Editor,
Though the BJP/NDA will manage to secure a third term in the national arena, albeit by a much reduced margin, it’s indeed heartening that the party which has continuously tormented and character-assassinated West Bengal and Bengalis for a decade, economically discriminated against the state in the most heartless fashion possible, and called Mamata Banerjee all sorts of names, has been awarded a grand shock with its seats reduced from 18 (2019) to perhaps 10-odd out of 42.
Though it is well known that, thanks to such a shock therapy given by the Bengalis, the discrimination towards West Bengal will see further increase, along with selective targeting of TMC leaders and ministers through fictitious allegations (in contrast, never should saffron leaders and ministers be nabbed in double-engine governed states around the country along with maintenance of absolute mum revolving around the electoral bond scam, non-audit of Covid Care Funds and deals with the crony capitalists), it is still a matter of immense joy that self-respecting Bengalis have sent a strong message to the anti-Bengali force that this community is not for turning.
Yes, it remains the ultimate reality that, as far as shedding careers, lives and blood are concerned, along with sacrifice of land for the sake of Indian independence, the contribution of Bengal and the Bengalis were undoubtedly numero uno in the whole country. Yet how crudely and in a brutal fashion has Bengal been relentlessly attacked in all possible spheres, so as to belittle it in the eyes of the rest of the country.
Apart from painting Bengal as the ‘epitome of corruption’, a huge conspiracy had been hatched through release of fake videos to malign the state as a ‘fertile ground of sexual predators’ (that too by targetting the followers of a particular religion). So the massive defeat of the Bengal-bashers in Basirhat Lok Sabha seat, of which Sandeshkhali is a part, is one of the greatest success stories in Bengal, along with transmission of a stern message that the communal brigade can never succeed in creating any faultline between the Hindu and Muslim children of the Bengali mother through crude terminology of ‘Mulla madrasa mafia’. Not to speak of another massive thrashing ‘gifted’ to the anti-Bengali folks in Krishnanagar Lok Sabha seat by one who played the filthiest role in expelling the Royal Bengal tigress Mahua Moitra from the Parliament through a series of false allegations just for her ‘sin’ of calling a spade a spade while protesting against the series of failures scandals and falsehood of the saffronites.
Even after depriving Bengal of its entitled share from the central pool of revenue and not including a single Bengali leader in the union cabinet for a full decade, the party had dared to express audacity that they have rendered a ‘great service’ to the Bengalis by ‘gifting’ Ram Mandir to Ayodhya/Uttar Pradesh and so Bengalis must pay back’ the nationalists’ by electing them in 35 seats of the state. Perhaps with as low as 10-odd MPs in the kitty, the party will learn to appreciate that the self-respecting Bengalis can never be taken for granted.
Kajal Chatterjee,
D-2/403,
Peerless Nagar,
Kolkata