Ever since Modi came to power, RSS has been using the state machinery and even his office and services to expand its support base in the eastern state, but it did not succeed so far. Probably the people, especially the women of Bengal, must not have forgotten the manner in which Modi jeered at Bengali women’s dignity when he jibed ‘Didi, O Didi’ at Mamata Banerjee. Unfortunately for Modi, in spite of resorting to all kind of gimmicks, RSS and Modi could not expand.

But their tenacity must be appreciated. Finally, they appear to have succeeded in their mission. For Modi and his saffron ecosystem, Sandeshkhali has come as gift of the gab. Their gamble to project a turncoat Suvendu Adhikari, as the public face of the BJP has paid off. Probably, a diehard saffron face might not have succeeded in reaching out to the Bengali population, which has never been generous and affable towards the forces representing the political philosophy of Hindutva.

Since Suvendu has a Congress lineage, he has been acceptable to the Congress sympathizer, notwithstanding their comprehensive averseness to the Hindu outfit. At the same time, he could make inroad in the TMC support base and succeed in enticing other TMC leaders to cross over. Actually, this has been happening.

Strategically, the RSS and BJP have presented these turncoats as the vanguard of the Hindutva politics. It is worth recalling that initially the BJP had managed to entice a strong non-Bengali TMC leader, Arjun Singh, into its fold. But soon he realised the wicked game of the RSS and BJP and he returned to his old party.

Mamata Banerjee’s arrogance and her opting for wrong priorities, have been primarily responsible for erosion of her image as well as the adverse situation she is faced with today. She once symbolised the aspiration of the secular forces. They came to believe her. But as was witnessed in the past, instead of strengthening the secular forces, she relied more on muscle power and manipulative politics.

She preferred not to take lessons from the past mistakes of the political system and institution of the state. She had fought against the Left but did not try to realize why the Left cadres deserted their party. The RSS and BJP which have been busy discovering new tangible pastures finally got one in Sandeshkhali, closer to Suvendu’s operational base.

The modern politics has completely lost its relevance and sanctity. It is acknowledged as politics but in reality it is not more than spiteful action. It is a malicious device to grab power and make money. In the seventies, the culture of “Aya Ram and Gaya Ram” dictated the politics. But at that time too, the leaders maintained the façade of some decency. But in present times the political decency, morality and ideology have completely lost any modicum of significance.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that the saffron politics has given birth to this nature of politics and politicians. It is in public domain how they engineered defections and splits and made these leaders join them. A party which was supposed to be a party with difference, was not at all concerned of the fact that the new entrant was from which political and ideological background.

For RSS and Modi, quantity was more important and imperative than the quality. Choosing Sandeshkhali is part of this strategy. ED team was attacked in the village on January 6. At that time the women of the village and region had taken the lead to protest against the ED raid on Shahjahan’s house.

Suddenly on February 8, the same women revolted against Shahjahan and his aides and accused them of committing rapes and torture of the women of the area. The allegations simply underline that they have been resorting to such criminal activities for long and certainly have not resorted to such only during the last one month. The women even alleged land grabbing by them. What is noteworthy that only two complains of sexual harassment were registered with the legal authorities which visited the area.

Had it been a regular affair, why the women threw their support behind Shahjahan when ED raided his house? Does it imply that the lean period of a month bolstered the women of region to muster courage and speak the truth. If it is the case, it obviously puts Mamata in dock. It implies that she has left the state to be ruled by her partymen. This has precisely been the allegation of the RSS and Modi.

One thing is absolutely clear that RSS used this one month period to mobilise its women force and inspire them to speak out against Mamata. She had used Nandigram against CPI(M) and BJP, working on the same political line, is contemplating the use of Sandeshkhali against her.

That the saffron ecosystem will make it a state issue is evident from Modi’s recent speech: “The women of Bengal and also the entire country are angry with what happened to the mothers and sisters of Sandeshkhali. The anger of Nari Shakti (power of women) will not be confined to Sandeshkhali.”

Modi who was unmoved at the mass-scale rape and tortures on women in Manipur is quite shaken at what happened in Sandeshkhali. No heads rolled in the wake of Manipur atrocities of women’s there, but according to him, “Anyone will hang his or her head in shame after knowing what happened to the mothers and sisters of Sandeshkhali. Sampurna Bangla te Sandeshkhali-r jhawr uthbe (The storm blowing over Sandeshkhali will sweep across Bengal)”.

Modi’s repeated stress on the plight of “the mothers and sisters” of Sandeshkhali during a rally in Barasat made it clear that the BJP was banking heavily on the allegations of atrocities to defeat Trinamool in the Lok Sabha polls in Bengal. The saffron design to malign Mamata and her government, just ahead of Lok Sabha election, is perceptible in the fact that his address was broadcast live at 19,000 places across the country. The programme in Barasat marked the conclusion of the BJP Mahila Morcha’s three-day-long Shakti Vandan Karyakram to promote women’s empowerment.

Modi’s concern and sympathy for Sandeshkhali women was oozing like honey: “The women here (in Bengal) have shaped the country’s direction, figures like Maa Sarada, Rani Rashmoni, Matangini Hazra.... However, on this land, Trinamool has committed a grave sin against women. They have committed heinous crimes against mothers and sisters. I can see that the women of Bengal will put an end to the TMC’s mafia raj.” He felt ebullience at Supreme Court refusal to accede to TMC request to have the trial of Shahjahan in state. He said, “While the oppressed mothers and sisters are fighting for justice, the Trinamool government is using its power to protect the perpetrators who committed crimes against women. But it received a rap, first from the high court and then from the Supreme Court.”

The BJP will use Sandeshkhali for electoral gain was revealed by a senior BJP leader by saying: “Modiji has made it clear that the party would take on Trinamool over its anti-women face in Sandeshkhali. We have already chalked out programmes in Sandeshkhali to keep the issue alive and spread the protest across Bengal.”

The Left parties nevertheless ought to not forget that maintaining silence on the devious designs of the saffron ecosystem they were handing over the state on the platter to the rightist and fascist forces. Undeniably, the latest creations straightway fingers at the failures of Mamata and her criminalising the politics, but once RSS comes to control the fulcrum of the state politics and governance, the saffron mercenaries will dictate and ruin the lives of the common people. (IPA Service)