BJP invokes Tagore in Bengal to counter pro-Hindi image

BJP invokes Tagore in Bengal to counter pro-Hindi image

 

Many people, however, opine BJP’s leaning on Tagore is to counter the TMC supremo’s strategy of labelling them as a party of the Hindi heartlands.

 

Biswabrata Goswami

Hummingbird News         

KRISHNAGAR, 10 AUG: In recent past elections in West Bengal, political heavyweights entail in verbal duels on various issues such as the celebration of Ram Navami, Hanuman Jayanti and chanting Jai Shree Ram. But, latest icon to become a weapon in the political slug-fest is Nobel Laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore.

Apart from Trinamul suprimo Mamata Banerjee and even CPI-M leader Surya Kanta Mishra, who both highlighted Tagore’s song or his ideology in different times during their speeches especially before elections, BJP top brasses have started shown interest in Tagore during their speeches in various programmes.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a bid to tap into the Bengali sentiment starts his speech with one or two sentences in Bengali. However, he sprang a surprise when he raised the slogan of “Gurudev (Tagore) amar rahe” drawing loud cheers from the crowd.

The reference to Tagore is not just limited to slogans. Famous lines from his poems are being used by Modi and Banerjee to take potshots at each other.

Modi in recent past quoted Tagore’s lines “where the mind is without fear” to take a dig at Banerjee for the alleged used of terror tactics by the Trinamul Congress (TMC). He said that neither Congress nor CPI-M went by the ideals of Tagore as they blatantly resorted to intimidation tactics to cling to power.

The reason behind BJP’s sudden interest in Tagore can be attributed to the bard’s influence among people across the generations in Bengal, especially to the educated and culturally aware middle-class voters both in rural and urban areas.

Banerjee, who frequently quotes from Tagore and other renowned Bengali poets also hit back at Modi and BJP with the bard’s lines.

Even CPI-M state secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra recently quoted Tagore in one of the tweets to alert the people of the state against politics of polarisation.

The BJP’s leaning on Tagore is slowly appearing like crystal-clear as its district unit in Nadia launched massive membership drive from their party office in Krishnagar by singing one of the Tagore’s popular song – ‘E Desher Mati Amar’. The BJP office-workers and leaders sang the song before launching the membership programme under the banner of ‘Amar Parivar BJP Parivar’.

The party’s Nadia North district president, Ashu Ghosh said, “They have target to do 10 lakh membership ahead of the forthcoming assembly election. In the state, the target is to make 3 crore members through this programme”.

The ‘much designed’ membership programme, interestingly, started on 22 Shravan, the death anniversary of Tagore in Kolkata where the party’s state president Dilip Ghosh informed that one can give a missed call on the party's number, log onto the website and register as a member.

“Bengali’s have been maligned everywhere. Now they say, Bengalis resort to fights. We are referred to as a non-Bengali party. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee was from Bengal itself, he asked Rabindranath Tagore to give a lecture in Bengali because of him,” the BJP leader said.

Many people, however, opine BJP’s leaning on Tagore is to counter the TMC supremo’s strategy of labelling them as a party of the Hindi heartlands.