A stray incident of a man being killed for eating beef in Dadri was made into a propaganda campaign by the Media. The secularists termed the majority population to be intolerant for their acts of parochialism and bias against the minority. While the incident was indeed reprehensible, the concocted hysteria created around it was appalling.
From authors to scientists and actors to cocktail socialists, all raised their voice against the central government for an incident that happened in Uttar Pradesh where the police forces are under the directions of the State Government.
The media and the opposition parties made the most of this situation by communalising the issue to the fullest. WB CM, Mamata Banerjee, famous for her vote-bank politics had taken up the baton of taking forward the ‘intolerance’ propaganda when she gave speech after speech on the rising intolerance in India, even going ahead to the extent of authoring a poem in November, 2015 on the apparent “intolerance” that had marred the secular fabric of India.
But the hypocritical shout in her statements did not long last, shortly after the intolerance drama cooled down, there were unprecedented riots in Malda, WB, (a small district lying 347 Km to the north of Kolkata) . And just when Mamata Banerjee’s secular approach was required the most, she went deaf to helpless cries and dumb to all the questions raised by the Media over the atrocities committed by the violent Muslim mobs.
Even during Demonetization when the whole country was churning itself through a difficult phase, Mamata Didi’s WB was on the boil. Didi cried her heart out and conducted a dozen marches and rallies against the inconvenience it(Demonetization) was causing her people, going to the extent of taking an oath, promising her vote-bank populace of dethroning Modi one day. The plight almost seemed real, after all she had created the image of being the messiah of the poor and the downtrodden in Bengal. All seemed to be under control, until December 12, 2016, when on the eve of “Id – e – Milad – Ul – Nabi”, in Dhulagarh, a small town hardly 20 Kms from Kolkata burnt at the hands of extremist Muslims, who freely ran amok, hurling country made bombs at houses occupied by Hindus.
While the initial presumption of the authorities and the government was that, this was a one off incident and that the situation would eventually cool down. But even 20 days after the initial riots began, normalcy in Dhulagarh has remained a distant dream..
And while, all politicians and media persons had jumped into the fray during Dadri- Akhlaq incident, not a single news report (in print or digital medium) was reported by any of the so called ‘independent’ media organisations. Houses by the dozens were ransacked, looted and burnt to ground but the CM, Mamata Banerjee kept her stance unequivocally in favour of the minority (her major vote bank) until the very last. The same Mamata Banerjee who had raised pleas against intolerance, Rohith Vemula’s suicide and people’s inconvenience to Demonetization remained absolutely silent on the havoc created by the monsters created by her.
West Bengal known for its culturally rich heritage under the British Raj, has today under the tyrannical rule of Mamata Banerjee turned into a graveyard of the Hindu Culture. From banning the celebration of Durga Puja in Birbhum to giving a free hand to rioters in Dhulagarh, Mamata Banerjee has certainly come a long way, in her appeal to secure the Muslim votes in the state.
When questioned by the media persons (which happened long after the SC went on fire, and media persons were forced to cover the piece), the police claimed to have arrested 60 odd fringe elements responsible for the riots, but with a sizable extremist population free to what they do best, the situation is far from reaching a conclusion. The Salafi Islamic outfit responsible for a number of extremist activities, reportedly joined the procession taking place in the town and within no time started hurling crude bombs at random houses, targeting the Hindu population of the town.
When BJP leaders like MPs Jagdambika Pal and Satpal Singh, state president Dilip Ghosh and party national secretary Rahul Sinha tried entering Dhulagarh, they were stopped at a 1Km distance stating Section 144 had been imposed, thereby prohibiting their entry into the town. Even CPM leaders like Sitaram Yechury were stopped by the police forces on orders given by the government.
What is surprising is that the West Bengal government had enough man-power to stop a 1000 man delegation from entering Dhulagarh, but had a little too few to stop the rioters from running a mayhem in the town.
The victims of the mob violence (in a TV interview) expressed their apprehension of going back to their homes, stating that nothing of their (previous) assets remain, the mob ransacked and burnt their houses down and the state government’s paltry compensation of Rs. 35,000 was peanuts in comparison to their loss. Mamata Banerjee’s government which had announced a compensation of Rs. 10 Lakh for the families of the deceased of the Mecca tragedy in 2015, announced only Rs. 35,000 for the loss suffered by the extremist acts of the Muslim rioters in Dhulagarh. The compensation on either side’s needs to be reasoned and justified for, if Rs. 10 Lakhs can be given to the Mecca Victims then why only Rs. 35,000 to the victims of Dhulagarh.
The plea of the helpless Hindu population was ignored by the CM only to favour her Muslim vote bank (27% of the population). It is disheartening to see the erstwhile capital of the British empire turning into a burial ground, only because the leader of the state is a hatemongering maniac who cannot risk losing her vote bank, even if a thousand other lives are at stake.
What is more depressing is the passive approach of the Bengali populace which has remained as complacent as ever over the rising incidents of extremism by the fanatic Muslim population.
Considering and safely assuming, that almost every Bengali is strongly opinionated and has a say on almost all the actions taken by ‘the capitalist’ government, their silence on the rising extremism marks their hypocrisy. The state which once boasted of national leaders, intellectuals and philosophical thinkers today hides in the shadows of its glorious past. From being a thriving center of democracy to being a failed state in spite of a 78% of literacy. The liberals and the philosophers, who hate Modi for their own unsubstantiated reasons, seem to have gone blind in the case of Malda and now Dhulagarh.
The suppression of the majority by the minority would continue to thrive and control the democracy until the implementation of a uniform law for all. And while the minority of the country has to be made comfortable, the reasonable restrictions under Article 19 (2) and Article 25 (right to practise and propagate religion) are applicable to them aswell.
Author’s call –
Its time for the nation to wake up, and join the chorus against the atrocities committed against the citizens of India.
Bengal is India and India is Bengal, and if India is to remain, then the cultural heritage of the state would have to be protected from the evil extremist forces which seek to convert Bengal into another Bangladesh.
