SIR in Bengal: Mamata’s problems with political truths

The eminent political science scholar John Mearsheimer had categorised five types of political lies: inter-state lies, fear mongering, strategic coverups, nationalist myths and liberal lies. US President Donald Trump has taken the first kind of lie to an extreme extent, repeating ad infinitum such lies—his utterances on India are a glaring such example. Liberal lies used liberally by a section of opinion peddlers to demean certain global heads of government, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for example, to create narratives not strictly factual, such examples are galore. Mearsheimer has summed up the general types of lies most use. He also has been categorical that such lies are used often by “democratic” political leaders, not dictators. In fact, if one looks at the leaders who are cherished by opinion peddlers and media use “lies” as a common enough tool to address their support base. While the five types mentioned by Mearsheimer seem exhaustive, what he missed is the unique kind of “narrative” peddled by the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Such “tales” are essentially aimed at self-aggrandizement. Coming from a very humble background politics of Mamata Banerjee started with a well circulated narrative that she had a Ph.D. from “East Georgia University” and used “Dr” in her name during her first Lok Sabha election in 1984 against the CPM’s erudite lawyer Somnath Banerjee. The claim had worked wonders with ant-CPM newspapers in Calcutta playing up the humble but successful person Mamata Banerjee, who managed to defeat Somnath Banerjee from Calcutta’s Jadavpur Lok Sabha constituency. Later the United States Educational Foundation in India confirmed that no recognized university with the name East Georgia University ever existed. But the damage was already done, with the claim hitting the prospect of the re-election of Somnath Banerjee. Though the claim was essentially meant for self-aggrandizement, it served as a strategic political “lie”. That the hunger for a prefix Dr in her name was insatiable in Mamata Banerjee was evident when she finally obtained one honorary D.Litt. from the Calcutta University in 2018 and the St. Xavier’s University in 2023. However, she is not seen using the honorific for reasons best known to her. But that does not indicate she has stopped self-aggrandizement as could be seen time and again mentioning successful public persons and how they had endorsed her skills. Take for example her repeated claims of her musical acumen—eminent singers Sandhya Mukherjee, Dwijen Mukherjee, Bappi Lahiri et al. sought her support in learning correct tunes or her “inimitable” skill of writing songs for using. Apparently, even Mother Teresa, who met her only once, recognised Mamata, then a small time political person. What purpose such fables serve? These turn attention of the “knowledgeable” ones to making fun of Mamata Banerjee, winking at her misgovernance, utter failure in administration or economic issues for the state. For the gullible, who just cast their votes for her in search of the monthly doles, these are irrelevant, in fact they don’t mind accepting these blatant claims as facts preparing them to trust more strategic claims the sharp political person in Mamata Banerjee weaves. Take for instance the most recent one on bringing in non-existent term NRC (National Register of Citizens) in the context of SIR (Special Intensive Revision) of voter lists by the Election Commission. All she needed was a death which came from the outskirt of Calcutta when a 57-year-old trader died by suicide. He died at his Agarpara home on 28th October morning blaming NRC for his death. Forgotten is that fact that even if there is NRC at all, the Election Commission cannot have any role. Citizenship does not come under the authority of EC. What is more, the person who died, Pradip Kar, a Hindu, had his name in the electoral roll, hence had no issue with SIR. He would have automatically qualified to cast his vote in the 2026 Assembly election. What is more, a Hindu, even if a migrant from Bangladesh, would have been eligible for Indian citizenship under the CAA (Indian Citizenship Amendment Act). It is also doubtful that Kar would have written a suicide note since he could not write due to some infirmity in his right hand. The claim offered Mamata a strategic straw to create issue against SIR, a move that will weed out dead voters, false voters and illegal migrants from the West Bengal electoral roll. That rampant rigging, common in all kinds of elections in the state, are structured on the presence of false voters is evident from the aggressive lies resorted to by Mamata Banerjee. Apparently, her party has no formal support base in the state. A reasonably clean electoral roll, a likely outcome of SIR, may become catastrophic for her political party. Therefore, she has been resorting to fear mongering. She hopes that those who swallow her self-aggrandizement type claims without any smirk will fall in line and buy the NRC story hook line and sinker. Sadly, the story of suicide by Pradip Kar starts on a weak note since his name was there in the electoral rolls on 2002, the base list for any SIR activity. The strategic “lie” and effort for fear mongering lost out in Mamata Banerjee’s irrelevant claims. Sadly, Indian criminal laws are not strong enough to punish irrelevant words of political persons as these are for ordinary citizens. This is a weakness and unless rectified, there cannot be any rule of law in the country, no amount of display of a pocket book of Constitution and repeated swearing in by that can help our fragile system. It is evident that many such political persons desperate to avoid irrelevancy resort to false narratives knowing well that the law will never catch them. Thus, elected Members of Parliament encourage the party cadre to tie EC and its staff to trees, a clear case of lawlessness. But law does not catch them. 

Sugato Hazra is founder of Poliminds Consult, a content agency for aspiring and practising politicians.