GROWING COMMUNAL POLARISATION IN BENGAL
By Ashis Biswas
In West Bengal, the ongoing political battle between the ruling Trinamool Congress(TMC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party just got uglier, following the arrest on a corruption charge of Mr Jaiprakash Majumdar, the state BJP vice president. He has just been given bail by the court.
With both parties also depending on each other – the TMC needs the BJP to ensure its survival, the BJP thinks it needs the TMC as an ally for now, in India’s East – their conflict has not always been governed by familiar norms of engagement seen between political forces elsewhere. Broadly speaking, within the state context, the TMC has always been the aggressor taking the initiative against the BJP, keeping it on the run.
During the TMC’s rule, scores of BJP party offices have been vandalised, many of its supporters beaten up by the police or TMC goons, or arrested on dubious grounds by the state police, its supporters terrorised in many areas. Leaders of the Congress and the Left Front parties, especially the CPI(M), too make similar allegations against the TMC.
In the process, as leaders from the Left Front parties and the Congress point out, common people in Bengal are being polarised swiftly along rabidly communal lines, injecting a new, worrying feature in the state’s politics.
The TMC leadership regards and uses the sizeable Muslim minority population (30 per cent plus) as its biggest support against the BJP. In the process, TMC leader Ms Mamata Banerjee makes no bones about adopting openly pro-Pakistan positions on even most sensitive foreign policy or internal security issues.
Examples abound. The West Bengal government banned a discussion in Kolkata on present developments in Balochistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, pleading that law and order could be disturbed. This, in addition to its raising an entirely avoidable hue and cry about a routine army deployment for an annual manoeuvre, and its asking for public explanations from Delhi about each step taken by the National Investigating Agency (NIA), during its probe into Islamic fundamentalist activities.
It is not surprising that angry imams have been known to urge upon their followers hurl stones at and drive out, BJP leaders in Bengal. It is the only state in India where such a call has been heard, even as the stone –pelting phenomenon began dying down in Kashmir itself.
Significantly, TMC leaders do not bother to discipline irresponsible elements publicly preaching their divisive, poisonous propaganda. In contrast, it is fair game for them to take on the BJP leaders. TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee just described Prime Minister Narendra Modi as ‘the son of a rat’ in a public speech, without the slightest censure from his leaders.
It needs stating clearly that the TMC has from the beginning been supportive of the extremist Muslim opinion in the state, as opposed to the moderates. It has sided with Muslim organisations that opposed war criminal trials in Bangladesh, drove out writer Taslima Nasreen and scuttled a proposed Kolkata visit from writer Salman Rushdie, ignoring anguished reactions from academician Ms Miratoon Nahar, MP Mohammad Salim and others who enjoy broad support within their community.
What this leads to is an automatic, corresponding moblisation among the majority Hindu population with moderates and secularists going over to the BJP camp. This explains why the BJP could emerge second in the by-election at held at Cooch-Behar parliamentary seat some time ago and its rising curve of votes won in recent elections.
As one analyst put it, “The image of the BJP as victim of TMC’s excesses in Bengal helps it win more votes than ever before. It is winning spontaneous public support from the people, which cancels out its organisational weaknesses. This is a challenge the TMC cannot ignore. But such a polarisation among Hindus would certainly impact the largely secular narrative of the state’s politics.”
Evidence of this was seen at Dhulagarh in Howrah, where armed miscreants looted and burnt several houses and shops some days ago. The police remained inactive. The incident follows a similar pattern of communal violence at Canning, Deganga and other areas.
When TMC minister and local leader Arup Roy went to provide relief – a measly Rs 35,000 for each shop burnt – after several days during which there were no arrests, he was heckled by a section of locals. Even as some refused what they called ‘the pittance’ on offer, other openly abused the TMC and its leaders. Roy beat a hasty retreat.
When BJP leader Locket Chatterjee went on a fact-finding visit to Dhulagarh, she was prevented by the police who had clamped orders under Section 144 CrPC. This after having allowed the local minority TMC leaders to take out a procession. “However, even as Chatterjee protested, local people came out one by one and soon, a sizeable procession had formed spontaneously, shouting anti-TMC slogans. The police retreated,” said an eyewitness.
Similarly, a recent visitor to Deganga, north 24 Parganas, where communal violence had flared up some time ago, an NGO worker reported: “We hardly could meet male members during the day time in villages where mostly Muslims lived. Even among the women folk of both Hindus and Muslims, invisible barriers had grown, as we had to brief them separately about the objective of our projects.” The rightwing RSS was reportedly more active than before in the region.
On its part, the state BJP had followed up its organisational work in most of the areas affected by such violence without overly publicising its efforts. The dividends can be seen on the ground. Even during the high pitch, strident anti-Centre campaign by the TMC in Bengal following the arrest of its Lok Sabha leader Sudip Bandopadhyay for his alleged chit fund scam involvement, the state BJP has organised its own processions and rallies regularly, unlike in the past.
What has helped the BJP further is the Bengal government’s openly partisan approach even on routine issues. A BJP-sponsored function at Asansol and an RSS open rally in Kolkata have been duly organised in the teeth of all-out TMC opposition, as Kolkata High Court rejected the state government’s pathetic arguments seeking their postponement. Secondly, given the TMC’s penchant to stifle all opposition by buying off leaders from the Congress(I) and the Left Front with lucrative offers, the BJP is automatically emerging as the sole remaining focus for all anti-TMC forces.
Considering that the TMC currently accounts for around 41-42 per cent of the aggregate vote in Bengal, that means if it plays its cards right, the BJP can well claim a large share of the remaining nearly 60 per cent anti-TMC votes in the state.
Surely food for thought for the TMC leadership here? (IPA Service)