Swapan Dasguptas long arc: Key conservative voice to first-time Bengal BJP MLA, Minister
(File)Senior BJP leader and first-time MLA Swapan Dasgupta was among 35 party legislators who were sworn in as ministers in West Bengal Monday as Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari expanded his Cabinet. In the recent Bengal Assembly elections swept by the BJP, journalist-turned-politician Dasgupta,70, won from the Rashbehari constituency in South Kolkata, defeating the incumbent Trinamool Congress (TMC)’s Debasish Kumar by over 20,800 votes.Dasgupta, a prominent political commentator and columnist, is known to be close to the BJP central leadership. He describes himself as “ideologically conservative and nationalist”. After being administered his oath of office by Governor R N Ravi at Lok Bhavan, Dasgupta posted on X: “Honoured to be sworn in as a Cabinet member in the West Bengal government.” Political innings Dasgupta has been a member of the BJP National Executive. In 2015, one year after the Naredra Modi-led BJP stormed to power at the Centre, the government conferred Padma Bhushan on him. In April 2016, the Modi government nominated Dasgupta to the Rajya Sabha as an eminent personality in literature. His term would have continued till 2022. However, in 2021, Dasgupta resigned from the Rajya Sabha to contest the Bengal elections from the Tarakeswar constituency on a BJP ticket. He lost that election by about 7,400 votes, even as the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC won the polls by a landslide to return to power. A month later, Dasgupta was renominated to the Rajya Sabha for the remainder of his original term, whose legal sanctity was questioned by the Opposition and some constitutional scholars. Long journeyStory continues below this ad Dasgupta hails from Kolkata where he went to St Paul’s School and La Martiniere for early education. He graduated from St Stephen’s College in 1975, and was awarded the Inlaks scholarship. He got his MA and PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies at University of London. He returned to India in 1979 to take up a management position at Calcutta Chemical Company. However, within a year, Dasgupta went back to the UK as a junior research fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford, where he taught and researched South Asian politics. Later, in the course of his professional career as a journalist, Dasgupta served in senior editorial positions in several leading dailies including The Indian Express, The Times of India, The Statesman and India Today. He has all along supported the Sangh Parivar and defended Modi in his regular columns in newspapers and on TV channels over the years. Dasgupta accompanied BJP stalwart L K Advani on his “rath” throughout his Bharat Uday Yatra from Kanyakumari to Amritsar in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. He shouldered the same responsibility with Rajnath Singh when he undertook the Bharat Suraksha Yatra from Puri to Delhi in 2006. Roadmap ahead On Monday, after taking his oath as a minister, Dasgupta outlined the priorities of the new BJP government in Bengal, flagging structural development and governance reforms among its focus areas.Story continues below this ad “TMC has left Bengal a completely devastated area. Our first task is to remove the ‘kachra’ (garbage) and begin the process of reconstruction and planning. The priorities have been set out in education, industrial sphere, setting up infra and getting law and order back,” Dasgupta said. He emphasised that restoring investor confidence and weeding out corruption from public administration would remain major tasks. “We also have to get back the confidence of the entire investor community. It is going to be a big challenge trying to get a degree of honesty back into the system because there are so many areas of public life which have been badly corrupted,” he said. The BJP is likely to use Dasgupta’s expertise in the education sector, where the previous
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