Bhaskar Roy recites Thomas Hardy’s elegy In Time of The Breaking of Nations and highlights his Bengali medium schooling to impress upon his Rajarhat voters how he has risen from the ranks. He names multi-national companies where he has held high posts to further boost his aspirational image. The BJP candidate resides on the fringes of New Town, just outside NKDA area. Here are snatches from his speeches delivered at street corner meets across Rajarhat and at a meeting with local party workers uploaded on the party’s local unit social media page.
⚫ Huge buildings have come up in New Town — Uniworld City, Rosedale, Elita Vista, DLF… They have everything — sewerage, drainage, drinking water, roads… But New Town and Rajarhat are like Suorani and Duorani. The Left Front built the place and Trinamul Congress ruled for 10 years. Could they not include these fringe areas under Hidco as added area, at least in terms of civic services? Could the earlier Trinamul MLA (Sabyasachi Dutta) not have tried to get this done? He has realised his mistake. He too had to work within the structure of his party. So he has quit his party and joined us.
⚫ There is no scope of livelihood here except brokerage and building materials syndicate. Youngsters here do not know how much they will earn at the end of the month, This is an entirely unorganised sector. The Trinamul government has done nothing to create jobs here. Look at Eco Park. How many local youths are employed there? Not even 10. There is an IT Hub in Action Area III. How many Rajarhat boys have got work there? All the chief minister does is hold a Global Business Summit where foreigners come. I develop software and export to 14 countries. I too have been invited to that summit in Eco Park. If I win, I will make sure local lads get priority in jobs here. Not everyone needs to be B.Tech or M.Tech. There can be job-oriented crash courses. These offices will need all kinds of people. I will create an employment bank so that new offices that come up can contact and employ local youth.
⚫ It is perfectly acceptable if local boys pool in funds and start a business in supply of building materials. If any house or boundary wall is coming up in the area, they could even approach with a request, saying: “Kaku ba Dada, Apni toh baire theke jinish kinben kono dokan theke. Amra toh parar-i. Apni amar thekeo nite paren.” But the decision will rest with the owner. Backed by police or political leaders, if they go and demand that building materials must be taken from them, that will not be allowed. Je syndicate manusher jibon durbisoho kore tole, shei syndicate hote debo na.
⚫ The Left Front had this principle of langol jar, jomi tar (land belongs to him who ploughs the land). They took away land from farmers and redistributed it (among share-croppers as part of Operation Barga, the land reforms programme). As a result, farmers here have small parcels of land which does not allow them to even get bank loans. The system has collapsed. They imported communism to replace our 5,000-year-old Hinduism. During their regime, Hidco took away lands of local villagers paying Rs 5,000 to 5,500 per cottah. Now land in New Town is worth Rs 30-35 lakh per cottah. Their leaders are so old that they cannot see. I am telling you who their projected chief minister candidate is — Mohd. Salim. He is contesting from Chanditala. (The LF has made no such announcement).
⚫ There is no hospital here. Those who have money go to Apollo (Gleneagles Hospitals) or AMRI Hospital and those who do not, have to go all the way to RG Kar or Nil Ratan Sircar (Medical College and Hospital). Even there you don’t get beds. I plan to build a super speciality hospital, either a government one or one on public-private partnership model.
⚫ The place also needs good government schools. I will work to improve the condition of the local Bengali medium schools.
⚫ They have fielded a namesake of mine as a dummy candidate. So there is another Bhaskar Roy (from Bahujan Samaj Party) right under my name on the ballot paper. But people will look for my symbol and vote. Even if six Bhaskar Roys are fielded they will not be fooled. This is a war between Ram and Rahim. There is a need for consolidation and polarisation of votes. We want to build a Hindu rashtra though we do not neglect other religions. But if anyone refuses to chant Bharat Mata ki jai, he will be treated as minority.
⚫ My campaign starts at 6.30am with a cha chakra with people. From 7.30am till 1pm, I am going door-to-door. There are drawing room meetings scheduled from 3pm to 4pm. There are again door-to-door campaigns in the afternoon. Street corner meetings take place in the evening. After 9.30pm, I hold organisational meetings.
Rajarhat New Town
