In what the Opposition parties found “signs of nerves” betrayed by CM Mamata Banerjee ahead of the next year’s Assembly elections the Bengal Chief Minister has written a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah demanding “stringent” laws against what she called provocative contents in the social media.
A section of the BJP however said that the Chief Minister has been caught in the trap she set up for the opposition parties to mollycoddle the Muslim vote bank.
Banerjee’s letter expressing “concern” comes against the backdrop of recurrent communal disturbances in a number of districts including Murshidabad, Malda, North and South 24 Parganas, Hooghly and Howrah.
Banerjee held the “provocative” social media contents as one of the prime reasons behind the communal tensions saying the available legal stipulations were not enough to discipline them and the laws required to be further strengthened in order “to keep pace with the rapidly evolving digital ecosystem and sophisticated methods employed by malicious actors.”
She has brought to the notice of the Home Minister the “alarming rise” in the provocative social media contents posing “serious challenges to public tranquility, and the social fabric of our nation.”
“Incendiary narratives, misleading stories and fake videos circulating on social media are contributing significantly to the aggravation of criminal tendencies among certain sections of society. Such content not only spreads misinformation but also has the potential to inflame communal sentiments, incite violence, disrupt societal harmony, and indulge in crimes against women,” and so there is “an urgent need for stringent legislative provisions that can act as an effective deterrent against the creation and dissemination of provocative content and acts perpetrated with criminal intent in cyberspace,” Banerjee has written.
Banerjee has of late been complaining about the “irresponsible conduct of a section of politicians, media and of course the social media in raking up communal controversies by resorting to disinformation campaign.”
Recently Bengal witnessed unprecedented communal riots at Mushidabad district which incidentally had remained comparatively calm even during pre-partition days.
“I am repeatedly telling the political parties and their leaders to act in a more responsible manner because it is easy to throw a match stick but it is very difficult to control the flames,” Banerjee had recently told during the anti-Waqf laws riots at Shamsherganj in Murshidabad.
Though the opposition BJP would not make any official comment on Banerjee’s letter a very senior leader and an MLA said, “When Mamata Banerjee plays with communal sentiments by giving Imam bhatta (honararium to the Imams) out of State exchequer it is real politics and when others protest against this it becomes communal politics, she is making this hue and cry because she knows that the Hindus are revolting against her and even the Muslims are looking at her with suspicion, they are gradually realising that Mamata Banerjee has respect for none, she only knows power and money. Which is why she has been using the Muslim voters by playing with their sentiments, she has been entrapped in her own trap.”