2026 | ২০২৬

Many in West Bengal are still pinching themselves from the 4th of last month to believe that they are actually in a Bharatiya Janata Party ruled state – something that was unthinkable until it really happened. Everyone could realise that the record turnout of almost 92.47% of voters meant that Bengal was angry and was sure to vote unambiguously in any one direction. Some incorrigible optimists (mea culpa) believed that the angst was directed at the unabashed alliance between the Election Commission and the BJP, with the indulgence of a Supreme Court. 

পশ্চিম বঙ্গ এখন ভারতীয় জনতা পার্টি শাসিত রাজ্যে। আশা আসংখ্যার নতুন দোলাচল। অনেকে মনে করছেন বাংলার এখন কিছু উন্নতি হতে পারে। শিল্প, বিনিয়োগ আর চাকরির যে অকাল চলছিল তার এখন কিছু না কিছু সুরাহা হতে পারে। আমাদের ছেলে মেয়েরা বেকারত্বের হাত থেকে বাঁচলেও বাঁচতে পারে।

West Bengal is now a state governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party — unbelievable as it may appear. With the change comes a new wave of hope as well as uncertainty and trepidation. Many really believe that Bengal may now, at long last, witness some development. Bengal's half a century long drought where industry, investment and employment are concerned may finally see some relief. Our young men and women may perhaps escape the grip of chronic unemployment, at long last.

Fortress West Bengal has finally crumbled before the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It was one of the last hopes of liberals, and Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress (TMC) had managed to ward off the juggernaut for well over a decade with unusual grit.

Now that ‘the hurly burly is done and the battle lost and won’, let us try to understand why and how Fort Bengal collapsed before the Bharatiya Janata Party. There is unconcealed jubilation among a large swathe of the people — from the richer merchants to the solidly Bengali bhadralok, down (surprisingly) even to those who benefited most from Mamata Banerjee's doles. Such excitement, political bitterness and the desperate urge to change were last seen in Bengal in 1977 in the election after the Emergency; as a junior Assistant Returning Officer, one had a trying time to ensure counting without boisterousness.

We are just hours away from the anxiously awaited results of the most keenly watched state election in India in the recent past – that of West Bengal. But this is not one of many intelligent and compelling guesstimates to keep hyper-excited political participants and their near-insane followers pass these tense moments. This piece is more of a record of the processes followed to ensure the disenfranchisement of millions of voters – unprecedented in the annals of India’s electoral history.

পশ্চিমের পাঞ্জাবি রঘু রাই কারোর কাছে সহজে হার মানত না। তাই যখন উনি ক্যান্সারের সাথে লড়াই শুরু করলেন, যা চলল বছরের পর বছর, আমরা বলতাম ক্যান্সার বাবাজি জানে না কার সাথে টক্কর নিচ্ছে। অতএব হটাৎ তার চলে যাওয়াতে সত্যই হতভম্ব হলাম।

আমরা হারালাম শুধু ভারতের শ্রেষ্ঠ একজন আলোকচিত্রী নয়, সাথে হারালাম এই দেশের আধুনিক ফটোজার্নালিজমের এক কিম্বদন্তি পুরুষ ও রোল মডেল।

West Bengal’s election is not going to be a normal one—institutions have become part of the contest. So, voters are not just choosing a government, they are thinking about their own safety.

While many Indians still hold the Supreme Court to be a fair institution — standing amidst the ruins of many collapsed constitutional bodies — the present Election Commission of India (ECI) is considered to have reached an unimaginable nadir.

Though Mamata Banerjee has issued a high alert to make sure communal troubles do not break out in a tense and highly polarised state in election mode, it is well known that several electoral participants do not hide their community-centric wrath. Communal violence benefits those who live off religious hatred as the consequential polarisation provokes even normally secular people to rage, moving them towards hardliners. And this festival of Ram Navami has a long, provocative and bloodstained history in many parts of India – going back to the riots of Jamshedpur and Rourkela in 1964, when some 2000 people died.

After the recent elections in Bangladesh, it is good to see India reconsidering the stand it had taken during Muhammad Yunus’s rule. We may now be on the way to regaining our only steadfast friend in the neighbourhood, as the Indian establishment has swung out of its fixation with Hasina and accepted the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) as India’s best bet. It took more than a year for our government to view the BNP with more kindness despite the party’s anti-India track record.

The public ecstasy at India swinging two big trade deals, the India-UK FTA and the recent deal with the European Union (EU), reveals more skills at event management than in ensuring immediate economic survival after US President Donald Trump’s tariff terror. Even as we hope, privately or otherwise, that we have survived Genghis Khan’s devastation of our dear, comfortable world of free and open trade, we really need to get real.

Sheikh Hasina’s downfall on 5 August 2024 was a chronicle foretold by all, except NewDelhi’s ‘state operators’ who continued with their domineering agenda. A hastily put togetherinterim government under Muhammad Yunus as ‘Chief Advisor’ worsened matters and a‘reign of terror’ followed in Bangladesh.