Kolkata: It is 10:50 am and a small crowd has gathered on a Wednesday morning inside Harish Park, located on Harish Mukherjee Road in Bhowanipore, South Kolkata. Plastic chairs in rows have been arranged on a footpath situated right after one enters the park. A makeshift stage has been setup at the end of the footpath.The young boys playing football on the other side of the park are not bothered by the first public function organised by the youth outfit Jai Hind Vahini, founded by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee last week to counter what the Trinamool describes as the ‘atrocities of the BJP’.The president and the convenor of the Jai Hind Vahini are Kartik Banerjee and Ganesh Banerjee respectively, both Mamata’s brothers. Its chairman is a minister in the West Bengal government, Bratya Basu. It was formed along with Banga Janani Vahini, a women-only outfit to be led by Trinamool MP from Barasat Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar.How does it plan to counter the inroads that the BJP has made in the state? The idea behind the Jai Hind Vahini is to create a coordinated movement inspired by Bengali pride to challenge the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh at the grassroots. Mamata Banerjee, while ordering her party members to create Jai Hind Vahinis across the state last week in Naihati, said, “Members of these forces will be given uniforms and identity cards. And they will be steeped in the culture of Bangla. They will follow the ideals of Netaji.” She had also added that they all would ‘work in coordination’ and give a ‘proper reply to the activities of the RSS’.Also Read: Prashant Kishor Meets Mamata, Agrees to Work With Trinamool CongressWhat speaks a thousand words is the banner that has been put up on the makeshift stage. On the right is a photo of Mamata Banerjee with her hands folded. On the left is a smiling Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.And in between them lie smaller photographs of famous Bengali personalities such as Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Swami Vivekananda, Khudiram Bose, Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam.The only non-Bengalis in the midst are B.R. Ambedkar, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Bhagat Singh. Neither is there a symbol of Trinamool in the banner nor the photograph of Kolkata South MP Mala Roy, who is also a speaker at the event.Countering the BJP’s politicsThere has been a concerted effort by Mamata Banerjee to highlight that the politics of the BJP is against the ethos of what Bengali culture has always stood for. Especially after the statue of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was vandalised amid clashes between Trinamool and BJP supporters which took place during Amit Shah’s roadshow in North Kolkata before the final phase of Lok Sabha elections on May 19.The BJP made massive inroads in the state of West Bengal by winning 18 of the 42 seats and getting more than 40% of the vote share. However, all the nine constituencies which went to poll following the destruction of the statue of Vidyasagar voted Trinamool, ensuring that they get four more seats than the BJP in West Bengal.Trinamool’s success in winning the final nine constituencies may or may not have been due to the politicisation of the destruction of Vidyasagar’s statue. However, Mamata Banerjee is continuing with the same strategy of pitting Bengali culture with that of the politics of the BJP.A few days ago, the profile picture on her official Facebook and Twitter handle were both changed. The new profile consists of photos of both Bengali and non-Bengali Indian respected personalities imprinted on the tricolour, with ‘Joy Hind’ and ‘Joy Bangla’ written at the top and bottom in Bengali respectively. This change happened a few days after she was taunted with chants of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ by some men in Bhatpara when she was on her to way to Naihati in North 24 Parganas district to attend a public meeting. She got out of her vehicle to confront the ones raising the slogans. The video went viral.Members of BJP mahila morcha pose for photographs as they hold a postcard written with ‘Jai Shri Ram’, to be sent to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, in Jammu. Credit: PTIThe first meetingMiddle-aged and young workers of Jai Hind Vahini can be seen wearing yellow kurtas and caps which read the name of the newly formed outfit. But why is everyone dressed in yellow? Kartik Banerjee told me after the event, “This is the choice of Rabindranath’s colour in Shantiniketan. Boys and girls students there wear it. We have thought of that colour only.”The meeting is about to begin and there are some prominent Trinamool politicians on stage now. Former Kolkata Municipal Corporation chairperson Sachidananda Banerjee, current Kolkata South MP Mala Roy, Kartik Banerjee, Ganesh Banerjee and Swapan Banerjee, another brother of Mamata Banerjee.Around 200 people are present as the 15-odd minute event begins at around 11 pm.Since the occasion is World Environment Day, all leaders on stage extol the virtues of planting trees, make customary greetings on Eid and speak on the formation of the Jai Hind Vahini.Explaining why the Jai Hind Vahini has been formed, Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, minister-in-charge of the Department of Power and Non-Conventional Energy in the West Bengal government, says on stage, “Wherever there will be an attempt to divide, we will make people understand that India is not that country.”Mala Roy, the current Lok Sabha MP from South Kolkata, gives a short speech as well. She says,”You all know that Jai Hind Vahini has been formed recently to fight. For the people of Bengal, for their fight and their rights. So that humans get back their rights. Their democratic rights.”Political violenceHowever, the dissatisfaction and anger against the widespread 2018 panchayat election violence which allegedly were carried out by many Trinamool workers is believed to have helped the BJP make inroads into the state. The BJP has also been highly belittling of how Mamata Banerjee has responded to slogans of ‘ Jai Shri Ram’ being chanted in her presence.However, Mamata Banerjee has categorically denied that the BJP is a victim of political violence in West Bengal. She cancelled her decision to attend the oath taking ceremony of Narendra Modi at the last moment after claims by the BJP that scores of BJP workers have been casualties of political violence in West Bengal. On Thursday, she met the family members of Nirmal Kundu, the Trinamool leader from Nimta, North 24 Parganas district who was shot dead on June 5. After meeting them, she said, “They are themselves taking part in murder and telling one-sided media in Delhi that these many of our people have been killed. All lies. I don’t believe in the politics of blood. Not a single person of theirs has been killed in Bengal.”Also Read: The Trap of the Lutyens’ LiberalAnd Kartik Banerjee is critical of the way the chants of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ are being used by the BJP and its supporters. He tells me, “See, when someone is saying Jai Shri Ram on stage, then we have nothing to say. A person is going and they are saying, ‘Aye. Jai Shri Ram’… seeing a person and making them angry. Jai Shri Ram is being used differently. That needs to be seen.”Despite the reservations that Trinamool has of Ram being introduced in West Bengal’s political battlefield and its view that the party’s politics is antithetical to Bengali culture, 40.3% of the electorate in the state did vote for the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.Will Jai Hind Vahini will be able to help in reversing the massive gains made by the BJP in the state? Or is it just a balloon waiting to burst during the West Bengal assembly elections expected to be held in 2021?