By FFI Contributing Editor Dr Radhasyam Brahmachari
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West Bengal Map |
As soon as the results of the recently held Assembly Election were out, the long 34-year-old Leftists’ rule in the State of West Bengal came to an end. A coalition of Leftist parties, led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPIM, came to power in July, 1977, by defeating the incumbent Indian National Congress (INC), which is now being led by Ms Sonia Gandhi, the widow of the late Prime Minister Rajib Gandhi. West Bengal is governed through a parliamentary system of representative democracy, a feature the state shares with other Indian states. Universal suffrage is granted to residents. The legislature, the West Bengal Legislative Assembly, consists of 294 elected members and special office bearers such as the Speaker and Deputy Speaker that are elected by the members.
In the recent years, the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), led by Miss Mamata Banerjee, has emerged as the main rival of the Left Front (LF). In the previous Election, held in May, 2006, the LF could win 233 seats, while the AITMC, INC and others could win 30, 24 and 6 seats respectively. But this year, the picture has been totally upside down – the LF could retain only 62 seats while the AITC and INC coalition and others won 227 and 5 seats respectively.
In the 2006 Assembly Election, the LF bagged 50.18% of votes while TMC and INC could acquire 42.05%. But public sympathy for the LF began to decline from this time and, as a result the LF got 43.30% and TMC+INC alliance got 45.96% of votes. There is no doubt that the West Bengal politics underwent a major change when the Left Front won the 1977 assembly election, defeating the Indian National Congress. And though the Left Front, led by CPIM, governed the state for the subsequent three decades, it won the 2006 Assembly Election by various unconstitutional means due to erosion of public sympathy.
The role played by Muslim votes:
It has been mentioned in earlier articles that the Leftists around the world are found to be very sympathetic to Muslims and this trend is also present in Indian politics. Before independence, there was only one Communist party, namely the Communist Party of India (CPI). In the wake of independence, the CPI supported the Muslims’ demand of dividing the country and creation of a separate home land for the Muslims called Pakistan. The Communist leaders, including Jyoti Basu, the most prominent Communist leader of Bengal, held joint meetings, sharing the same dias, with the leaders of the Muslim League and raised slogans like – “India will obtain freedom only when the demand for Pakistan is met.”
It is needless to say that the Indian National Congress (INC), then under leadership of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, was the most prominent player in the field of the politics of Muslim appeasement. It started appeasing the Muslims prior to M K Gandhi’s return from South Africa and Gandhi, after his return from South Africa in 1915, adopted the said politics in a big way by supporting the Khilaphet Movement.It should be mentioned here that Gandhi never fought for India’s freedom. In fact, Gandhi was brought from South Africa to India by the British to sabotage India’s freedom movement. On the contrary, his intention was to prolong British rule in this country and to hoodwink the Hindus, he used to say that he was fighting for Swaraj. But his concept Swaraj was entirely mystical and vague, and according to him, termination of British rule was not at all necessary to establish Swaraj and Swaraj could function well even under the British rule. But Hindu-Muslim amity was the main precondition of Swaraj.
But his idea of Hindu-Muslim amity was extremely biased and prejudiced – Hindus were supposed to make every sacrifice and silently endure all the oppressions and crimes of the Muslims for the sake of this unity. He held the view that, Hindus should die but never should kill a Muslim. Many used to consider him a more devout Muslim than even Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Such were the basics of politics of Muslim appeasement by INC.
However, after independence, INC could have managed to obtain entire Muslim votes in its favour up to the 6th Assembly Election held in 1971. At that time, food crisis emerged as the most acute problem in West Bengal, which the Congress governments miserably failed to control. So, both Hindus and the Muslims opted for change and voted the LF, under the leadership of CPIM, and thus the LF came into power in 1977 Assembly Election. Up to the 14th Assembly Election, held in 2006, the Communists succeeded to remain in power with the help of the Muslims’ block votes.
The violent incident in Nandigram:
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Map of Nandigram |
The Nandigram controversy started when the government of West Bengal decided that the Salim Group of Indonesia would set up a chemical hub under the Special Economic Zone or SEZ policy at Nandigram, a rural area in the district of Purba Medinipur. Nandigram is a fertile agricultural area on the western side of the River Hooghly and the West Bengal government planned to expropriate 10,000 acres (40 km2) of land for a setting up of the said SEZ to be developed. The farmers vehemently opposed to give away their land and on 14 March 2007, by the orders of the Left Front government, more than 4,000 heavily armed police stormed the Nandigram area with the aim of stamping out the protests. The police opened fire and 14 people were killed and over 100 injured in police firing.
In fact, the administration was directed to break the Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee‘s (Committee to Oppose Uprooting from Lands) (BUPC) resistance at Nandigram and a massive operation with at least 3,000 policemen along with armed cadre of the Marxist ruling party was launched on 14 March 2007. However, prior information of the impending action had leaked out to the BUPC who amassed a crowd of roughly 2,000 villagers at the entry points into Nandigram with women and children forming the front ranks. In the resulting mayhem, as said above, at least 14 people were killed.
The Nandigram area is inhabited by both Hindus and Muslims and many of the victims of police firing were Muslims. A local Muslim leader Siddiqullah agitated and organized the Muslims against the police excesses and the Muslims lost sympathy for the LF government. On the other hand, Miss Mamata Banerjee rushed to the spot and sided with the farmers and the development went favourable for AITC, the party of Miss Banerjee. The incident of Nandigram is crucial turning point in West Bengal politics and helped the Muslims turn away from the Communists and become supporters of AITC.
Police atrocities at Nandigram
This development was amply reflected in the parliamentary election in 2009, where the LF could secure 43.30% of votes while the AITC could bag 45.95% of votes. So, the AITC + INC could win 25 seats, while the LF could win 15 seats, out of 42 seats.
How Mamata succeeded to woo the Muslim Voters:
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Protest by the farmers of Nandigram |
In fact, the state of West Bengal is the hot bed of the politics of Muslim appeasement and three players, namely the INC, LF and AITC are in fierce competition to woo the Muslim voters and capture their votes. In its tenure, the LF inspired the Bangladeshi Muslims to infiltrate into West Bengal and as soon as an illegal infiltrator crossed the border, the CPIM cadres rushed to provide a shelter and food for him, assisted him, to get a ration card and to get his name entered into voters’ list, and thus to turn the illegal immigrant into a citizen of India through the back door. They also have a long list of facilities for the Muslims to earn their support and turn them into voters for the Left Front.
For last ten years or so, particularly after the Nandigram incident, Mamata Banerjee started to offer more lucrative promises for the Muslims. Reservation of government jobs is the most important allurement. Mamata is also Railway Minister under the Central UPA Government, led by INC and this has put her into an advantageous position. She has promised that she will provide railway jobs for 500,000 Muslims. Before the current 2011 Assembbly Election, she has promised the Muslims with 15% jobs of the WB government, if she wins election and forms the government.
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Police atrocities at Nandigram |
To win over the Muslims, Mamata, from quite a long ago, is using Muslim dress code, whenever she visits a Muslim dominated locality. She publicly offers prayers like Muslims, in Muslim attire. She supported the Muslims for deporting the Bangladeshi authoress Taslima Nasreen from India, to please the Muslims. She even did not hesitate to sack one senior leader of her own party as he protesting the attempt of the Muslims to renovate an old and unused mosque in a predominantly Hindu dominated locality, by ignoring the sentiment of the local Hindus and using muscle power, in Kolkata.
In a previous article Destiny of the Hindus of West Bengal [1], this author has shown how the Muslim population in West Bengal is rising sharply. Particularly the districts bordering the Bangladesh are turning fast into Muslim dominated due exodus of Bangladeshi infiltrators. In many localities, in these districts, Muslims have succeeded to create mini Pakistans by increasing their numbers. In such pockets, Muslims have already begun jihad against the Hindus. They are looting Hindu properties, setting their houses on fire, drive away their domestic animals, abducting and raping Hindu women and so on. Their intension is to drive the Hindus out of the locality by intimidation and torture and grab their riches, fertile lands and other properties.
The Muslim savagery at Deganga:
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Mamata in Muslim attire offering prayer like a Muslim |
Deganga is a place in the district of North 24 Parganas and to the east of district town Barasat, which has been turned into a mini Pakistan by unchecked influx of Bangladeshi Muslims. In fact, the entire district is fast turning into Muslim dominated due to the exodus of Muslims from nearby Bangladesh. On September 6, 7 and 8, 2010, looting and burning of Hindu shops by the Muslims went on in the market places of Deganga and in nearby villages of Kartikpur, Khejuridanga and Beliaghata, scattered over an area of nearly 50 sq km. But the police remained silent onlookers and failed to protect Hindu properties amounting to nearly 30 million rupees. More than 70% of the affected Hindus in the area had once come from the East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) during partition in 1947. (to read more, read Islamic Barbarism in Deganga [2]) Muslim mob also desecrated and razed Hindu temples; and broke Hindu idols at many places of the locality. Hindu idol of Goddess Kali broken by the Muslims at DegangaThe trouble began on the basis of choice of a plot of land by the Hindus to celebrate Durgapuja. Chattalpalli is a village under the police station Deganga. It is mostly populated by the Hindu refugees from the district of Chattagram, Bangladesh. Chattal Samiti is a Hindu organization that has been organizing Durgapuja celebration every year from past 40 years. As the usual according to this tradition, the Chattal Samiti also started celebrating the Durga Puja festival and erecting a temporary pandal on the spot of land where they usually celebrate the festival. According to the records, the land was once owned by Rani Rashmoni, a very well known Zamindar of Calcutta. By the side of the spot, there lies a Muslim burial ground, but the land is disputed.On September 6, at about 5 pm, just after the iftar, more than 2000 Muslim goons simultaneously attacked the Hindu shops at the market places at Deganga, Kartikpur, Khejuridanga and other markets with swords, knives, bombs, grenades, acid-bulbs and firearms. Haji Nurul Islam, the MP from Basirhat (won the 2009 Parliament election with Trinamul Congress ticket) came to the spot along with the local Trinamul leader Ms Ratna Raychaudhuri. But they did nothing to stop atrocities by the Muslims. Miss Mamata is famous for her rushing to the spot where people are distressed. But she, in this case, prefered not to visit Deganga and keep mum for fear of losing Muslim support. This indicates what Mamata in such situation would do in future.
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Hindu idol of Goddess Kali broken by the Muslims at Deganga |
When the Hindus started preparation for the Durga Puja celebration, local Muslims, just to create an obstruction, dug up the road running in between the Puja spot and the burial ground. They also started to erect a wall so that no vehicle or men could reach the Puja spot. They also started to erect a wall so that no vehicle or men could reach the Puja spot. At first, the Hindus met the Muslim community leaders to make them understand that if they do not stop to erecting the wall, it would be impossible for them to celebrate the Puja. But all these requests fell on deaf ears. Later on, Haji Nurul Islam, the MP from Basirhat (won the 2009 Parliament election with Trinamul Congress ticket) came to the spot along with the local Trinamul leader Ms Ratna Raychaudhuri. But they did nothing. The Hindus, finding no other way, turned down the brick wall raised by the Muslims.
Conclusion:
From the above discussions it becomes evident that Miss Mamata Banerjee is going to be the next Chief Minister of West Bengal and the coming days of her tenure are going to be extremely unsafe for the Hindus of the state. Mamata’s policy of Muslim appeasement would embolden the Muslims, particularly in the Muslim dominated localities, to intensify their jihad against the Hindus and Mamata and her government would do nothing to protect the oppressed Hindus or to redress their agony. It would not be surprising if tens or hundreds of Deganga like incident takes place in West Bengal. So, there is no doubt that, very bad days are imminent for the Hindus of West Bengal.
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References:
[1] http://www.faithfreedom.org/articles/op-ed/destiny-of-the-hindus-of-west-bengal/
[2] http://www.faithfreedom.org/articles/persecution-by-islam/islamic-barbarism-at-deganga-west-bengal/
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