Rabindranath Tagore, Subhas Chandra Bose, Vande Mataram….
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s monthly radio broadcast, Mann Ki Baat, delivered on Sunday in the middle of the Bengal elections, expectedly touched on many of the usual suspects, and to all appearances without mishap this time.
In his Hindi address, the Prime Minister, often accused of using official speeches for political mileage, referred to Tagore’s upcoming birth anniversary as “Pochishe Boishakh”.
“This month, many festivals, including the New Year, were celebrated in many parts of the country. In a few days, on the 9th of May, on the occasion of Pochishe Boishakh, we will celebrate Gurudev Tagore’s birth anniversary,” he said.
The BJP’s experiments with invoking Bengali icons have in the recent past — particularly ahead of elections — been fraught with the risk of faux pas.
Shortly before the 2021 Assembly polls, the party’s IT cell had claimed that Tagore was born in “Visva-Bharati”. Last week, Yogi Adityanath attributed Bose’s famous “Give me blood and I shall give you freedom” call to Swami Vivekananda.
Modi had himself burnt his fingers in Parliament last December by referring to Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, the writer of Vande Mataram, as “Bankim-da”, which many saw as disrespectful.
On Sunday, he extolled Tagore as a “multifaceted personality” and not only a “great writer and thinker”.
“...He shaped many institutions. Gurudev Tagore advocated industries that provided sustainable employment and benefited villages,” he said.
The lack of employment opportunities in Bengal has become a key poll plank against chief minister Mamata Banerjee, although the BJP’s record on job creation nationally has been no better.
Modi said the influence of Rabindra Sangeet endured worldwide even today, and asserted his Santiniketan visits “will remain unforgettable for me”.
“This is the very institution he (Tagore) nurtured and shaped with unwavering dedication.” he said. “My humble tribute to him once again.”
Modi’s government, though, gives Visva-Bharati less funds compared with its UPA predecessor. There have been allegations about a saffronisation bid threatening the central university’s Tagorean, liberal-humanist ethos.
Modi’s passing mention of Bose came in the context of the Republic Day and the Beating Retreat ceremony of January 29 evening that marks the occasion’s conclusion.
“All of you know that... the festivities of the Republic Day (January 26) are celebrated and observed from the 23rd of January, the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, to 30th January, the death anniversary of Gandhiji,” he said.
Referring to the Beating Retreat, he underlined the army band’s performance of Vande Mataram during the ceremony this year to mark 150 years of the national song.
He then highlighted how his government had taken the first initiative to preserve the Beating Retreat performance while its predecessors would let it “gradually fade away”.
“For the first time, the music of the Beating Retreat is also available on the WAVES OTT. In future, it will be available on other platforms as well,” he said. WAVES has been launched by Prasar Bharati.
Earlier this month, Opposition parties and a group of “concerned citizens” — including former bureaucrats, academics and activists — had complained to the Election Commission that Modi had violated the model code of conduct with his April 18 address to the nation.
Modi had in that address accused the Opposition of committing “bhrun hatya” (foeticide) by defeating proposed amendments to the 2023 women’s reservation law in Parliament.
The amendments sought to tie the implementation of women’s reservation to a delimitation exercise seen widely as favouring the BJP.
The complaint to the poll panel said Modi had used the national address for “electioneering and partisan propaganda” amid a raft of Assembly elections, violating the model code of conduct.
The poll panel has so far not acted on the complaint.