The Shadow of Blame: When a Life's End Becomes a Political Battleground in Bengal

In the quiet corners of Bagda, a town nestled in North 24 Parganas, a life tragically ended. Dilip Kumar Das, at 65, took his own life, a somber event that, you might imagine, would primarily be a private grief. But this is Bengal, where even the deepest personal sorrows often find themselves swept into the relentless currents of political discourse. And so, it was here that the political titans of the state found another battleground, wrestling over the very cause of a man's despair.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, ever quick to champion the vulnerable, didn't hesitate. She had, in fact, attributed Das’s suicide to an acute fear of the contentious National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), policies that have certainly stirred significant unease across the state. She spoke of how Das had, quite heartbreakingly, even called the 'Didi Ke Bolo' (Tell Didi) helpline, expressing his profound anxieties about potentially being excluded from the voter list, a fear that, for many, echoes the uncertainty brought by NRC discussions.

Yet, like a storm front meeting another, came the swift and utterly firm rejection from BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari. He didn't just disagree; he trashed, if you will, the Chief Minister’s narrative, calling it—well, frankly—political opportunism. Adhikari, with his characteristic directness, offered a starkly different picture, asserting that the suicide had absolutely nothing to do with the NRC. No, not at all.

Instead, according to Adhikari, the true catalyst for Das’s tragic decision lay much closer to home: a deeply personal, rather agonizing family dispute. It revolved, he explained, around money derived from the sale of a piece of land, a common enough source of contention in many families. He wasn't just speculating either. Adhikari cited local police reports, conversations with the very residents of Bagda, and — importantly — evidence that Das’s name was, indeed, present and accounted for on the voter list. So, how could it be about voter list exclusion then, one might reasonably ask?

You see, this isn't an isolated incident in the often-heated political theatre of West Bengal. Adhikari has a track record of challenging the ruling Trinamool Congress’s narratives. Just recently, for instance, he had vociferously denied allegations regarding an attack on a convoy belonging to a local TMC leader. It seems the state is in a perpetual state of political skirmish, with every significant event — even a tragedy — becoming fodder for a fresh round of accusations and counter-accusations.

Ultimately, in the cacophony of political point-scoring, the truth behind Dilip Kumar Das's final, desperate act becomes obscured. Was it the chilling shadow of NRC anxieties, as the Chief Minister suggests? Or was it the quieter, but no less devastating, weight of domestic strife, as Adhikari staunchly maintains? For the grieving family, perhaps the reason is painfully clear. For the political players, however, the unfortunate reality is that a human tragedy has, for better or worse, become yet another battleground in Bengal’s unending political war.