June 17, 2019.
The first day of the inaugural session of the 17th Lok
Sabha. It should have been a red
letter day for the MPs from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), whose party had
been re–elected to power with a
massive 303 seats
on its own, while the size of the
BJP led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was a stunning 353 seats. Yet, from Day 1, the
party in power started to trivialize its position in Parliament and gave the
impression that its MPs were immature and incapable of discharging the immense
responsibility that was bestowed on them by way of a massive national mandate.
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| Parliament of India |
Yes, I am referring
to the cries of “Jai Shree Ram” that emanated from the Treasury Benches on 17th
and 18th
June, 2019,
as the MPs from the BJP and the opposition All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) elected from West Bengal came to take oath as members of the Lok
Sabha one after the other. Controversial
BJP MP from Bhopal, Ms. Pragya Singh
Thakur, prefixed the word ‘Sadhvi’ and suffixed her guru’s
name to her own name as she took her oath.
It is not difficult to guess that while for the BJP MPs,
the cries of “Jai Shree Ram” were
meant to cheer, for their AITC brethren, it was meant to jeer. Not to be
outdone, the Parliamentarians from the AITC retorted with cries of “Jai
Ma Kali”, “Jai Ma Durga”, “Jai
Bangla”, “Mamata Banerjee Zindabad”, “Ma,
Mati, Manusher Jai” and even the patriotic “Jai
Hind”. Mr. Kalyan Banerjee, an
AITC MP even chanted hymns in obeisance to Goddess Kali. Muslim MPs chanted
from their own religious scriptures. This was worse than a tamasha. It was an outright insult to all those patriotic citizens, who had exercised their franchise
only weeks ago in the expectation of a better future for themselves and the
nation. Sceptics refrain from voting
considering it to be a fruitless exercise.
With this mockery of Constitutional values on the opening days of the first Parliamentary
session itself, their skepticism was
vindicated too.
Chanting “Jai Shree Ram” has become a political issue in West Bengal, hotter than the Ram Mandir issue in Uttar Pradesh, ever since West Bengal’s Chief Minister and AITC supremo
Mamata Banerjee halted her motorcade on her way to Bhatpara on 30th
May, 2019 to attend a sit–in of party workers, as
cries of “Jai Shree Ram” from a
group of locals gathered on the wayside assailed her ears. If the act of getting down from her car and confronting the
mischievous gathering was not stupid enough for a person of her stature, she went on to brand the chant in
praise of Lord Ram as a verbal abuse.
No wonder, the motley group that had
chanted praises of the most politicized divine being in the nation within her
earshot, were BJP supporters. It is quite possible that the entire
act was sponsored by her sworn antagonist,
the BJP. The area falls under the
Barrackpore Lok Sabha constituency which had elected Arjun Singh, erstwhile AITC MLA and dreaded
muscleman, who had crossed over to
the BJP only days before the election.
Predictably, he had earned the wrath
of his former party chief, who had publicly
termed him a traitor on more than one occasion. His ardent supporters must have thought that praising the Lord
was the best way to return the compliment.
Having exacted sweet retribution through his electoral victory, Arjun Singh and his band of merry men
had gone about engineering defections of AITC Councilors to the BJP in the
municipalities in his constituency as also taking over the AITC party offices
and painting them saffron. Shocked
by the almost unexpected electoral reverse as also the onslaught unleashed by
the BJP and Arjun Singh, the once
omnipotent AITC was on virtual retreat in the area as in many other areas of
the state. A quickly depleting party
strength was ominous for the party which would be put to the test again in two
years’ time as West Bengal goes to the
Legislative Assembly elections in 2021.
Instilling confidence in party workers and reorganizing them for the tough fight
ahead against a formidable adversary was the precise purpose of Mamata Banerjee’s journey to Bhatpara that day. It is not difficult to guess that
having gradually become accustomed to political smooth sailing in the last
eight years, she must have been
particularly high–strung with her
party’s recent electoral debacle. The chants of “Jai Shree Ram”, associated with the BJP, could only have added fuel to fire on
someone, who, at the best of times,
is renowned for her tempestuous personae.
Whatever the provocation, Mamata Banerjee,
through her conduct, failed herself
as a Chief Minister and as a leader of the masses that day. She should have ignored the chants and moved on. If she wanted to slap (a word incidentally made famous by no
less than herself) administrative
action against the chanters, which I
maintain to be strictly illegal and also politically unwise, she could have done it discreetly instead of creating a ruckus in
public.
Incidentally,
Mamata Banerjee was earlier on 4th
May, 2019,
confronted with a similar situation in Chandrakona town, again from the BJP supporters and had come up with a similar
vitriolic response. It was this
incident that made the BJP in West Bengal realize that the religious slogan
could be inflicted as an ammunition on Mamata Banerjee, who is pathologically allergic to the BJP and anything that is
associated with the party. Needless
to say, their calculation was exact
and had elicited the precise response that they had desired when it was
repeated in Bhatpara. This time its
impact was much larger and created a national furore. Although arguments flew thick and fast on both sides of the issue, clearly Mamata Banerjee had become a
victim of her own unwise, volatile, knee jerk reaction. From a firebrand opposition leader, she had become the cynosure of attention for all the wrong
reasons.
The elections being over and with a new Government in place, everyone, especially in West Bengal had expected the insanity to die a
natural death. Shockingly and
belying common sense, it reached the
Central Hall of Parliament, a place which
is so sanctimonious that it is considered strictly out of bounds for religious
posturing. Thanks to some
irresponsible BJP MPs, who lack the
ability to distinguish between religion and Constitutional propriety, religious slugfests made a grand
entry in the hallowed portals of the 17th
Lok Sabha. The day they took their
oaths swearing allegiance to the Constitution of India, was the very day they started to violate the Constitution. AITC MPs in their effort to match the
madness, only managed to tarnish
themselves as much as the BJP did.
Sadly, more than any political party
or politician, it is the indignity
of our beloved nation and it is for the world to see and snigger at.
© Sugato Mitra
12.15 PM, 10th July, 2019
Bhopal
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