Bharatiya Janata Party । ভারতীয় জনতা পার্টি

I have a request for my former colleagues in Trinamool Congress whose conscience has suddenly woken up only after the party’s crushing defeat in West Bengal.

In 2024, 29 Lok Sabha MPs won their seats on TMC tickets (well done!) and after one death, there were 28 in the TMC till a week ago.

Eighty MLAs were also victorious in May 2026, despite a strong anti-TMC wave. Voters sent them to raise questions against the Bharatiya Janata Party – just as, as Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly, Suvendu Adhikari used to expose issues, one after another, so consistently and so vigorously, against the state government of the Trinamool Congress.

My appeal to those who were elected on TMC’s symbol and now wish to join the BJP (or support it from outside) is to first get their voters’ approval. Let them resign and come back joyfully after winning. They may surely be thick with the BJP now, but will those who spent their entire lives fighting communalism find it easy to do such somersaults with their ideals? And will the Muslim MPs be accepted by the BJP? We also hope the pirouetting dancers are be able to convince their electorate about their new-found passion with saffron. The best way to reconcile these contradictions is by contesting again and returning with pride after being re-elected.
Only then would the people’s mandate, which is the pillar of democracy, be upheld with honour.

This way, they could leave the corrupt TMC with dignity, and the silence the many critics who are alleging underhand deals and huge sums of money.

The new BJP government in Bengal has pledged never to compromise with corruption, especially with the TMC, so one has to wonder what on earth is this new development? The BJP has already enough seats, 207, in the West Bengal legislative assembly. The party’s president has made it clear that defectors or ‘rebel’ legislators will not find a place within the BJP.

Their doors are shut – as one prominent major TMC defector like Suvendu Adhikari is more than enough for the original loyalists to handle. After all, he was bold enough to take a bribe openly and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party publicised the video of the sting operation again and again – till he joined the BJP and became its battering ram in Bengal. Adhikari thus has the dubious distinction of being the only chief minister to be thus caught red-handed and then elected on the wave of public anger against corruption.

Despite this ‘No Entry’ sign, one hears that the determined lot of TMC ‘rebels’ are suddenly so wild with anger at Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee, that they are quite content to stay put in the BJP’s portico. Surely, they must be terrified about legal action being taken against them or their supporters for many sins of commissions and omissions. If former chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s house could be raided in a month after losing power and her successor get a search and harass party of policemen at 3 am, who is left?

A few popularly elected politicians are still honest but their supporters and machinery reek of corruption. Others are boldly corrupt, to the point that one is known as Mr Square Feet because he has charged every builder in terms of how much money he could extract per square feet of built-up properties sold.

The BJP has published details of 17 real estate properties allegedly owned by Abhishek Banerjee. His links to these have been denied, of course, but no legal action has been taken to retract this claim.

Money is being discovered everywhere – even in bundles eaten by white ants in a college union room under the TMC’s control. There is, therefore, enough reason to be concerned about retribution from the new government and perhaps, hence, this indecent haste.

But will the resultant amnesty mean that legislators and elected municipal councillors who are neck-deep in corruption will continue, for instance, to go on constructing more illegal buildings and endangering the lives of local residents?

Was the sudden spurt of bulldozer action against a TMC MLA’s illegal construction a few days after the new chief minister was sworn in just a show?

It’s just a little more than month after the elections are over and the indelible ink mark on the forefinger on our left hand has not yet worn out – but is the posturing of a righteous war against corruption about to be shelved because the lion’s share of the ‘corrupt’ are switching to the government side?

Assam, one of India’s most beautiful and bounteous states, is today troubled and in turmoil. The reason for this is deep-rooted anxiety among the indigenous Assamese of being swamped by ‘outsiders’, mainly Bengali Muslims — often automatically branded Bangladeshis. The problem is, however, more complex. 

Of the two major national day celebrations that India observes, Republic Day is certainly more colourful because of the pomp and power government displays on New Delhi’s imposing Central Vista avenue. Amidst the glitter and glory, we tend to forget why we celebrate this day. On this 26th day of January in 1950, India gave effect to the Constitution of a free nation and replaced the Imperial-era Government of India Act of 1935.

On August 9, the day Mahatma Gandhi had launched the ‘Quit India’ movement in 1942 (opposed by the Hindu Right), the entire opposition walked out of the Rajya Sabha in protest against the chairman’s ruling that disallowed the Leader of Opposition to speak about the chair’s jibe at Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan, who’s in her 20th year in the Rajya Sabha.

Though Narendra Modi and his cohorts swore before the elections that they would surely cross 400 seats, it was clear during the different phases of polling that the INDIA bloc parties would certainly do well. The new-found unity among the opposition parties had evoked enthusiastic popular support.

In 1967, when I was just 15 years old, I was attracted to Ram Manohar Lohia’s brand of desi socialism that targeted the nexus between caste and class in India. The Congress had been in power for 20 years and appeared quite invincible. But socialist leaders such as George Fernandes, Madhu Limaye, Rabi Ray and Kishen Pattanayak believed that the mighty Congress could be dislodged.

Nothing could sum up better the transactional relationship between big capital and authoritarian rule than these words of William E. Scheuerman, Professor of Political Science at Indiana University in the ‘Boston Review’, under the catchy title Why Do Authoritarians Win?

Few can deny that India is seared right through, over several vexing issues, among which is whether the two sacred epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, are actually history or just myths. There is hardly any middle ground, as rationalists and left- liberals are absolutely certain that the epics are only myths, while a large section of Hindus refuse to believe they are not historical.

Despite the Rs 2900 crore, 182 metre statue of Patel dedicated to India’s unity, not a week passes when the nation is not split down the middle, quite bitterly. Sometimes, it is the lynching of Muslims or Aadhar’s intrusion into our privacy, ‘triple talaq’ or the national flag. The battle of Sabarimala is the latest on the list of rows.

The extensive media coverage notwithstanding, most people may be unaware of the issues central to the Sabarimala controversy.

It is astounding how the University Grants Commission (UGC) could issue an order to all vice chancellors, which is beyond its powers. On October 27, it directed them to observe Sardar Patel’s birthday on October 31 and to send a compliance report with photographic evidence like some untrustworthy schoolboys. With just three days’ notice, all higher education institutions in India were to organise ‘Unity Runs’, inter-college competitions, dramas, songs, essays; design t-shirts and invite freedom fighters.

While politicians quibble over the legality of the recent rules issued by the Central government curbing the movement and trade in cattle of all types and even camels, we may like to take a look at the big picture. The oft-quoted Article 48 of the Constitution is one among the many unrealized directive principles: desirable when able. It talks of banning the slaughter of milch and draught cattle, but the point here is that no one is advocating this patently uneconomical idea. We need to understand that even the best cows become a burden to poor farmers after their lactating period is over. So do old draught animals. Most farmers, many of whom are strict vegetarians, therefore, sell them off so that other humans and cattle can be better looked after.

The unprecedented display of aggression witnessed in Bengal in April in the name of Rama Navami, has perhaps distracted the Bengali people from the good old traditional deities of Chaitra. This month, from mid-March to mid-April, has always belonged to Shiva, Shitala, Annapurana or Basanti and the very indigenous Dharma-Thakur. Bengalis were very clear that Durga came home only in Ashwin and reserved ten full holidays to rejoice in her name. What lent most colour to this month was Gajan,which is so similar to Taai-pusamin Tamil country.Throughout the month, several people dressed up as Shiva-Parvati, and wandered around streets and localities: singing, dancing and invoking Mahadev. It was the Bengali way of taking a religion to the streets, with devotion and pantomime, not with swords and threats.