Mamata Banerjee Must See Into Future

It is not the issue of whether Congress leads the INDIA alliance; Mamata must see into the future. There is a clear pattern in the BJP's politics that it does not spare anyone. She should learn from Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren. He survived because he took on the BJP, showing no vacillations

It is hardly surprising that Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee targets Congress for its purported failure to run the INDIA alliance. It is also expected that she has claimed its leadership. However, the support she has received from important partners like Sharad Pawar, Akhilesh Yadav, and Lalu Prasad Yadav is intriguing. The most surprising statement in her support is of RJD chief Laloo Prasad.

The timing of Mamata’s statement and its support are important. It has come at a time when the Congress and INDIA alliance has faced a humiliating defeat in Maharashtra and is to begin a big fight against the ills in the electoral process. By now, the issue of manipulation of EVMs has become a people’s issue in Maharashtra.

The message from Markadwadi of the Solapur district has spread to corners of Maharashtra, and people are agitating for elections by ballot papers. Several defeated candidates from the INDIA alliance are also preparing for a court battle. The Congress leadership has already announced its plan to agitate nationwide against the EVM. Is it anyway justified to attack the Congress and Rahul Gandhi at this juncture when they are facing a challenging time? Unmistakably, it is an attempt to escape a fight against the Modi regime.

There is a need to decode the politics of Mamata and the support she has received. Are partners in the INDIA alliance facing some new pressures? It is not difficult to guess the pressure. We do know Mamata’s nephew has been facing an onslaught by central agencies. Other partners, including RJD, Samajwadi Party, and the NCP-Sharad Pawar, have also been vulnerable.

Who can deny the huge political outcome of raids and cases by ED, CBI, and IT? Whatever alliance the BJP has stitched together under the banner of the NDA is by using these agencies. Maharashtra has shown how these agencies have destabilised the social and political structure of the State. Maharashtra has been a State where the BJP, Shiv Sena, NCP, and the Congress have their separate spheres of influence. They have been coexisting for over two decades and have created an equilibrium. With the help of central agencies, Modi and Amit Shah have broken all the parties to varying degrees. The alliance that has been stitched together with the help of central agencies has taken over the state in its control. In Maharashtra, every other non-BJP party is struggling to survive.

Maharashtra is not the only case. The Modi government is doing the same in other states too. West Bengal is not out of their reach either. It has been seen how Jagdeep Dhankhar was interfering in state affairs when he was its governor. His successor has been doing the same. The onslaught of central agencies has also been going on for long.

It may look impressive that Mamata Banerjee has survived through all these onslaughts. However, there is no guarantee that she will be able to do it forever. So long as she does not cause any instability to the Modi government, she would get relatively soft treatment except for a few scratches here and there. It is indeed unwise for her that she should not feel the turmoil under the earth. She might be happy that the BJP has taken over the space that her adversaries, such as the Congress and the Left Front, had been occupying in the State for decades. But she needs to take a look at what has happened to the BJD, the BRS, and the BSP. All of them were pretending to be BJP’s enemies but were helping it indirectly. They were helping the BJP to occupy the space of the Congress. In the process, they lost their own space.

The BJP did not show any gratitude and allowed them to die. The same thing could happen to the Trinamool Congress. If the BJP can polarize the voters of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee’s TMC will have to face a very difficult situation. The possibility is not remote after the political changes in Bangladesh. The BJP is already trying to polarize the nation on the issue of attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh.

People also guess that her latest attack on Congress has to do with the Adani issue. Rahul Gandhi and the Congress are not ready to abandon the issue. Rahul has been consistent in it. Even at a time when the INDIA alliance was in its starting phase, he dismissed the advice of his partners, including that of Sharad Pawar, and went on to attack Adani. It is known that the West Bengal government has a cordial relationship with Adani. Sharad Pawar’s support is also well known. He has been uncomfortable with the Congress on the Adani issue.

There is an unmistakable signal in Mamata’s claim, and the Congress has to respond to it. The best way to do it is to open some new fronts against the Modi government. The Congress has already done it by bringing a no-confidence motion against Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar. The issue has made partners of the INDIA alliance come together. It is to be seen what TMC does at the time of voting on the motion. People should remember that she facilitated Dhankhar’s election to the post of vice president. The TMC abstained from voting on the ground that she would not support the Congress candidate Margret Alva. Mamata alleged that she was not consulted while deciding Alva’s candidature.

It is not the issue of whether Congress leads the INDIA alliance; Mamata must see into the future. There is a clear pattern in the BJP's politics that it does not spare anyone. She should learn from Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren. He survived because he took on the BJP, showing no vacillations.

(The author is a senior journalist. He has experience of working with leading newspapers and electronic media including Deccan Herald, Sunday Guardian, Navbharat Times and Dainik Bhaskar. He writes on politics, society, environment and economy)