Fighting fascism, the TMC style

In return, Mamata gifts Muslims - Babul Supriyo. She said, “Khela Hobe”. Khela Ho Gaya, perhaps.

Bengal election results were widely celebrated. And rightly so. Noida-based media and parachute journalists were painting a picture that raised alarms in the minds of those who wish to see BJP lose. The media - ethically and otherwise - was proven wrong yet again. So was the Prime Minister’s henchman - Chanakya Amit Shah - who, I believe, had gotten a little over his head with the corporate funding via electoral bonds. BJP nevertheless increased their vote share exponentially, becoming the leading opposition in West Bengal, but were not even close to the kind of victory Shah had projected.

Mamata’s victory gave a sense of hope to Muslims in West Bengal and beyond. She had campaigned extensively with the agenda of “saving the country from BJP”. The way she took head-on the Hindutva rhetoric of hate - if anything - was perceived courageous. More so, at a time when almost all the opposition parties, especially the Congress, have been practicing what G Sampath calls ‘smart secularism’. The term was coined, if I remember correctly, during the assembly election campaign of Madhya Pradesh where Rahul Gandhi was seen flaunting his Janeu and hopping temples, one after the other.

The idea is to invisiblise Muslims and subtly flirt with majoritarian Hindutva ideology. In other words, making the Hindu religion central to one’s campaign, tapping on to the majoritarian fantasies the BJP has got India’s Hindu majority to fetish, and only attacking BJP on the issues of governance. This had made Muslims almost irrelevant from the political space. Mamata’s Khela Hobe was a bit more inclusive. She didn’t fall shy of being seen with, or in support of, Muslims. This - in my opinion - was one crucial factor for Muslims, those even outside of West Bengal, cheering in Mamata’s support.

As an outside to the politics of West Bengal, relying for information mostly on English news organisations, it would be foolish of me to even try to decode the campaign TMC undertook. That said, even as outsider like me cannot help but notice the fine optics Mamata’s party were playing. The optics continued even after the elections. It was quite visible that her supporters were projecting her as the only opposition leader who could challenge Narendra Modi. In no time, she was Modi’s challenger-number-one. She is after-all the only woman in Time’s 100 most influential people in the world, and one of the total three people included in the list.

As she geared up to take on Narendra Modi, possibly trying to forge an opposition unity, with she at the helm, news from West Bengal is unpleasant. Muslims who had voted en masse for her party in order to defeat the BJP shall now see Babul Supriyo - an infamous ex-BJP leader who wanted to ‘skin Muslims alive’ and ‘send Muslims to the country they belong to’ as a decorated general in Mamata’s army. TMC’s member of parliament, known for her fiery speeches, Mahua Moitra - who once quoted the ‘the early signs of fascism’ from a poster in Holocaust Memorial Museum in the US in one of her speeches, welcomed Supriyo in the party excitedly.

When I heard that speech, I remember what an absolute pleasure it was. As someone who wishes to learn the art of public speaking, the speech was just marvellous. But more importantly, for the first time since 2014, it felt that there is actually someone in the Parliament other than the lone Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi who actually is, like many of us, of belief that India has steadily moved towards fascism. Other politicians usually refer to ‘Fascism’ only in speeches - as a fancy word to be thrown - without taking the responsibility it demands to put an end to it. Yet, here was a politician actually referring to a poster from Holocaust Memorial. That was something. Or so I thought.

During the 2014 general election campaigns, Narendra Modi would constantly press on making a ‘Congress-mukt’ Bharat. In coming years, we saw his party inducting key Congress politicians within its fold, unstoppably. A satirist joked about it, saying, Modi promised ‘Congress-mukt’ Bharat but is instead delivering ‘Congress-yukt’ BJP. Supriyo’s entry in TMC is anything but fighting fascism. Given his shamefully murderous records, there is no excuse to justify his entry in TMC. Yet, there he is. TMC’s way of fighting fascism is about performance of fighting fascism. Like they all do. TMC didn’t put up as many Muslim candidates as they fielded in the last elections. Muslims voted for TMC despite as she was fighting fascism apparently. In return, Mamata gifts them Babul Supriyo.

She said, “Khela Hobe”. Khela Ho Gaya, perhaps.