West Bengal’s political swing from Left to Right can be tracked through the slogans heard on its streets. A state that in the 1960s used to chant “Tomar naam aamar naam Vietnam” (your name and my name is Vietnam) in solidarity with communist guerillas in the South-East Asian nation fighting American aggression has now embraced the religious slogan that expresses support for the Bharatiya Janata Party, “Jai Shri Ram”.
In between, from the mid-2000s, Mamata Banerjee, head of the Trinamool Congress Party, popularised the slogan “Tomar naam aamar naam Nandigram” (Your name and my name is Nandigram) as she led a movement against the ruling Left government to oppose the acquisition of farmland for a special economic zone.
In the run-up to the 2021 assembly elections in West Bengal, a surprising new set of slogans are echoing through the state.
On the weekend, the Communist Part of India (Marxist) released a parody of the popular Bengal song Tumpa Sona, a musical…
