The anti-Waqf Amendment Act violence in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district during recent days has revived the horrible memories of the “Direct Action Day” orchestrated by the Indian Union Muslim League, led by Mohammad Ali Jinnah on August 16, 1946. While the Congress did confront the Muslim League then, the principal opposition party in the country, however, right now has maintained a studied silence. It did not even issue a token statement to condemn the violence.
While the Muslim community is entitled to its opinion to oppose the Waqf Act, the violence against the members of the Hindu community in Murshidabad district is unacceptable and condemnable. Not surprisingly the West Bengal Chief Minister Ms Mamata Banerjee has resorted to whataboutery on the violence suggesting that the cause of violence was the passage of the Waqf Act, which led to grievances among the Muslim community.
Neither Ms Banerjee, nor the Congress or any other opposition party condemned the violence in which two persons were lynched to death by the agitating mobs, who were protesting against the Waqf Act, in Murshidabad district. Ms Banerjee in her appeal for peace did not use a single word to condemn the violence that has left three persons dead and several others injured.
Also read: 400 Hindus forced to flee Murshidabad after mob attacks: LoP
Murshidabad is one of the Muslim majority districts in the country with over 66 per cent Muslim population there. West Bengal as a whole has a significant, 27 per cent Muslim population. So far, every regime in the state, from the Congress followed by the left and now the Trinamool Congress has been hypersensitive towards the Muslim sentiments. The Muslim population, which was around 20 per cent at the time of partition, in West Bengal, has risen to 27 per cent now. It consists of a consolidated vote bloc, which has always gone along with the ruling dispensation of the time.
Bengali society has always remained communally polarised even prior to the partition of the country. Not surprisingly, in the 1937 Provincial Assembly elections, the Muslim League swept the Muslim constituencies winning 37 of the 250 constituencies, while Congress had won 54. Prior to the partition of the country, the Muslim population in Bengal province was about 33 per cent, which would vote en bloc for the Muslim League.
Bengal was one of the provinces where the Muslim League had a strong presence, which was obvious from the extent of violence the Muslim League volunteers unleashed on non-Muslims in Calcutta during the “Direct Action Day”.
Interestingly, while Punjabi Muslims rejected the Muslim League, the Bengali Muslims embraced it. That probably was one of the reasons that Jinnah chose a city in city and not Punjab for his “Direct Action Day”.
Unlike in Punjab in the western part of the country, not much migration took place in Bengal. It was relatively far less as compared to the western parts of the country. As the successive regimes in the post-independent era wanted to exploit their insecurities, the community also remained united in its voting patterns, always going with the party in power.
Over a period, now the community has emerged as a strong and powerful vote bank in the state no political party, except the Bharatiya Janata Party, likes to ignore. That explains the reason that the Chief Minister remained guarded in her reaction to the violence, while the Congress and the left parties preferred to remain quiet.
While there was already a feeling of anger among the Muslim community for what it believed to be an interference in its religious affairs, the provocation was further aggravated by the opposition parties including the Congress, the TMC, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Samajwadi Party and others when the bill came in for debate in the two houses of parliament. The reason for the opposition parties was obvious; to be seen to be concerned about the religious rights of the Muslim community.
The protests against the passage of the Waqf Act took place across the country, but these turned violent only in West Bengal. The TMC government was seen to be soft towards protesters and had apparently let the protesters vent out their anger without realising that the protests might turn violent. Not only did the protests turn violent, it cost some precious lives, including those people whose only fault was that they belonged to a different community.
Political parties across the board will need to rise above electoral considerations and view all sorts of violence with the same lens. Being selective in condemning different sorts of violence will only encourage it further.
While the grievance is understandable, the violence is unacceptable.
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