The Changing face of Dol-Bodol

An otherwise morose, rain soaked, (‘mon-kharap kora bikel’) weekend evening suddenly got spiced up with the hissing and popping sound of something being cooked at a party head quarter. A dull and lifeless looking sunset, soon became buzzing with busy exchange of whatsapp messages and rapid notifications from subscribed (never knew when!) news portals. All because of an innocuous word, which is heard best when said in Bengali, ‘dolbodol’. For rest of India, its ‘dolbodlu’! Unfortunately  the queen’s language has failed to provide a suitable meaning to the phrase. ‘Turncoats’ just do not have the same intensity of a ‘dol bodol’!! Just like ‘abhiman’ which has no nearest English meaning that I know of (among many other such things!).

In our growing up years, Dolbodol  came in a complete different flavor and context. Bengali dailies like Ananda Bazar Patrika and Aajkaal used to spend tons of newsprint reporting the minute by minute chronology (of ‘samajiye” fame) of Kolkata Maidan. We remained glued to the latest on Krisanu-Bikas  somersaults,  as they finalise yellow & red one day and by next evening they were found swinging in Mohun Bagan colours. The stories of Shyam Thapa, Prasanta Banerjee, Babu Mani, Sudip Chatterjee, Chima made our childhood complete and later became part of the folklore. The thrill and suspense of a ‘dol bodol’ was no less than the build up to the actual derby!! Never did we imagine, politics someday will wriggle the phrase forever and in return will barter amusement and entertainment for thrill, suspense and dollops of nostalgia.

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This apparently seems a fair deal. Kolkata football fading into oblivion was inversely proportional to rise of mercury levels in Bengal politics. In the mid 80s, a serious faced pipe smoking Pranab Da, denied a decent rehabilitation by Rajiv Gandhi, someone whom he has seen more in the cockpit of Indian Airlines than on political battlefields, decided to do a pirated version of ‘Khela-Hobe’ on the mighty Congress by floating his very own Rashtriya Samajbadi Congress (1986).The party failed to create even a murmur, eventually died a natural death in 3 years and the rebellious Mukherjee learnt it the hard way, never to repeat again. A couple of years later, another bigwig of Bengal politics, belonging to the regimented Left party, a 4 time MP, Saifuddin Chowdhury met with similar fate. The argumentative Chowdhury was unceremoniously removed from the CPM Central Committee in 1995, when he advocated an alliance with the Congress to combat the growing influence of Bhartiya Janata Party (post Babri demolition) instead of forming a third front which he felt was counter productive. The ‘young’ politburo of CPM, not used to bow down to anyone (except Russian or Chinese leaders, that is) finally chucked him off in 2000 from the party membership. He went on to form Party Of Democratic Socialism (PDS) and held on to his beliefs till 2014 ( why comrade, why?!), when he breathed his last. It is significant to note, that neither of the two, switched alliance. They formed their own party. Whether Pranab Babu would have been welcomed in the hey days of left (in the state) or Chowdhury could have been inducted in a blooming Congress rule (at the centre) is a debate that never took off as none was expected to do this hara-kiri. Those were different days, when television meant Doordarshan and trousers meant baggies!

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Jump cut. 2011. A fiery brand Mamata Banerjee engineered a historic win which brought down the 34 year juggernaut of Left rule in Bengal. The dynamics of politics changed for ever. The traditional 5 day test matches, the snobbish charm ( ‘try hard’ baritones breaking ‘kalo haat’ every now and then!) was quickly replaced with an ODI flavor, the hit and run style. Since 2011, at least 40 members of legislative assembly belonging to the opposition did a volte-face to join the ruling party. Reasons? Your guess is as good as mine! And then the handler who masterminded the coup, the undisputed number two in Mukul Roy decided to have a feel of a turncoat. He left in 2017 to join BJP promising Asol Poriborton (Real Change) and not mere ‘poriborton’ which TMC promised and was drafted by Roy himself among others! In the build up to the 2021 State elections, as more and more people got convinced (or was made to think by an overboard media) of Didi’s loosening grip, a flurry of TMC legislators and MPs scurried to BJP. At least 34 legislators and 2 MPs changed sides. Among the many, Suvendu Adhikary, the strong man from Midnapur, the only other perceived to have a mass following second to his maverick boss, did an Ajay Devgan (remember the bike ride in Phool Aur kaante) in the last few months to the election call, finally took the plunge as realization dawned on him of his career plateauing in TMC. A new start waited in BJP as the party was almost sure to come to power. And an ambitious Adhikary changed gears. Conjectures can always do the rounds but he took a calculated risk which till now, do not seem to pay off. In the bid, he did a favour to speech writers of both parties. Cut paste the party name, rest remains same. By the way, Mukul Roy hurriedly returned back to where he belonged, post the polls and still continue to have hallucinations of his current standing. A man standing beside him, keeps prompting him of his current party.

However, the one who takes the cake, is the Man of the Moment. The indomitable Babul Supriyo! Anyone who has been privy to his social media handles knows how he spewed venom against the ruling dispensation of the state. That hatred appeared so real, or so it seemed. An innocent phone call to one of the opposition leader (friend) regarding his daughter’s admission, made a self proclaimed “one-team player” switch alliance. Whether his daughter’s admission went through is uncertain though! (“I am not going nowhere. I am a one-team player! I have always supported one team, #MohunBagan – Have been with only one party – BJP West Bengal. That’s it!! Leaving,” a teary eyed Supriyo said in an immortal Facebook post over his dramatic quit from politics couple of days ago).

As a part of the larger electorate, where does it leave us, the pompous voters?  The sense of de jure soon after coming out from the polling booth makes a Sholay-Asrani out of you.

Aadhe Idhar Jao

Aadhe idhar jao

Aur baaki humare sath aao!

Life winks!

**All pics from Internet