In a federal system, states are partners, not subordinates

 

In a federal system, states are partners, not subordinates

Jawhar Sircar

(New Indian Express, 12 June 2021)

 

Like all federalisms, India's too is like a marriage between equals, the Centre and the states, and both thrive and prosper as they emerge stronger after each crisis. Though the 299 members of the Constituent Assembly did a commendable job in three and a half years, they could not provide for every foreseeable contingency. The Constitution is gently tilted in favour of the Centre, but a greater maturity has now evolved in the handling of the Brahmastras like President's Rule in states under Article 356 or in demanding secession. The federation has also learnt to accord greater respect to regional aspirations, cultures and pride.

The Constitution's federal characteristics must constantly pass tests and battles like the one we have at hand in the state of West Bengal. Its ultimate outcome will affect all other states and the Union as well. To cut through the clutter and controversies, let us come straight to May 24, when the Centre agreed to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's proposal to extend the services of Alapan Bandyopadhyay, who was about to retire as chief secretary of the state on May 24. This was for three months - to provide continuity in COVID control in the state. Such short-tenure extensions are not usual. Thereafter, Cyclone Yaas devastated coastal Odisha and adjoining West Bengal, and on Friday (May 28), Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided to make an aerial survey. Though this programme clashed with the announced visit of Mamata to survey the coastal belt by helicopter, she altered her schedule to be present at Kalaikunda, the major air base of these parts in West Bengal. She promised to visit Digha, the state’s most battered coastal town, only after attending the PM's meeting at 2:30 pm. Both the VIP air travellers were, however, cutting it too fine and Mamata's helicopter was not allowed to fly out of the Sagar Island by Air Traffic Control (ATC). Since the PM's craft had taken off from Odisha towards Kalaikunda, the skies were closed for 'VIP movement'. A state Cabinet minister received the PM at Kalaikunda and as soon as Air Traffic permitted, Mamata flew in and landed there. This is now severely criticised by a section as "having kept the PM waiting for 15 minutes". Though the CM had not "formally received the PM", she was well in time for the scheduled meeting. No fudging of these timings is possible by either party, as every minute of what happened has been logged and recorded by multiple agencies - the ATC, the PM's SPG (security), the Kalaikunda Air Force Station, the state police, East Medinipur Police Headquarters, etc.

It appears that the CM or chief secretary had corresponded with the PMO and conveyed her objection to the presence of Suvendu Adhikari, the Leader of the Opposition. Mamata had requested for a direct meeting between the PM and her and felt that if one MLA was invited, others from worse-affected areas could also have joined the meeting. Actually, Adhikari had been her own right hand before he defected to the BJP just before the elections. He had not only trounced her in his own traditional Assembly constituency, Nandigram, but has emerged thereafter as her bête noire. Since the prime minister was keen to include Adhikari in his meeting, she felt there was little point in these 'optics and politics'. She entered the meeting room on time, but declined to sit down and simply handed over a damage report to the PM. She said a few words and begged excuse to fly onward to Digha, along with her chief secretary - who was always at her side. He, too, left the meeting along with his boss, but while the prime minister did not object then, all hell broke loose over the next few days.

The Centre suddenly transferred Bandyopadhyay to Delhi, where he had never worked before - on the very last day of his service. The Bengal chief minister refused to release him, which they constantly do under the IAS Cadre Rules, including by the current prime minister when he was a chief minister. Mamata's refusal is, however, being condemned now by Modi supporters, well after Bandopadhayay has retired. The state declined the 90 days' extension of service given by the Centre, and the CM issued an order giving him a three-year post-retirement term as her 'Adviser'.

The Centre retaliated immediately by issuing a notice under Section 51 of the Disaster Management Act on Bandyopadhyay for "refusing to comply with the direction given by or on behalf of the Central Government". This is unprecedented, as this provision to jail offenders for terms upto two years was never meant to spite ministers and officers. Incidentally, both the Central and state governments have exactly the same powers and the real disaster would have struck if the temperamental CM had issued a tit-for-tat order on some Central official or on Adhikari.

The interesting question we have now is whether the Centre expects IAS officers to defy the state government. The matter will soon move to the courts and the federal Constitution looks forward eagerly to a direction. Should officers serving states continue to be loyal to them? Or is it now legitimate for them to undercut the latter - whenever Delhi gets miffed with a chief minister? That is the crux of this battle.

(Please Click Here to read the article on New Indian ExpressWebsite)

 

Take a break and ring in the hours

 

Take a break and ring in the hours

Jawhar Sircar

(New Indian Express, 26 May 2021)

 

Till a couple of decades ago, Westerners were surprised that Indians hardly understood their passion for their ‘Thank God it’s Friday’ syndrome and their trooping out of workplaces sharp at 5 pm for the weekend. Neither wild horses nor unfinished work could stop them. In the recent decades, however, Indians have also picked up this weekend craziness. But advanced countries continue to take a dim view of the liberties that Indians take with punctuality. It may appear odd, but the two phenomena are actually connected—since both weekend off-days and clock-struck punctuality are imports from the West.

Visram or rest was surely embedded in our culture and Hindus, Jains and Buddhists certainly took a few days off each month for festivals. That is why our important festivals run into several days at a time, and they come approximately once a month. Most mark the end of particular agricultural seasons when crops were already in the granaries or ripe in the fields—after weeks of continuous labour, often without a break. We need to understand that while our solar calendar determined the months and named each day of the week, it was actually the lunar pakshas or fortnightly cycles that prevailed. Each day was numerically marked after the last new moon or full moon and these decided religious festivals, life cycle events and even project work. Commoners could, after all, see and “read the moon” on the sky, since there were no other clocks. The science of calculating the exact muhurtha or auspicious moment also thrived and provided gainful employment to certain skilled people.

Urban, Westernised Indians may now understand why almost all Indic festivals and observances are called by their lunar dates—like Ram Navami, Dussehra, Holi Purnima, Akshaya Tritiya, and so on. Hinduism was always a massive, ongoing exercise in the reconciliation of diversity and its ideology, and rituals were held together by a cadre of Brahmans. The latter usually agreed on the core essentials and heartily disagreed on everything else. Their loyalty was essentially to their local clientele who provided their economic support and, of course, to their own school of philosophy, pan-Indian or regional. Ritual practitioners among them were as professional as, say, doctors or lawyers, who tended directly to their clients. Local societies were split by caste and did not require ‘pastors’ or rabbis to lead the whole flock.

This amorphous, non-egalitarian religion felt no need to assemble all believers every Friday for Jumas like Muslims do or for Saturday Sabbaths like Jews or at Sunday Church like Christians. The weekly rest day of each Abrahamic creed was determined by its own religious necessity. Since Buddhism was also an organised community-based religion, Gautama Buddha introduced Uposatha (Upavasatha) as a day for meditation and cleansing the mind and it continues. While some countries like Sri Lanka observe it only on full moon and new moon days, Theravada Buddhist countries of East and Southeast Asia do it once a week. They have ingeniously split the lunar fortnight into two ‘quarter moons’, but even so, Uposatha did not dominate their life. Sunday holidays were enforced later by their colonial masters.

Though Buddhists of India also observed Uposatha, there were no compulsory weekly holidays for other Indic systems. The Hindu-Jain fortnightly lunar pakshas had their own fixed days like Ekadasi for person-centric observances, not community-based ones. Certain cults or regional variations within Hinduism could always dedicate a particular day, like Guruvar or Thursday for Gurus, without disturbing the all-India principle. It was left to the British to impose the Sunday off-day in their offices, military and commercial establishments. After the post-Macaulay educational system expanded in the 1840s, institutions governed by British rules adopted the Sunday holiday. The vast majority of Indians were, however, not affected by imported norms till late into the 19th century. This is when mining and industrialisation became quite visible and the Crown was duty-bound to ensure at least minimal justice to workers, especially to women and small children. The first Factory Act of 1881 introduced four  days off a month, but the Royal Commission of 1890 wanted to ensure mid-day work-intervals and fix weekly off days. Thus, the second Factory Act of 1891 enforced one day a week off, but demanded full working hours, quite rigorously. Since Indians were not familiar with exact hours, the British set up bell towers or ghanta-ghars in several towns, whose gongs reminded Indians of each hour. The term “kitna baja” or “how many times did it ring” entered our lexicon and continues to mean “what is the time”.

Nevertheless, a general vagueness still prevails among many Indians and our casual attitude to punctuality is proverbial. In fact, many Indians still cannot figure out why Westerners are so terribly obsessed with Sundays and weekends, which is now moving towards three days. In the West, when doctors were required to work over weekends, many Indians stepped forward as earnings were more important than weekends. We need to understand that our millennia-old cultural genes were imbedded by the needs of the majority’s religion and culture, and these neither commanded the strict cognisance of the hours nor punished the lack of punctuality.

 

(Please Click Here to read the article on New Indian ExpressWebsite)

Covid pandemic: Let us look at ourselves too

 

Covid pandemic: Let us look at ourselves too

Jawhar Sircar

(New Indian Express, 12 May 2021)

 

One is still not certain whether Covid-19 is largely airborne, but we are more than sure that it is and was airport-borne. It was definitely imported by aircraft passengers, usually better educated or economically advantaged, mainly from advanced Western countries. They went on generously transmitting it in all cities as most of our tracking systems are primitive. There were, of course, some pockets that export lesser-qualified ECR (Emigration Clearance Required) passport holders too, but if we trace the earliest spreaders, we find that most belonged to the more fortunate strata. And what is more distressing is that several of our educated infectors knew fully well that they had symptoms of the disease (some were certain) or had been exposed to those who had. Neither their degrees nor their conscience could, however, persuade them to quarantine themselves. The state where I live had the glorious distinction of sending the chief secretary and home secretary “back to the pavilion” after the first ball of the first over. A senior bureaucrat of the state administration, who had to meet them frequently, suppressed the fact that she was most probably infected by her enterprising young UK-returned son. He, in turn, reportedly picked it up in his university, after dancing with literally fairer Covid patients. Back home, he went around with his buddies, merrily infecting shopping malls and restaurants.

Education can hardly override our dominant socially-inconsiderate cultural genes. We honk rather madly during traffic jams and trample over each other in our insane rush to disembark. We are all terribly angry and upset with the Modi government and I have also criticised it for its many sins of omission and commission. But let us, for once, look around us to see how minuscule a percentage of the citizenry heeded any restriction imposed by the Central, state or local governments. Masks were very rarely used, even at the height of the first wave, but we were critical of police lathis hitting soft targets and cribbed when they were caught and fined.

Our primary grouse against the series of lockdowns last year was not the economic collapse they entailed, but because our maids and helping hands were not able to come or not allowed to enter. As advised nonstop by busybodies and do-gooders on social media, we stocked unnecessary medicine and hoarded foodstuff. As a result, genuine patients of thyroid had to suffer for want of hydroxychloroquine, because Trump revealed his hitherto unknown medical wisdom. Unlike Americans, however, we did not corner mind-boggling quantities of toilet paper, as we have our own ways of doing justice to the bottom. But we ensured that medicine shops ran out of vitamin C, zinc supplements and even Dettol. Most people who had never touched alcohol in their lives splashed so much of it on their palms that doctors started fearing a new type of cirrhosis.

Frankly, this was the first time that death has been so unfairly democratic and no amount of pull, push or power appears to help. In fact, the poor, who had no high-level connections, appeared less vulnerable than our pricey gated communities. Our villages were much safer as air travellers visit them less. But then, the hyper-dramatic and unplanned lockdowns ensured that infections reached the interior when migrants were forced to return home.

We have a right to blame the regime for its unpreparedness in tackling the second wave, but were we ourselves prepared? As soon as daily infections came down from almost one lakh to some 9,000 and the number of deaths fell, many urban folk headed for the hills or to the seaside. Large gatherings became commonplace once again. These did not help matters. Our better informed strata read all about the second and third waves that lashed more developed countries, but very few (who are so critical today) actually discussed how these could devastate us as well. We speculated that Indians were hardier than Westerners and all of us welcomed 2021 as the year that would surely get us out of the accursed 2020. The government was unnecessarily over-centralised and its myopia is evident in its lack of planning for oxygen, additional beds or vaccines. But pray, what prevented prosperous hospitals from setting up oxygen plants or adding to their facilities? Some did try, but none can deny that most hospital managements had also started believing in India’s miracle. Many made tidy profits and were more bothered about releasing facilities and investments blocked by Covid. Of course, many besotted citizens attributed all credit to the nation’s leader—who never refuses them.

True, we had no reliable Dr Fauci. But specialists and civil society members also have their role to play—even when they are scorned or are shown terror tactics. However, professional complainers and self-appointed experts, especially those who habitually cry wolf, lose credibility soon. Statistics regarding India’s demand and supply of medical oxygen and vaccine production could be worked out quite roughly, as is being done now, and the government forewarned rather noisily, until it listened. Those outside the government could also make projections of best-case and worst-case scenarios and offer them to policymakers, more vigorously than what they may actually have done. After all, a nation is certainly more than just its leaders and its bureaucrats.

 

(Please Click Here to read thearticle on New Indian Express Website)

The Modi Cult Is Far From Finished

 

The Modi Cult Is Far From Finished

Jawhar Sircar

(The Wire, 12 June 2021)

 

Narendra Modi is surely passing through his worst patch ever as prime minister, but then, there is no reason to view this seven years’ ‘itch’ of the people as the beginning of his end. The sudden fury against his regime’s disastrous handling of COVID-19 was sparked off in the national capital and other urban pockets of power by shocking visuals of endless funeral pyres and by horror stories of ‘people we know’ gasping to death for want of oxygen. What was so utterly preposterous was that COVID-19 did not give any consideration to status, connections and other visible capabilities of the urban elite to beat all raps.

Surprisingly, even the local, domesticated media could not resist the temptation to portray the truth — much to the dismay of its ringmasters — while the international media shattered India’s image and Modi’s standing in a matter of days. The prime minister’s so-tiring 109 foreign trips to 60 countries and his mandatory bearhugs proved quite ineffectual — as did the upfront declared cost of Rs 518 crore spent on them. While the much-ignored badlands of the Gangetic belt dumped corpses into the holy river, or buried them thin under its sands, explosive anger cut through different sections across the well-cultivated political divide.

Yet, in January this year, India Today’s Mood of the Nation survey revealed that 74% of the respondents rated Modi’s performance as ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’, a small dip from his 78% rating in August 2020. The report “reiterated the phenomenal popularity rating for a leader now in his seventh year in power.” This was, of course, when India was on a hubris-induced high, imagining that it had conquered COVID-19 under the “great leader’s guidance”. Things changed considerably when the second wave struck, ripping off Modi’s Potemkinian-painted cardboard cutouts that camouflaged reality.

His latest popularity index, as calculated by the much-quoted US data intelligence company Morning Consult, shows a fall to the lowest point ever. People who ‘approved’ Modi fell from 82% exactly one year ago to 63% now, while those who specifically disapproved his policies rose from a mere 16% to 30%. But these surveys still affirm that he is way above the 31.1% of popular vote with which he swept to power in 2014 and also far higher than 37.4% he cornered in the 2019 polls — whichever be the method of extrapolation one may seek to use.

While watching the infallible leader being roasted may have provided a dash of delicious schadenfreude — it does precious little to challenge his fiercely entrenched, flush-funded and ruthlessly professional electoral machine. Toughened politicians who have got away with murder (figuratively, till now) are used to the temporary tantrums of some voters. In any case, the peeling off appears to be restricted to the outer layers of the support base and were mostly add-ons to Modi’s fan club from 2014 or thereafter.

The Hindu Rasthra is, however, determined to not allow such aberrations to feed fantasies like the replacement of Modi. A senior well-read editor has, in fact, warned the leader against conspirators in his inner circle and others who have let him down and thus need to be purged forthwith. The regime’s propaganda wing has taken up even more belligerent positions and its artillery is bombarding the media, both mainstream and social, after just a small daze-induced pause. Trolls are also back in action clumsily bludgeoning their enemies in the filthiest of language, while the opportunist majority in media are clicking their heels in salute to the powers that be, and to the deadly chaebols that now back them quite openly.

Frankly, the only refreshing breeze comes from the corridors of courts, once some powerful entrenched judges who were enthralled by the regime retired. But then, seven years in power is also a long time for the regime to foist many judges of choice to critically important courts that determine the fate of this beleaguered democracy. This is so clear from certain shocking decisions of a few high courts, but then, we are also blessed with some really outstanding judges everywhere.

The Supreme Court’s flexing of its muscles and its remarkable boldness in compelling a chronically misleading and inept government to declare free immunisation of all adults will go into the annals of India’s history with great favour. The other welcome development is that the regime has been trounced in three of the four major states where assembly elections were held. But, then, the results in Tamil Nadu and Assam were fairly predictable, while Kerala’s was a morale-booster — but then, the contest was never with the Bharatiya Janata Party. It was only in West Bengal that the verdict against Modi was astoundingly clear and really invigorated demoralised secular democratic forces all over the country.

The angst against Modi may or may not, however, last beyond the second wave of COVID-19 that, mercifully, appears to be waning. It is quite misleading to read too much in the RSS supremo’s recent criticism of Modi’s handling, as all he did was to push a few cadmium bars into the atomic reactor to absorb some of the extra combustion building up within. The talk of bringing in Nitin Gadkari as the ‘good Sanghi’ is now a favourite pastime of the marginalised Lutyens class and a section of slighted Maharashtrians. Let us not ignore the fact that Modi has the support of the biggest corporates — some of whom have prospered beyond their imagination, during his regime.

Relations between the BJP’s Wehrmacht and big capital, especially from Gujarat, are much too deep to be ignored by the RSS and the BJP, especially after Modi has raised the bar of election costs. Post-Modi elections are too incredibly expensive to depend on small-time shopkeepers anymore. The Centre for Media Studies (CMS) estimated that the ‘visible’ expenditure on the 2019 Lok Sabha elections was an incredible Rs 60,000 crore. It was, shockingly, the costliest election in the world and its spending was more than double of the 2014 polls.

CMS calibrated the BJP’s outlay was close to Rs 27,000 crore, i.e. 45% of all and this worked out to investing Rs 89 crore for each of its 303 victorious candidates. In contrast, the latest declaration of the Election Commission, based on figures of its opaque-most electoral bond scheme, is that in 2019, the BJP received just Rs 750 crore in donations from companies and individuals. This is still more than five times what the Congress garnered, which was Rs 139 crore. One reason why Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress was so badly battered in Bengal in the 2019 polls could be that it could manage to get some miserable Rs 8 crore in all.

While the mainstream of Indian business is still quite shattered, from shocks delivered both before and after COVID-19, those who prosper from privatisation, favourable policies, large infrastructure projects and rich mining tracts will surely continue to finance a leader who has done so much. It also explains why the BJP need not dirty its hand with petty ‘receipts’ like many other parties. This centralised funding has also made it is eminently possible to clip the powers of its own ministers, regional leaders and local satraps and decimate any possible rival to Modi.

When one hears only “Modi, Modi” across the landscape, it is time to admit that he matters as much in the party’s economics as he does in its politics. Misgivings if any in the RSS’s headquarters or those nursed by old-timers would all have to gulped — with liquids of their choice. And left-liberals would do well to also realise that Modi is simply too entrenched and too powerful to be wished away with tweets, memes and self-congratulatory articles.

We may as well confess that Modi has actually merged political populism with the old Indian guruvadi tradition rather dextrously. Unlike Abrahamic religions that appoint local pastors, rabbis or maulanas to hold the flock together and to comfort any troubled believer, Indic religions do not usually provide for them. Hindu ritual practitioners and temple purohits have their duties precisely cut out for them, and counselling is not in their charter. This craving is left to ‘gurus’ to handle and the successful ones hold immense powers over their followers.

The guru is god on Earth — even when he is a corporate magnate like Baba Ramdev or is quite scandalous like Asaram Bapu or Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh. The latter’s net worth is some Rs 1,500 crore and in 2017, when he was arrested for rape, 41 lives were lost in the riots that followed. Over 500 people had to be arrested but several lakhs still swear that he is an unadulterated god. We would do well to realise that Modi assiduously cultivated millions of bhakts and has created a large class of blind followers which no other prime minister ever had.

Though Christian Evangelists did try to appropriate Trump and Erdogan works through a besotted Muslim Ulema, none had the benefit of a deep-rooted, millennia-old socio-religious tradition waiting to be exploited. They are a product of the adroit grafting of traditional guruvad with modern mass politics, that was possible to such unique levels only in India. We can elaborate on this on a later occasion. Liberals had, indeed, read the series of electoral signals in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections quite erroneously and had started nursing false hopes of defeating Modi. They may recall the stunning shock they received when mind-boggling numbers rose to demonstrate their guru-bhakti at the hustings. It would, thus, take many more blunders like COVID-19 mismanagement to break the magical spell over die-hard bhakts, and millions of Indians would never abandon their unshakable and genetically-prompted faith in the infallible guru.

Popular frustration may surely be reflected intermittently in some forthcoming bypolls, but that does not ensure radical change. None in the opposition can hold a candle to Modi, in his mesmerising oratory skills or in electoral strategies. There is, sadly, no national-level opposition leader, not one, to challenge him. Several non-BJP regional leaders have sworn their allegiance to him and the few chief ministers who are opposed to him are quite content to lord it within their own fiefdoms.

Good examples are Captain Amarinder, Pinarayi Vijayan and Uddhav Thackeray. Maybe, an aggressive street-fighter like Mamata may decide to challenge Modi on the national stage, despite limitations of language, elocution and resources. Which is why she is kept pinned down to her state by a series of pre-planned attacks and has to fight endless battles to survive even after her massive popular mandate.

The next round in India will be fought in an Uttar Pradesh that has been brutalised by Yogi Adityanath. Its elections are in February, but no serious unified opposition to the BJP is noticeable, but one can keep hoping. Internal dissensions within the BJP are said to be surfacing and the Samajwadi Party’s performance in this year’s panchayat polls is commendable. If one believes in Harold Wilson’s earthy wisdom that “one week is a lot of time in politics”, well, 34 weeks is then quite an ocean to cross. Besides, agitating farmers are still on the boil and one never knows what’s next. The citizenship law is still a burning fuse.

These insurmountable difficulties notwithstanding, when people united and are determined to safeguard their values, they can move mountains. We just need to recap the manner in which Mamata Banerjee and Bengal challenged the tsunami of money and Central police power and shattered the cast-in-stone national media narrative — financed by the ruthless duo. Never before did a historic 48% of the electorate coalesce, in a notoriously argumentative and quarrelsome state, to throw Modi out. If we include the anti-BJP votes that the Left and Congress garnered, it means a whopping 56% of Bengal united to keep the BJP out.

It is a very recent lesson worth remembering and it can help us transcend the gloom brought in by other irrefutable facts. If we look back further at history we will see that Indira Gandhi was also in a similar invincible position in 1977 — when the people of India decided to teach her a lesson. Opposition parties had united, unlike now, but not very effectively and since the Emergency was still in force, Indira played skittles with them.

One remembers every frustrating day during those months, as a participant-observer who was caught between diametrically opposing pulls — that of a former student activist till July of 1975 and of an IAS officer coopted into the establishment thereafter. As a junior magistrate in Burdwan and an assistant returning officer, one saw it all at close quarters. All hopes for the restoration of democracy vanished when we saw how pitiably disorientated was the rag-tag band of opposition politicians who were simply no match for the machinery they confronted. Indira’s party was far better organised, so well-equipped, lavishly funded and, above all, ruthless.

This is then that history and the people of India stepped in — to roll the dice. But, can we really demand or pray for an encore?

(Please Click Here to read article on The Wire Website)

 

BJP Will Do All it Can to Ensure West Bengal Remains on the Boil

 

BJP Will Do All it Can to Ensure West Bengal Remains on the Boil

Jawhar Sircar

(The Wire, 7 May 2021)

 

One is taken aback by the ease with which the spectacular verdict delivered by voters in West Bengal has been superseded by headlines about the political violence that broke out thereafter. It is most unfortunate that clashes, injuries and deaths have taken place and one can only bemoan the fact that this tragic tradition has remained intertwined with elections in the state for half a century, if not more. No major party is free from blame and the newly-invigorated state BJP promises to be more than adept in this domain. As one had predicted, chaos appears to be looming as neither the TMC nor the BJP are likely to desist from action and retaliation.

At the time of this writing, matters appear to be under control and Mamata Banerjee took stern action immediately after taking took oath as chief minister on May 5. One hears of hundreds of arrests, including those specific to these incidents, as Banerjee knows she stands to lose a lot of goodwill if she does not bring matters under control. This phase, however, brings to the fore some worrying facts that should interest all those who are keen to retrieve India’s threatened democracy.

The sheer speed with which the BJP operationalised its professionally-prepared ‘Plan B’, which was kept ready for if the BJP lost in Bengal, in the rarest of rare cases, is really worth noting. This narrative’s instant hit reveals how vulnerable we all are, and in just 48 hours, this spin bowling succeeded in diverting nationwide attention from the biggest humiliation that Narendra Modi and Amit Shah have ever received. It could not, however, take eyes off COVID-19. We may briefly touch upon the construction of the narrative, it’s remarkable marketing and the warning it is meant to convey.

The crusading fake news buster, AltNews, and news portals like The Quint have already revealed that a large number of ‘news’ reports of violence that were gulped down by the national media were patently false. This happened more on social media, which the BJP dominates from 2014 and uses to expand its hate circuit and deliver daily fixes to its bhakts. A sample of such misleading items and their debunking can be seen here. Special hashtags like #BengalBurning and #BengalViolence were created to disseminate graphic visuals, scary news and well-crafted allegations. The items appearing under the link reveal, with authenticity and authority, how facts have been liberally mixed with fiction.

An example is the claim made by an MP and president of the BJP’s Yuva Morcha in Bengal that a “BJP karyakarta has been gang-raped by TMC goons at Nanoor, Birbhum. We are also getting distressing reports of rape and molestation from Nanoor”. The state BJP carried this item and a well-regarded ex-MP of the BJP also tweeted about the “Alarming situation in Nanoor (Birbhum district) with more than a thousand Hindu families out in the fields to escape marauding mobs seeking to take it out against BJP supporters. Reports of molestation or worse of women. @AmitShah please rush some security to the area.”

The SP of Birbhum district ordered an immediate enquiry and publicly announced that this was false. The link shared leads us to dozens of other deliberately misleading tweets like the TMC celebrating its victory with swords and knives (which proved to be an mock audiovisual for a song); a video of “TMC goons attacking police” (which is an old clip of an incident in Odisha); numerous eye-popping photos of flames and arson (all of which were old visuals filched from completely unconnected incidents) and so on.

While the godi media, especially the TV channels that are beholden to the regime, lapped up these ‘feeds’, even other sections of the national media carried items, without cross checking. This brings us to the next issue of how the media as a whole is quite overwhelmed by the narrative of the regime and appears unprepared to deal with fake feeds. Before we forget this in a week, let us recall the fright among liberals and the delight of the Hindu Right till even a few days ago about the BJP winning Bengal. Almost everyone in the media was taken in by the swagger that BJP’s victory was a done and dusted deal. The media and even most pollsters had stated that even if Mamata Banerjee won, the margin would be so slim that the BJP could easily bridge it with liberal handouts. The party had, after all, perfected this into a fine art after toppling eight duly elected governments.

Many in the media units now need an escape route and violence is a perfect diversion. More striking, however, is the self-same manner in which several opinion marketeers were influenced to lap up the claim that law and order has totally collapsed in Bengal. As is clear, such unquestioned or even a casual acceptance of the Amit Shah line helps him and his unusually-quiet master the most — to cover up their ignominious defeat in Bengal.

The third concern is that even after the most unequivocal verdict by the state’s voters against the BJP, many in Delhi and elsewhere are actually busy discussing whether president’s rule should be invoked in Bengal. An audacious petition has been filed in the Supreme Court, obviously by the regime’s proxies and surely with prior clearance, that challenges the very root of democracy. It also reflects the growing impatience and wrath of those who despise popular votes that go against their infallible leader. In effect, it seeks a declaration from the court to overturn Bengal’s popular vote, stating that the constitutional machinery in the state has broken down. This is something that the state’s most controversial governor keeps repeating, as advised. Even though it is both farcical and dangerous to even think of imposing president’s rule under Article 356 of the Constitution, we need to read the regime’s message that elected governments do not matter. Though salivating for Bengal will lead it nowhere, the unchallenged manner in which Modi and Shah established their non-democratic hegemony over Kashmir and Delhi obviously whets their desire to replicate this in other parts of India.

The fourth issue is the blunt indication to Banerjee that she will not get a moment’s peace. Modi and Shah know that she has earned her spurs this time for taking a more active role in national politics. All the endless pin-pricks by central investigative agencies do not appear to have cowed her down, though it has surely silenced many other opposition leaders. Her presence on the national stage as a fearless fighter and a David who knocked off Goliath can only be thwarted if she can be kept on the defensive in her state. That is precisely what the opening bumper balls are meant to convey. What is most disturbing to the regime is the manner in which she garnered the votes of the Left and Congress supporters, wiping the parties off most unbelievably, for the first time since Independence. In Bengal, it was not originally a straight fight as it was in Delhi. The boxing ring is also much bigger in this critical state. Banerjee knows that she will be under constant attack as she must be prevented from joining the dots of disparate centres of opposition to Modi’s rule. The regime is bent on constricting her populist approach and spiking her battle techniques or else the opposition may emulate her style.

All said and done, there can be no place for the violence and bloodshed that just happened and none can condone the tragedy of so much blood flowing. No official figures have been released and while the BJP claims that 10 of its followers have been killed, it also speaks of the party’s strength that it could kill some eight or nine TMC supporters as well — as claimed by the TMC. Neither the TMC nor the BJP are known to be peaceful and many shudder at the very thought of riot after riot that may have followed a BJP victory in the state. The danger of inspired riots always looms over Bengal, more so now.

At the same time, Banerjee cannot afford to ignore the 38% of voters who are with the BJP. This is a huge number, considering that Modi’s “tsunami” in 2014 was based on only 33% of votes. It is true that even non-political citizens of Bengal were quite repulsed by the frightening display of aggression that belligerent bands of armed BJP supporters displayed — as they cruised on their motorbikes, flashing open swords and tridents, screaming ‘Jai Shri Ram’. Bengal has seen violence and political militancy for over a century, when nationalist terror first emerged, but there are ethics and limits. In fact, many believe a whopping majority of 48% of Bengal’s voters really banded behind Mamata’s party because its strongmen appeared capable of giving the unusually aggressive BJP of Bengal a run for its money. Be that as it may, the TMC has to stop harassing or killing members of other political parties or else it would soon be back to the very precarious position it was in before the elections. If Banerjee wishes to lead the nation’s opposition against Modi, she needs wholehearted support from the Congress and Left parties. They cannot be on the run in Bengal and be expected to stand next to her in national politics. It just does not make sense.

Banerjee also knows fully well that the powerful section of better-educated, culturally-conscious, middle-class Bengalis, the so-called bhadraloks, moved away from other parties to support her this time – for a specific reason. This class traditionally backs secular liberals and left politics and its solid 10-15% of votes were conditional. If Banerjee is to retain the faith of this class and others who supported her, she must act with determination and stop inter-party clashes, whatever be the provocation. She cannot battle on two fronts. Her primary target is to forge a larger, more inclusive grouping against an unstoppable juggernaut. She needs to prepare a broad-based phalanx to contend with a powerful narrative against her. The present alarm over “the collapse of law and order” is just for starters. She has to be prepared for more attacks, engineered canards and unending harassment from a ruthless party and a vindictive regime at the Centre.

(Please Click Here to read article on The Wire Website)

 

How West Bengal Halted the BJP’s Chariot

 

How West Bengal Halted the BJP’s Chariot

Jawhar Sircar

(The Wire, 2 May 2021)

 

The election results in West Bengal are still coming in, and ‘leads’ are being replaced by ‘wins’ or otherwise. Even so, one is perhaps entitled to stick out one’s neck to try to make sense out the most spectacular drubbings that the BJP has been handed in seven years.

One had withstood the overwhelmingly dominating narrative of a sure-shot BJP tsunami in West Bengal that was manufactured in Delhi — and had said so in this online journal, to the derision of many. An integral part of the agenda that was repeatedly being told was that the ‘bhadraloks’ of Bengal would be wiped out in the ongoing, never-ending elections. Most people, including Bengalis, incidentally had/have only a hazy notion of what this term stands for.

Now that this force-fed narrative has been proved wrong, let us take a quick look at the possible reasons for Mamata Banerjee’s spectacular victory and the role played by the class that goes by this completely unofficial but widely used term ‘bhadralok’. There is no doubt that there was a strong anti-incumbency wave against Mamata’s Trinamool Congress for reasons not unjustified. So many field surveys by agencies and ground reports from media-persons were certainly not wrong but the exit polls failed to capture the ‘crouching dragon’ of the floating vote-block led by bhadraloks that was never associated with the TMC and the lady they were fond of lampooning.

This left-liberal group decided to swing in her favour this time and its numbers surely helped supersede the negative anti-incumbency votes. We may leave the confirmation or variation of this postulate to pundits once they generate more granular data and start analysing it region-wise and strata-wise. The fact that the TMC realised that it was indeed up against a strong anti-incumbency wave was clear from several extraordinary steps it took to make up for this with last-minute counter-planks. Banerjee’s brainwave called Duarey Sarkar actually brought many government assistance and welfare schemes to the doorsteps of citizens/voters, even though it is difficult to sustain such go-to-the-people initiatives for too long. Banerjee’s indefatigable energy in pursuing her favourite schemes to any extent certainly played a deciding role with beneficiaries. Her other credit lies in overruling hundreds of objections by her own party-men and to implement many (not all) the recommendations made by Prashant Kishor, after careful planning and applying management techniques.

Just as Pramod Mahajan’s sneering smile and the BJP’s highly-visible and expensive India Shining campaign of 2004 exuded over-confidence and antagonised voters, ending Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s rule, people in Bengal were similarly put off by the cocksure swagger of the BJP. This applied to both local and more so the ‘visiting leaders’ from other states. Bengal had never seen so much money flow during elections and it astonished everyone, including those who were repeatedly hammered in with messages like honesty in public life and a fakir leading this pack.

Wealthy merchants of the state committed to Shri Ram openly showered more funds on the BJP and this was also an irritant to many, some of who may have gladly partaken a bit of this splurge. To many, the scale of ostentatiousness appeared to overshadow the ill-gotten wrath made by local Trinamool leaders, who were the butt end of the anti-incumbency surge. As explained in an earlier article on this platform, as the TMC had no fabulously wealthy patrons like the BJP, nor mining mafias or mega-scale infrastructure projects to milk, local leaders resorted to ‘cuts’ which could not escape the eyes of voters but somewhere the tables turned a lot. Flashy and long entourages of expensive SUVs in which the BJP leaders arrived to address them amazed the politically conscious voters of Bengal, and obviously, they would hardly comment on these  eyesores to field surveyors or the press, unless they were pointedly asked about this.

Over 200 chartered planes and helicopters reportedly flew in and out of Kolkata and Bagdogra (Siliguri) airports ferrying BJP leaders, as never seen before in the state’s history. Modi-Shah helped inadvertently to convert Mamata from an autocrat to an ‘underdog’ who was surrounded by bought-over defectors and back-stabbers. This image garnered unexpected sympathy for her in the state and outside, and her fight was seen as a David and Goliath struggle all over.

No job reservations for locals were announced or even discussed in Bengal, unlike some other states, nor did she rouse parochial sentiments. It was thus quite unfair to blame Mamata for stoking Bengali sub-nationalism — which the Delhi-based media was fed and led to write. What may have hurt the people here was the open and blatant ‘Hindi-fication’ of the discourse and that the emphasis that Hindi is the only language in which BJP leaders tolerate. The unabashed murder of the Hindi language by heavily-accepted, grammatically-erroneous Bengalis, especially by TMC defectors to the BJP camp, may have provided some comic relief to all-India BJP leaders. But everyone seemed to forget the fierce pride that Bengalis have in their language, for which they actually carved out their own state a few miles away, wading through blood and gore.

The fact that not a single local leader, not even if he had been a governor, was given any importance at all was noted and their absence in strategy-making was unmistakably conspicuous. Besides, Bengal’s BJP was crowded with members from different and often conflicting origins like ‘original RSS’, ‘old BJP’, imported outsiders, old defectors from other parties, new defectors from the TMC and these exacerbated inner party conflicts.

To cap it all, the publicly aggressive behaviour and the openly pro-BJP attitude of the former Chief Election Commissioner harmed the Commission and the BJP. He encouraged openly arrogant behaviour from his hand-picked Special Police Observer from another state, Vivek Dubey, whose attitude appeared very colonial indeed. The CEC appeared to think that he could bludgeon the state and its administration (that was also not always very fair) into submission.

At one point, some 1,30,000 central armed forces were posted here by the Election Commission, obviously with the active assistance of Amit Shah. The latter combined his role as home minister and as BJP’s merciless centre-forward, rather adroitly but quite unconstitutionally. Police are said to be trained to be overbearing anyway, but the manner in which the central forces were encouraged to behave was quite intolerable. In some pockets, they started acting like an ‘occupation force’. Nothing else can explain why a special armed section would suddenly land up in a polling booth in Cooch Behar on March 10 during polls and shoot four voters, all Muslims, in the chest and offer not a shred of proof or any evidence of injury on themselves to justify it. This incident that was clearly sponsored by the former CEC was widely condemned by all as Bengal is not habituated to tolerate such feudal bluster or unaccountability. This was a major landmark and a turning point for voters in the remaining four phases of elections.

One has repeatedly bemoaned the fact that by forming a’third front’ the Left and Congress ensured that secular forces and votes were split, in the darkest hour of crisis. The Left Front’s highly intellectual but completely wrong reading of reality brought it to join even with Abbas Siddiqui, an audacious 24-year-old scion of the family that is entrusted with the state’s oldest Muslim pilgrimage site. This Third Front kept attacking the Trinamool Congress with all its strength, especially through caricatures on the social media, behaving as if this party and not the BJP was its chief enemy. “Ram this time, baam (left) next time” was an oft-repeated slogan and the fact that this Third Front has been wiped out speaks volumes of the sagacity of the voters of Bengal.

Many voters who were traditionally supporters of the Left and the Congress judiciously decided not to waste their votes this time. So did the Muslims, who constitute 27%, and the complete defeat of the the two parties that had always received Muslim votes definitively indicates that most Muslims voted with the TMC. Even Abbas Siddiqi, who was suspected as a BJP ‘plant’ to divide Muslim votes, was roundly thrashed at the hustings even though his spiritual influence covers millions.

This surge against the BJP was led by a solid bloc of liberal and educated Bengalis, the much-discussed bhadralok (gentry). It is no more the centuries-old tripartite alliance between the educated sections of the three ‘highest’ castes of the region. It had opened its doors to meritocracy from other castes as well, decades ago, without much fuss. Incidentally, urban Bengal finds this business of caste to be quite messy and brands it as a trait of the backward BIMARU states. It is amusing to note that large sections of bhadraloks may know Pablo Neruda far better than their own castes and discussing caste is quite a taboo. It is not as if casteism does not exist at all, but it surely means far less in the lives of the people. For instance, caste does not decide postings at all. What are cherished are education, culture, liberal values and a historic freedom from orthodoxy.

The bhadralok class has, of course, an underlying dash of snootiness, but it is directed at those who do not share its values and priorities. Most members of this intellectual and argumentative class have historically been aligned to left philosophies and liberal, secular parties. This strata was openly disgusted at the crass philistinism of the BJP and the obviously uneducated approach of its leaders. They felt shocked at the manner in which the PM catcalled a lady, however aggressive, as “Dideeee O Dideeee!” Many women have surely expressed their disgust at the polling stations.

A section of ‘civil society’ came out with an untiring campaign at every nook and corner pleading “No vote to BJP” and this also paid dividends. As did Modi’s disastrous image as a classic blundering boaster who is responsible for the uncontrollable second wave of COVID-19. But this matured into an issue, to some extent, only during the last two phases of polling, which together counted for 71 of 294 seats.

Bengal has several shortcomings and the work ethic remains a problem, as is the far higher sense of rights over duties. But its people have surely done liberal, secular and democratic India proud. It was almost unimaginable till the day before that the people would rise up unitedly in such an unequivocal manner to ward off the most dangerous, well-organised threat to its core values. It is surely a beacon of hope to millions of beleaguered liberal democrats and proves that Modi can be defeated roundly.

 (Please Click Here to read article on The Wire Website)

Remembering Shankha Ghosh: Poet, teacher and passionate democrat whose life was underlined by dissent

 

Remembering Shankha Ghosh: Poet, teacher and passionate democrat whose life was underlined by dissent

Jawhar Sircar

(Firstpost, 23 April 2021)

To Bengalis, Shankha Ghosh, who left the world on 21 April, was not just a poet and a writer, he was, in fact, a flaming torch who guided them through troubled times.

In this highly politicised and polarised state, the Left front’s hegemony extended into its culture for 34 long years, and it was followed by a regime that also demanded absolute allegiance to its version of culture and politics for the next decade. Ghosh was among the remarkable few who defied both regimes and held his head high. His clear views were never accompanied by any overt display of belligerence, but appeared through his extremely popular writings and rare utterances. His pithy verses simplified complex issues of politics into eloquent but firm statements that ripped apart the hypocrisy of the ruling elites. The soft spoken poet and essayist had obviously more fire in him than most professional revolutionaries.

Shankha Ghosh was a frail man and his health had been causing concern for quite some time. However, in spite of odds, he managed to pull through till the age of 89, leading perhaps inadvertently those who looked up to him for guidance. But neither health nor age could deter him from fronting, even it be for a while, public demonstrations against encroachments by state power into domains such as human rights, pluralism and democracy.

He took to the streets some time ago in order to protest against the draconian amendment to the law governing citizenship. His very presence seemed to galvanise the citizens present, and lend greater legitimacy to the movements he participated in. Like most of his compatriots, he strove for a more equitable order and for improving the life of the wretched. He could, therefore, be said to belong to the ‘independent Left’. The latter are surely left of centre, but are so driven by conscience and principles that they could never be shackled within the structure of any single political party.

He supported all measures to alleviate poverty and combat injustice, but he would never tolerate the high-handedness of the ruling Communist party. The last chief minister, who was steeped in literature and serious cinema, venerated him, but that did not prevent Ghosh from publicly castigating the Left regime for its excesses. When its police shot dead several villagers at Nandigram who were agitating against the government’s unfair decision to acquire their land, he was among the most prominent personalities of Bengal to denounce the Left. Though the current chief minister has also attempted, on several occasions to ‘reward’ or ‘honour’ him, he stayed away from it all. He was, again, at the forefront when it came to censuring the present state government and its ruling party for their attacks on democratic polity.

He completed his graduation from Presidency College in Kolkata, and his higher studies from Calcutta University. His academic career was, however, focused mainly at Jadavpur University, where he was one of its legendary teachers. He also served deputations at Visva Bharati, Delhi University and Iowa State University. It was, however, his literature and critical analyses that won him the most accolades.

His expressions were simple yet eloquent, enchanting yet purposeful. Not all his poems were political, of course, for he combined the humanitarian and the aesthetic with rare felicity. He published some 60 volumes of which 16 were of poems. He was primarily an academic and a leading literary critic but he was, unquestionably, the foremost authority on Tagore and his work. It was in this capacity that he edited the second updated series of the encyclopaedic Rabindra Rachanavalis.

A delicate task that the chief minster had, however, entrusted me with as the state’s education secretary, way back in 2003-04, was to gently remind him to complete editing the last two volumes. One remembers spending enriching hours with him as he sought to explain certain subtle nuances of Tagore, over cups of tea and snacks, and quite forgetting the assignment. It was, again, in 2010 that we tried to garner his services for the national and international celebration of the 150th birth anniversary of Tagore. He passed on his sincere suggestions but, true to his character, declined to attend the meeting of the apex committee held at the prime minister’s residential office that was attended by an eminent galaxy, from Sonia Gandhi to Narendra Modi.

We had a trying time persuading him to join the ‘high level’ cultural team that was invited by the Bangladesh government. One remembers the conditionality and the assurances one had to give to him and his family, before literally hijacking him. He was practically mobbed by the literati and the intelligentsia of Dhaka and one has witnessed the highest degree of adulation with which he was greeted everywhere and by everybody. Prime minister Sheikh Hasina was effusive, but Shankha Ghosh remained totally composed, perhaps a little embarrassed.

An elaborate 16-course Bengali lunch was arranged by our hosts at Shahzadpur, famous as Tagore’s former ‘zamindari’, one that was overwhelming and simply unforgettable. Though he ate so little, Ghosh sat throughout and looked on indulgently, as we gorged through some nine types of fish and other delicacies, for well over an hour.

It was quite evident that he was deeply attached to Bangladesh where he was born and completed his schooling, moving from place to place with his father. He looked on so pensively at the mighty Padma river, lost in his own thoughts for a long time, as we stopped at a major bridge. Further along the road, we halted for a while at a village called Pakshi near Pabna, where he had once studied. As we alighted, a gentleman came forward to show us “the school where Shankha Ghosh had studied”. He had obviously not recognised him, but Shankha Babu was too engrossed to notice. He was trying to locate a particular old tree in the compound and when he did, his usually composed face lit up. He obviously shared an emotional bond with it and appeared to whisper to it, as he caressed its trunk ever so lovingly. A man of few words, he said little, but later penned a very moving poem on this sentimental encounter.

The world of literature and culture revered him, for he was honoured with the highest awards — the Sahitya Akademi Awards (twice), the Jnanpith, the Rabindra-Puraskar, Visvabharati’s famed Desikottam, the Narsingh Das Puraskar and many others.

Shankha Ghosh’s works have been translated into English, Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi, Assamese and Malayalam. When it was decided to confer the Padma Bhushan on him in 2011, it suddenly dawned on the select few to first find out discreetly if he would accept it, as his aversion towards state power was well known. We were to persuade him, if necessary, and all of us breathed a sigh of relief when he concurred after a long, eerie pause. A true intellectual and a passionate democrat, he shunned governments of all shades throughout his life, but they could hardly ignore him.

(Please Click Here to read thearticle on Firstpost’s Website)