KS Muralidharan
Remember the big noise the mainstream media made about the Modi-Kejriwal clash in Varanasi, 2014?
In comparison, is Nandigram less news-worthy?
The question here is in the context of the media coverage.
In the case of Varanasi, recall how the “secular” media gunned for Modi from Kejriwal’s shoulders, till the results silenced them.
In contrast in the case of Nandigram, apart from a few TV channels, the guns have been blunted from the secular media. For the print media, it seems like one of those electoral events, a trifle special at best.
Call it a whimper it a whisper: It is very eloquent — and deafening.
On Varanasi, a few veteran journalists valiantly pushed their narrative that Modi, believe it or not, was not invincible, and Kejriwal, could, yet, pull off a coup de tat.
On Nandigram, the commentators have muted their comments.
The op-eds in the secular media that chose to whisper or whimper, rather than show the truth that is blowing in the wind, couldn’t have been more revealing.
That is precisely the point.
Is Mamata didi, Bengal’s daughter, and her dadagiri, on the way out?
Irrespective of the result, there is no doubt now whatsoever, after the first phase of the polls that Mamata Bannerjee is running scared.
Nandigram might yet again make history.
And if it does, it would be poetic justice, for the Tatas, and for denying Nandigram its Nano.
From saying no to Nano to saying yes for Namo, Bengal seems poised to end its tryst with all that is left: the real left, the left in disguise and the left namesakes.
How can we decipher that the ground is slipping from under Didi’s feet? When Didi starts doing a Rahul Gandhi — the professional and perpetual failure. Like, temple hopping during elections, chanting slokas and Hindu hymns on the campaign trail and trying to humour the majority community, to dress up her political DNA of pampering the minority community.
Now, you CAN choose to run with the hare and hunt with the hound, but you cannot expect people to believe you.
The way a section of the mainstream media is covering the Bengal elections — at best underplaying or at worst, self-censoring the remarkable heft gained by the BJP in the State — is itself an indicator of Modi’s BJP waiting to cross the Rubicon in Bengal.
The BJP’s bromance with the bhadralok is in itself a story that is begging to be told and retold.
And when it unfolds after the election results, the media playing secular hide-and seek games will have no place to hide it.
The fact of the matter is, the secular media’s embedded prejudice shows up in its election coverage, viz. search for an “equivalence” and take the high moral ground while assessing the BJP and go soft on the secular satraps like how we saw in UP (Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati), Bihar (Tejaswi Yadav) and Delhi (Kejriwal).
Despite their hidden preferences, some opinion polls like the C-voter for Times Now, indeed show that Mamata has a fight on her hands. But even this concession of a fight hides a hint of confirmation bias.
Consider: If Mamata Banerjee itself is finding the going tough in Nandigram, how would it be plausible for her party to broadly maintain its vote share at 42%, down just about 2% from 2016?
It means either of the two things:
- The people of Bengal are happy with the TMC’ government and will vote for TMC, while they are unhappy with the chief minister and will vote against her in Nandigram!
- The people will vote for TMC and Mamata due to the TINA (there is no alternative) factor.
The first inference is stupid while the second one is dubious since the BJP in the previous Lok Sabha elections won 18 seats, 4 less than TMC, which means the people are already looking for an alternative.
Further, according to the C-voter poll, the BJP has gained 15% vote share compared to 2016 while the Left has lost a similar percentage of votes.
If this means that the left voters have shifted their allegiance to the BJP, it is stretching credulity, as people voting on ideological grounds do not easily shift their preference. If they feel disillusioned with their party of preference, they would rather abstain than vote for a party entirely opposed to their ideology.
Or maybe, such voters have been “Modi-fied”.
You cannot rule it out. For the Modi factor, like it or not, continues to play out as the X Factor that can make the difference between winning and losing.
And if Mamata herself has a battle on her hands in Nandigram, you can imagine the war that the rest of her candidates have to contend with, along with the X Factor.
It is equally incredulous to believe that the TMC continues to more or less hold on to its vote share even after 10 years of being in power, when it has hardly anything to show from the governance point of view.
But if this is indeed true, there can be only one explanation for it.
And it is the most obvious fact, which is staring at our face.
The hold Mamata has on the 27% Muslim vote bank.
The BJP’s hope that the Muslim vote will be split because of the Furfura Sharif and Owaisi factor may be defeated by tactical voting by the Muslims.
Clearly, if this C-voter poll is credible at all, it has to be seen as a dog-whistle for the Hindus to get their vote out. And vote aggressively for the BJP.
Polarisation is a game which the voters can — and should — play too.
Bengal, the land of revolutions and revolutionaries, needs a break. It has waited for far too long now to not break free.
(The author is a Bengaluru-based freelance writer)