As Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Rashtra Prerana Sthal in Lucknow on late former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s 101st birth anniversary, Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee’s imposing statue drew particular attention. Here was an ostensibly “Bangla Birodhi" party dedicating an imposing and inspiring memorial to its founder, a Bengali bhadralok, and to his most illustrious political legatees and heirs. Both Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, identified and enlisted in the Bharatiya Jana Sangh by Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee, went on to significantly shape and direct post-independent India’s politics. Between them, Upadhyaya and Vajpayee dominated that space for more than half a century.

Those who label the BJP as “Bangla Birodhi" owe their political birth to the BJP and to Atal Bihari Vajpayee. It is well-known that had it not been for Vajpayee and the BJP’s largesse, the mercurial Mamata Banerjee, having exited the Congress, would not have been able to survive, found her regional outfit, the Trinamool Congress, and chalk out an alternative path in Bengal politics.

Gratitude is a rare commodity in politics. Especially for those who thrive and survive on vote bank politics, it is an attribute best forgotten. As it stands today, the Trinamool Congress is another edition of the Congress – Maoist-Muslim League. The latter is an all-India edition of that noxious political version, while the former is a regional pocket edition of it.

That there is a Bengali political space in India today, that there exists a Bengali state in India, a Bengali Hindu homeland, is largely and primarily due to Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee’s foresight and prescience. Indian communists were never generous in their acknowledgement of that reality; they spent decades and continue to........

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