She plans to make the state election slogan a rallying cry in the nationwide fight against the BJP
West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee plans to commemorate August 16 as Khela Hobe Divas (day). Her government and party will distribute 50,000 footballs to 25,000 clubs in the state. Mamata has also granted Rs 5 lakh each to these clubs, even though it has stretched her purse strings. Though the official stand is that it is to encourage football among the young, no one is in the dark about the political ramifications. The Khela Hobe slogan, devised by a youth party leader Devangshu Bhattacharya, was a rallying call to take the fight to the BJP in the recent assembly election (which Mamata's Trinamool Congress won by a landslide).
The opposition BJP has been incensed about the Khela Hobe (Game on) slogan since the polls, and is now strongly objecting to August 16 being chosen as the Khela Hobe Divas. BJP Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta has linked it to the memory of Mohammad Ali Jinnah's 'Direct Action Day' (August 16, 1946), and the horrific incidents thereafter. The riots in Calcutta had left 4,000 dead and over 100,000 homeless.
But before the BJP could communalise the issue, Mamata's people were quick to turn the pages of history and dig up another incident--not a happy one either--from a sporting event in the 1980s. The TMC says it is to commemorate August 16, 1980, the day 16 football fans were killed in a stampede at the Eden Gardens stadium, after a match between Kolkata’s leading clubs Mohun Bagan and East Bengal ended in a brawl.
Meanwhile, the Khele Hobe slogan has many takers now. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav will be using a version of the slogan when the party takes on the BJP in the all-important 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly election.
Mamata has also engaged lyricist Javed Akhtar to translate the slogan and write a song around it in Hindi for nationwide resonance.
Already the slogan has found traction in the Lok Sabha when members of the Opposition benches joined the Trinamool MPs in a chorus against the Pegasus snooping. That she's not yet satisfied with the victory against the BJP in Bengal became clear in her promise to the people that the game (Khela Hobe) was far from over and will be taken nationwide. In Mamata's recent five-day Delhi trip, the slogan floated widely in the capital, reverberating in political circuits and social media as politicians across the spectrum and celebrities met Mamata and congratulated her for thwarting the BJP in Bengal. Mamata was expecting more, though. She was hoping the Opposition platform would shape up since a basic foundation had been laid at the Constitution Club meet on July 21, the day she delivered the virtual Martyr's Day speech and implored senior leaders of the Opposition to get on the job of consolidating a new opposition front. Meanwhile, there are other things to be considered. "She'll not spoil the chances of Opposition unity by raising questions of leadership. She has high regard for Congress leader Sonia (Gandhi) and when the meeting happened between the two, it can be assumed that both have agreed to walk together in the days to come," says a senior Trinamool Congress leader.
While leaving Delhi, Mamata vowed to come back every two months to keep the heat on the Modi-Shah duo. The game she has set in motion in the capital will now be closely watched and followed. "The game has started, but there's more to it now...," Mamata had said while throwing footballs to the crowd from the stage where Khela Hobe Divas was announced on August 2.
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