According to the Indian Constitution, India is a secular country where every person has the religious freedom to follow his/her faith. However, some incidents in Indian politics force people to doubt secularism. The recent Draconian directive issued by Mamata Banerjee is an example of such an incident, which forces us to question what secularism truly is. Before that, I would like to share an incident.
In 2016, some hardcore TMC supporters and fans designed a Durga idol based on Mamata Banerjee. They advertised the 10 development schemes as 10 extra hands of the idol.However, irony has been killing itself since the last three years as the Chief Minister puts a temporary restriction on idol immersions on the day of Muharam which follows the day of Dashami by one or two days.
Recently on 23rd August 2017, Mamata Banerjee declared a temporary restriction on Durga idol immersion after 6 P.M. on Vijaya Dashami (Sep 30) till the 1st October this year. The restriction is due to the Muharram, which is on 1st October, a day after the Dashami.
The CM said that some people might try to instigate communal hatred for political gain, which may lead to communal clashes. In order to avoid any such situation, she is taking this decision.
This is not the first time when Mamata Banerjee put temporary halt on idol immersion on the day of Muharram. Mamata Banerjee took the same Draconian decision during the Durga Puja last year. On 2016, Muharram fell on October 12, the day after the Dashami. She issued a directive putting a restriction on idol immersion after 4 pm on Dashami. However, the High Court Justice Mr. Dipankar Dutta lifted the restriction on idol immersion by slapping the directive, calling it “appeasement politics”.
Justice Dutta said, “Muharram is not the most important festival of the people having faith in Islam”. The order also said that Vijaya Dashami is the ritual of puritan Hindus, which cannot be postponed for a day, nor can be preponed at the whims. The court also noted that Muharram was observed on the day after Dashami in 1982 and 1983 without any restriction. Even after such verdict on 2016, Mamata Banerjee is still issuing such order again this year.
Even on 2015, Mamata Banerjee ordered restriction on Durga idol immersions on October 23-24 due to Muharram. The Vijaya Dashami fell on October 22 that year.
At one instance, some may believe that she is issuing such directives as a preventive measure to stop any unwanted communal clashes. There are some incidents, which force us to question about her intentions. If Mamata Banerjee is ensuing communal harmony in her state, why is she silent regarding the restriction on Durga puja in the Kanglapahadi village situated in the Birbhum district? A village of 300 Hindu families cannot celebrate Durga Puja festival because 25 Muslim families are opposing the festival. For four consecutive years, the Hindu population of the village was denied any permission to celebrate the Durga Puja. The Hindu residents pleaded to the district administration by submitting their plea to the office of the district magistrate, the police superintendent, sub-divisional officer (SDO), sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) of Rampurhat and Block Development Officer (BDO) of Nalhati. Their plea went unheard.
There are some other incidents too. Even the local administration and police force stopped the 400-year old Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath on the eve of Eid in Murshidabad this year. After staunch protest by the local Hindus, police allowed the procession of Rath Yatra, but through a different route than the regular one.
Another incident of appeasement politics took place in February this year when the local police of the Tehatta locality severely beat the school students because they were protesting against the restriction on Saraswati Puja celebration in their school. Earlier, some Muslim students demanded to celebrate Nabi Diwas inside the Tehatta High school. The Headmaster allowed the students to hold a 15-minute prayer on 29th December to celebrate the Prophet’s birth anniversary.
The students were not satisfied and they gathered a mob of 10,000 people including some hardcore fundamentalists. They set up a stage within the campus and started religious speeches without any permission, to which the headmaster objected. The fundamentalists started serious trouble by vandalizing the school. As a result, the school administration shut the school for a short period. The school was reopened after some days. A local Muslim leader named Qasim Siddiqui was constantly opposing the reopening of the school. The local administration issued an order to close the school to avoid communal clash. On 31st January, the students of Tehatta High School carried a three-foot tall Saraswati idol and marched on the National Highway 6 as a protest against the order, which had shut their school. They demanded to open the school so that they could celebrate the Saraswati Puja in the school. The local police had beaten the unarmed students to force them to retreat. Some school-girls were severely injured.
Similar incidents happened at Rajarhat, a small town 10 km away from Kolkata.
Mamata Banerjee claims that she takes such decisions due to security measures, which will prevent any communal clashes. In her manifesto, she claimed that she would raise the employment opportunity in the state. If there is a lack of adequate police staffs to prevent such communal situations, why is she not recruiting more people in Police? Moreover, when she was criticized for putting the temporary ban on idol immersion due to Muharram this year, she tried to defend the order by saying that the restriction is only for 24 hours. On the other hand, Imam Nurur Barkati, who had issued a fatwa against PM Narendra Modi and had justified the use of red beacon car, has come in support of Mamata Banerjee by saying that any secular person would support this decision.
Due to divisive and appeasement politics of Mamata Banerjee, the state is suffering from communal tensions and her own image is deteriorating in the eyes of the people. She has nobody to blame, except herself.