Anatomy of Basirhat (West Bengal) Violence
Ram Puniyani
In
an insane act of violence two people lost their lives in Basirhat (West
Bengal, 04 07 2017). From last quite some time the social media is
abuzz that WB is turning Islamist, Hindus are under great threat, their
condition is becoming like that of Pundits in Kashmir. The section of TV
media projected the view that WB is not safe for Hindus but is a heaven
for Muslims. Angry posts are also declaring that Mamata is appeasing
Muslims, Islamist Radicals are growing in Bengal with support from the
Mamata Government etc.
This
act of violence was provoked by a facebook post. (July 04, 2017) Once
it was known in the area as to who has done the posting, they surrounded
the house where the 17 year old boylived.
The posting was derogatory to Muslims. As the atmosphere was building
up the state machinery kept silent, till the aggressive mob of Muslims
surrounded the house. Police intervention was too late. While the boy
was saved despite the angry mob which was demanding that boy handed over
to them
BJP
leaders got hyperactive and visited the area as a delegation. They
tried to enter the hospital to see the dead body of Kartik Chandra Ghosh
(Age 65). Muslim attackers had killed him. This attempt of the BJP
leaders was to derive political mileage from the situation as BJP
claimed that Ghosh was President of one of the units of BJP, while
Ghosh’s son denied it.
The
Governor of West Bengal, K.N. Tripathi, reprimanded Mamata Bannerjee
for the violence. Seeing his attitude Mamata got upset and called him as
the one belonging to BJP block level leader. Same Governor has been
called as a ‘dedicated soldier of Modi Vahini’ by one BJP leader Rahul
Sinha. The communal violence has taken a political color, BJP accusing
chief minister Mamata Banerjee of appeasement of Muslims while the
ruling Trinamool Congress is alleging that BJP is out for inciting communal passions to
benefit electorally. Surprisingly with this violence, where two people
have lost their life, BJP is demanding the President’s rule in the
state, while the law and order has already been restored within a week’s
time.
The
picture in Bengal is very complex. A section of Muslim leadership is
repeatedly doing violence in response to ‘hurt sentiments’. Earlier also
violence was unleashed by Muslims in Kaliachak, when one Kamlesh Tiwari
had posted something offensive against Prophet Mohammad. The feeling of
impunity enjoyed by this section of Muslim leadership is giving a big
handle in the hands of Hindutva forces, for which this yet again is
opportunity to polarize the society along religious lines. Here in
Bengal they don’t have to create the issue of ‘Holy Cow’ or ‘Ram
Temple’, it is being provided by this misguided section of Muslim
leadership.
The
picture is being created that Bengal is in the grip of Islamization as
earlier Kaliachak violence and now this violence are being cited to show
that Hindus are unsafe here. There was no loss of life in Kaliachak
incident but yes there was loss of property, though. The core theme of
BJP-RSS propaganda is built around Hindu victimization.
The
role of government has been far from satisfactory in this violence, as
it had time enough to control the situation but it did not. The law and
order machinery must ensure prevention of the buildup of such incidents.
By and large one can say that effective system can prevent most of the
riots, irrespective of who is the offender. Here the Government should
have acted in time.
Surely,
Mamata’s alleged appeasement of Muslims does not apply in economic
matters. The fact is that the economic conditions of Muslims of Bengal
are among the worst in the country. The budgetary allocation for
minorities in Bengal is much less than in many other states.
At
the same time the communal polarization by the BJP is coming up with
the menacing speed. In a state where Ram Navami (Lord Ram’s birth day
celebration) was practically unheard of, this year around the Ram Navami
procession was taken out with frightening swords in hands. Lord Ganesh
festival is also being promoted in the state where Ma Durga had been the
main deity so far.
Finally,
who benefits from the violence? The studies of different scholars on
communal violence in India like those by Paul Brass point out that there
is an institutional riot mechanism, the core part of which is the
impunity enjoyed by the offenders, the abysmal role of justice delivery
system as a whole. Another significant study from Yale University tells
us that in the places where communal violence takes place, in the long
run at electoral level, it is BJP which stands to benefit. Those who
appease the Muslim fundamentalists should note this and see to it that
that, to discharge the constitutionally assigned duties are the essence
of governance, irrespective of the community involved in the violence.
Let’s
summarize the anatomy of violence in Bashirghat. Stage one, the
offensive post on face book, two fundamentalist radical sections of
Muslims unleash violence, number three the approach of the state
government fails in preventing the violence. Number four BJP carries on
from there and worsens the atmosphere by playing out videos which showed
that Muslims were attacking Hindus in Basirhat. It turned out that
videos were not from Bashirhat at all. They were taken from Gujarat
violence of 2002. Also clips of a Bhojpuri films showing the molestation
of Hindu women were recklessly circulated,
the impression being given that this is happening in Basirhat. The same
was claimed by BJP’s national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya,
who said that he had news of Hindu women being raped in
the affected area. And lastly drums are beaten about victimization of
Hindus in Bengal. One just hopes it will not lead to polarization of
communities leading in a state where so far communal violence had been
reasonably under check.
