Bengal attracts whole India again. Violence has become routine in all phases. Mamata Banarjee being Chief Minister supposed guardian and protector of law and order ironically became root cause for lawlessness. She is supposed to uphold democracy and its values but she herself became provocateur of violations. The language, behaviour, intimidation and suppression of fundamental rights have become order of the day. Irony is that she came to power only by opposing such tactics from the then ruling left front. Left Front ruled the state for 34 years whereas Trinamul came to power eight years back. She became arrogant and started abusing and misusing power within such a short time and facing wrath of people for her misrule. She practiced appeasement politics, sheltered anti-social elements and allowed collection of tolibaz meaning collection of unofficial tax for any activity in the community .
The story went back to the days of Congress rule under Siddhardha Shankar Ray who abused the power and tried to suppress the rights of people. The Left Front led by CPM played vital role in championing the cause of people at that time and came to power under the Chief Minister ship of legendary leader Jyothi Basu. He ruled the state for a long time and handed over reigns to Budhadev Bhattacharya. During his tenure, Mamata raised people's revolt particularly at Nandigram and Singur which made her Hero . Unfortunately the same Mamata who became CM started suppressing rights of people. Initially, she finished politically Congress, later CPM. She thought that now she is monarch without any competition. But things developed differently.
In the course of finishing the base of CPM, she tried to win over Muslims by several measures. This appeasement created apprehensions in the minds of majority community. During Durga Puja, she tried to curtail Durga immersion procession just to please Muslims who were doing Mohurum procession. It is height of her ill motivated actions. People started going away from her. It is a golden opportunity for BJP. The vacuum created by Congress and CPM was started filling up by BJP. TMC started using same tactics against BJP cadre trying to silence them with intimidation and other coercive measures. But surprisingly, the BJP cadre though small in number resisted these tactics boldly facing lot of difficulties. This resistance only paid dividends in the long run. People slowly started believing that here is a party which is having guts to stand against TMC goons. That made the difference. BJP from small size started growing leaps and bounds polarising anti-Mamata forces. Even the lower level cadre of CPM started helping BJP because their strong hatred against Mamata. That is why, BJP though do not have cadre at all places became platform of all Mamata victims and haters. This is the story of BJP growth story.
Now, Mamata became restless. Her ambition of becoming PM by winning all seats in Bengal has been shattered with the rapid growth of BJP. She wants to stop this rise and win all seats somehow. That is the reason, she is not allowing processions , meetings of BJP leaders. During polling, her cadre resorting to violence attacking BJP leaders. Yesterday, She stopped rallies of Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath and Smriti Irani. Today, Amit Shah rally in Kolkata was attacked. Two days back, BJP youth leader Priyanka Sarma was arrested and sent to 14 days police custody simply because she forwarded a meme received in Whatsapp. Urban middle class in Kolkata resented this act of Mamata. It is direct attack on free speech and free expression. May be, that is one of the reasons for a huge turn out to Amit Shah's rally today. It is an indication of mood of the people. Mamata's dictatorial behaviour initially created fear among people. Now it turned as mass resistance under the banner of BJP. It is really unexpected and unprecedented. It is a lesson one must learn that people always ready to rally round if their basic rights are suppressed. Hope Mamata will receive drubbings at polls to boost democracy.
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