Controversy dogged Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasrin who is scheduled to come to Kolkata next month is not just a run of the mill event. The first BJP-run government in West Bengal seeks to use it as a point scoring occasion over the Left Front dispensation headed by Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee during which she was forced to look leave the city after members of an organisation hit the streets and went on a rampage.
It is no less an opportunity to portray Mamata Banerjee led Trinamool Congress dispensation nb station as a less than capable upholders of the rule of law who were apprehensive of a minorty backlash if Nasrin touched down in Kolkata. The controversial Bangladeshi author stayed from West Bengal during the TMC regime’s dispensation.
The Suvendu Adhikari headed state government which is often dubbed illiberal by its political opponents in the Left and Trinamool Congress circles plans to use Nasrin’s visit to stop these critics once and for all. Moreover, another message is sought to be conveyed by greenlighting the coming of the author who has courted controversy in the country of her birth as well as in India leaving her with only the choice but to go abroad.
It is a no-nonsense mindset of the BJP state government and the man at its helm. Adhikari ses to portray..He had already done so when he pointed out that hate speeches and it’s like won’t be tolerated in the tenure of the present regime.
His action has matched his word. After Humayun Kabir who heads the fledgling Aam Janata Unnayan Party (AJUP) and has won elections from Rejinagar and Nowda in Murshidabad allegedly incited violence, the state administration swung into action swiftly. Kabir was asked by the district administration in no uncertain terms to explain his actions.
Kabir has complied and his speeches are now devoid of the sound and fury which marked them when he represented the Trinamool Congress in the state Assembly. He got off the hook a number of times but the TMC leadership expelled him for six years after he started building another Babri mosque at Beldanga in his home district.
The chief minister with the state BJP leadership in tandem now plans to send a .message to a larger audience nationwide. With a little about two months since Adhikari assumed office, he seeks to place himself on a higher pedestal to two of his predecessors, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Mamata Banerjee.
Though he has been in office for a much shorter time span than the duo, Adhikari seeks to display that he is no “pushover” like two of his predecessors, a senior BJP leader said. His nod in having Nasrin in the city is a pointer that he is neither a “pseudo secularist” nor a leader pandering to communal elements, he added.
Unlike Bhattacharjee, the chief minister of the first BJP state government in West Bengal has shown no affinity for books, films, drama or cultural personalities. Nor is he known to pen tomes about his life, political career and poems like Banerjee.
The principal message which chief minister Adhikari seeks to convey is in keeping with the poll pledge of his party. It is Bhoi noi Bhorsa chai ( It is not fear but assurance that is needed in its absence), BJP sources stated.
The BJP leaders have accused Banerjee of many instances of pandering to minority sentiments to make them “an assured vote bank.”. As for the CPI(M), Nasrin ‘s coming visit is being touted by the saffron camp of the inability of the city police to control the violent mob which had taken to the streets to protest against comments of the Bangladeshi author.
The army had to be called in after the Kolkata police found it beyond their capacity to tackle the irate crowd hitting the streets over some Nasrin comments. Incidentally, Bhattacharjee was the police minister then and this department is now headed by Adhikari.
The situation was indeed galling for the culture minded leftist chief minister. A senior litterateur close to Bhattacharjee had weeks before the Nasrin episode questioned the necessity of maintaining in the city Fort Williiam, the head quarters of the eastern command of the Indian army.
The presence of Nasrin in Kolkata
will act as a buffer for both Adhikari and the leadership of his state unit in West Bengal. There are twin political dividends which both the saffron brigade and the individual heading it’s dispensation seek to reap.
The saffron camp be it the top men like Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah have never made any secret that they set no store for secularism. There are takers for it in the saffron camp especially for the late comers.
Adhikari, a late entrant to Trinamool Congress has got a golden opportunity to prove his new political credentials. And he has seized it with both hands.
The other political dividend he seeks to reap is putting on a sheen of culture which every chief minister since the redoubtable Jyoti Basu has sought. Meanwhile, Adhikari has not concealed his admiration for Bhattacharjee whose speeches by his own admission he was all ears for in the state Assembly.
On the other hand, certain of his roots, Basu stated to be “the most powerful Communist leader of India”, never cared for any “cultural clutches” which were so eagerly sought by his successors cutting across ideological lines. Adhikari seems to be no exception.
And the Nasrin meeting at Rabindra Sadan has provided him what is called a “sitter” in football parlance, especially in the backdrop of Football World Cup. Giving his aye, Adhikari has put the ball in the net.
Apart from underscoring his ideological roots, the chief .minister has other goals in playiing host to Nasrin. In a state like West Bengal which is home to religious tolerance, he seeks to water down his hardline image a wee bit if he indeed seeks a second term.
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The occasion marking by a BB ding out of a welcome mat for Nasrin . will help Adhikari to push many a intra-party squabbles under the.
carpet. Resentment is simmering just under the surface of state BJP unit over giving giving Rajya Sabha nomination to Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Prakas Chik Baraik and Susmita Deb..
The fact remains the inclusion and the subsequent Rajya Sabha nomination of TMC deserters has left a bad taste in the mouth of many a influential whole timers. State BJP chief Samik Bhattacharya has been la mm boasted on the social media on the issue.
Asked on the issue of TMC deserters getting nomination as BJP member in Rajya Sabha, state panchayat minister, Dilip Ghosh did not mince his words. He pointed out that even the present chief minister can trace his origins from the TMC.
The Nasrin event has handed Suvendu Adhikari a set of twin political advantages. Here is an opportunity to belittle his predecessors together with a camouflage to cover up his TMC roots as there were other contenders for the chief minister’s post long before Adhikari staked his claim to it.
