Sonar Bangla in uncertainty!

Dubela, Tanisha Das: West Bengal has its own strong cultural and political identity. In West Bengal, the relationship between Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is the central ruling party’s propaganda in the political battleground. BJP has been actively working to reconstruct the cultural landscape of West Bengal by challenging the sentiment of “Bengali Hindu Identity ” and “Sonar Bangla”.

Bharatiya Janata Party and Trinamool Congress deploy religious and linguistic identities for electoral purposes. West Bengal has witnessed terrified clashes between Hindu and Muslims that divided Bengal into two parts, and partition was seen as a solution in 1947. Illegal immigrants, especially from Bangladesh and recently from Myanmar, are being used as a propaganda tool against the state by the BJP leaders.

There are allegations that the BJP has weaponised identity by equating the Bengali language and culture with illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. This has reportedly led to the harassment of Bengali-speaking people in BJP-ruled states like Odisha and Assam, where they are often asked to prove their nationality despite having lived there for decades. There has been criticism against BJP leaders for a lack of awareness or respect for Bengali cultural icons.