Assembly elections 2021

Electoral Bond Sales Jumped by Nearly 16 Times During 2021 Assembly Polls

The State Bank of India has refused to reveal which political party received how much money through this.

New Delhi: The sale of electoral bonds during the assembly elections in April this year was over 16 times more than what it was during the previous tranche of sales, in early January. This information was obtained from the State Bank of India through a Right to Information query.

Though the RTI applicant had also asked for details of the political parties which benefited from these donations, the SBI refused to share the same, saying it held the information in a fiduciary capacity.

SC refused to stay sale of electoral bonds during polls

Transparency activists and organisations have repeatedly urged the scrapping of the electoral bond scheme in its present form and charged that these anonymous bonds have “legalised corruption”. A petition in this regard was also filed in the Supreme Court by the Association for Democratic Rights in January this year. While refusing to grant an interim stay on the 2018 electoral bonds scheme, the apex court had sought responses from the Centre and the Election Commission on the interim application.

Thereafter, a fresh plea was also filed by the ADR seeking a stay on the opening of the window for sale of electoral bonds under the 16th phase before the elections in West Bengal, Kerala, Assam, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. But the apex court refused to stay the scheme. A bench headed by then Chief Justice S.A. Bobde noted that bonds were allowed to be released in 2018 and 2019 without interruption, adding, “sufficient safeguards are there”.

Electoral bond sales rose from Rs 42.10 crore in January to Rs 695.34 crore in April

SBI, in response to a query filed by Bihar-based RTI activist Kanhaiya Kumar on April 16, provided the details of the sale of the electoral bonds in the 15th and 16th phases. While the 15th tranche of electoral bond sales had taken place from January 1 to 10 this year, the 16 tranche took place from April 1 to 10, by which time the assembly elections to the four states of Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal and the Union Territory of Puducherry had begun.

While Assam voted in three phases from March 27, West Bengal had voted in eight phases. Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry had all voted in a single phase on April 6.

According to the details provided by SBI, while a total of 151 bonds worth Rs 42.10 crore were sold in the 15th phase, in the 16th phase, which fell right in the middle of the elections, a total of 974 bonds were sold in nine branches of the bank – as against just four during the 15th phase – and a sum of Rs 695,34,02,000 was raised through them.

Also read: Taxpayers, Not Donors or Parties, Are Bearing the Cost of Printing Electoral Bonds: RTI

The RTI reply also revealed that almost 80% of the sale posted by SBI in January came from electoral bonds of the denomination of Rs 1 crore.

Of all the bonds sold, 34 were of Rs 1 crore denomination, 78 of Rs 10 lakh denomination, 29 of Rs 1 lakh each and 10 of Rs 10,000 each.

The data revealed that the largest sale was recorded in the Kolkata Main Branch, which fell in the poll-bound state of West Bengal. Here, a total of 110 bonds worth Rs 35.75 crore were sold. The next highest sale was recorded in the Thiruvananthapuram Branch, again in the poll-bound state of Kerala, were a total of 19 bonds worth Rs 9.10 lakh were sold. In the Jaipur Main Branch, 14 bonds were sold but they were more in terms of value at Rs 5 crore. Apart from this, the only other branch in which the electoral bonds were sold was New Delhi Main, where eight bonds worth Rs 1.25 crore were sold.

SBI also disclosed that in the 15th phase, barring three electoral bonds of Rs 1 lakh each, all the other 148 electoral bonds were redeemed.

Rs 653 crore more was raised in 16th phase

The data provided by SBI also revealed that in the 16th phase of sale of electoral bonds, the total value of sale was nearly Rs 653 crore more than in the previous phase.

Here again, the data revealed that nearly 70% of all sales of electoral bonds took place in the highest denomination of Rs 1 crore. A total of 671 bonds of Rs 1 crore each were sold, followed by 237 bonds of Rs 10 lakh each, 64 of Rs 1 lakh denomination and two of Rs 1,000 each.

The branches of the SBI in the election-going states once again recorded the highest sales. The Kolkata Main Branch sold a total of 348 bonds of which 162 were of Rs 1 crore denomination, 137 of Rs 10 lakh and 49 of Rs 1 lakh each. Likewise, the Chennai Main Branch, in the election-going Tamil Nadu, recorded a sale of 156 bonds of which 140 were of Rs 1 crore each, and 10 lakh were of Rs 10 lakh denomination.

New Delhi Branch also posted high sales. Here a total of 199 bonds were sold and 165 of these were of Rs 1 crore each, 24 were of Rs 10 lakh each and 10 of Rs 1 lakh denomination. The Guwahati Branch in Assam also recorded a decent sale of 37 bonds of which one was of Rs 1 crore while 31 were of Rs 10 lakh each and five of Rs 1 lakh denomination.

Also read: RTI Reveals Electoral Bond Scheme Passed After Only ‘Informal Discussion’ Among Officials

Apart from these branches, the Gandhinagar Branch sold 24 bonds, Hyderabad Main Branch 96, Mumbai Main Branch 106 and the Panaji Branch three bonds.

The data provided by SBI also revealed that barring the two bonds of Rs 1,000 each, which were sold in the Chennai and Mumbai branch, all the other bonds were redeemed.

BJP was biggest beneficiary of past sales, SBI goes silent on issue this time

Past analyses of the electoral bond scheme have revealed the Bharatiya Janata Party to be the biggest beneficiary of the scheme, having cornered over 60% of the donations that came through it. In 2017-18 and 2018-19, while political parties received a total of Rs 2,760.20 crore from electoral bonds, the BJP got Rs 1,660.89 crore or 60.17% out of it.

This time, the SBI has refused to divulge the details of the beneficiaries. To Kumar’s query on the political party-wise details, it said this information was “third party personal information available with the Bank in its fiduciary capacity disclosure of which is exempted u/s 8(1)(e) and (j) of the RTI Act, hence denied”.

CIC earlier declared that disclosing names of donors will not be in public interest

Attempts by transparency activists to get the authorities to provide details of the donors of electoral bonds have not met with much success. In a significant ruling, the Central Information Commission in December 2020 held that disclosing the identities of the electoral bond scheme donors is not in the public interest.

To another RTI applicant, SBI also refused to provide the date-wise details of purchase of electoral bonds saying these were not compiled by it “centrally in its usual course of business” and that the “collection and collation of the said information from the branches all over India would disproportionately diver the resources of the public authority.”

Over 6.64 lakh electoral bonds printed at India Security Press in Nasik

The bank also disclosed in response to the RTI application that a total of 6,04,250 electoral bonds – of which 2,65,000 were of Rs 1,000 and 10,000 denomination each; 53000of Rs 1 lakh; 16,600 of Rs 10 lakh and 4650 of Rs 1 crore each — were printed at the India Security Press at Nasik in 2018. Similarly in 2019, a total of 60,000 electoral bonds were printed there of which 40,000 were of Rs 1 lakh each, 10,000 of Rs 10 lakh each and 10,000 of Rs 1 crore each.

The SBI also provided phase-wise data of the sale of the electoral bonds as per which a total of 13,898 electoral bonds worth a little over Rs 7,230 crore have been sold till date. Of these 6,686 were of Rs 1 crore denomination and 5,258 were of Rs 10 lakh each. This revealed that nearly half of the bonds sold were of the highest Rs 1 crore denomination.

Note: An earlier version of this article erroneously stated that the RTI query was filed by a Communist Party of India leader.

Key Economic Lessons Learnt From the West Bengal, Kerala Electoral Results

The environment created by the BJP’s campaign chariot couldn’t pierce through the solid foundations of a state economy built around the principles of a robust social safety net for its most vulnerable.

The electoral success of Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal and Pinarayi Vijayan’s Left Democratic Front (LDF) in Kerala mark a critical junction in the state of Indian politics today. Not only have both these grassroots leaders, belonging to regional parties, stopped the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from coming to power in their respective states, they have also shown a way to offer some key economic policy lessons that are vital towards building a strong political opposition against the BJP – at a national level too.

Compared to Kerala where the BJP couldn’t manage to win a single assembly seat this time, in West Bengal, the party won around 77 seats (taking a lot of its vote share from the Left + opposition parties). In Bengal’s highly polarised election, despite all the national hype, an absurd amount of spending in campaign money, the BJP still couldn’t defeat the incumbent TMC. Mamata’s TMC is likely to have won the state by even a bigger margin than the last assembly election. While in Kerala, for the first time in four decades, an incumbent party has won the state election again.

What does it say about the success of both parties and its leadership?

The answer to this may lie in both states’ political economic performance: in the persistent pursuit of pro-people, welfare measures allowing voters, irrespective of geography (rural-urban), class, caste, ethnicity, gender, to vote in large numbers for incumbent leaders. The hawa (political environment) created by the BJP’s campaign chariot couldn’t pierce through the solid foundations of a state economy built around the principles of deliberative redistribution and a robust social safety net for its most vulnerable.

West Bengal

In West Bengal, data shows how the state’s rural purchasing power (measured through household consumption data) was higher than the national average over the last decade i.e. when TMC was in power, even though, it’s decadal growth rate (at 4.9%) was lower than the national average (at 5.5%). Even though urban consumption patterns didn’t rise in proportion to the national household consumption average, more than 72% of its population and voters reside in rural areas, who now voted for the TMC.

On poverty too, despite low-growth levels, West Bengal did well over last decade, as poverty rate fell to 14% compared to the national average where poverty rate went up to 23%. As Maitreesh Ghatak of London School of Economics explains, “Despite the state’s lack of ‘economic dynamism’, the rate of growth of purchasing power in rural areas of West Bengal has been higher than the national average. This could be partly due to state government’s various transfer programmes such as the Kanyashree or Krishak Bandhu or Yuvashree…”

Also read: How West Bengal Halted the BJP’s Chariot

Success of rural-based welfare programmes allowed women voters to drive Mamata Banerjee’s TMC to electoral success, along with rest of the social groups in economically vulnerable categories (minorities, Dalits, tribal communities). A vote share of more than 50% for TMC against the BJP and other opposition parties otherwise would not be possible, if all these groups didn’t vote together for the incumbent.

On welfare schemes, TMC increased spending during its term over the last decade. State budget 2020-21 announced that persons aged 60 and not covered under any pension scheme belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes shall get a monthly pension of Rs 1,000. The new pension scheme is expected to cover 2.5 million beneficiaries, with an allocation of Rs 3,000 crore.

In 2019, the state also announced the Krishak Bandhu scheme – its own version of the PM-Kisan cash transfer scheme. The state also provides free electricity for the poor. Under the Karma Sathi Prakalpa scheme, the government provides loans of up to Rs 2 lakh for taking up any new income-generating project. With an allocation of Rs 500 crore, this scheme aims to target one lakh unemployed youths.

Supporters of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. Credit: Rupak De Chowdhuri/ Reuters

Representative Image. Photo: Rupak De Chowdhuri/ Reuters

Kerala

In Kerala too, Pinarayi Vijayan’s electoral success was built around his government’s ‘pro-people’ policies that helped the state battle a pandemic’s wrath. Kerala – which was one of the worst affected states during the first wave of the pandemic in 2020, a natural disaster (floods in last August) – made sustained public investments in healthcare, social-protection and immediate disaster response-rehabilitation.

Also read: Tackling Coronavirus Pandemic: Is the Kerala Model Really Working?

On social and economic performance, Kerala has always done well in comparison to most other states, especially those in the north where the BJP has had a strong electoral foothold. Kerala outdid others in implementation of family planning practices, in health indicators like life expectancy, infant mortality rate, maternal mortality, neo natal care etc. Based on the last census data, the state has the lowest decadal population growth (4.9%), the highest female-male sex population ratio (number of females per 1000 males: 1084) as compared to other Indian states. The state also has one of the highest proportions of GSDP (gross state domestic product) spending on areas of education, health and other social-welfare related expenditures.

Pinarayi Vijayan at a rally in Thrissur ahead of the Kerala assembly polls. Photo: Twitter/@vijayanpinarayi

What’s interesting to note in the context of both West Bengal and Kerala is how, despite low state-level growth performances (in comparison to the national average), they have done well in improving the lives of those in the economically vulnerable category (those in the minority and of lower class-caste), and over time increased their purchasing power. Better implemented land-reforms, localised schemes of conditional income transfers, and a better functioning price-rationing system for ensuring basic nutritional supplies and making access to housing, healthcare and education more affordable to the general population, including those who migrated to the state from other states. More importantly, those in rural areas realised the actual benefits of these steps.

State governments, whether TMC or LDF, did well to identify and realise the needs and interests of the society, while consciously moving away from projecting the paradoxes of a classical neoliberal policy trap – the adoption of which widened both economic and social inequities in many Indian states including the high growth performing states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, to name a few over the last decade.

We see horrible repercussions of that today when states like Gujarat and Maharashtra’s healthcare system are observed to be severely stressed even after a year of the pandemic. Each of these states under invested in public health, education and in social welfare measures. Poverty, pre-existing social inequities further accentuated from a neoliberal economic policy pursuit for decades, giving way to a ‘false’ politics of aspiration, disconnected from actual realities, coalesced around an ‘us’ versus ‘them’ identity-based polarisation and majoritarian assertion with less regard for people’s welfare.

Building a consensus for a national level political and economic opposition to such politics may therefore draw upon vital lessons from the success of grassroot, welfare politics of Mamata Banerjee and Pinarayi Vijayan. They show how deliberative redistribution anchored in an economic policy system working for and in the interests of the poor and most vulnerable are part of a successful counter punch to BJP’s centralised national politics of authoritarian populism being practiced sans a strong welfarist policy outlook.

Deepanshu Mohan is an associate professor and director, Centre for New Economics Studies at O.P. Jindal University.

Watch | Election Results of Four States and a Union Territory Amid COVID-19 Crisis

To know who is going ahead and whose government is going to be formed, watch this report of The Wire.

The election results have been announced in 822 assembly seats in four states and one Union Territory of the country amid the COVID-19 pandemic. To know who is going ahead and whose government is going to be formed, watch this report of The Wire.

Assembly Polls 2021: Exit Polls Give Slight Edge to Mamata in Bengal; BJP To Retain Assam

In Kerala, the CPM-led LDF is likely to retain power, while in Tamil Nadu, the DMK-Congress alliance is predicted to have a massive victory.

New Delhi: The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress is likely to retain West Bengal, if exit polls are to be believed. Projections for the neighbouring Assam gave a clear edge to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led alliance over the Congress-led opposition.

In Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the ruling Left combine and the DMK-led opposition alliance, respectively, were projected ahead of their respective rivals.

In Puducherry, the NDA is expected to form the government.

Four states and one Union Territory – West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry – voted to elect their next government. The results will be announced on May 2.

West Bengal is witnessing a high stakes battle between the ruling Trinamool Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Left-Congress alliance, for the 294 member house. The state held elections in eight phases.

Tamil Nadu, which held a single-phase election to the 234-seat assembly, is seeing a contest between the DMK-Congress alliance and the ruling AIADMK-BJP alliance.

Assam, where the saffron party won for the first time in 2016, held a three-phase election for the 126 member house.

In Kerala, which has 140 seats, the ruling CPM-led LDF, the Congress-led UDF and the BJP are the contenders.

Puducherry, which has 30 seats, is seeing a contest between the Congress-led UPA and the All India N.R. Congress-led opposition alliances. Two months before the polls, the Congress lost its power in the Union Territory due to infighting.

Exit polls

In West Bengal, the Republic-CNX polls gave the BJP a slight edge by projecting 138-148 seats for the party in the 294-seat assembly and 128-138 to the TMC. However, the Times Now-C Voter predicted a clear majority for the TMC by projecting 162 seats for the party and 115 for the BJP.

Jan Ki Baat exit polls, however, predicted a strong majority for the BJP in West Bengal, giving it 162-185 seats, against 104-121 to the ruling TMC.

In Assam, India Today-Axis My India predicted 75-85 seats for the BJP in the 126-member assembly and 40-50 to the Congress-led opposition.

The Wire has collated the exit polls from various agencies.

West Bengal (294 seats)

	BJP	Trinamool Congress	Left-Congress alliance
India TV	172-191	64-88	7-12
CNN News18	115	158	15
Times Now-C-Voter	115	162	22
Republic-CNX	138-148	128-138	11-21
ABP-C-voter	109-121	152-164	14-25
Jan Ki Baat	162-185	104-121	3-9

Tamil Nadu (234 seats)

	DMK-Congress	BJP-AIADMK	Others
Republic-CNX	160-170	28-68	4-6
Today’s Chanakya	164-186	46-68	0-6
P-MARQ	165-190	40-65	1-3
Aaj Tak-Axis-My India	175-195	38-54	0-2

Assam (126 seats)

	BJP	Congress	Others
Republic-CNX	58-71	53-66	0-5
Aaj Tak-Axis-My India	75-85	40-50	1-2
Today’s Chanakya	61-79	47-65	0-3

Kerala (140 seats)

	LDF	UDF	BJP
ABP-C-voter	71-77	62-68	0-2
Times Now-C-Voter	74	65	0

Puducherry (30 seats)

	NDA	Congress-led SDA	Others
ABP-C Voter	19-23	6-10	1-2

(With inputs from PTI)

Spread Over a Month, Bengal’s Eight-Phase Election Triggers New Political Debate

While TMC alleges that the schedule has been prepared to help BJP national leaders campaign in the state, the BJP blames it on political violence in West Bengal.

Kolkata: On Friday, soon after the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced the dates for assembly elections in four states and one union territory in a press conference in New Delhi, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee addressed the media in Kolkata to raise questions on the “ECI’s neutrality”.

“Bihar, with about 240 seats, had the elections conducted in three phases. Assam too will undergo polls in three phases. Tamil Nadu, which has 234 seats, will have a single-phase polling, and so is the case for Kerala, which has a CPM-led government. So, why Bengal, with 294 seats, is to have an election in eight phases? For whose advantage? Shouldn’t ECI be a little rational?” she asked.

She went on to ask whether the schedule had been prepared on the advice of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah to suit their campaign schedule.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. Photo: PTI.

“(Is it) so that they can space out their campaign rallies? So that they can have Assam, Tamil Nadu and Kerala covered and then have 23 days for Bengal alone?” Banerjee asked.

Also read:‘Dates as Per Narendra Modi, Amit Shah?’: Mamata Banerjee Questions 8-Phase Bengal Polls

According to a report by PTI, chief election commissioner Sunil Arora justified the eight-phase poll in Bengal by saying, “The elections to West Bengal (Assembly) in 2016 were in seven phases. The Lok Sabha was in seven phases. So, seven to eight (phases) is not such a big deal because we also have to see the movement of forces, the current charges and counter-charges (by political parties).”

Arora explained that measures are taken based on the history of the state’s electoral malpractices, which is why two special economic officers have been deputed to Tamil Nadu (to check the flow of black money) and two police observers have been sent to West Bengal (for the law and order situation).

Bengal elections and political violence

Bengal has a long history of political violence since the 1950s and elections have often been marred with violence and lawlessness. The 2001 assembly elections and the 2004 Lok Sabha elections were held in a single phase, but the 2006 assembly elections that returned the Left parties to power for a seventh consecutive time with a massive mandate were held in five phases over 22 days.

The watershed 2011 assembly elections in which Mamata Banerjee toppled the 34-year-old Left Front regime were held in six phases over 23 days, while the 2016 assembly polls that re-elected Mamta Banerjee were held in seven phases over 32 days.

The upcoming elections will be held in eight phases over 34 days, starting on March 27 and ending on April 29. It is nearly as long as the 2019 Lok Sabha elections held over 39 days in seven phases across India.

Also read: EC Announces Dates of Polls in 4 States, Puducherry; Bengal Election in 8 Phases

On Friday, Mamata Banerjee said that she was shocked to see the schedule which she had learnt from the BJP office had actually come true with the ECI announcement. Her crux of the argument was elections in all other states would conclude on April 6 after they begin on March 27, but only elections will continue in Bengal until April 29.

Five of the eight phases, accounting for 203 seats of the 294 in West Bengal assembly, will be held after April 6, for another 23 days. TMC leaders alleged that this would help the BJP mobilise its campaigners and organisers involved in Assam, Kerala and Tamil Nadu elections to campaign in West Bengal after April 6.

Mamata’s fear evident: BJP

BJP leaders took a dig at Banerjee following her remarks, stating that her speech revealed how scared she is of getting defeated.

“Sounds like she has started accepting her defeat right at the beginning of the battle and creating excuses for her future,” said the BJP’s former national secretary Rahul Sinha.

“If the elections are being held in the maximum phases, it is because the TMC created the record of maximum political violence,” Sinha added.

BJP supporters attend a public meeting addressed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah during the launch of fourth phase of Poribortan Yatra, ahead of the West Bengal assembly polls, in Cooch Behar, Thursday, Feb. 11, 2021. Photo: PTI.

He added that the TMC should not complain because Mamata Banerjee, the TMC’s prime campaigner, too would get ample scope for touring different parts of the state.

The BJP has also gone to town stating that the ECI’s decision vindicated its allegations that law and order had deteriorated in West Bengal.

Of the third force in the elections, the Left-Congress alliance, both the CPI(M) and Congress welcomed the decision of the ECI. The CPI(M)’s politburo member Md Salim said, “We are not going to have any problem. The TMC might have some. And who is to be blamed that the elections are being held in so many phases? However, merely phasing out the elections does not ensure making it free and fair.”

Also read: ‘Bengal Wants Its Own Daughter’: TMC Slogan Reflects Upcoming Polls’ Identity Politics

According to veteran journalist Subhasis Maitra, the schedule will help the BJP more than the TMC.

“In Assembly elections, when the elections are stretched out, and if there is a national party in contention, then they would get an advantage, because they can mobilse their forces from all over the country. They can get people involved in elections who are usually occupied with other priorities. So, from the perspective of mobilising resources, it creates an advantage for the BJP,” Maitra said.

Mitra, however, said that the role of the ECI was not beyond questionable. “It is true that the Trinamool Congress-perpetrated violence has a role behind the stretching of the elections. At the same time, the present ECI, due to its role in some of the previous elections, has lost the credibility that T. N. Seshan had. The ECI has none to blame but itself that questions are being raised about its intentions,” he added.

In 2019, the BJP’s Gujarat youth wing chief Rutvij Patel had come to Bengal with a team of select organisers soon after the elections were finished in his home state. BJP’s Suresh Pujari joined in after the elections in Odisha, and Sunil Deodhar came in after the elections in Tripura and Andhra Pradesh concluded. They are among the senior BJP leaders while numbers of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) volunteers had come after elections concluded in their home states.

The BJP has a relatively weaker organisational presence in Bengal, especially compared to the TMC, and the party heavily depends on support from its central unit. Even though it has grown after the party won 18 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in 2019, the party’s central leadership is aware of the organisational deficiencies the party still struggles with. In fact, this time around the BJP has been on a full steam to poach leaders from TMC, the Left and the Congress.

Apart from the BJP’s national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, national joint-general secretary (organisation) Shiv Prakash, national secretary Arvind Menon and IT cell’s national chief Amit Malviya – who are in charge of the state – leaders like Madhya Pradesh home minister Narottam Mishra, Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, Union ministers Sanjeev Balyan and Gajendra Singh Sekhawat have been given special, area-specific responsibilities in Bengal. There are leaders from other states who have started camping in Bengal.

The TMC hit out back at the BJP and its mobilisation of leaders from across the country as how difficult it is and humongous a task it could prove for the Saffron brigade to take on Mamata Banerjee.

On Saturday, TMC’s Rajya Sabha leader Derek O’Brien tweeted, “33 days, 8 phases, 22 Central ministers, 6 chief ministers, 3 central agencies, 10s of thousands of forces, Infinity money/media VERSUS One woman in a Hawaii chappal.”

The TMC is also using this occasion to highlight one of its central themes for the election: that it is a battle between the Bengali and the Bahari (outsider).

“The election schedule creates scope for massive outsider polarisation. We are sure the people of the state will give a fitting reply to this attempt to undermine Bengal by use of outside forces,” said Dilip Yadav, the TMC’s Hooghly district unit president.

Snigdhendu Bhattacharya is a journalist and author based in Kolkata.