MAKING EAST INDIA GREAT AGAIN
Although the electoral battle for West Bengal is still a month away, the India Today Conclave East 2021, held in Kolkata on February 11 and 12, saw it all—from stump speeches and poll bugles to economic arguments, expositions of political strategies and much more from the two principal contenders, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In their respective sessions, Union home minister Amit Shah and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee proved to be at odds on a number of issues (see Clash of the Titans). For example, both confidently insisted their party would form the next state government, and with an absolute majority. However, as Shah said, the election results will eventually determine whose projections were correct.
These and other sessions also reflected the currently tense political atmosphere. Saying that those who oppose Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Shah are immediately branded as Khalistanis, Pakistanis or terrorists, the West Bengal chief minister said that such tactics had bred an atmosphere of fear in the country, to the point of silencing journalists. However, state governor Jagdeep Dhankhar,
