Those that seek recourse in whataboutery are deeply convinced that two wrongs always make a right. If you accuse practitioners of ‘whataboutism’ of a travesty, they will invariably respond by accusing their accuser of having committed the exact wrong earlier, as if this will level the moral playing field.
And so, it has been for the Trinamool Congress (TMC). As horrifying tales of alleged excesses committed by TMC cadre against women crept out of Sandeshkhali’s pit of perversions, the party slammed its critics in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It fired a series of ‘whatabouts’ – What about Hathras? What about Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh? What about Kuldeep Singh Sengar? And so on.
Unfortunately for the TMC, it forgot that whataboutery almost always leads, as someone has said, into turning “sensible conversations into disastrous arguments”.
No doubt, in an academic setting, it is ‘sensible’ to highlight the prevalence of a problem – that is the directly proportional relationship between power and predatory behaviour. But in the real world, when questions are asked about a government’s response to an alleged heinous crime, resorting to whataboutery comes across as deeply immoral.
And that, too, when a division bench of the Calcutta High Court – led by the Chief Justice himself – has made piercing observations questioning the commitment of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s government to upholding the tenets of “constitutional democracy”.
The High Court wants the Banerjee government to immediately arrest her party’s strongman Shahjahan Sheikh, who has been on the run for six weeks. In fact, the milords suspect the TMC of shielding the alleged violator. Hopefully, the alleged thug in question, Sheikh, will save the TMC its blushes by surrendering of his own volition. As of now, there seem to be no signs of this. Sheikh, perhaps, knows too much. It is best he is never found. Many believe Sheikh to be the symptom of a deeper malaise – the ground that the TMC has allegedly ceded to the crime “syndicate” that is running riot – looting land and heaping indignities on the unsuspecting.
But now with the High Court stepping in, the BJP’s campaign in Sandeshkhali has acquired the credibility the TMC claimed it lacked. At least in the public’s perception, it won’t be anymore easy for the TMC to get away by suggesting that the horrors of Sandeshkhali were scripted by the BJP-RSS. A stunt, the TMC claims was timed just before the general election to gain an undeserved advantage.
In a sense, for the TMC, it’s a harking back to 2006-2007. At that time, Banerjee was the underdog as she confronted the seemingly unshakeable Left on the blood-stained fields of Singur. Banerjee’s campaign against the Left’s land-grab that fomented appalling excesses resonated with the masses, especially women.
Then, the Left’s attempt at brushing away Banerjee’s protest as shrill histrionics came across as smug patriarchy. The Left’s callousness won Banerjee the support of women voters who catapulted her into the Chief Minister’s seat very soon after.
Since then, women voters are the one constant difference between Banerjee and her nearest rival, the BJP, at the ballot box.
Today, with the TMC having been caught out paying scant regard to women welfare, Banerjee might just be put on test by her greatest support system — the women of Bengal.
The only way Banerjee can live up to the faith placed in her by women is by acting – as also seen to be acting – against her own party cadre.
Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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