Kolkata: The colour purple has suddenly soaked all limelight from Bengal's political battlefield today, as the state gears up for next year's Assembly elections.
The opposition BJP's youth front had called for a march to the state secretariat Nabanna against growing unemployment in Bengal, alleged malpractices in SSC and primary teachers' recruitment and the collapse of law and order.
The violent scenes, which the twin cities of Kolkata and Howrah witnessed today as a huge police contingent took the BJP protesters head-on at Santragachi, Howrah Maidan, Barabazar, Central Avenue and Hastings areas, has only set the election pot boiling a degree more.
It also had an undertone – as the police restrained Dilip Ghosh, Mukul Roy, Arvind Menon, Kailash Vijayvargiya and Tejawsi Surya. It also said that Mamata Banerjee's return to the hustings for the third consecutive time might not be a cakewalk for the fiery lady.
The BJP's Yuva Morcha had called for the 'Nabanna Cholo' march nearly a month ago and had made all preparations, but Mamata had a last-minute surprise up her sleeves. A day before the planned march, the state government decided to 'disinfect' Nabanna and declared it out of bounds for all, including its own employees.
Many had thought that the government's decision will leave the BJP high and dry. With no one present at the secretariat, the march will eventually be a futile exercise. But, the way the West Bengal and Kolkata Police erected buffer zones surrounding Nabanna to stop Yuva Morcha workers and then started charging baton as the crowds swelled. However, it will only strengthen the BJP's grounds in the state.
Political watchers have already pointed out that, had the police not shown such proactiveness in restricting the rallies towards the secretariat, things would have been different.
The way purple-coloured water was sprayed on the protesters from water canons, the way innumerable rounds of tear gas shells were lobbed, the way police resorted to baton and agitated the crowd, which threw brickbats and glass bottles at the police and at the end of the day with several BJP leaders and workers hospitalised – the whole episode has only made the standing of the saffron party more cemented on Bengal's political spectrum.
READ: Freedom of press attacked in Bengal during Nabanno Chalo march
And BJP is leaving no stones unturned to trump up support in its favour. Party national president J P Nadda took to Twitter saying, “The only thing Mamata Banerjee's government has done better than the Left regime is increase brutality and political violence against political opponents. The people of Bengal and BJP will defeat her regime lock, stock and barrel.”
Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad also went ballistic against the Trinamool Congress government in Bengal saying, “So far about 115 BJP workers have been politically killed in West Bengal. Is protest allowed in Mamata Banerjee's regime? Someone making cartoons is jailed in her tenure and people who raise their voice against her party are killed. The only reason behind this is TMC losing their political ground in the state.”
Yuva Morcha president Tejwasi Surya and party state president Dilip Ghosh were equally critical of the police action and of the government.
The allegations of police highhandedness have been squarely denied by the state government. Chief Secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay said, the police have shown restraint and have tackled the situation professionally. Denying the presence of any chemical in the purple-coloured water sprayed on the protesters, he said the police followed a widely accepted protocol of mixing simple non-toxic colouring agents to identify the protesters.
State minister Firhad Hakim said the police should investigate why bombs and firearms were recovered from the protesters. If the marches were peaceful in nature, why were those present? A proper investigation should happen.
Allegations and counter-allegations will continue. But the clashes, which evolved around the closed down Nabanna and was witnessed across the state and the country, do send an alarming message to the Trinamool Congress. From towns to villages, there has already been substantial erosion in Mamata's camp. Her once Man Friday Mukul Roy is now the second-in-command in Bengal BJP.
The way the saffron party has gained stature from scratch in barely ten years and is literally breathing down on the neck of Mamata, next year's Assembly elections could be a tough fight for the Trinamool.
Political watchers in Bengal, however, are not jumping to any conclusion now. They remind that even in 2011 before the Assembly polls, the Left Front's brigade parade ground rally was mammoth in size and it was no indicator at all that a regime change was in the offing.
But, it happened. So, what politicians think or deduce is not always reflected in the EVMs by Bengal's polity. It can only be an indicator of sorts. So, is today's spraying of purple-coloured waters on the swelling BJP crowds an indicator to a colour change in Nabanna? 2021 will have the answer.
