Indian Express
November 27, 2007
Don’t communalise Nandigram
Jyoti Punwani
The Jamait-ul-Ulema has done itself no favour.
Pratap Bhanu Mehta's ‘Kolkata chromosome’ has spelt out the dangers of giving in to the kind of communalised agitation which Kolkata saw on Wednesday. What of the dangers of leading such an agitation? By giving a religious face to the anger against the ruling party in West Bengal, the Jamait-ul-Ulema and the all India Minority Forum —and their (Congress?) backers-are compromising on the seriousness of the original issue.
Reams have been written on Nandigram, but not once has the religion of the villagers been mentioned — on either side. And why should it? The Nandigram agitation has attracted attention beyond political parties and state boundaries, because it concerns a conflict that lies at the heart of globalisation and its fall-out in developing countries today, as well as the tactics used by a ruling party that swears by Karl Marx.
Nandigram has been remarkable in another way, too. For decades, urban social activists, agitating on human rights issues, from undemocratic laws to freedom of expression, have bemoaned the lack of Muslim participation. Whenever Muslims have joined their campaigns, it has only been because their community has been targeted, either by the state or Hindu groups. Even then they have rarely accepted that the state targets other categories too: adivasis, workers, dalits. And here’s Nandigram, one of the biggest grassroots movements against the state today, with Muslims as much a part of it as Hindus, not asking to be treated as a special category whose victimhood is somehow deeper than that of Hindus.
In this context to talk about a ‘Muslim face’ to Nandigram is to inject a vicious element that is simply not there. Whatever the CPM may be guilty of, targeting Muslims as a community is not one of its sins, even after the Rizwanur Rahman case. To mobilise Muslims as Muslims against the party is dishonest and dangerous. The sight of topi-clad bearded men stoning the police to demand Taslima Nasreen’s ouster from India is as provocative as the sight of trishul-wielding men attacking journalists during the demolition of the Babri Masjid. When the stone-throwing bearded men also shout about Nandigram, you wonder what their Hindu neighbours in the refugee camps feel. What do the Muslim leaders who took the Nandigram struggle to the streets of Kolkata have to say about the Hindus who were raped and beaten by the CPM? That they represent them? Will they allow women to come out under their banner? The Jamait-ul-Ulema waxes eloquent about its faith in India’s composite culture. Well, its action last Wednesday was a negation of that culture.
Using religion to pressure the CPM might end up dividing what has so far been a remarkably united movement. Not just the CPM but also L.K. Advani might have the last laugh.
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