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From killing Kar Sevaks to thrashing Sabarimala devotees, Indian secularism means hostility towards Hindus

In an earlier article, we had reported that the Mulayam Singh government in Uttar Pradesh had opened fire upon Karsevaks in 1990 and then conspired to hide the actual death toll by having them buried instead of cremating them according to Hindu rites, as reported by Republic TV in their expose.

The incident was one of the darkest moments of Independent India when the secular state slaughtered innumerable Hindu devotees and the people involved have gotten away without any repercussions. Not only have they gotten away, but also the people who allegedly committed the heinous abuse of human rights went on to have great political careers and held democratically elected offices.

The so-called ‘independent’ media conspired to cover up the entire matter and it has taken nearly three decades for the truth to emerge. It is an indictment of the Indian media, which never wastes a moment in portraying itself as the moral guardian of society, that it purposely shied away from performing its duty.

It is also an indictment of the Hindu society that Mulayam Singh Yadav, on whose orders the shots were allegedly fired, never had to face the consequences of his actions. Despite the slaughter of Karsevaks, Mulayam has remained a powerful player in Indian politics and even went on to become the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh later on. Normally, one would expect the political career of someone in that position to be ruined after such atrocious allegations. However, when one has the propaganda machine on one’s side, they can get away with it.

Worse, Mulayam hasn’t yet issued an apology over the whole incident. He did say he regretted issuing the orders but never quite apologised for it. In fact, he said it was necessary to protect Muslim sentiments. He had said in 2016, “I regret giving orders to shoot kar sevaks at Ayodhya. My decision to order firing at kar sevaks was to save Muslim minorities. This decision was needed to keep the faith of Muslims in this country intact.”

The entire series of events only reveals the anti-Hindu nature of the secular state and the establishment. The life of a Hindu is worth so little in secular India that politicians can order fire upon them without suffering any consequences for their actions.

If that weren’t enough, as per Republic TV’s latest expose, the authorities then denied the murdered devotees their fundamental right to funeral rites according to the customs of their own religion. Not even terrorists are denied proper funeral rites and here we have people, whose only crime was that they were devotees of Shri Rama, who were buried instead of being cremated so that the political establishment did not have to report the accurate numbers of the deceased.

Mulayam Singh’s statement was particularly revealing. In secular India, Hindus have to be slaughtered if necessary in order to protect Muslim sentiments, if we are to take his words for it. And the mainstream media, who pretend day in and day out that they are morally superior to the rest of us mortals, conspired to silence the entire matter.

Nearly three decades have passed since the ghastly events at Ayodhya. And yet, nothing much has changed. Then, it was Mulayam Singh. Today, it is the Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan, who is hell-bent on destroying the traditions of the Sacred Abode of Bhagwan Ayyappa, the Sabarimala Temple. And he is doing so with the full sanction of the secular state.

Hindus have been brutally thrashed in Kerala, some have committed suicide witnessing the brutal assault on their sacred beliefs. And yet, will anyone be held accountable at all for the misery that Hindus have been forced through? Extremely unlikely.

To top it off, our Judiciary has time for every matter under one Sun but not enough to resolve the Ram Janambhoomi dispute. Years and years have passed and yet, we are no closer to receiving a judgment on the matter than we were 8 years ago.

All of it does not bode well for the secular fabric of the country. Continuous institutionalised discrimination against one single community is bound to attract severe retaliation. And that retaliation will be conveyed through the one power that is guaranteed to every single citizen of the country: The Ballot.

With every passing election cycle, we will witness people voting for candidates who promise to rectify the wrongs that have been done to them, candidates who promise retribution for the misery they were made to suffer, for the sentiments which were violated. Unless the entire political spectrum comes together to address the injustice that has been done to Hindus, people will avenge the injustice that has been done to them through the power of the Ballot that has been granted to them by the Indian Constitution.

And that is how a Democracy slowly paves the way for tyranny, when the interests of people have been ignored for so long, when they have suffered the brunt of institutionalised discrimination for long enough, they do not vote for progress and prosperity. They vote for vengeance.

Kolkata Police chief was summoned thrice by the CBI but he ignored: Law minister RS Prasad

Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad convened a presser to put forth the government’s stand amidst the unprecedented standoff between the West Bengal Police and the central investigative agency CBI. The CBI has decided to approach the SC to resolve the imbroglio.

Stepping up the attack on the TMC chief, RS Prasad alleged that Mamata Banerjee did not sit in protest when TMC ministers Madan Mitra and Sudip Bandyopadhyay were incarcerated for their alleged roles in the Chit fund scams. Insinuating it as a politically motivated outrage, RS Prasad said, “Why is Mamata Banerjee outraging now while she had been evidently silent on the arrests of Madan Mitra, Sudeep Bandopadhya and Kunal Ghosh?”

Prasad also insinuated that the police commissioner must be party to the deepest secrets of the chit fund scams that West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, who remain impervious to the arrests of her ministers involved in the various chit fund scams is fighting tooth and nail to protect the commissioner from being interrogated by the CBI. Prasad contended that Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar was summoned thrice by the CBI for interrogation but he averted it every single time.

Prasad also questioned the Congress’ duplicitous stand over the Saradha Chit Fund issue. He discussed Congress’ statements and Tweets where the party leadership had condemned the scam and had held TMC responsible for shielding the perpetrators.

Taking a jibe at the opposition unity, Ravi Shankar Prasad also discussed that the SIT formation and SC order for investigation had all come before the BJP came to power. He claimed that it is farcical that the opposition is now targeting Modi-Shah for the consequences of investigations initiated when their own governments were in power. Prasad asserted that CBI’s proceedings were in accordance with the directions issued by the 2014 Supreme Court verdict. The SC had then asked the CBI to interrogate all the suspicious links involved in the chit fund scams and the money trail.

Modi, Mamata and Mahagathbandhan: With her dharna, Mamata challenges not only Modi but even Rahul Gandhi as PM contender

The bizarre scene of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee walking to and fro on the “Dharna” stage out of panic following the detention of CBI officials in Kolkata outlines a great political story. Mamata Banerjee, a quintessential regional satrap adhering to “realpolitik” with an aspiration of being relevant in national politics is now facing her biggest political battle and seems to be fading out too quick. Mamata Banerjee, once known for political slaughtering of the Communists at their home turf of Bengal, is now  facing the similar political challenge from the BJP.

Kolkata witnessed an unprecedented series of events last night when a team of CBI officials were detained by the state police after they paid the police commissioner a visit to obtain crucial information regarding the Saradha scam. The whole saga pertains to the alleged involvement of West Bengal Chief Minister and other senior functionaries of the TMC in a massive Saradha Chit fund scam. The Saradha scam broke out into the open in 2013 when a Ponzi scheme run by the Saradha Group, a consortium of over 200 private companies, collapsed after collecting hundreds and thousands of crores from over 15 lakh investors.

Senior leaders of the Trinamool Congress have been alleged to be intimately involved in the scam ever since the CBI initiated its investigation. In December 2014, TMC minister Madan Mitra and several other party leaders were arrested by the central investigative agency in connection with the scam. The CBI probe has pointed fingers towards Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee, who has now attempted to prevent the CBI from furthering their investigations in the Saradha case.

Instead, Mamata Banerjee has chosen to play her strongest political narrative- “The Bengali Pride“, similar to what Narendra Modi during his tenure as Gujarat CM. Modi had then invoked the “Gujarati Asmita” against the onslaught of Sonia Gandhi led UPA during the 2002 Gujarat riots investigations. However, the biggest contrast between the two is that the then Gujarat CM had allowed the CBI officials to perform their duty and had agreed positively to co-operate throughout the probe. On the hand, Mamata detained the CBI officials who had gone on Supreme Court’s order to Kolkata chief’s residence. And then, as if she’s the judiciary herself, even gave a clean chit to Rajeev Kumar by referring to him as among the best police officer in the world.

Mamata Banerjee has also been careful in setting the political narrative just before the crucial Lok Sabha elections. The proposed ‘Mahagathbandhan’ is devoid of a credible face to lead them and also lacks a positive agenda to drive the political narrative to fight the BJP. The grand alliance consisting of several regional leaders like Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, BSP supremo Mayawati, TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu including Mamata Banerjee has united together to take on the PM Modi led BJP, which is way ahead of the opposition camp in terms of capturing political space ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

Mamata Banerjee has cleverly used the CBI fiasco to her advantage to show that the fight isn’t just against the Narendra Modi led NDA but also to exert her claim to be the face of the ‘Mahagathbandhan‘ to take on the BJP. Mamata Banerjee with a decision to do her customary “street politics“, she has positioned herself to be the only contender to take on Prime Minister Modi not only in West Bengal but also nationally. Mamata Banerjee with her move to do a ‘dharna‘ at Kolkata and inviting other leaders to join the rally has set up a masterful trap for the opposition leaders. She had also sought to project herself to be the leader of the alliance by uniting most of the opposition leaders during a recent rally at Kolkata.

This political development can be summed up as a case of “damned if you do, doomed if you don’t” situation for the opposition camps. If the opposition leaders join hands with Mamata to sustain the narrative, it would end up playing to her strengths. If the opposition alliance tries to ignore the call to unify behind Mamata Banerjee at this moment, it will cast aspersions among its vote base on the seriousness of such a coalition to take on the mighty BJP. This is not just Mamata Banerjee challenging Prime Minister Modi, but she is also pushing the Mahagathbandhan into a tough spot to declare her as the face of the alliance.

Mamata Banerjee, after coming out of the Congress party in 1998 set up All India Trinamool Congress (AITC aka TMC) and rose to fame in the state of West Bengal at a time it was notoriously known for the Communist atrocities. With her political acumen and aided by an era of coalition politics, Didi enjoyed the taste of power under the Vajpayee government in 1999 to became the first female railway minister of the country and went on to join hands with the UPA coalition to exert a considerable amount of power in the national scene. To stay relevant in the national politics, Didi somehow managed to side with both the NDA and UPA camps whenever it suited her political convenience.

In 2011, she had made history by not only throwing out the dreaded Communists from the reigns of power in West Bengal but also ensured the violent communists would be irrelevant in the Indian politics in the coming future. However, Mamata Banerjee’s entry into the politics did not bring any substantial change, as she did not alter any political structures existed in the state rather she just replaced the communists and continued to reap benefits out of the politico-criminal nexus of the West Bengal. Mamata’s Trinamool Congress is now known as the “new Left’’. In fact, Mamata Banerjee’s political movements during Singur and Nandigram protests were akin to communist movements which eventually led to Mamata winning 2011 state elections.

The BJP, once a non-existent party in the West Bengal has now successfully captured the political space vacated by the Left Front, positioning itself to be an alternative to both the Mamata led TMC and the left-front. The upsurge in the BJP’s vote share along with better electoral performance compared to other parties has also prompted organisations like the RSS, the VHP and the Bajrang Dal, to become more assertive. The religious and cultural events of Ram Navami, Durga Pooja, Saraswathi Pooja has benefited the saffron party while putting a check on the minority appeasement policies of the Trinamool Congress.

The massive rallies of the BJP have pushed the Trinamool camp into a state of concern. Mamata Banerjee has reacted to BJP’s assertion by cancelling permissions to hold rallies, barring the likes of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to visit the state and has even gone to the extent to deny permissions for the BJP to conduct its ‘Rath Yatras’. The recent questioning of Manik Majumdar, a close aide of the West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, about the sale proceeds of the paintings and serving of notice to her aide MP Derek O’Brien in pertaining to Saradha chit fund scam has further pushed Mamata into a state of panic. Amidst all the political drama, severe discontent has been brewing against Mamata from not only among the masses but also from its own cadre as several leaders including few MPs have resigned the Trinamool to join the BJP.

With the entry of the BJP in the state, the losses to Mamata are considerably high as Mamata Banerjee will not only be losing the political hegemony to the BJP which she enjoyed in the state for a long time but may also result into good political outcome for the BJP in the Lok Sabha. Further, Mamata Banerjee’s ambitions to head the opposition alliance will certainly be at stake if she is unable to get the relatively higher number of seats compared to the other regional parties.

On the other hand, BJP has little to lose in West Bengal. It has two Lok Sabha seats in the West Bengal and hopes to regain both of them in the upcoming elections. Even though the BJP has set a target of 22 seats from West Bengal for the so-called losses it may suffer in Hindi heartland states, the party will be content even the final tally reaches to 10 and in all likelihood, the BJP is poised to win at least 10 seats causing further worry to Mamata Banerjee. The political casualty that the BJP has to suffer following the recent CBI vs Mamata fiasco will be arguably far less compared to what Mamata Banerjee has to endure.

The recent upsurge of popularity of the BJP in West Bengal with the party making inroads in the rural Bengal has surely unnerved Mamata Banerjee, which could seriously affect her political ambitions of being Prime Minister of the country in the future. The anxiety of Mamata Banerjee has been manifested lately as she has often resorted to personal attacks against the BJP leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah.

Only 2 women had entered Sabarimala, not 51: Kerala minister in assembly

The Kerala government had earlier submitted in the Supreme Court that 51 women under the age of 50 had entered the Sabarimala Temple, defying the age-old traditions of the Hindu shrine.

The communist government’s claims were soon busted by several citizen groups and media reports as it was revealed that fake names, numbers of male devotees and many other discrepancies had been done to reach the figure of 51.

Also read: Fake names, male pilgrims, false age: Kerala government pulled all forgery tricks to make the list of ’51 women under 50′

Now, Kerala Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran has informed the Kerala Assembly that the state government has confirmation of only two women between the age of 10 and 50 years offering prayers at the Sabarimala Temple.


There were reports that a certain Sri Lankan woman had also entered the shrine but the Devaswom Minister stated that he didn’t have any confirmation of that either.


Opposition parties had alleged that the ‘fake list’ was only submitted to insult the Hindus and belittle the review petitions. State BJP President PS Sreedharan Pillai has stated the list is “the biggest lie of the century”. Congress had stated that the communist government has become “a laughing stock”.

Also read: Sabarimala: Aided by Kerala police, women belonging to CPI-ML enter Sabarimala to violate age-old Hindu customs

The Kerala police under orders from the communist government had sneaked two CPIM activists named Bindu and Kanakadurga inside the shrine through the VIP and staff entry gate in the early hours of January 2. A massive protest had followed in the state against the government’s attempts to desecrate the traditions of the shrine.

The Devaswom Minister’s latest admission in the Assembly appears to be an admission that the Kerala government had submitted wrong information in the Court.

Sunanda Pushkar case: Trial against Congress leader Shashi Tharoor to begin on 21st February

The Sessions court to begin the trial against senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor in the Sunanda Pushkar case on 21st February. Tharoor is charge-sheeted in the case as an accused for abetment to suicide.


Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal has transferred the case from the Magistrate’s court to the sessions court and the case will be heard on the fast track. However, the court has dismissed the plea of BJP leader Subramanian Swamy seeking to assist the court in the matter. The court also refused to make the Delhi police vigilance report public but it has asked the police to keep it safe for future need.

Tharoor was booked for the offences of abetment of suicide and cruelty under sections 306 and 498 A respectively of the Indian Penal Code when a 3,000-page charge sheet was filed by the Delhi police against him in May last year. Tharoor had moved the court seeking anticipatory bail which was granted by the court on July 5 last year. He was also summoned by the Patiala House Court on later on July 7.

Sunanda Pushkar was found dead on January 17, 2014, in a Hotel suite under mysterious circumstances.

What did Sudipta Sen write in his 2013 letter that Mamata Banerjee is so nervous about Saradha scam investigation?

Chaos descended upon Kolkata on the night of 3rd of February, 2019, when a team of CBI officials were detained by the state police when they visited the police commissioner for questioning in the Saradha Chit Fund scam.

As we have reported earlier, it appears that the CBI investigations were probably getting too close for comfort in the Saradha chit fund case where several political bigwigs from the TMC and Congress are alleged to be involved.

It is a good time, then, to revisit the letter that Sudipta Sen, Chairman of the Saradha Group, had written to the CBI in 2013. In the letter, he claimed that he had been cheated by several people and that he was on the verge of committing suicide. He also asserted that the letter should be treated as his dying declaration.

Sen claimed in the letter that he didn’t have any knowledge about how chit funds worked and that he was duped into entering the “money market” by one Shib Narayan Das. He then narrated the entire series of events that transpired which led to the mushrooming of the business and its eventual collapse.

Kunal Ghosh and Srinjay Bose, the now arrested Rajya Sabha MPs from the TMC, feature on the 7th page of the 18-page letter. Sen claimed that Ghosh led the attack against the Saradha group ‘dangerously’. He asserted that in light of the ‘attacks’ against him by the media, he was convinced that he ought to enter the ‘media business’. He then narrates how he acquired Channel-10.

Within a very short time since the Channel started its operations, he was approached by Pratidin led by Ghosh. Bose, Sen claims, made arrangements with the media outlet whereby Sen had to pay it Rs. 60 lakhs per month. In addition, Ghosh had been appointed as the CEO of the channel at the salary of Rs. 15 lakhs per month. Sen then writes, “Praitidin has also given me assurance that execution of this arrangement they will protect my business from the government i.e. State government and also Central Government and I will be able to get a smooth passage and they assured me that they have very close connection with present CM of West Bengal i.e. Ms Mamata Banerjee.”

Sen also claims that Bose, the Managing Director of Pratidin Publication and Pratidin Television Media Pvt. Ltd., “took” Rs. 20 crores over the period of the previous two years. In addition, Ghosh was said to be paid Rs. 1.5 lakh every month as his driver’s salary, fuel expenses and for some social work.

Sen also makes some far damning claims about Kunal Ghosh. He claims that Ghosh came to his office along with a few of his “miscreants” and forced him to sign documents which read that he had sold them Channel-10 for merely Rs. 55 lakhs. The documents, which he was forced to sign he claims, also apparently indicated that he had transferred his Urdu daily KALOM to them.

Another political bigwig that features in the letter is Nalini Chidambaram, wife of senior Congress leader and former Union Minister, P. Chidambaram. Sen writes that he was contacted by one Monranjana Sinh for selling her Positive Groups to him and Nalini Chidambaram was her advocate. Sen then writes, “Madam Chidambaram requested me to help her for setting up a channel in North East in Guwahati and support her extending Rs. 42 crores to her company and Madam Chidambaram herself prepared the agreement wherein she is the sole arbitrator for if at all any dispute arises and requested me for financially support her immediately and also Madam Chidambaram fixed her consultancy and during period of one and half years on which account more than Rs. 1 (One) Crores have been given to her.”

Also read: West Bengal government obstructing investigations in Saradha Chit Fund Scam: CBI

He then adds, “Manoranjana Sinh assured me that madam Chidambaram is the wife Mr P. Chidambaram the then Hon’ble Home Minister and if this Chidambaram family slightly stand by me then I will be great clout in India. Though Madam Chidambaram never assured me like this but without assessing my financial strength she has also pressurised me for supporting her Rs.42 crores.”

Recently, Nalini Chidambaram was charge-sheeted in the Saradha scam. According to the charges filed by CBI, Nalini Chidambaram had received ₹1.4 crore from Sudipta Sen, the prime accused in the case. CBI says that Nalini Chidambaram conspired with Sudipta Sen with an intention of cheating and misappropriation of funds. She took the amount of ₹1.4 crore between 2010 to 2014, according to the charge sheet.

Himanta Biswa Sarma, the architect of BJP’s rise in the North East who was then in the Congress, also features in the letter. Sen accused Sarma of taking money to the tune of Rs. 3 crores from the company. Sarma’s house was searched by the agency in connection with the incident and later, the politician had claimed that he was given a clean chit by the CBI and that he was interrogated as a witness and not an accused. The CBI’s charge sheet into the matter does not mention him as well.

Another Congress leader who found himself in a fix was Anjan Dutta who Sen claims had “taken” six crores rupees from the company.

Sen mentions several other people who he claims have “cheated” him. Throughout the letter, he portrays himself as a hapless victim who found himself in circumstances which were far beyond what he was capable of dealing with. In the end, he blames his entire fall on his “mistake” of entering the “media business”. He writes, “My overall business fall down is due to the media entry, extortion from the above-named persons and blackmailed by my own staffs and executives.” As his “last statement”, Sen requests that an FIR be registered against all the people he has named for provoking him to commit suicide.

To conclude his letter, he requested that his family is not harassed and that other innocent people who may be harassed be given protection. “I am leaving my family, my children in a helpless condition. I don’t know how they will sustain but with my humble prayer before all authorities that my family members should not be harassed till any manner till the last days of their life. There are many innocent executives in my office who may be harassed by the networkers, and it is my humble request to give them protection.”

Sen was the MD and chairman of Saradha Group, a consortium of over 200 companies. He was arrested in April 2013 along with co-accused Debjani Mukherjee and Arvind Singh Chouhan from Kashmir.

Rahul Gandhi is more than PM to us: Karnataka Congress chief on Karnataka crisis

Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee Working President Eshwar Khandre, displayed new levels of sycophancy towards Congress President Rahul Gandhi by claiming that for Congress workers, Rahul Gandhi is even more than the Prime Minister.


Khandre was referring to the political crisis which is currently underway in Karnataka as the chief minister HD Kumaraswamy as well as his father, HD Deve Gowda have time and again let it known that they are unhappy with the opportunistic alliance of the Congress and JD(S) in Karnataka.

Earlier, few Congress MLAs had gone on record to say that they consider former Karnataka Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah as their chief minister. A visibly upset Kumaraswamy had even offered to step down as the chief minister saying that the Congress MLAs were crossing the line.

Adding to what Karnataka Congress MLAs have been saying, Khandre said that for them (Congress workers), Rahul Gandhi is even more (important) than the PM.

Read also: Congress tries to pacify cry-baby Kumaraswamy, sends show cause notice to MLA who spoke against the CM

Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy has earlier expressed his unhappiness over the coalition government. A few days back, he had become emotional and said to the party colleagues that he was functioning like a clerk and not like a chief minister because of Congress’ interference in the functioning of the government. Kumaraswamy was also reportedly heard complaining that he is working under “tremendous pressure”.

The rift between Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) has been widening recently as both parties have tried to outdo each other to grapple as much as power in the coalition government. The recent cabinet expansion has further widened the rift, with leaders from both the parties are openly conspiring against each other. In July last year, expressing his unhappiness over the coalition government Kumaraswamy had cried saying he was unhappy and swallowing the poison of a coalition government.

Recently, there were speculations that the coalition may be heading towards a breakup with reports that Kumaraswamy’s brother HD Revanna had met the BJP leaders in Karnataka.

UNESCO world heritage site in Hampi vandalised by hoodlums

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A video showing vandalism carried out by the hoodlums in Karnataka at the UNESCO world heritage site in Hampi has gone viral. The miscreants can be seen in the video damaging the carved stone pillars in Hampi. The video shows 3 men wrecking the pillars of 14th century Vishnu temple and the subsequent exultation by the trio after the pillars were broken down.


The State Water Resources Minister D K Shivakumar said that severe action would be taken against those miscreants responsible for toppling the carved pillars. Shivakumar, who is also the district in-charge Minister of Ballari under which Hampi falls, said he has ordered police forces to track the offenders and initiate action against them. He said, “We will not put up with such acts of vandalism to our historical sites.” Superintendent of Police, Bellary, Arun Rangarajan said the accused will be arrested and prosecuted soon.

However, the vandalism of historic sites like Hampi has triggered outrage among the locals as well as people on the Social Media. People have expressed their concern and anger about the dearth of enough security personnel and sufficient security arrangements at such historically and culturally important locations. The locals in Hampi, enraged over the vandalism, took to streets to protest against the incident and demand adequate security measures at the ancient site.

The heritage collection in the ancient town of Hampi spans nearly 42 square kilometres and includes over 1,600 monuments. These relics include temples, palaces, markets and public baths. Most of the structures enduring today were built between the 14th century and 16th century, while the town dates back to 3BC. The collection of monuments has been accorded World Heritage status by the UNESCO and it represents the ruins of the Vijayanagara Empire.

BJP has hit the jackpot with showdown against Mamata Banerjee

Let me give you an example of ‘democracy’ in Bengal. Haldia is a small (river) port town in Bengal, not far from Kolkata. A fairly significant town in Bengal, actually. In the 2016 assembly elections, at the peak of the TMC wave which won them a startling 211 out of 294 seats, the TMC lost to the Assembly seat in Haldia.

That gives you an idea that Haldia would have a very significant number of anti-Mamata votes.

How many? A little more than a year later, the WB State Election Commission conducted municipal polls in Haldia.

The TMC had a vote share of 85% and won 100% of the seats. This from a seat they could not win even in the 2016 wave.

This is ‘democracy’, West Bengal style.

We all saw what happened during Panchayat Elections. Ballot boxes burning. Ballot boxes thrown into lakes and village ponds. This gentleman in this viral video is exercising his franchise, several hundred times over, in favour of the ruling TMC.

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Or see this, a scene from a counting centre in Nadia.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opVdKaw9y7g]

This gentleman here was perhaps a little late in exercising his franchise. So he arrived at the counting centre while counting was already in progress, started marking ballots he had brought with him and handing them over to those doing the counting.

This is Bengal. Appearances do not matter here.

This should soothe the nerves of any BJP supporter who worries about the optics of Mamata Banerjee’s showdown with the Modi government yesterday and the whole thing about “sympathy”.

I don’t know if Bengal has any such thing left as a sympathy vote. As a state, we have moved far beyond that point. Any expectation of fairness in the political system, of niceties, delicacies, etc., stopped existing a long time back. Governance in Bengal has become an exercise in raw power. It happened so long ago that Bengalis do not know of any other way.

So, stop worrying about the actual outcome of the Sharadha case, how it fares in courts and how will it affect national politics.

What people in Bengal see is that Modi has thrown the gauntlet before Mamata Banerjee and is taking her on in a high stakes showdown.

Will Modi gain? Of course, he will. Remember that BJP has no downside in Bengal anyway. They have absolutely nothing to lose. From here, they can only rise.

In fact, this showdown could actually turn out to be the moment that brings the deluge of votes for BJP in Bengal. BJP needed to show the gumption, the fighting spirit to take on Mamata Banerjee and Mamata’s theatrics has only proven that BJP has been successful in rattling her.

She pushed them. She pushed them in every unseemly, illegal and unconstitutional manner possible. She banned the BJP’s rath yatra in December. She didn’t allow Amit Shah’s helicopter to land. Only yesterday, she denied permission to Yogi Adityanath, the democratically elected CM of a major Indian state, to enter Bengal.

And now, she’s arrested the CBI. She’s ripping the Constitution to shreds. Sadly, the voters of Bengal have become conditioned to see shows of raw power as legitimate, as the default. It actually proves her credentials as a “leader”. Well, today the people of Bengal are seeing that Modi has “leadership credentials” too.

Here is another glimpse of what Mamata Banerjee has been getting away with:

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Can you imagine another Chief Minister saying this? This is the default in Bengal, unfortunately.

In the last four years, as the CPIM and Congress became comatose in Bengal, the BJP was definitely winning some hearts by showing actual fighting spirit against Mamata’s all-powerful TMC. But the party needed something big to mark their foothold gain in the state and the recent events have given them that. The people of Bengal are now witnessing that there is someone big enough to make didi insecure.

Since yesterday, the BJP is in a win-win situation. They have proved their worth to the people of Bengal.

And to everyone outside Bengal, they are showing Mamata Banerjee at her unstable worst. Reminding everyone why a khichdi Sarkar would be a disaster for the country.

And as a bonus, they have managed to displace Rahul Gandhi completely from the news space, making him look totally out of the race. First, the Gandhis brought it upon themselves by yielding space to Priyanka at the exact moment Rahul was finally getting traction. Now, Modi vs Mamata is the talk of the town.

Also read: Pliant Media jubilant on the arrival of a non-achiever dynast in the politics

I said a few days ago that the Modi vs Rahul thing is the stuff of 2014. Rahul has been losing to Modi for four years now. Rahul is now beginning to get sympathy. You can’t run the 2014 race again in 2019. I said PM Modi needs a new opponent, a contest that he would win hands down. And the unstable Bengal Chief Minister is giving him exactly that.

It’s not like Mamata doesn’t understand this. She is doing the right thing from her point of view. She wants just as much to dismiss Rahul and be seen as the principal opponent to Modi.

This showdown is fantastic news for BJP in Bengal. But it is also Mamata’s only shot at becoming PM. She needs the Congress to be decimated and discredited so that she becomes the most prominent anti-Modi regional leader. So what if this showdown adds 10 seats to BJP in Bengal? With 30 seats, she would have the largest regional party in the Lok Sabha and could ask for the PM post.

The BJP, for its part, thinks that the threshold of 10 seats has long been crossed. Indeed, something is happening in Bengal that Mamata is not liking at all. The PM’s rallies on Saturday showed the kind of outpouring of enthusiasm that is reminiscent of 2014 in Uttar Pradesh.

PM Modi in Odisha. Then, Amit Shah in Bengal. Then, PM Modi in Bengal as Amit Shah in Odisha. Yogi Adityanath coming to Bengal to do more rallies this week. He addressed a rally by phone yesterday when they denied him permission to come over.

In all probability, BJP’s central leadership senses it too. PM Modi had stated in the Durgapur rally, “Didi, if you have done no wrong, why fearing the CBI?” Mamata, with her theatrics since yesterday, has only proved the PM right.

Every hour that the showdown continues in Bengal, the BJP gets more votes. I already said don’t worry so much about how courts see the matter. People of the state are beyond such niceties.

This hardening of the Bengali heart, where did it come from? How did we learn to treat fascism as an everyday reality? Where does Mamata get her fascism from?

I can say without a shade of doubt that it comes from the CPIM. Communism is a horrible thing. Once you get injected with this poison, it takes several decades to work itself out of your system.

Also read: West Bengal under Mamata: When Army’s routine exercise becomes ‘hostile deployment’ and CBI doing its duty is ‘coup’

This is how the Communists ruled. As a young leader, Mamata Banerjee’s head was split open by Bengal’s Communist Police. Many of her party workers who were marching with her were massacred in front of her eyes. This is the bloodsoaked reality of Bengal. No questions were ever asked because our “civil society” was too busy admiring the “secularist credentials” of the mass murderers that ruled Bengal.

Remember? Bengal Home Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee admitted on the floor of the Assembly in 1997 that 28,000 political murders had been committed in the state since the CPIM came to rule in 1977.  The CPIM government was not ashamed. They were boasting these numbers.

And our civil society was so happy with this “performance” that they still cry for the  CPIM’s “Himalayan blunder” of 1996-1997 when Jyoti Basu missed out on bringing his “model” of governance to Delhi.

For his part, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee became a hero for the CPIM’s faithful. By 1999, he was promoted to Deputy CM and then ruled Bengal for two terms as CM.

Mamata Banerjee learned her Stalinism at the feet of the Communists that she fought for three decades. She learned well. And the people of Bengal have learned to live with it.

If the current events indicate anything at all, it is the fact that the cracks in the fortress are for everyone to see, the fall is imminent.

I tweeted what I had to say: Congress President Rahul Gandhi evades commenting on Mamata’s mayhem

As reported on live TV on Republic, Congress President Rahul Gandhi today evaded commenting on the political drama unfolding at Kolkata as West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee took to dharna protesting against CBI probe in Saradha Chit Fund Scam. “I tweeted what I had to say,” Rahul Gandhi said.


Rahul Gandhi had said that Congress stands ‘shoulder to shoulder’ with Mamata Banerjee, who was busy stopping the CBI from carrying out their duty of investigating the Saradha Chit Fund Scam. A CBI team had reached Kolkata Police chief’s residence as part of the investigation. However, Kolkata Police detained five CBI officials and Mamata then sat on a dharna protesting against CBI. Earlier today, the CBI moved the Supreme Court seeking directions to Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar to cooperate in the Saradha Chit Fund case. In its petition, the CBI has said that despite being summoned multiple times, Kumar failed to cooperate and created hurdles in the investigation.

Congress extending support to Mamata Banerjee is curious considering till few months back, Congress President Rahul Gandhi as well as UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi had not been too kind to her, accusing Mamata Banerjee of ‘looting Bengal’ in Saradha scam. Interestingly, earlier in January, Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram’s wife, Nalini Chidambaram was charge-sheeted in the Saradha chit fund scam. According to the charges filed by CBI, Nalini Chidambaram had received ₹1.4 crore from Sudipta Sen, the prime accused in the case. CBI says that Nalini Chidambaram conspired with Sudipta Sen with an intention of cheating and misappropriation of funds. She took the amount of ₹1.4 crore between 2010 to 2014, according to the chargesheet.