Mamata Banerjee and the debate around the almost Rs 500-crore Durga Puja dole in West Bengal
And, with that, the hammer came down on Mamata Banerjee's donation of Rs 1,10,000 to each of the 45,000 pandals where Goddess Durga will be worshipped for officially for five days this September-October across West Bengal, including 3000 in Kolkata. This donation, to be made from the coffers of the West Bengal government, was announced by the Chief Minister at Kolkata's Netaji Indoor Stadium on Thursday and it brought the audience of Durga Puja organisers to their feet, hands in air, clapping and cheering.
But the noise drowned out a question that should worry anyone in a secular democracy: can the government directly or indirectly promote or even be associated with religion or a religious event?
It is a question that has hung in the air since 2018 when, for the first time, Mamata Banerjee declared a grant to the Durga Pujas. Then, the size of the donation or dole was Rs 10000 to around 2,800 pandals or a total of Rs 28 crore. In the last eight years, the number of pandals has grown and, with that, the size of the largesse, totting up this year to a very handsome Rs 495 crore. There is some debate that the number of pandals is 43,000 and not 45,000 and the payout not Rs 495 crore but 473 crore. But that's just hair-splitting. Can the taxpayers' money be spent quite like this?
Problematic but politically smart
It is a problematic question but politically brilliant. For Mamata Banerjee, the cost benefits are simple. For Rs 495 crore, she secures the loyalty of the clubs that organise the Durga Pujas. The clubs are powerful and influential in their local neighbourhoods; remember, West Bengal has a long history of para and club culture. Winning their support is a sure shot short cut to winning local and bigger electoral battles. And this year's generous jump in largesse—from Rs 85,000 last year to Rs 1.10 lakh per Durga Puja club—surely has much to do with the fact that West Bengal goes to Assembly polls next year. 2026.
BJP's Catch 22
It is also a winner of a move as it puts the BJP in a spot. The Durga Puja donation or largesse—many call it dole—completely demolishes the BJP's biggest ammunition against Mamata Banerjee: the charge of minority appeasement. The move is a thorn in BJP's flesh for yet another reason—the BJP can't oppose the dole to the Durga Pujas because it is, after all, donation to a Hindu religious festival. No wonder BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari fumed, "Let her give Rs 2 lakh or 10 lakh to the Durga Pujas. We are not complaining. But let her also pay DA arrears to government workers that is pending for ages and fill in vacancies in government."
West Bengal has around 12 lakh employees including pensioners who are due DA totalling, according to some reports, a payout of Rs 10,000 crore. The court ordered on May that the DA arrears should be paid within three months which means by mid-August. So far, there have been no payments.
It's the economy, honey
The strongest defence of the dole/donation/largesse by Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress party (TMC) is that the government intervention is meant to boost the local economy that has grown over the decades around the Durga Pujas.
According to a study in 2013, the size of the festival economy was about Rs 25,000 crore. In 2019, the British Council conducted a survey on the festival economy which was relabelled "creative economy" that goes on round the year. That survey put the size of the creative economy at Rs 32,377 crore.
Mamata Banerjee's argument is, the state government payout is directed not at religious affairs but at improving the economics for thousands of people who make a living from the festival—idol makers, pandal makers, drummers, decorators and dozens others. Economists have backed the model of economic development and given Mamata Banerjee a clean chit.
Politically fraught
This debate about whether the Durga Puja dole/donation is against secularism or not has been going on since it started being given in 2018. But it is in election years that the issue becomes particularly fraught and explosive. While Mamata Banerjee may have announced the donation and moved on, with the confidence that it will bring her political dividends, the BJP is desperately trying to launch an effective counter offensive.
Last heard, BJP's Suvendu Adhikari has appealed to Durga Puja pandal committees to reject the dole as a protest against the rape and murder of the RG Kar doctor last year that had rocked Kolkata, and in fact, communities across the world. Last year, a handful of puja committees had set the example. All eyes are on how many will follow suit this year. But Adhikari's strategy is clear: to enlarge the scope of opposition to Durga Puja donation by the state.
But for the last seven years, Mamata Banerjee has reaped huge benefits from this strategic intervention and there are very little signs of that changing in its eighth year or the foreseeable future. In fact, it is hard to imagine that should BJP come to power in the state, it will roll back the dole to the goddess. The political ethics of Durga Puja dole will always be debatable but the West Bengal Chief Minister is not turning a hair, as long as the dole earns her the people's—and perhaps divine—blessings.
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