Whether the BJP can make itself a part of regionalism, or a new alignment of regional parties shall emerge, is the key question facing the nation
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s loss of an overhyped Bengal election only created confusion about the best electoral strategy of its victory machine. While in Bengal, it brought the hound of ‘Sonar Bangal’, it failed to run with the hare of Bengali nationalism. Its image of a prosperous future ‘Bangal’ lost literally the race with the hare and heir of Bengali intellect-driven, genteel and even maternal nationalism taking pride in its litany of sacrificing freedom fighters in British gallows. The hyped ‘sonar Bangla’ and ‘asol poriborton’ of Prime Minister Modi met the firewall of Bengali nationalism that had seen an attempt of taking over Bengal in such metaphors. Bengal sidestepped them by reviving a kind of ‘Bengal first and Bengali first’ narrative, instead of BJP’s thrust on ‘Let’s make Bengal great again’. The irony of Bengal’s election result was so sharp on the BJP that Prime Minister’s allusion of Mahatma Gokhale’s dictum, “What Bengal thinks today, India will think tomorrow” got rephrased as “what Bengal think in 2021, India will think in 2024”. Such is the impact of Bengal results on the mill of rhetorical and political maxims. On the flipside of it, the BJP held onto its project of a unitary powerful centre against Bengal’s local and regional connotations of an indivisible Bengali identity.
While the BJP in Bengal did not or rather preferred not to come to terms with Bengali nationalism and its sensitivities, the case of Assam is just the opposite. Like Congress of yore, the BJP in Assam has come to terms with indigenous ethnic nationalism of various communities and tried to arraign them against a common enemy of ‘illegal immigrants’. In the case of Bengal , the BJP’s emphasis on changed demography in border areas due to illegal immigration from Bangladesh pepped up with Mamata’s appeasement towards religious minorities and her neglect of Hindus aimed at altering the settled contours of Bengali nationalism. BJP wanted to create a segment of Bengalis buying ideas of anti-Muslim Hindu nationalism, which got frustrated in the overdrive for taking over Bengal and its precious resources by the political perception of an incoming corporate-business nexus that BJP’s Hindi-Hindu nationalism might facilitate. Through this mismatch between Bengali nationalism and corporate driven Hindi-Hindu nationalism in Bengal, Didi just had to allude to Bengal’s tradition of social harmony and her robust social security programmes as part of her philosophy of governance. In effect, nothing such as appeasement theory, illegal immigrants, Hindu victimization, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh models of Vikash could stand upto Didi’s play of Bengali nationalism. A nationalism that includes all the sons and daughters of the soil of Bengal with their distinctive linguistic and cultural traits brought together under Didi’s robust social security programmes covering women, SC, ST, Minority etc.in areas of employment, education, healthcare, housing and under all other kinds of protective schemes launched by her Government. This is how Didi drew larger attention than the Prime Minister in the battleground Bengal raising the possibility of her victory over BJP’s monolithic identity based nationalism.
This contest between regional nationalism and Centrist nationalism in Assam assumes a very different shape. Assamese middle class and elite-driven nationalism always constructed an outer limit of Bengalis of East Bengal origin, who are often categorized as Bangladeshis. Based on this perception, the BJP could successfully turn upper rungs of Assamese society against the main opponent Congress’ dalliance with All India United Democratic Front(AIUDF) of Maulana Badruddin Ajmal as partnering with a party of illegal immigrants. The incumbent chief minister Himanta Biswa Sharma termed Miyas or so called illegal immigrants as a threat to Asomiya Vaishnavite culture and to Asomiya identity at large.
It created a toxic mixture of anti-immigrant sentiments with pro-Asomiya native identity, which can act as the main plank of Assamese ethno-nationalism. It is here that Hindutva nationalism gelled with Assamese nationalism to present itself as an open ally of Assamese nationalism. This strategy of not pursuing a Centrist Hindu nationalism in Assam, in contrast to BJP’s Bengal strategy, gave it the biggest electoral benefit. It stopped Congress led alliance in establishing a larger alliance with Assamese nationalist political outfits like the Assam Jatiyo Parishad (AJP) led by erstwhile student leader Lurinjyoti Gogoi and also with Raijor Dol (RD) led by Akhil Gogoi. Anti-BJP votes suffered a split between Congress and other regionalist outfits like AJP, Raijor Dol etc. in crucial seats of upper Assam. This success story scripted singlehandedly by BJP’s new Chief Minister of Assam Shri Himanata Biswa Sharma has catapulted Assamese regional nationalism as an indispensible ally of BJP’s centrist Hindutva nationalism.
In Bengal, Hindutva nationalism’s projection of Hindi as its lingo met its toughest political resistance in Bengali linguistic nationalism that abhorred undue dominance by Hindi in Bengal. This emerged as the most important strand of cultural resistance that could make Didi label BJP campaigners as ‘outsiders’. In electoral terms, this resistance left Bengal’s native Hindi speakers in a dilemma, as their votes lost its counterweight to Bengali voters. Further, BJP’s projection of Muslims as illegal immigrants and as tormentors of Bengali Hindus in the partition days and later in East Bengal stirred the dormant Bengali imagination of a unified
Bengali national identity that already rose much above such narratives of violence and division of countries. BJP’s mouthing of Bengal-turning-into-Bangladesh internally rewired the historic bond between Bengal and Bangladesh. Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Bangladesh to offer prayers at Orakandi temple of the Guru of Motua community only substantiated existence of such an umbilical emotional bond , as the Indian PM had to offer prayers to garner Motua votes in Bengal. In effect, the Prime Minister stirred that strand of Bengali nationalist sentiment which rises above territorial and political divisions and finds its ‘roots’ in larger history, for example, in the episode when Jogen Mandal, the Dalit Bengali leader ceded Dalits from upper caste dominated bhadralok Bengali society. Didi’s outsider jibe at such politically pregnant acts of BJP campaign to win over Bengal’s Dalits pointed at exclusivism played by outsiders within Bengali linguistic and cultural identity. BJP’s attempted exclusivism created furore when the image of Kazi Nazrul Islam, the quintessential rebel Bengali bard and the musician was removed from campaign stage of the Prime Minister Modi, while he was delivering a campaign speech barely a kilometer away from poet Nazrul’s birthplace. Bengali firewall against exclusivism and outsiders trying to take over Bengal only got vindicated even when Central forces fired at Sitalkuchi, leaving four Bengali Muslims dead.
BJP’s electoral play of religious card only stifled its headways. By pitching NRC and CAA, the BJP created an impression among Bengalis that it wants to play with their ‘citizenship’. BJP fuelled Anti-CAA sentiments in Assam that restrained it in comparison to its performance in 2016. It could just wade through because the opposition lacked unity in Assam.
It will now be a difficult proposition for Assam’s Himanta Biswa Sharma to maintain a balance between BJP’s core Bengali Hindu voters and Assamese nationalists, who aim to turn away Hindu Bangladeshis from Assam. The thin electoral marriage between BJP’s centrist Hindutva nationalism and Assamese nationalism can break anytime because of BJP’s mismatched game of NRC and CAA.
With large number of Covid deaths across India, as the Centre cannot anymore hold its politics of polarization, the election results showed the electoral efficacy of regional nationalism. Whether BJP can make itself a part of this regionalism, or a new alignment of regional parties shall emerge as winning combination is a matter to be keenly watched now.
The writer is an independent political analyst based in Shillong. The views expressed are personal.
