Hindutva-lite: Behind Didi’s new formula to boost Trinamool in Bengal

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TMC person Sayooni Ghosh during an predetermination rally. (X)

Her enactment leaders, connected the different hand, were vociferous successful their Ram Navami celebrations. The party’s candidates warring the Lok Sabha polls showed the astir enthusiasm for the festival. Prasun Banerjee, the campaigner from Howrah, took retired a maha michil, a roadshow, with radical clad successful yellowish and saffron and singing hymns successful praise of Ram. He adjacent chose to way it past the spot wherever a communal confrontation took spot implicit Ram Navami last year.

Another candidate, Sayooni Ghosh, who became known passim the state a fewer years backmost aft a arguable societal media post, was portion of a Ram Navami procession astatine Belur, successful Howrah district. She could beryllium seen sashaying down the roadworthy with folded hands amid flags and festoons displaying images of Ram and Hanuman. Other TMC leaders besides made it a constituent to beryllium louder and much disposable than their BJP counterparts successful projecting themselves arsenic Ram bhakts.

It isn’t conscionable Ram Navami celebrations. In caller times TMC has softly gone astir shoring up its credentials among Hindus done measures specified arsenic stipends for priests, allowances for Durga Puja celebrations, and the operation and restoration of temples crossed the state. In sporting this lighter shadiness of saffron, the enactment hopes to blunt BJP’s ascendance successful Bengal.

Saffron surge

BJP emerged arsenic the main absorption enactment successful Bengal aft the 2019 Lok Sabha and 2021 assembly elections. The saffron party, for agelong a insignificant also-ran successful the state, built itself up by accusing TMC of number appeasement, laying the crushed for the emergence of Hindutva.

The 2019 wide predetermination was a debacle for Banerjee arsenic TMC mislaid 12 Lok Sabha seats and suffered a large diminution successful its Hindu ballot share. As per a CSDS Lokniti canvass survey, TMC got 32% of Hindu votes arsenic against 57% for BJP.

In emerging from the fringe, BJP besides wrote the epitaph of Indian National Congress and CPI-M, which failed to triumph a azygous spot successful the 2021 assembly predetermination and saw their ballot shares dwindle to a speck (Congress had won 2 seats successful the 2019 Lok Sabha predetermination portion CPI-M drew a blank).

But, successful a sense, the 2021 show was a disappointment for BJP arsenic well, arsenic the enactment believed it had a genuine changeable astatine coming to powerfulness successful Bengal. The enactment rolled retired its large guns successful the campaign, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and location curate Amit Shah starring the complaint successful a bitter combat for supremacy. However, contempt a creditable show that saw its spot number spike from 3 to 77 and its ballot stock surge by 28 percent points to 38%, it was incapable to dislodge TMC. Banerjee’s enactment accrued its ballot stock to 48% and raised its tally successful the 294-seat assembly by 2 seats to 213.

Today, the secular moorings of Bengal are being loosened arsenic some parties propulsion retired each the stops to consolidate and unafraid their Hindu ballot banks.

More importantly, TMC wrested a 7% stock successful Hindu votes from BJP. Observers recognition this to Banerjee’s deft usage of brushed Hinduism and Bengal’s reluctance to judge the high-pitched, only-Hindutva run by BJP. According to this viewpoint, galore Hindus saw an imminent menace successful BJP not lone taking power of the authorities but implicit their lives and manner arsenic well, deciding everything from what to devour to what to deterioration to whom to worship. And truthful they reposed their religion successful the secular cloth that has dominated the state’s history, traditions and culture.

Today, however, the secular moorings of Bengal are being loosened arsenic some parties propulsion retired each the stops to consolidate and unafraid their Hindu ballot banks. As for the number vote, the much strident BJP gets successful promoting Hindutva, the greater the Muslim consolidation down Banerjee. That surely matters successful the canvass booth, due to the fact that the assemblage makes up 27% of the state’s population.

Behind the shift

The 2019 wide predetermination was a aftermath up telephone for Banerjee. Trinamool and BJP cornered 43% and 40% of the ballot share, respectively, with the TMC winning 22 seats (down from 34) to BJP’s 18 (up from 2). While TMC was assured of its number ballot bank, it was wide that the enactment could not spend a decimation of its Hindu ballot stock by BJP.

An alarmed Banerjee planned to onslaught a balance, giving allowances to Hindu priests and 8,000 members of the Sanatan Dharma successful consonance with the allowances already being fixed to Muslim clerics—TMC had introduced an allowance of ₹2,500 and ₹1,000 for Imams and Muezzins successful 2012.

Hindu priests started receiving an allowance from 2020 aft Banerjee faced disapproval from BJP and Sanatan Dharma loyalists. The allowance was initially ₹1,000 but adjacent aft a hike of ₹500 for spiritual clerics of some the communities successful August 2023, announced by the main curate astatine a property conference, the Hindu priests proceed to person ₹1,500 little than their Muslim counterparts.

We person been observing the request and tendency for a Ram Navami vacation among a conception of the people. —Purnendu Bose

The Durga puja allowance to section clubs was besides accrued manifold. Banerjee started giving the allowances successful 2018 arsenic a speedy damage-control workout to stem BJP disapproval earlier the 2019 Lok Sabha election. Subsequently, she announced a peculiar assistance of ₹25,000 for each of the thousands of assemblage Durga pujas. The assistance is revised each year. Today it stands astatine ₹70,000 positive waiver of energy bills and corp taxes. According to Banerjee, her authorities spent ₹300 crore successful 2023-24 connected Durga puja allowances.

Despite specified Hindu outreach initiatives, however, BJP kept portraying TMC arsenic a enactment that had a brushed country for Muslims, goading it into the large adulation of Ram during the 2024 Ram Navami festival.

TMC person and erstwhile curate Purnendu Bose rationalised the move: “We person been observing the request and tendency for a Ram Navami holiday among a conception of the people. These radical are spiritual and person a genuine demand, but they are being wrongly utilized by immoderate to suit their Hindutva narrative."

He added, “The authorities authorities is delicate to the needs of each sections of people, and by recognizing the needs of a peculiar section, we person yet again proved that we judge successful antiauthoritarian secularism."

Banerjee had realized that a request was increasing among people, particularly the 1 crore domiciled Hindi speakers, for owed designation of their culture, traditions and adjacent festivals, gods and goddesses. Even Bengali Hindus appeared to beryllium displeased with the constrictive provincial walls increasing betwixt gods. Indeed, determination was monolithic fervour for the Ayodhya Pran Pratistha ceremony crossed socio-economic demographics passim the state. Even places wherever BJP hardly has a torchbearer were lit up with home-made diyas, and decked with marigold and flags. Daily-wage earners took a time disconnected to enactment astatine location and beryllium portion of the historical event.

“We celebrated connected our ain initiative. BJP leaders gave america ₹500- ₹1,000. But we enactment up elephantine screens and arranged for assemblage lunches, taste programmes and feasting," said Rahul Parbat, a nonmigratory of Dhamua successful South 24 Parganas district.

It was not astir a Hindi heartland god, arsenic was the archetypal governmental debate. As prof Prasanta Ray, prof emeritus of Presidency University, enactment it, “Mamata and Modi are successful a copy-cat game. When Mamata came to power, she did not person to play the religion card. But present things are different. I would accidental Modi has succeeded successful engaging her successful the communicative connected religion and she’s having to equilibrium both. She cannot spend to simply disregard Hindus."

Temple run

Banerjee realized the Bengal government’s evident apathy to the Ayodhya lawsuit could springiness BJP caller ammunition to occurrence appeasement salvos against it. In a hurriedly called property league astatine the authorities headquarters, Nabanna, she reeled retired a database of temples that her authorities had constructed and renovated during her decade-long rule. “We person spent ₹700 crore for renovation, repair enactment and operation of assorted temples and Shakti peeths successful our state. The Kalighat Kali temple and skywalk is simply a important one. Though Reliance Group has been involved, we person sunk successful ₹165 crore and they are investing ₹35 crore," she said.

Though renovation of temples and operation of caller ones had been undertaken aft TMC’s electoral debacle successful 2019, Banerjee had ne'er announced it from the rooftops to debar making the number assemblage nervous.

In 2020, arsenic a damage-control exercise, the main curate started promoting “religious tourism", an inaugural to make and grow spiritual sites by upgrading infrastructure and having a corridor of preferred destinations. As portion of the revamp, a skywalk connecting Dakshineswar Kali temple with railway and metro routes was designed. The authorities allocated ₹65 crore for the project. Similar revamps were laid retired for the Tarapith (Birbhum district), Tarakeswar and Hanseswari (both successful Hooghly district) temples.

In the 2022-23 budget, Banerjee announced an concern of ₹300 crore to reconstruct the Kalighat Kali temple and different ₹400 crore for the operation of a Jagannath temple on the lines of the main temple successful Puri, Odisha. According to Debasish Sen, erstwhile president of HIDCO, the nodal bureau processing Rajarhat-New Town, a township connected the north-eastern fringes of Kolkata, 20 acres successful Digha successful East Midnapore territory person been transformed to springiness the full country the look of the Puri temple. So far, ₹205 crore has been sunk successful by the authorities government.

In addition, it has budgeted ₹25 crore for the Saint Loknath Baba temple, ₹31 crore for Jalpesh temple successful Jalpaiguri district, arsenic good arsenic respective crores for the Madan Mohan temple successful Cooch Behar and the Debi Chaudhurani temples successful Jalpaiguri, Kankalitala and Bakreswar successful Birbhum territory and Fullara temple, besides successful Birbhum.

The authorities is acceptable to loosen its purse strings adjacent for a Kali temple successful Varanasi and a temple successful Deoghar, Jharkhand.

The TMC authorities has besides been generous successful allocating onshore for temple projects. The state’s fund documents for 2019-20 amusement that the Iskcon temple astatine Mayapur successful Nadia was fixed 700 acres escaped of cost, portion 3 bighas of abandoned onshore successful Behala, a locality successful Kolkata, are being transformed for a Vaishno Devi temple and 8 temples for communities from Rajasthan and Gujarat.

It is possibly not astonishing past that Kirti Azad, TMC campaigner from Bardhaman-Durgapur seat, goes astir municipality saying he’s from Mithila (in neighbouring Bihar), the onshore of Sita, adjacent though helium whitethorn beryllium an outsider successful BJP’s eyes. And successful Jadavpur constituency, large billboards proclaim that Sayooni Ghosh volition clasp the biggest Ganesh puja successful the metropolis successful her constituency successful times to come.

Asked if Banerjee’s attack to Hindutva stands a accidental against BJP’s assertion that Hindus are second-class citizens successful Bengal, the TMC’s Jawhar Sircar, a Rajya Sabha MP, said: “Hinduism is simply a tolerant and inclusive religion, and what Mamata Banerjee is doing is not soft-pedalling immoderate religion but reminding america of this indispensable tradition, to ward disconnected predatory distortions."