Politicisation of Abhijit’s and Sourav’s feats ahead of Vidhan Sabha polls in West Bengal

Vidhan Sabha (Legislative Assembly of West Bengal) election is approaching. Trinamool Congress led by Mamata Banarjee and Bharitya Janata Party (BJP) led by Narendra Modi are preparing themselves for the upcoming election scheduled to be held in 2021. In the meantime, Abhijit Banerjee's bagging Noble Prize for economics and Cricket Star Sourav Ganguly's taking charge as the President of The Board of Control for Cricket In India (BCCI) have become parts of their political game.

Both Noble Laureate Abhijit and Super Star Sourav are Bangalees in origin. However, Abhijit is no longer Indian citizen. On the other hand, the BCCI President Sourav Ganguly is affectionately known as 'dada' (elder brother) to the mass people.

BJP wants to defeat Trinamool in the Vidhan Sabha polls while Mamata Banarjee is not ready to lose her power as the chief minister of West Bengal. Both of them are trying to use the images of these two proud Bangalees in their political campaign.

Mamata Banarjee along with her singer Minister Indranil Sen, State Secretary Alapan Banarjee, Abhijit's childhood friend Amit Chowdhury already paid a visit to Abhijit's house. Mamata had a discussion with Abhijit's mother Nirmala Debi over Rabindra Sangeet.

She highlighted Abhijit's engagement with some of the activities of Trinamool Congress in the discussion.

Bagging Noble in Economics is nothing new in Kolkata. Amartya Sen had earned it before Abhijit. Both of them are living overseas and married foreigners but the difference is Amartya did not surrender his citizenship as an Indian.

Both the Noble laureate economists criticised the economic condition of India during Modi's rule.

Amartya Sen castigated the intolerance and the practice of communal politics of BJP in India. Now, the left-leaning parties quoting his speech are running their campaign across the West Bengal.

The left-wing political parties think their ideology matches with that of Amartya Sen. BJP did not stay quiet in this regard. They also criticized the economic approach of the Noble Laureate Amartya Sen.

On the other hand, Congress had the slogan "now, there will be justice", a justice scheme that guaranteed minimum income for all before the polls of Lok Sabha (House of the People), lower house of India's bicameral parliament.  

BJP had reprimanded the scheme. Even it was unintelligible to many Congress leaders. Now, it came to light that Noble Laureate Abhijit was behind this scheme. 

Abhijit's father Dipak Banerjee was a Professor of economics at Kolkata's prestigious Presidency college. Since his school days, he wanted to alleviate poverty. He had been jailed for 10 days as well for protesting against poverty.

Like Amartya Sen, Abhijit also criticized BJP's economic model. He expressed concerns over the current economic condition of India but appreciated the economic growth of Bangladesh.

Despite Abhijit's remarks on India's economic growth, BJP does not want the glamourous credit go to their opponent's bag. The BJP leaders want to highlight Abhijit's achievement as proof India's progress under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi.

All the parties are trying to cash in on Abhijit's achievement.

Despite being weak in politics, the left-wings and congress are running "Abhijit bandana (praise)" at the same pace.

Along with Abhijit, Sourav Ganguly dada's comeback in cricket on the highest administrative chair of India's cricket board has made the whole Kolkata proud again.  A celebration is going on all over Kolkata.

But the politicians are politicising Sourav's feat as well. During the long reign of Communist Party of India (CPM), Sourav was a pro-Communist. After the shift of power to Mamata Banarjee, he had developed a fair relationship with her party as well.

Mamata said, "Sourav is the proud of Bengal" and Sourav keeping himself in a non-political stance always praised Mamata didi (elder sister).

They never criticised each other.

But after he became the president of BCCI, the BJP leaders began to claim him a member of their party as Amit Saha's son Joy Saha has been selected as the Secretary of BCCI.

The politicisation of cricket has always been there. Earlier, the dominance of political leaders was seen in big sports organisations. The issue went to Supreme Court many times yet the political influence on sports has not stopped.

Followers of BJP and Trinamool had almost a clash while welcoming Sourav Ganguly. But Sourav wants to highlight his non-political image. On the other hand, BJP and Trinamool are desperate to have him in their parties.

Some BJP leaders with excitement also said Sourav will be their face in the upcoming Vidhan Sabha polls. They also claimed they have made a deal with Sourav. But the cricket star is silent in this regard. Rather he is careful about proving himself as non-political person.

However, political game over claiming these two proud names as their political parts is actually burying their glorious achievements as individuals.