With Hindutva gaining ground in Bengal, nervous TMC panders to Hindu sentiments

The move manifests the growing ‘Hinduisation’ of polity, a development that political observers perceive as a victory of the RSS-BJP’s ideology, and could give electoral dividends for the saffron camp in the long run.

A special puja was conducted in the recently inaugurated Jagannath temple in Digha by offering 300 kilograms of khoya (solidified milk) to the presiding deity as “Maha prasad” on June 10.

'Maha prasad' exercise

A parcel each containing 10 kg of the prasad reached all districts in refrigerated vans the same day for mixing it with more khoya at select local sweet shops to prepare two types of sweetmeats.

A packet containing a peda, a gaja (made from the khoya) and a photograph of the state-funded Jagannath temple will be handed over to each family through ration dealers in an initiative that undermines the secular spirit of the constitution by involving state funds and machinery for a religious programme.

The district magistrates and block development officers are executing the mammoth exercise in their respective jurisdictions. The minister of state for cultural affairs Indranil Sen is overseeing the entire process.

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The distribution will begin on June 17 and will be completed by June 27, the day of the annual Jagannath Rath Yatra.

Growing Hindutva footprint

The TMC’s pandering to Hindu sentiment points towards a larger political reality in the state, where Hindutva is gradually expanding its footprint.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) units in West Bengal have crossed 4,500, according to an internal report it prepared in March this year. The number was 1,900, as per a figure the state RSS presented at an executive meeting at Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj in 2022.

The RSS has three divisions in the state, the North Bengal division, Central Bengal division and South Bengal division. It has 1,153 units in North Bengal, 1,823 in Central Bengal and 1,564 in South Bengal, according to the data compiled by the Sangh.

“The gradual Hinduisation of Bengali society cannot be ignored anymore,” pointed out Ranjit Sur, the general secretary of the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR).

He was not merely making a statement but articulating what the APDR has witnessed and experienced during its awareness drives against communal politics and majoritarianism.

In May this year, the APDR members were jeered and mocked at Kolkata’s College Street, hitherto famous for being a vibrant intellectual and cultural locality, for organising a protest programme against targeting Bengali-speaking Muslims as Bangladeshis in BJP-ruled states. It was not an isolated incident, according to Sur.

No push back

“We are experiencing that people are increasingly getting intolerant. They started believing these narratives about influx of illegal migrants from Bangladesh, demographic explosions of Muslims so on and so forth. People not only avoid participating in programmes against such misconceptions, but also try to disrupt such campaigns,” he said, adding that this kind of behaviour was unimaginable even in rural Bengal, let alone Kolkata, a couple of years ago.

He attributed the phenomena to governance deficiency, decline of liberal-democratic values in politics and hyperbolic pro-right wing media propaganda apart from the Sangh Parivar’s continuous anti-minority tirades.

Instead of trying to counter gradual Hinduisation, the so-called secular parties are surrendering to the RSS-BJP’s political ideology fearing Hindu backlash, APDR general secretary stated, pointing at the TMC’s prasad distribution spree.

It is because of this fear, Sur said, that the contentious push-back of the so-called Bangladeshis did not evoke strong political reaction in Bengal even from Left parties despite reports of harassment of genuine citizens of the state.

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BJP's 'Hindu-in-danger' campaign

Sensing an opportunity, the BJP is going full-throttle with its “Hindu-in-danger” campaign ahead of the 2026 assembly elections, setting a target to achieve five per cent more Hindu votes banking on its Sanatani-solidarity call.

As per the outcome of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the saffron party has a vote share of around 38 per cent in the state, which is about seven per cent less than the TMC’s total votes. The BJP believes it can dislodge the TMC government if it can add five per cent more Hindu votes to its kitty.

It hopes to garner the additional five per cent votes through a more aggressive Hindu victimhood campaign.

“Let’s have no doubt in our mind that those who died in the Pahalgam terror attack or in the Murshidabad communal clash were killed because they were Hindus,” asserted BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar.

“The entire game plan of West Bengal’s authoritarian Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to win elections rests on one and only strategy — “appeasement politics”, he alleged.

Further, he said, on one side, relentless Muslim appeasement; on the other, continuous oppression of Bengali Hindus and systematic religious persecution — all with the sole aim of turning Hindus into a minority and clinging to power at any cost. This is the desperate struggle of a failed Chief Minister. Today, the people of Bengal have only one resolve — to make West Bengal a livable land for Bengali Hindus once again (sic),” he wrote on X later. (sic).

Changing reality

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah during their recent visit to the state set the party’s tone for the ensuing elections by hyphenating nationalism with religious identity while underscoring the success of Operation Sindoor.

“’For the Hindutva brigade there cannot be a bigger reason to cheer than the TMC’s attempt to compete with the BJP by promoting Hinduism,” observed Debasish Chakrabarti, a political commentator and Commonwealth Fellow.

Former BJP state president Dilip Ghosh too claimed ideological victory for the BJP after the TMC government earlier this year constructed the Jagannath temple in Digha.

The TMC’s answer to BJP’s Hindu drive in the past elections was Bengali sub-nationalism. Chakrabarti pointed out that atrocities against Hindus after the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government in August last year changed the equation. Now religious identities started influencing Bengali nationalism, at least to some extent, in both West Bengal and Bangladesh, he added.

The changing reality is prompting the TMC to align with right-wing politics.

Outrageous claims

The Bengal assembly on Tuesday (June 10) passed a resolution moved by the TMC government to condemn Pahalgam terror attack and laud the valour of armed forces. This again assumes significance against the backdrop of the BJP’s allegation that the TMC was opposing the military crackdown to please minorities.

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“To appease her Muslim vote bank, Mamata Banerjee opposed Operation Sindoor. In the upcoming elections, the women of Bengal will teach her the true value of 'Sindoor',” Shah claimed, addressing his party workers in Kolkata.

Taking a cue from Shah, leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari while participating in the discussion on the resolution reportedly even accused the TMC of having terror links.

The outrageous claims of the BJP leaders were not off-the-cuff remarks. They were part of the party’s larger strategy of projecting the TMC as a pro-minority party, which in extension is supportive of terrorism.

Under-confident TMC

The TMC in the past was confident that its welfare schemes, often termed as dole politics, would hold good against such blatant communal politics, echoed by both Sur and Chakrabarti.

They said that confidence is diminishing now, prompting the party to go for a Hindu outreach to deflect the allegation of minority appeasement.

Charges of involvement of many of its leaders in corruption and illegal activities like land grabbing, taking cut-money to provide benefits of the welfare schemes has dented the party’s popularity to an extent whereby it is not very sure of getting the lion share of the minority vote that constitute around 30 per cent of the state’s electors.

That explains the TMC’s Hindutva tilt. But the contemporary Indian political trends bear testimony that no party can beat the BJP in its game for long, Sur added, sending out a clear warning to the state's ruling dispensation.