Mamata invokes Tagore and all things Bengali to stonewall 'usurper' BJP in 2021 poll challenge

In contrast to the "Jai Shree Ram" slogans raised by the BJP workers during Union Home Minister Amit Shah's roadshow in Bolpur of Birbhum district earlier this month, Banerjee did all to project herself as the saviour of Bengali culture, which she feels has been sacrificed by the surge in the saffron camp.

With Tagore's songs playing in the background, Banerjee, who is deft in reciting Bengali poems during political rallies, occasionally walked hugging the poet's portrait as she fiercely attacked her adversary BJP during the roadshow on Tuesday.

Mamata Banerjee carrying portrait of Rabindranath Tagore

The lion's share of Banerjee's speech, quite obviously, remained her attack on the BJP, which was called the party of the Hindi heartland of India even a few years ago, over the Bengali culture and of course, the icon Tagore.

Countering Shah's call to make West Bengal "Sonar Bangla" by voting for the BJP in the upcoming polls, Banerjee on Tuesday said, "Rabindranath Tagore already made Sonar Bangla. So no need to dream about new Sonar Bangla."

Taking a dig at the BJP leaders who often make faux paus over Bengali icons during state visits, the CM said, "The outsider BJP leaders had said that Tagore was born in Santiniketan! They do not know Rabindranath Tagore, Netaji or even Gandhiji."

Amit Shah with folk singer Basudeb Das during his Bolpur tour

An angry Banerjee had also slammed BJP Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy's call to tweak the National Anthem composed by Tagore, saying, "Now they are calling for a change in the National Anthem made by Rabindranath Tagore. Let them dare to touch the National Anthem."

In every rally and even during her briefings at her office Nabanna, Banerjee unsparingly terms the central BJP leaders as "outsiders", indirectly considering herself as the only native leader to whom the people of the state can fall back upon like they did for the last 12 years.

Amit Shah in Bolpur roadshow on Dec 20

Not just Tagore, Banerjee, who heads the ruling Trinamool Congress, also banked on Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, the 19th century social reformer and educator.

In several rallies, not just on Tuesday, the feisty 65-year old politician of West Bengal tries to keep the vandalisation of Vidyasagar's bust in north Kolkata allegedly by the BJP men in 2019 afresh in people's mind.

The West Bengal Chief Minister also wrote an impassioned letter to Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, who was earlier accused of illegal possession of land by Visva Bharati University. 

Mamata Banerjee with Trinamool MP Satabdi Roy in roadshow

Mamata Banerjee in her letter assured Sen of her support  to combat “some nouveau invaders in Visva-Bharati” with “baseless allegations” over his ancestral property. Sen wrote back the CM thanking her and terming her support as "a tremendous source of strength.” 

But her emergence as the protector of the Bengali community is not sudden. It can be traced back to the days after Trinamool's dismal performance in the 2019 General Elections.

Mamata Banerjee addressing crowd in Bolpur

While BJP's poster boy Narendra Modi was swearing in as the Prime Minister for the second term in late May in 2019, Banerjee made the headlines by expressing her raw emotions by chasing allegedly BJP men, who had raised "Jai Shree Ram" slogans while her convoy was passing.

But in between her verbal onslaughts, what couldn't be missed was her reference to the men as "outsiders" accusing them of disturbing the Bengali people.

Mamata Banerjee responding to people's cheer in Bolpur

Countering Banerjee's latest political strategy if it is at all, BJP Rajya Sabha MP from West Bengal, Swapan Dasgupta told India Blooms: "Mamata Banerjee is making a desperate last-minute attempt to portray the BJP as the cultural outsiders to Bengal. She is going at it in a very systematic way. Little understanding that Bengali culture is not a monopoly of the Trinamool Congress.

"She is also trying to portray the BJP as the party of all-India and therefore positing Bengal against the largest sense of Indian nationhood which to my mind is very dangerous.

"I believe that BJP has its roots very much in Bengal. Its whole movement was born from Bengal and it has its inspiration from everything from the cultural nationalism that grew out of the soil of Bengal and that can never be removed."

Is Mamata Banerjee looking at nurturing a vote bank of Bengali Hindus sensitive about Tagore and Bengali culture? It is a fact that 57 per cent of the Hindu population rooted for the BJP, which Banerjee termed as the party of "Gujarat and Delhi", in the last General Elections.

So the question arises whether she is trying to consolidate the vote bank of Bengali Hindu in the next state polls due to be held in 2021 summer.

Mamata Banerjee paying respect to Rabindranath Tagore

Political analyst Biswanath Chakraborty says, "See this is an upper level politics which is not related to the daily lives of people. People in urban areas may get influenced by it, but common voters do not care about these issues."

"In West Bengal, the number of non-Bengali voters are huge as well. So Mamata Banerjee's pitching of Bengali culture is countered by the BJP which keeps the national pride ahead of Bengali pride. In that case, Trinamool's votes from the non-Bengali community will fall sharply."

"Voters can't be influenced by such issues. This is not household politics. Household politics is Duare Sarkar [Govt. at doorstep campaign of Mamata], Awas Yojana which influence the voters," he adds.

(Images: Mamata Banerjee Facebook)