Amit Shah’s main battlefield is West Bengal where the poll panel is acting as a virtual coordinator of a massive political operation to annex the state for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Modi-Shah regime has embarked on its bitterest election battle to conquer its most difficult terrain: West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. These are among the states that have successfully resisted the repeated attempts for saffronisation. 

But what we found early this month (March) was all the more disturbing. At least three constitutional functionaries, including the president, have got involved in ruling party’s every day politicking. President Droupadi Murmu, for the first time in India’s history, charged a chief minister with breaking protocol.

Her complaint was that chief minister Mamata Banerjee did not come to receive her when she visited the state. Also, the state government had changed the venue of her function and discouraged people from coming to the function which was being attended by the president. Murmu also alleged the condition of Santhals in West Bengal was worse. Mamata denied all these with her own facts figures. 

The chief minister alleged that Murmu was championing the ‘BJP’s narrative’ on the eve of the state assembly elections. Such lapses had happened earlier too. But presidents, in keeping the dignity and neutrality of the high office, should keep themselves above every day politics. Especially when they visit opposition-ruled states on the eve of elections. 

The sequence of events strengthens the fears that the president had, willingly or unwillingly, fell party to a carefully crafted political plot.  The very next day, the Union government sought a report from the state government on the protocol lapses on its part. Media, quoting the home ministry, also alleged that Murmu’s wash room did not have water. 

To this, Mamata’s reply was that the function was actually organised by a private organisation and they questions should be directed at them. Modi also took the controversy to the streets and instantly made it a hot campaign point against the Trinamool Congress (TMC). The “enlightened” people of West Bengal will never forgive TMC “for insulting a woman, for insulting a tribal, and for insulting the honourable President of the country,” Modi said. 

Mamata retorted saying that Modi had in the past insulted the President in public. She provided photographs of Murmu and veteran BJP leader L.K. Advani standing while Modi was........

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