Bhagwat meets Mithun: How Disco Dancer swayed from Left to TMC to Right

“If you’re not a communist at the age of 20, you haven’t got a heart. If you’re still a communist at the age of 30, you haven’t got a brain.”

This quote has been attributed to more than one thinker over the past couple of centuries. Some critics have even suggested that the idea in the quote predates the principle of communism as defined by philosopher Karl Marx.

Actor Mithun Chakraborty’s political ideology appears to have followed the logic contained in the opening quote. As a teenager growing up in the Bengal of 1960s, Gouranga, who had rechristened himself as Mithun, fell in love with the ideology of the Naxalite movement.

From such extremist Left ideological leaning, Mithun shifted to political mainstream of the Left maintaining close links with the Jyoti Basu-led Bengal’s ruling dispensation.

Later, he joined the Trinamool Congress of incumbent Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Now, Mithun is thought to be making a shift towards the Right.

Meeting with Bhagwat

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat today met actor and former parliamentarian Mithun Chakraborty in Mumbai. But the reverberations were felt in Kolkata as West Bengal is on the verge of an assembly election.

Mithun Chakraborty described the visit as a meeting arising out of “spiritual connect”.

This was not the first meeting between Bhagwat and Mithun. In 2019, Mithun had visited RSS headquarters in Nagpur.

After Bhagwat paid a return visit to the actor today, Mithun said, “I have a spiritual connection with Mohan Bhagwat. I had met him in Lucknow and later I had requested him to come to my home when he is in Mumbai.”

The meetings between Bhagwat and Mithun have triggered speculation about the actor from Bengal playing a role in the assembly election.

The BJP is eyeing to dislodge Mamata Banerjee’s TMC from power in the upcoming West Bengal Assembly election. The RSS is known to prepare the groundwork for the BJP’s political campaign.

The Naxal days

Political commentator Rasheed Kidwai in his book, “Neta Abhineta: Bollywood Star Power in Indian Politics” described Mithun Chakraborty as an original “urban naxal”. Mithun Chakraborty had close links with one of the founders of the Naxalite movement, Charu Majumdar.

In fact, before Mithun Chakraborty made a name for himself as an actor with his debut film, "Mrigaya", he was ‘wanted’ by the police for his Naxalite connection. Later, Mithun was credited for revolutionising dancing in movies with “Disco Dancer” and “Dance Dance”.

“People in the industry and outside it knew about my involvement with the Naxalite movement in Calcutta and my close links with Charu Majumdar, the fiery leader of the Naxalites,” Mithun Chakraborty had said in an interview.

He quit Naxal movement following the death of his brother in an accident. “I had quit the movement after there was a tragedy in my family, but the label of being a Naxalite moved with me wherever I went, whether it was the FTII in Pune or when I came to Bombay in the late seventies,” Mithun had told his interviewer.

In Mumbai (then called Bombay), Mithun Chakraborty was offered a film, “The Naxalite” by filmmaker Khwaja Ahmad Abbas. The film did not do well but before it was released, a 26-year-old Mithun Chakraborty had earned accolades for Mrigaya (1976) that won him the national award.

Mithun in CPI-M camp

Mithun Chakraborty was close to several top CPM leaders in Bengal including Jyoti Basu and Subhas Chakraborty. Mithun-Subhas bonding was so strong that the actor hosted a special dance show, “Hope ‘86”, in 1986 to raise funds for flood relief.

Top Bollywood celebrities Amitabh Bachchan and Rekha participated in the fund-raising event. Mithun’s Jyoti Uncle, the then chief minister not particularly known for his love for films, too attended the show.

Mithun Chakraborty’s tryst with the Left ended with the deaths of Subhas Chakraborty in 2009 and Jyoti Basu in 2010. The Left under Buddhadeb Bhattacharya did not care about Mithun Chakraborty.

Mithun with Mamata

Mamata Banerjee changed the political course of Bengal in 2011. Three years later, when Mithun Chakraborty was in Kolkata to attend the funeral of actor Suchitra Sen in January 2014 — ahead of the Lok Sabha polls — he was offered a party ticket.

The same year, Mithun Chakraborty was sent to the Rajya Sabha by Mamata Banerjee’s TMC. At an election rally in Asansol in 2014, Mithun attacked the BJP for trying to cut into the votes of the TMC and raised a slogan, “Har Ghar Didi, Baar Baar Didi” to counter the BJP’s catchphrase, “Har Har Modi, Ghar Ghar Modi”.

Mithun takes a Right turn

Mithun Chakraborty resigned from the Rajya Sabha in two years, after his name cropped up in the Saradha chit-fund scam investigation. He deposited Rs 1.2 crore, the money he had received from the company for his services, to the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

Following his resignation as a Rajya Sabha MP on health grounds, Mithun Chakraborty leaned towards the RSS. After his 2019 Nagpur visit, the RSS functionaries had said that Mithun visited the organisation’s headquarters as “he has started learning about the Sangh’s work” and that “he was impressed by the RSS’ commitment towards society”.

Commenting on the speculation of Mithun Chakraborty joining the BJP, party’s Bengal in-charge Kailash Vijayvargiya had said, “if he wants to join the party, he is welcome He is highly respected in Bengal and people love him.”

Will Mithun Chakraborty work for the BJP in Bengal election? No confirmation yet.

But if he does, another former TMC leader would be on the BJP side of the electoral fence in Bengal.