Obituary to Secular Politics in India.
(Chapter 7)
West Bengal election results destroyed the model of secular politics in India. The secular political model was not killed by BJP. It was not killed by Hindutva. It was killed by its own practitioners who confused minority appeasement with minority welfare and forgot that majorities have a threshold too. They forgot to read history or The Pact of Umar which is Islamic version of secularism. It is an epistemological failure on the part of politicians.
Nehru built the model on assumed pluralism with subtle appeasement without public speeches. Sharia Act was passed under his watch for civil succession. He passed Wakf Act. The two laws have no parallel either in Muslim world or in secular democratic countries. But Nehru always acted behind the curtains.
His successors converted it gradually into a transaction. In West Bengal, Mamata took the transaction to its logical and fatal extreme by shouting about it loudly in public rallies. In Tamil Nadu, Stalin and his son made their intentions clear by abusing Hindu faith and calling for its eradication. They prostrated before the church but without converting to Christianity. The Church chose and supported C. Joseph Vijay, a practising Christian.
The Secular Model
The Secular Model in politics in India has distinct features. First is that it supports soft Islamisation by ignoring any complaint about it. The objective is to establish as much privileges for Muslims as possible, even to match the privileges under Pact of Umar, cited above. Thus the Muslim become first class citizens and others, especially Hindu become second class of citizens. Just like pact of Umar, a crime of Muslim against Kafirs is permitted by pact and therefore not punishable.
Hate speeches and disparaging remarks about other religions are free speech. Any criticism about Islam is Islamophobia and hate speech. The religious symbols and practices of Islam are sacred while other faiths have irrational rituals.
Mamata closed down Durga temple in Asansol which was reopened the very next day, her government fell. M.K. Stalin refused permission to light the traditional Karthigai Deepam lamp atop Thiruparankundram hill, even after the division bench of High Court approved it.
These are just two examples out of numerous other instances of the secular model of their governments. Both governments fell on 4th May 2026 and both Chief Ministers lost membership of the next legislative assembly as well.
Both Mamata and Stalin thought that they had planted dynamite in fragile earth. They calculated that it would collapse under BJP and take them down. What erupted instead was a volcano. Hindu polarisation on a scale that has not been seen in Bengal’s modern political history. They did not trigger a controlled explosion. They triggered a geological event.
The Warning
The tragedy is that Mamata was warned. Not about Bengal specifically, but about the secular model itself. Arif Mohammad Khan told Khanam Sherwani in an interview nearly a decade ago that the politics of minority consolidation carries a structural flaw. Consolidate one community tightly enough and you teach the other community that consolidation is the only available response. The warning was about arithmetic, not about religion. Mamata either did not hear it or believed Bengal was exempt from the logic.
The interview is the blueprint of secular politics. Sherwani started with the narrative of secular politics and asked, “We live in a kind of country where the politics revolve around an anti-Muslim pillar”.
Arif Khan put her in her right place by retorting, “What do you mean ‘live in a kind of country’? Would you rather live in a place like Syria, or Yemen or even Pakistan?” He further elaborated by stating,
“We live in the kind of country wherein Deoband form of interpretation is legal. The book states that it is okay to wage a war against other religions, and is being followed by 4 percent of the Muslims, who control the Islamic teachings. Moreover, this is the country where any tax such as jizya isn’t levied from anyone and all the citizens are treated equally, so where is the question of intolerance?”
What lies in the rubble is not merely few political careers. It is the secular political model that assumed Hindu votes would always remain divided by caste, class and language while minority votes consolidated around a single protector.
Street Power
What happened in Noukhali 100 years back or on 16 August 1946 in Kolkata which was called ‘Direct Action Day’ was display of street power. When Flag of India is challenged in various cities of India, it is a display of street power.
What happened in Sandeskhali in West Bengal was a display of Street power to inflict violence. What happened in RG Kar Hospital, when protestors were swept past by a crowd and evidence destroyed was a display of street power.
The secular model of governance depends on this raw street power to enforce silence. This street power ensure that voters remain in homes on election day. This was called source jamming. This street power blocks the polling booth and slows down the process to make people go away on Election Day. Removal in this street power saw spurt in voting by 20% in 2026 in West Bengal elections.
The media always provides intellectual cover for what street power enforced on the ground.
The Role of Media
The network of activist-journalists ignore the street power. They ignore Sandeskhali rapes or its judicial notice by High Court or the enquiry. They ignore that people reporting about it on social media are being thrown in prison without any opportunity for bail. Media has its own chosen role in Secular Model of Governance.
Media is busy in spreading a narrative about Muslims and how they are persecuted. If an arrest of Muslim is made for any criminal act, it becomes victimization. Their idea is to keep the Muslim community on its toe, ready to fight this Dar ul Herb and the fitna in it. Too many new words? Read about it here.
On 15 December 2015, I had warned against this media narrative and shown that it is backfiring. Yesterday it back fired spectacularly in West Bengal.
Do not underestimate the role of media. Politicians generally keep their mouth shut. Or at least they used to. It was the media which was creating a narrative entirely different from facts and reality. They would call a terrorist as “a poor schoolteacher’s son.” More examples have been given in the article quoted and linked above. The entire media operation is analyzed in detail in that article. This is part of secular model of politics.
The Votes
Deployment of large number central security forces in West Bengal made street power collapse and resulted in higher percentage of voting in West Bengal. The high percentage of voting has broken the arithmetical logic of the secular model. There was a time when hardly 50% of voters would come out and vote. In a triangular contest, anybody with 18% of votes could win. In bipartite contest only 26% votes were required. Now the fight is on for 51% votes. On many occasions BJP actually wins 51% of total votes cast. That rules out any consolidation against it. 51% is absolute majority.
Hence, the new narrative is to call it Majoritarianism. What they do not tell that for a long time India had a Minoritism. A system in which Muslim clergy could bargain and get what they wanted. They could veto any Government.
All this changed. 92% vote could accommodate all. The Minority even if it is 46%, it can lose by one vote over and above remaining 46% votes.
This reflected in the result of West Bengal. Mamata had 87 captive seats on which Muslims had more than 30% votes. Yet she won only 81 seats. This was the effect of consolidation of Hindu votes.
Bottom Line
The writing is on the wall. The identity politics has no future. Start with real issues. Try to convince people. Hold their hands as BJP did in West Bengal for 12 years. See Chapter 5 analyzing the victory of BJP.Note down peoples demand in a manifesto. If elected, try to fulfill the promises made. Never do what Mamata did. Do not deflect the governance challenges in hate speech.
Kerala and Tamilnadu will be the next targets for BJP. But they have their own dynamics of secular politics which may soon be entering into next phase. But that shall be discussed in a separate article.
If this reasoning is not enough to persuade. The consequence that is going to follow Mamata Benerjee may persuade them. We will discuss that in next chapter 8.
References:
- Stalin lost election: https://www.thehindu.com/elections/tamil-nadu-assembly/tamil-nadu-cm-mk-stalin-defeated-in-kolathur-who-is-tvks-vs-babu-the-winner/article70938429.ece
- Arif Mohammad’s Warning: https://tfipost.com/2019/06/arif-mohammad-khan-arfa-khanum-sherwani-01/
- A Durga temple in West Bengal’s Asansol reopened after Mamata’s departure: https://www.indiatoday.in/elections/assembly/story/asansol-durga-temple-reopens-after-bjp-win-in-west-bengal-2906785-2026-05-05
- Karthigai Deepam Lamp: https://english.mathrubhumi.com/news/india/breaking-madras-hc-temple-devasthanam-must-light-the-lamp-at-deepathoon-nk3wiwi4
- Udhayanidhi Stalin’s remark on Sanatana Dharma is ‘hate speech’: https://www.theweek.in/news/india/2026/01/21/udhayanidhi-stalin-s-remark-on-sanatana-dharma-is-hate-speech-says-madras-high-court.html
- All Chapters on West Bengal Assembly Elections 2026
- Political Parties as lucrative Start Ups.