(This is the 14th in a series of insightful reports from the ground, titled The Race From India to Bharat. The author travels all across India as 960 million voters get ready to celebrate the largest festival of democracy in the world: the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. What do ordinary Indians think and feel about the past, present, and future of India? Are they convinced that the old fault lines are healing?)
(Read part one here, part two here, part three here, part four here, part five here, part six here, part seven here, part eight here, part nine here, part 10 here, part 11 here, part 12 here, and part 13 here.)
The request was explicit: “Dada, please remove the press sticker from your car and also keep your press ID card in the hotel room before coming to our village”.
In almost two months of my travels across India, I had never received a request to “hide” my press credentials while visiting a place. But then this is West Bengal where ordinary folks remain terrified of goons swearing allegiance to the Trinamool Congress (TMC).