Why Abhishek Banerjee is going against his party

Abhishek Banerjee is trying to change the TMC's image of a politically violent party that does not respect the law and democratic norms

In politics, a leader's image is everything, best exemplified in India in recent times by the meteoric rise of Narendra Modi. Abhishek Banerjee, the young and rising leader of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), is busy shaping a different image for himself, having taken to projecting himself as a responsible man for whom peoples' lives are more important than political gains.

Last week, a fortnight before the municipal polls for four civic bodies in West Bengal — Bidhannagar, Chandannagar, Asansol and Siliguri — he favoured postponing the elections because of the third wave of the pandemic. "I believe all religious events and political campaigns should be halted for the next two months," Abhishek Banerjee said. He said it was his "personal opinion." He demanded postponement of all the upcoming Assembly elections too. On Bengal municipal polls, he said the matter was sub-judice and for the high court to decide.

Abhishek Banerjee, quite evidently, has gone against the voice of his party. A couple of days before he voiced his opinion, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had demanded halting of the municipal polls in the time of the third wave. The TMC retorted that the BJP knew it would lose, so it wanted the postponement. After all, the TMC-led state government had recommended phased elections in 111 municipal bodies that are long overdue.

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But Abhishek Banerjee publicly disagreed with his party. "Elections have a meaning only when people are alive," he said, and added, "We all know what the condition of Bengal was during the second wave when the eight-phase (assembly) polls were conducted."

In Bengal, little was done to contain the danger during the last week of December when the threat of the third wave loomed. Lakhs spread out to various destinations of Bengal to celebrate 'baro din' (Christmas) and New Year. Eco Park, a famous amusement park on the outskirts of Kolkata, and the city's Alipur zoo recorded more than 50,000 footfalls on some of the days during this period. The ongoing Gangasagar Mela, too, has attracted huge crowds. The number of cases immediately spiked, and doctors blamed it on this uncontrolled crowding of many such places.

The TMC, as the party running the government, has not come out as a particularly responsible entity during the pandemic. During Durga Puja, one of its leaders made a desperate attempt to attract pandal hoppers by having a pandal replica of Dubai's Burj Khalifa. Eventually, roads leading to that pandal were closed for traffic. In such a context, Abhishek Banerjee's views are a laudable exception and hailed by doctors and common people alike.

However, this isn't a first for the 34-year-old third-term Lok Sabha MP to have raised his voice against the party's mainstream. The TMC has been accused of intimidating, attacking and even killing political opponents. The Calcutta High Court ordered a CBI investigation to handle the post-poll violence cases in the state. But in the run-up to last month's Kolkata civic polls (the first in the planned municipal elections), Abhishek Banerjee warned that the party would not carry the baggage of "high-handedness and coercion". It was an attempt to force the party to follow democratic political norms.

Days after the Bengal Assembly elections, when the CBI arrested three top TMC leaders, including two ministers — the late Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim — Mamata Banerjee sat on a dharna in the CBI office itself. Thousands of TMC workers gheraoed the office and hurled stones and bricks at the paramilitary forces guarding it. A crisis was averted after Abhishek Banerjee told the party in unambiguous terms that law should take its course without hindrance.

All these incidents show a clear trend in the TMC. There is an attempt to change the party's image from one often accused of being a coercive force to one in step with India's mature democracy. It is also an attempt to shatter the four-decades-old perception of Bengal as a politically violent state, particularly before, during, and after elections. But the perception can change if only the ruling party leads the effort, and at long last, Abhishek Banerjee has taken up the cudgels. It would seem he has come to understand the need of the times and has taken the initiative to change things.

Opponents have stamped the next-generation leader's attempts as political stunts. The jury is out, and only time will decide whether Abhishek Banerjee succeeds in shaping his image as a responsible and able leader, a new face of the new TMC.

(The writer is a journalist and author based in Kolkata.)

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

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