BJP-RSS plays Hindutva card to dethrone Mamata Banerjee

New Delhi: With the BJP and the RSS unleashing the Hindutva card in Bengal, it’s trouble time for Trinamul supremo and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who has been branded by the saffronites as the “queen of minority politics.”

The rapid consolidation of the Hindu votebank by BJP became evident when the party stunned all by coming second in the Kanthi (south) Assembly by-poll and grabbing nearly 30 per cent of the vote share. While Trinamul won the elections, CPI(M) and Congress candidates lost their deposits. 

Also, for the first time Bengal witnessed massive rallies across the state during Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti. Nearly 200 rallies with participants wielding swords, brandishing lathis were held across the state.

A section of the Trinamul Congress leaders feel that Ms Banerjee’s politics of “minority appeasement” is helping the BJP become an alternative among the Hindus, which include the so-called Bengali bharalok. 

Last month, in Coimbatore, the RSS in its National Council meet spoke of the “alarming” situation in West Bengal, and accused the ruling Trinamul for the “rise of jihadi elements” and the “decline” of the Hindu population in Bengal. The RSS had also organised Makar Sankranti functions in Kolkata.

Pushing its Hindutva agenda in Bengal, the RSS mouthpiece, Organiser, launched a scathing attack on Ms Banerjee, claiming that her “blatant and brazen appeasement of Muslims in West Bengal has created a volatile situation, unprecedented in the state’s history.” It then went on to say that “never has the state seen such radicalisation of this community as it has witnessed in recent days.”

Incidentally, Bengal has also witnessed a steady rise of RSS shakhas. According to RSS sources, from merely 500 shakhas in 2010, the number has gone up to nearly 3,000 across Bengal. Besides this, RSS affiliated schools run by Vidya Bharti have also been going up in numbers. Recently, Ms Banerjee had threatened to shut down nearly 125 schools run by Vidya Bharti.

With the RSS growing rapidly in the state, the West Bengal Minority United Council on Thursday urged the state government to “ban” the outfit in the state. The council had accused the RSS of trying to “destroy the atmosphere of peace and plotting a communal riot in West Bengal.”