TMC's aggressive language betrays its discomfort over corruption charges

While TMC deploys 'offence is the best defence' to brazen out the crisis, the tactic did not help CPI(M) in its final term in government

When West Bengal Chief Minister, Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson, Mamata Banerjee said on Monday that she would have liked to have the tongues of people maligning her party torn apart, it was not the first instance of violence reflected in the language of a senior TMC leader in recent times.

"Today, they are branding the TMC as thieves. If I were not in politics, and had I not been occupying this chair, I would have urged my sisters to tear apart the tongues of those spreading lies," said the 67-year-old, three-term chief minister, from the dias of the party's student wing's foundation day event on Monday. The attendees joined in with cheers.

It was also the day news broke that a Bengal BJP spokesperson, an advocate by profession, had filed a public interest litigation in the Calcutta High Court seeking an investigation into the alleged inappropriate rise in the wealth of the chief minister's family members. The petition is yet to be heard, but Banerjee responded to the news from the dais by distancing herself from her family. She said that her only relationship with her family was on the occasion of pujas and bhai-phonta.

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For a leader whose biggest capital is said to be her honesty, the time is troubling, indeed. There was a time when graffiti saying 'shototar pratik Mamata", or Mamata is the symbol of honesty, used to dot walls across the state. She still takes pride in the fact that she never took a salary as a parliamentarian, Union minister or chief minister – that she earns from the royalties of the books she has penned and songs she has composed.

However, the school recruitment scam that has unfolded to ever greater proportions through court proceedings since September 2021 has badly dented the party's image. One of her closest confidantes, Partha Chatterjee, is behind bars in connection with the recovery of an unprecedented amount of cash and illegal property in the history of state politics. Another of her favourite leaders, the loudmouth-strongman Anubrata Mondal, is in jail after a cattle smuggling case and his illegal properties were unearthed. Her nephew and heir apparent, Abhishek Banerjee, has been facing the Enforcement Directorate's repeated grilling in connection with a third scam.

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The TMC distanced itself from Chatterjee soon after the cash recovery but has stood by Mondal and Abhishek Banerjee. The party chief has also publicly expressed her concerns saying central agencies can arrest minister Firhad Hakim at any time by framing him in false cases.

As the opposition parties, the BJP and the Left started intensifying their attack on the TMC, calling it a party full of thieves, the leaders of the TMC have, in recent weeks, decided to go on a counter-attack. A spate of violence through language has been unleashed since then.

Consider the case of Saugata Roy, a former professor of physics and one of the leading faces of the party since the inception of the TMC in 1998. The 75-year-old has long been known for his refined use of language. But on August 14, while addressing a party gathering, the Lok Sabha MP said, "Some people are criticising too much. I'll say, hereafter, the TMC's critics' skins would be used for making shoes."

A few days later, at another rally in his constituency, Roy said that the opposition workers would have to leave their own areas if the TMC started "resisting." Another few days later, he said, "If people from the CPI(M), the BJP and the Congress are present, I am giving them a warning from here, as the three-time MP from the area, that if you do not restrain yourself now, you should have no objection when people beat you up with shoes."

Roy's change caught the attention of the media. As he was asked what caused this change in his language, Roy defended himself, saying that "shoes of language" became a necessity.

But Roy is not alone.

Another senior TMC leader who has long enjoyed the reputation of being a 'gentleman politician', minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, lost his cool while addressing a rally in his constituency. "Mamata Banerjee is spotless. When people say 'thieves', I feel offended. I feel like breaking their faces with a punch," said the 78-year-old former boxer, the parliamentary affairs minister and the senior-most cabinet member. It has been really difficult to recall when was the last time that Chattopadhyay's language reflected violence or abuse.

In the first week of August, Asit Majumdar, a three-time TMC MLA from Chinsurah, some 40 km north of Kolkata, had actually moved a few steps ahead and attacked participants in a BJP rally, punching and slapping some of them and beating some others with a stick. The 63-year-old later said he would not tolerate any attempt to malign the party and its leaders. A week later, he said while addressing a public meeting, "Maligning campaigns against Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee will be treated with thrashing."

Meanwhile, the state consumer affairs minister Srikanto Mahato, an MLA from the distant West Midnapore district, dropped a new bomb when he publicly named some of the party's actor-turned-MPs and MLAs, alleging that they were "having a feast." He was immediately show-caused, and he tendered a public apology.

A new twist to the controversy was added when the party's Rajya Sabha MP, Jawhar Sircar, a former culture secretary of India who also headed Prasar Bharati, said during a recent interview that he felt terribly uncomfortable with the visuals of the recovery of crores in cash from Chatterjee's aide's residence and claimed that his family and friends had been asking him to quit politics since then.

"I have never had to face such humiliation," he said, adding that a part of the TMC had rotten and that the party would not be able to fight in 2024 with a part of the body rotten. He was still with the TMC because he thought Mamata Banerjee had the ability to unseat the Narendra Modi government at the Centre and that it was the BJP that he considered the principal threat to the country.

The day after his comments, Saugata Roy blasted Sircar as "selfish" and suggested that Sircar should have made these comments in public after giving up his Rajya Sabha membership. The likes of Sircar have never cared for anything other than personal interest and carry no political importance, Roy opined.

"Is what his family members are talking about a public issue? Has he been sent to the Rajya Sabha for this purpose? Why is he still in TMC? He should resign from the Rajya Sabha. At least, he will stop enjoying the benefits. The party will not suffer," said Roy, who first became a Lok Sabha MP in 1977.

Evidently, the party believes in the old saying, 'offence is the best defence.'

What the party can also try to remember is that the CPI(M)-led Left Front adopted the same tactics with regard to their controversial land acquisition drive during their seventh and final term in the government – in the aftermath of turbulence around Singur, Nandigram and Lalgarh. The speeches of many of their leaders were laced with violence.

CPI(M) politburo member and Rajya Sabha MP Brinda Karat spoke of 'Dumdum dawai' – implying physical assault while Lok Sabha MP Anil Bose spoke of dragging Mamata Banerjee by her hair from her agitation venue, and veteran central committee member Binoy Konar said that the women cadres of the party in Nandigram would show Medha Patkar their "bare buttocks" if she went ahead with her plan of visiting violence-torn Nandigram. These are only a few examples.

The CPI(M) 's aggressive language did not help it retain popular support – rather, the party suffered a humiliating loss.

More recently, a number of BJP leaders, including state unit president Dilip Ghosh, made a name for themselves, especially since the party's 2019 Lok Sabha election success, for making violence an integral part of their speeches. Ghosh had even called for revenge on TMC leaders after the regime changes in 2021. Despite a huge hype around the BJP's Bengal campaign, the TMC returned to power with a three-fourth majority.

Aggression does not always work in a party's favour. The offence has not always served as the best defence. Maybe it's time the TMC leadership took some history lessons before embarking on its Mission 2024.

(Snigdhendu Bhattacharya is a journalist, author and researcher)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.