Trinamool Congress Government is responsible for communal flare-ups in the State
Mamata Banerjee and her Government of West Bengal are to be squarely blamed for the communal flare-up and its escalation in Basirhat in North 24 Parganas district of the State. They ignored the early indications of the crisis for petty political considerations and failed to nip it in the bud. And when the conflict turned violent, instead of addressing it, they trained their guns on the Governor, KN Tripathi, for ‘insulting' an elected Chief Minister and seeking to run the State on behalf of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The Governor is not in charge of the State's law and order machinery, nor did he say or do anything that contributed to the problem. All that he did, when the matter seemed to be acquiring dangerous proportions, was to ask the State regime to take effective steps and ensure the safety of those people who were at the receiving end. But the Chief Minister, who sees a BJP plot everywhere in the State she rules, interpreted this sane advice as mischief-mongering. Such was her ire that she even curtly refused additional help from the Centre, which Union Minister for Home Affairs Rajnath Singh offered when he spoke to her, and told him to control “your Governor”. This is unbecoming of a head of Government. The Governor is a constitutional position and he is head of the State and all its people. likewise, Mamata Banerjee is the Chief Minister of all the people of the State and not just a certain section which she is out to mollycoddle. The bare fact is that the situation went out of control, leading to the death of at least one person (who happened to be a BJP worker), because the State regime allowed it to happen. A section of the minority community in the area has been conducting a venomous drive against the rest, and targeting them without any hindrance from the State machinery. The other day, a street rally was organised where slogans such as “Aryans go back” (AryansIJ) were heard. Taking a cue from their leader, senior Trinamool Congress leaders too have been adding fuel to fire and attacking the Governor in the most unparliamentary manner. Mamata Banerjee may have political issues with the Modi Government at the Centre, but she must not allow her prejudices to dominate peace and stability in her State.
In recent months, the Chief Minister appears to have launched into a vicious drive to effect polarisation along religious and linguistic grounds in the State, and this has led to problems. The Malda incident, which was an obviously well-crafted communal riot, and the more recent agitation in the Hills for a separate Gorkhaland State, are examples of that. Mamata Banerjee is playing minority appeasement politics to the hilt. Given that the Muslim population in the State is over 25 per cent; that the left has all but lost this vote-bank; and the Congress is nowhere in the picture, the Trinamool Congress supremo thinks she has the sole rights over the minority community and can go to ridiculous extents to humour it. The perception that she leans to the side of the minorities at the cost of the rest of her people has taken firm roots in the State. The Chief Minister must understand that she is playing with fire.