Feature
Mamata Banerjee’s TMC removes Congress’s name from its logo
West Bengal’s ruling All India Trinamool Congress has dropped the ‘Congress’ from its new logo earlier this month and added dollops of blue, white and green colour to it besides giving it a catchy slogan in a bid to make the party one with the people of the eastern state.
Observers said it could also be Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s way of distancing her party completely from the Indian National Congress.
The Trinamool was formed on January 1, 1998, by Banerjee who came out of the Congress complaining that it was “hand-in-glove with the CPI-M-led Left Front” then in power in Bengal.
Thereafter, Banerjee and her new party went hammer and tongs at the CPI-M for over a decade and finally managed to ride to power by allying with the Congress and defeating the Left Front in the 2011 Assembly polls.
All these years, Banerjee never shied away from harping on her Congress past, and instead repeatedly projected her party as the “real Congress”.
Despite tying up with the Congress twice — briefly before the 2001 Assembly polls and also between 2009 and 2011 — Banerjee aggressively expanded her party’s base across the state, mainly at the cost of her old party.
Many of the one-time heavyweights of the Congress are now with the Trinamool and occupy important positions.
Banerjee’s close associates point out that no other leaders in the past were able to decimate the Congress in their respective states the way she has done in Bengal.
“The name Trinamool is enough. It resonates in the hearts of all our workers and supporters,” said a Trinamool Lok Sabha member.
Another party leader pointed out that it was only Indira Gandhi who was successful in splitting the Congress and ensuring that her party emerges as the real Congress.
“As such, Banerjee does not need the Congress background any more. She is very much a leader in her own right and the Trinamool has its own identity,” he said.
Banerjee has time and again spoken about a non-Congress, non-BJP Federal Front over the past two years, stressing on a greater role for the regional parties after the Lok Sabha polls.
The logo has used a blue-white colour combination in a big way surrounding the party’s twin flower symbol. There is also a very careful use of green colour in composing the font of the word ‘Trinamool’.
“Blue-white is Banerjee’s favourite colour. All government buildings, police stations and bus stands have this colour combination. The use of the same combination in the logo makes it an extension of the theme Bengal,” said the leader.
“Trinamool is a vibrant party, a party of the future, of the youth. The colour green signifies that. Blue-white is now Bengal’s theme colour,” the MP said.
The slogan “Amar, Apnar, Banglar” (mine, yours, Bengal’s) is said to be an effort to project the party as the representative of Bengal, and the only political outfit capable of fulfilling the wishes and desires of all sections of people in the state.
Trinamool leaders said the party would continue to be registered as the All India Trinamool Congress with the Election Commission.
The State Scores Extra High on Gaming-Friendly Industry Index
Meghalaya scored 92.85 out of 100 possible points in a Gaming Industry Index and proved to be India’s most gaming-friendly state following its recent profound legislation changes over the field allowing land-based and online gaming, including games of chance, under a licensing regime.
The index by the UK India Business Council (UKIBC) uses a scale of 0 to 100 to measure the level of legalisation on gambling and betting achieved by a state based on the scores over a set of seven different games – lottery, horse racing, betting on sports, poker, rummy, casino and fantasy sports
Starting from February last year, Meghalaya became the third state in India’s northeast to legalise gambling and betting after Sikkim and Nagaland. After consultations with the UKIBC, the state proceeded with the adoption of the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Act, 2021 and the nullification of the Meghalaya Prevention of Gambling Act, 1970. Subsequently in December, the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021 were notified and came into force.
All for the Tourists
The move to legalise and license various forms of offline and online betting and gambling in Meghalaya is aimed at boosting tourism and creating jobs, and altogether raising taxation revenues for the northeastern state. At the same time, the opportunities to bet and gamble legally will be reserved only for tourists and visitors.
“We came out with a Gaming Act and subsequently framed the Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021. The government will accordingly issue licenses to operate games of skill and chance, both online and offline,” said James P. K. Sangma, Meghalaya State Law and Taxation Minister speaking in the capital city of Shillong. “But the legalized gambling and gaming will only be for tourists and not residents of Meghalaya,” he continued.
To be allowed to play, tourists and people visiting the state for work or business purposes will have to prove their non-resident status by presenting appropriate documents, in a process similar to a bank KYC (Know Your Customer) procedure.
Meghalaya Reaches Out to a Vast Market
With 140 millions of people in India estimated to bet regularly on sports, and a total of 370 million desi bettors around prominent sporting events, as per data from one of the latest reports by Esse N Videri, Meghalaya is set to reach out and take a piece of a vast market.
Estimates on the financial value of India’s sports betting market, combined across all types of offline channels and online sports and cricket predictions and betting platforms, speak about amounts between $130 and $150 billion (roughly between ₹9.7 and ₹11.5 lakh crore).
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Delhi are shown to deliver the highest number of bettors and Meghalaya can count on substantial tourists flow from their betting circles. The sports betting communities of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are also not to be underestimated.
Among the sports, cricket is most popular, registering 68 percent of the total bet count analyzed by Esse N Videri. Football takes second position with 11 percent of the bets, followed by betting on FIFA at 7 percent and on eCricket at 5 percent. The last position in the Top 5 of popular sports for betting in India is taken by tennis with 3 percent of the bet count.
Local Citizens will Still have Their Teer Betting
Meghalaya residents will still be permitted to participate in teer betting over arrow-shooting results. Teer is a traditional method of gambling, somewhat similar to a lottery draw, and held under the rules of the Meghalaya Regulation of the Game of Arrow Shooting and the Sale of Teer Tickets Act, 2018.
Teer includes bettors wagering on the number of arrows that reach the target which is placed about 50 meters away from a team of 20 archers positioned in a semicircle.
The archers shoot volleys of arrows at the target for ten minutes, and players place their bets choosing a number between 0 and 99 trying to guess the last two digits of the number of arrows that successfully pierce the target.
If, for example, the number of hits is 256, anyone who has bet on 56 wins an amount eight times bigger than their wager.
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