Women and Child Bill for women’s safety last year, and the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has listed Kolkata as one of the safest cities for women for the last four years. “Unsafe Bengal” is a BJP myth that Bengal’s voters see through.
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Bengal’s growth & identity
Fourth, unlike Bihar’s economic situation, plagued by grinding poverty and unemployment due to deindustrialisation, Bengal is on the move. India Today magazine has reported Kolkata as the next IT hub. Earlier this year, Bengal held a successful Bengal Global Business Summit to encourage investment. The state’s domestic product has risen from Rs 4 lakh crore in 2010-2011 to over Rs 18 lakh crore. Bengal’s manufacturing growth stands at a healthy over 7 per cent.
Yes, deep challenges remain. Three decades of the Left Front’s hostility to industry took a toll, but that torpor has been shaken off for good. Bengal is very far away from being the dark abyss of misery and destitution that the misinformation campaigns depict: the economy is slowly gathering steam, a lively civil society is fostering an entrepreneurial culture and industry giants are returning to Bengal.
Fifth and last, the Bengali identity, rooted in the Bangla language, devotional traditions, cuisine and cultural expression, can never be subsumed by the BJP’s Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan umbrella. Bengal’s identity reflects a rooted cosmopolitanism, an ethos based on language and its inheritance rather than religious differences. The ‘bhadralok’ culture may be a thin patina of society, yet a robust togetherness, instinctively progressive values and common linguistic traditions unite rather than divide.
Partitioning Bengal based on religion has always been a colonial project, first under the British, and now the neo-colonial Sangh Parivar, but such religious polarisation is challenged by the unifying power of multiple streams—language, cuisine, shared spaces and age-old community ties.
The BJP’s one-language-one-food-one-dress-one-religion steamroller finds few takers in a Bengal fiercely attached to its unique identity. The Bihari identity as a widespread sentiment cannot be compared to the Bengalis’ attachment to our diverse cultural inheritance. A Bengali can’t surrender the markers of her identity—whether in speaking Bangla or eating non-vegetarian food or worshipping mother goddesses like Ma Durga and Ma Kali—to a predominantly north Indian Hindi-speaking political party. The invisible undertow of collective memory and emotion is impenetrable to those who view Bengal from the outside.
“Bangalir pon, Bangalir aasha, Bangalir kaaj, Bangalir bhasha, satya hauk, satya hauk, satya hauk..” wrote Rabindranath Tagore. (The Bengali’s honour, the Bengali’s hopes, the Bengali’s work, the Bengali’s language… may they always be true). Tagore would have no truck whatsoever with a Sangh Parivar project aiming to wipe away Bengal’s precious identity to serve the cause of Hindi dominance.
So, no, Mr Modi, you are mistaken. The BJP will not be able to conquer Bengal the way the Ganga flows from Bihar to Bengal. On the Ganga river, Bengal is a bridge too far for the BJP and will remain so for a long time.
Sagarika Ghose is a Rajya Sabha MP, All India Trinamool Congress. She tweets @sagarikaghose. Views are personal.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)