Importance of being Amit Shah; ‘Mission Bengal’ is top priority of new Home Minister

Amit Shah replacing Rajnath Singh as the home minister is important component of the mission Bengal of Narendra Modi. It is explicit that the task of expanding Modi empire cannot be accomplished unless all the Indian states are in his kit and for achieving this it is imperative that in the first move Mamata government should be pulled down as told to his party colleagues by the senior BJP leader Siddhartha Singh some three years back.

The image of the person who can perform this “mahaygya “was clear before Modi. The placid and gentle Rajnath was not fit for the task. His liberal political upbringing would prevent him from being ruthless towards Mamata. The only person who with right perfection could carry out this royal task was none else but Amit.

Shah known for his brat manners can use the police as per his desire. In the wake of action against senior cop, Rajeev Kumar former Commissioner of Kolkata Police, Shah had come to realize the importance of control over police. He knew that since he had to lead the BJP pack in Bengal it was necessary to have a firm grip on police administration. As home minister he can counter the actions of Bengal government and can access the secret and important government documents.

Though there are other tasks like Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh on the agenda of Home Minister Amit Shah, Bengal tops the list. A year after Bengal would be going for assembly election and it is quite politically imperative that the BJP should throw Mamata and her TMC government in Bay of Bengal and install its own government.

In case the Union government scraps the Section 370 in J&K, the situation arising of that could be tackled by the armed forces. Here the engagement is apparent. Amit would know from where his enemies are coming. But in Bengal it is really a tough proposition. Amit would be pitting one Indian against another. It would be a tough proposition to define and identify an enemy, the dushman of the country, from the Bengalis of the state.

Manmohan singh with his “Look East policy tried to expand Indian supremacy and conquer the eastern Asia through its economic policy, but Amit Shah under his Look East policy plans to spread its saffron hegemony in the East and Eastern India through its terror mechanism.

Just after Mamata Banerjee returned to power for the second time Amit Shah drew out the broader outline of his mission Bengal. With its "Look East" policy, the BJP has been laying great stress on states like Odisha, UP and West Bengal. Frequent tours of Modi-Shah to West Bengal are an indicator of the importance the BJP attaches to the state in its bid to have a BJP YUKT BHARAT (Bharat with India). A count of the rallies would reveal that duopoly held maximum number of rallies in Bengal than in other state.

After the final results were announced, Shah had quipped “the first part” of the mission has been accomplished. Shah in fact from the beginning of the election campaigning had been harping on BJP winning 23 seats out of 42. Shah has set target of do or die for his cadres. And it is significant that the BJP took to large scale violence to achieve the target.

Electoral violence has its distinct identity in Bengal but this time in an unprecedented manner large number party cadres were killed. The worst loser has been the Trinamool. For spreading the violence throughout the state, the BJP accused the growing disenchantment of the masses with Mamata government. In an indirect manner the BJP leaders accused Mamata and her party of killing innocent people.

This tactics has been part of the Mission Bengal. Under this Shah mobilized non-Bengali people across the state. Incidentally the areas from where BJP won are mainly dominated by the non-Bengali people.

AS Home Minister Shah would have one more important agenda on his tab. He would try to break the financial channel of Mamata and her TMC. Already at least three scam cases, the most important being Sharada sacm, are under CBI investigation. The former top cop Rajeev Kumar has already been made a party to the scam. Shah would use his home mechanism to target the persons and agencies financing the activities of the TMC.

In almost all the states police plays a significant part in politics. But it guides and shapes the politics in Bengal. Unless the BJP has a strong control on police it can aspire to win the assembly election in 2020. BJP cannot defeat TMC without police help. IN this election a lakh of BJP and RSS cadres who had come for electioneering were pushed out by the police. IN assembly election they would have to perform the key role.

It is understood that BJP in Bengal has mobilised its cadres from eastern states and brought all ‘saffron change makers’ from neighbouring states such as Assam, Odisha and Tripura. Next time with police on its side the party can hope to perform well. Knowing that he has a formidable opponent like Mamata Banerjee, who enjoys almost indomitable popularity in the state, Shah is unwilling any chance. A closer look at the strategy adopted by Shah would reveal that he has been walking into the footsteps of Mamata.

The significance of Mission Bengal could be underlined from the fact that Shah launched his plan from a village in Naxalbari which witnessed peasant uprising and gave birth to Maoist movement in India. Post election Shah quipped, “This is where violence started. I am happy to see the Lotus bloom here”.