Opinion: Reading Mamata’s Letter Seeking Opposition Unity In Midst Of Election

Have Opposition leaders lastly realised {that a} single get together cannot cease the BJP juggernaut, and to dislodge the BJP, and for their very own survival, you will need to come collectively? Within the seventh 12 months of Modi’s rule and smack in the midst of the very high-profile election in Bengal, Mamata Banerjee has written a letter to all major Opposition leaders, exhorting them to return collectively to save lots of democracy within the nation. In her letter, with out mincing phrases, she has written that the BJP, led by Modi, is hellbent on ending the Opposition and establishing a one-party, authoritarian rule within the nation. To assist her argument she has enumerated seven factors.

I’m certain that there can be questions as to why she has written a letter, which seeks unity amongst events that embody these she is combating in Bengal – just like the Congress, at a time when she needs to be focusing her vitality on registering a victory for her get together within the state election. She is in center of a really powerful battle not simply to retain Bengal but in addition for her personal constituency, Nandigram, which she is contesting in opposition to her one-time protege, Suvendu Adhikari. It’s not a provided that she is going to win. The BJP has unleashed unimaginable hearth energy to unseat her. In latest reminiscence, I can’t recall having seen such an aggressive marketing campaign in any meeting election. The BJP’s technique of dividing Bengal on communal strains crosses all limits. Mamata Banerjee has been known as ‘anti-Hindu’, somebody who is barely involved about Muslims. She has been referred to as names like ‘Begum’ Mamata, ‘Khala’ Mamata, ‘Fufu’ Mamata, and many others. Muslims are overtly referred to as ‘Pakistanis’ and it has been propagated that “Hindu girls won’t be secure if she wins elections.” To show her Hindu credentials, Mamata Banerjee resorted to reciting the ‘Chandi Path’ and declaring it’s a ritual she performs day-after-day as “a Brahmin woman”. She additionally introduced to the world that she belongs to the Shandilya Gotra.

Her critics may argue that Mamata, fearful about dropping the Bengal election, is in search of cooperation from opposition events to shore up her place in Bengal – as of tomorrow, two of eight phases of voting can be accomplished – and that since she will’t enchantment on to the Congress and Left, whom she is combating in Bengal, she has chosen a circuitous route. However it’s untimely and baseless to imagine she is on weak floor in Bengal. Secondly, for the Bengal election, she already has the assist of a number of events to whom the letter is addressed together with these headed by Akhilesh Yadav, Sharad Pawar and Arvind Kejriwal.

Additionally it is rumoured that she has a secret understanding with the Congress to not weaken the Trinamool, and if want be, switch their votes to one another. There is no such thing as a impartial affirmation however Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi not visiting Bengal offers credence to this info.

In Bengal, the Congress has cast an alliance with the Left, however they’ve been unable to show the state right into a tricornered contest; as an alternative, they may find yourself serving to the BJP by splitting the Muslim vote. The Left, it appears, isn’t prepared to forgive Mamata Banerjee for ending its rule in 2011. CPM leaders have been saying that to save lots of West Bengal, Mamata and the BJP each must be defeated. However not like Mamata, who has previously allied with the BJP, the Left can’t accomplish that. So it should haven’t any choice however to associate with the anti-BJP alliance being proposed by her.

There is no such thing as a doubt that if Mamata Banerjee wins this elections, and if she wins comfortably, she may emerge as essentially the most highly effective chief within the Opposition camp; if she loses, the hope of stopping the BJP on the nationwide stage will dissipate into skinny air and it may pave the best way for ‘one-party, authoritarian rule’ within the nation. If the BJP wins, its victory will show to be an excellent experiment in India’s electoral historical past: that Hindutva alone has the ability to make the BJP victorious even in a state the place, until just a few years in the past, it was a non-entity; that Hindutva as an agenda and as a motion is unstoppable, a minimum of for now; that secular politics is lifeless and buried; that Muslims as a political entity, regardless of their giant quantity, haven’t any that means in India’s electoral course of. And if that occurs, the entire edifice of secular-representative democracy will collapse.

Suvendu Adhikari

Mamata’s letter must be seen on this context. Among the many seven factors she has raised is the matter of Arvind Kejriwal’s authorities being diminished to a toothless, powerless administration with the latest laws pushed by means of parliament by the centre. The laws promotes the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi above that of an elected authorities. She has additionally referred in her letter to Opposition governments, leaders, events being hounded by central authorities companies. She has been troubled by the Governor of West Bengal, who has misplaced no alternative to discredit the federal government in West Bengal. She isn’t too off the mark when she questions his conduct. The Governors in different opposition-ruled states are not any higher and infrequently, their conduct seems to be extra so of a BJP office-bearer than of the workplace that they maintain.

The controversy on the centre-state relationship is not legitimate. The thought of cooperative federalism, envisaged by Prime Minister Modi himself, has lengthy been deserted. It’s anticipated that states must observe the diktats of the centre, and In the event that they dare disobey, penalties embody central companies instantly getting very energetic and making their lives hell.

A democracy is outlined not solely by the federal government, but in addition by the dynamism of the Opposition, which has by no means been so weak. If India is at risk of leaning in the direction of one-party, authoritarian rule, the Opposition is equally to be blamed. There was a time, simply after independence, when Nehru was a colossus, the Congress was a like a leviathan, and the opposition was nowhere to be counted, however stalwarts like Ram Manohar Lohia, JP, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Communist leaders didn’t give up. Throughout Indira Gandhi’s time, when the Opposition was weak, she used her brute majority to crush establishments which lastly led to the Emergency in 1975. A weak opposition is the primary signal of an authoritarian regime.

The Opposition within the final seven years has upset the individuals of the nation. It isn’t that they didn’t make any effort previously to return collectively, however every time, they acted out of their particular person vested pursuits. If right now, Mamata has realised the seriousness of the matter, and if her name can carry different leaders collectively, it won’t solely assist the Opposition to realize floor however can even strengthen democracy and make the federal government on the centre accountable. Loads of heavy lifting is required. 

(Ashutosh is Creator and Editor, satyahindi.com) 

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