Reflections on West Bengal’s Election Results
In early April, 9.1 million people were deleted from West Bengal’s voter rolls ahead of the state’s elections. This May, the BJP swept West Bengal, marking a turning of the tides and a huge victory for Narendra Modi’s party.
Our Hindus for Human Rights community reflects on what this moment means for democracy.
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Global Implications
Our Senior Policy Director Ria Chakrabarty spoke with the Center for American Progress on the recent elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam, and Puducherry and what it means for democracy, the significance for India’s global ambitions, and implications for future U.S.-India relations.
Reflections From Our HfHR Community
“I stated after the appointment of Gyanesh Kumar and his subsequent conduct that BJP will never lose an election unless it wants to lose one. West Bengal posed them a big challenge, having failed two times, and they were determined to capture it this time by hook or crook. They did it. The bigger game plan is to muster two-third majority in Rajya Sabha; the Lok Sabha in 2029, they are quite confident. With it, they would consummate their goal of Hindu Rashtra and allied constitutional changes. The basic structure doctrine is a chimera. After all, constitutions do not defend themselves. The SC then may decide that peoples’ will is supreme than constitutional formalism.”
Anand Teltumbde, Writer and Advisory Board Member
“The West Bengal elections is a glimpse of the liquidation of all democratic institutions of India. The SIR process was done calculatedly before elections with a vindictive agenda of deleting genuine voters from electoral rolls. The Election Commission worked completely as an extension of BJP and Supreme Court remained indifferent to the plight of 27 lakh voters who remained under "adjudication" and thereby were forcefully prevented from voting. Coupled with communal polarisation all these sabotages of democratic institutions led to BJP victory. It almost robbed the election processes from the power that they used to hold. We are literally staring at the gradual withering away of our hard earned democracy.”
Banojyotsna Lahiri, partner of political prisoner Umar Khalid
“If there was one factor that proved most decisive in the recently concluded West Bengal elections, it was communal polarization. In this political game, the BJP played the role of an aggressive batsman, while leaders like Asaduddin Owaisi and Humayun Kabir acted like bowlers delivering full tosses. A close look at the events of the past year makes this quite evident.
Programs featuring Dhirendra Shastri and several other Hindu religious figures known for fostering religious polarization were continuously organized through BJP-linked and hardline Hindu organizations. At the grassroots level, events were held across block and local administrative units with the clear objective of religious mobilization. These campaigns succeeded in creating a perception among many ordinary Hindus that if Mamata Banerjee returned to power once again, Hinduism itself would be endangered under her government.”
Swami Raghvendra, Founder of Satya Dharam Samvad
“Let’s be honest, Mamata is a megalomaniac. She has ruled WB for 15 years, and faced the ancient rule of anti-incumbency; in addition, she has presided over violence and crime and done very little to curb it, especially by her TMC goons.
And yet, and yet … I see her as the lesser evil, when the choice is the BJP. Why? Because the BJP’s sole calling card, everywhere they go, is to stoke Hindu anger and hatred against Muslims. This will destroy the country (arguably it has already done a lot in that direction), in my opinion far faster than Mamta can manage it. This is why I hoped for a BJP defeat. But they also knew well, their best bet to defeat Mamta was this SIR. On the face of it, it is a bald-faced failure: 9m taken off the rolls, 3.5m able to appeal, 1600 (one thousand six hundred!) restored! On this ground alone, on the disenfranchisement of 10% of WB - even before looking into the constituency and individual voter details - this should call this election into question.
This is our tragedy. That people will actually defend this travesty. That, and the rising hatred, make me fear for my country.”
Dilip D'Souza, writer and journalist
“My take on West Bengal is summarized in this paragraph from my latest piece for www.weareonehumanity.org. Modi and Shah and their party, currently in power in virtually all the states of northern, central, and western India, will now also occupy, for the very first time, the political throne in the great eastern city of Kolkata. A tenacious woman has lost and Modi and Shah have won. Notwithstanding the tilted scales, a majority of the state’s voters may have wanted a change after three five-year terms of rule by Banerjee and her TMC, which was accused of permitting local-level party bosses to extort helpless citizens.”
Rajmohan Gandhi, activist, writer, and HfHR Advisory Board Member
“The BJP's capture of the WB must worry all of us. What it holds for the nation was made clear by the Union Government by making Vande Mataram compulsory. I am afraid that no political party would be able to oppose it when it comes to the parliament.
India is being reset, rewired.
It is going to be very, very tough for Muslims to live in this country with a sense of equality and dignity. In WB and Assam, the BJP made it very clear during the campaign and after the election that it was against Muslims.
I am deeply worried.”
Apoorvanand, Hindi Professor, Faculty of Arts Delhi University, Hindi Marxist author and political commentator and HfHR Advisory Board MemberThe views expressed above are the sole views of the individual.
