I am alarmed, and I am sure, many others are. Today, in a meeting at Jhargram Mamata Banerjee has expressed her apprehension that the BJP is trying to foment communal clashes in West Bengal. That BJP is well capable of I have not even an iota of doubt. In fact, it is quite likely that it would take to certain activities, soft or hard, to communalise the politics of West Bengal. However, I am alarmed for a different reason -- who, after all, is pushing the possibility of riot in the domain of public discourse? It is Mamata Banerjee! It is she who has been communalizing/ethnicizing Bengal politics for more than 3 years now. If BJP tries to foment riots, not at all a throw-away proposition, Mamata is also equally, if not more, keen to create such a bloody turmoil at the moment. As in the Saradha scam, in any polarization in West Bengal Mamata will be a major, if the not the prime, beneficiary. In fact, I do suspect that her speech today is an oblique indication of what she is planning to do in a few months to come. Speaking her mind with BJP being the credible villain, a Mamata, cornered from all sides and her major political capital, popular illusion about her honesty, having already reduced to a cruel joke to many, can take to any desperate move for sheer survival. If BJP tends to arouse Hindu communalism Mamata is capable of and, I believe, wont hesitate to fomenting both Hindu and Muslim communalism. To many, BJP is already identified as a communal party; Mamata is not. Therein lies her great strength in misleading the people to doom. Considered this way, at the moment, Mamata seems to pose a greater danger for West Bengal.
Posted on: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 13:27:06 +0000