From Delicate To Brazen — How Bengal BJP 2.0 Is Planning Its Narrative On Waqf Protests – News18

Final Up to date:April 14, 2025, 11:29 IST

The BJP goals for Hindu polarisation in West Bengal, citing the Bangladesh scenario the place the Hindu minority suffered violence, whereas the TMC worries that the stand might value it within the 2026 elections

Political battle strains are drawn as soon as once more in West Bengal the place anti-Waqf protests snowballed into communal violence, killing three, and setting the tone for the meeting election the subsequent yr.

Amid the rising unrest, which pressured the Calcutta Excessive Court docket to ask the state to hunt central forces with rapid impact, the BJP has pointed to lack of sensitivity on the a part of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), citing cases of MP Yusuf Pathan speaking about his ‘chai’ on Instagram and his colleague Derek O’ Brien taking to Fb to showcase his ‘Sunday lunch’ with catfish, spinach, dal and rice.

Given the unrest, the BJP is espousing the reason for the Hindus who represent about 70 per cent of the inhabitants. Additionally it is portraying the ruling TMC as siding with the minorities of the state who’ve been a stable assist system for Mamata Banerjee’s occasion since 2011.

Nevertheless, greater than three BJP leaders News18 spoke to, say there lies a twist within the story.

Polarisation has suited each the BJP and the TMC up to now, making it a two-way contest and leaving the Congress and CPI(M) redundant. It helped BJP with 18 Lok Sabha seats in 2019 however the numbers dwindled within the 2021 meeting election the place knowledge suggests the saffron occasion trailed in eight districts resembling Nadia, Hooghly and West Midnapore the place over 60 per cent of the inhabitants is Hindu. So, what’s BJP’s technique to consolidate Hindu votes this time and the way is it any completely different?

“In 2019, there was a delicate Hindutva push in a state the place Hindus have been pressured to see how college students have been being killed for demanding academics in lessons (Daribhit, 2018) or roadblocks have been created at many locations after they wished to carry Saraswati Puja in faculties (Tehatta, 2017). Because of this, we noticed overwhelming public participation in Ram Navami processions,” mentioned a BJP chief in West Bengal, requesting anonymity. Nevertheless, the chief provides, their Hindutva push failed in 2021 when TMC’s Bengali vs Outsider narrative triumphed. “This time, it’s not the BJP that’s pushing something. We’re holding a mirror to Hindu society, making them realise it’s an existential disaster for the group. In the event that they (Muslims) can maintain the state to ransom and kill you for nothing, it ought to ring alarm bells. We’re merely displaying them the truth. This isn’t an election technique,” he provides.

The messaging too has been brazen, in contrast to up to now. Take the occasion of BJP’s nationwide spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari who took to X to name the violence pre-planned and alleged “it’s designed to ship a chilling political message to the Hindus of Bengal”. Bhandari added: “Demography is liberal democracy’s future!”

The chief was referring to Murshidabad, Malda and Uttar Dinajpur — three districts the place Muslims type the vast majority of the inhabitants. Murshidabad district, which has been witness to huge communal flare-ups, has 66.27 per cent Muslims, based on the 2011 census. The Hindu group right here is simply 33.21 per cent of the inhabitants. Even 4 years in the past, one couldn’t have imagined the BJP sending out such apparent messaging.

About 178 kilometres from Murshidabad’s Jangipur, which witnessed tense communal violence, former Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh took half in a Hanuman Jayanti celebration on Sunday. The proverbial ‘Hindu-Muslim Bhai Bhai’ slogan has been tweaked right here by Ghosh who requested for “Hindu Hindu Bhai Bhai”. With a extra colloquial model of PM Narendra Modi’s “Ek hain toh secure hain” slogan, Ghosh talked about how Kirtan teams and the Matua group (a powerful BJP vote financial institution) have been among the many many branches that got here collectively for the occasion.

West Bengal’s chief of opposition Suvendu Adhikari was in all probability essentially the most brazen of the lot when he raised the problem of the 2 Hindu victims killed within the communal violence.

“Hara Gobinda Das and Chandan Das have been at their house. What was their fault? Their fault was they have been Hindus. The best way they have been attacked with a chopper…Have you ever guys seen the face of Hara Gobinda Das? Have you ever seen the picture?… A ‘Jihadi’ used the identify of Modi-ji and Amit Shah-ji day earlier than yesterday [Hanuman Jayanti] and mentioned: ‘That is nothing. Our competition is coming. We’ll slaughter Hindus’,” claimed Adhikari.

The three folks reported useless within the West Bengal violence in Murshidabad on April 12 have been Hara Gobinda Das, Chandan Das, and Izaz Ahmed Sheikh. Whereas the father-son duo was hacked to loss of life by a mob on Saturday, 17-year-old Sheikh succumbed to bullet wounds after police opened fireplace in Suti on Friday.

For the Bengal BJP, there appears to be nothing that’s taboo so far as discourse is anxious — Naming faith, magnifying Hindu victimhood or making a worry psychosis by speaking about demographic shift. The age of subtleties and nuanced references is over for the occasion. It now communicates instantly with 70.54 per cent of Bengal’s inhabitants, suggesting their solely manner out is a BJP authorities in 2026.

Bengal BJP MLA and frontrunner for the state president’s publish, Agnimitra Paul, understands this shift within the occasion’s technique for Bengal. Therefore, her messaging too has turn out to be in sync with BJP’s polarisation shift 2.0. “They’ve just one goal — Hindu-less West Bengal. Our chief minister is dancing to the tunes of Bangladeshi radicals who’re killing Hindus there. It is a large agenda to unify Bangladesh and West Bengal to type an Islamic state. That is the politics of Mamata Banerjee for her vote financial institution. She must be arrested,” alleged Paul. Nevertheless, she didn’t furnish any proof to again her declare.

In contrast to through the post-poll violence after the 2021 loss, when many BJP cadres felt abandoned, the saffron occasion is ensuring the victims are heard and seen this time. Adhikari has flashed his private e-mail ID to liaison between NGOs and affected Hindus in order that reduction materials reaches them as quickly as doable.

Nevertheless, a fake pas by its state unit has embarrassed the occasion, too. West Bengal Police fact-checked how violence from different states and former years is being handed off as incidents from West Bengal, forcing Bengal BJP chief Susanta Majumder to delete his tweet.

TMC latched on to the fake pas, with its Rajya Sabha MP Susmita Dev calling it a “marketing campaign of disinformation”. “That is riot engineering, not politics,” she claims. TMC spokesperson Riju Dutta alleges, “They (BJP) have perfected the artwork of orchestrating riots, they usually’re placing that experience to make use of in Bengal.”

However past the name-calling, even TMC management is discovering it laborious to know this ‘new BJP’ in Bengal which has launched a no-holds-barred assault on the ruling occasion and its greatest face. From Sukanta Majumder’s “final warning to Mamata Banerjee” to Arjun Singh’s “will deliver Hindus from Bihar, UP, Jharkhand and can empty Murshidabad, Malda in at some point” — all are a part of this ‘new BJP’ syndrome which needs to be seen because the saviour of Hindus.

The BJP goals for Hindu polarisation in West Bengal, citing the Bangladesh scenario the place the Hindu minority suffered violence. The BJP has tried the trick in earlier elections too however not all Hindus vote for the occasion, whereas the Muslims gravitate in direction of the TMC. This time, the notion as a result of Bangladesh violence may assist the BJP in West Bengal and TMC is aware of this will value it.