Basirhat violence: Mamata Banerjee has support to counter polarization, time for her to walk the talk

A Facebook post shared by a teenager has led to a sleepy town in Northern 24 Parganas district of West Bengal to hit the national headlines. Few outside Bengal probably had heard the name of Baduria in Basirhat sub-division till now, but courtesy the outbreak of riots it is known nationwide. In fact, Baduria alongside Malda and Dhulagarh are all examples of systematic failure of the Bengal police to act tough from the beginning when there is an outbreak of communal violence. It has not only festered the problem, but has given enough fuel to open new wounds and flashpoints at various sensitive areas of the state.

Historically, West Bengal post-Independence has seen long periods of communal harmony. The violence in Bengal has been mostly in political lines where foot soldiers have jostled for area domination.

 The odd skirmishes along religious lines were quickly doused, often with political intervention. The Left Front which maintained complete political domination in the state for over three decades, despite its many follies, ensured that communal peace is maintained. The likes of Taslima Nasreen being forced to leave the state owing to pressure from hardliners showed that communal tension was always bubbling below the surface, but it never spilled over. But that carefully maintained semblance of peace no longer exists.

The Left maintained a steady vote-bank of over 40% for thirty-five long years due to sturdy support from the minorities and SC-ST community. When Left’s vote bank started bleeding after fiascoes in Nandigram and Singur, the voters shifted en masse to TMC. Mamata Banerjee realized that while anti-incumbency and farmer backlash against the Left may have gotten her power, but she needed steady support of dedicated chunk of voters to stay put. The Sachar Commission report had shown the dismal state of minorities in Bengal.

Sensing a chance, Mamata Banerjee laid out the doles to galvanise this vote-bank. From special salary for imams to taking hardline stance for Triple Talaq, the Bengal government took the short-cut way to appeasement apart from working in grass-roots, which takes much longer time to deliver tangible results. By making hardline leaders like Siddiqullah Chowdhury part of the ministry and Ahmed Hassan Imran a Rajya Sabha MP, Didi pandered to Islamists. Her reaction to communal violence in Kaliachak in Malda and later in Dhulagarh was of complete denial. Putting the blame on media, the state government tried to hush up the matter. Rather than shooting the messenger, if it had tried to shut down the riot-mongers irrespective of their religious affiliation, Baduria may have never happened.

Mamata’s pandering not only emboldened the hardline Islamists, it also gave enough fodder to hardliners of opposite side of the political spectrum, harping on majoritarian insecurities. This has led to sharpening of fault lines, mirroring the polity across the country. The overt show of strength by right-wing organisations during Ram Navami points to hitherto unknown communal boiling point in the state.

A ruler not only needs to be just, but should be seen to be acting likewise, to receive true acceptance. Here Mamata Banerjee has been underwhelming, perhaps caring too much for the vote-bank. She has allowed the slow-burn of communal rhetoric for too long hoping it will be doused on its own, which is now threatening to turn into an inferno.

Mamata Banerjee in her first comments reacting to Baduria incident tried to indirectly admonish the Muslim community, saying they have embarrassed her in front of the Governor, and no rioter would be spared. Mamata’s statement showed that she is willing to do course correction, empowering the police to do their job in an even-handed process. Subsequently TMC’s action against MLA Dipendu Biswas, shows that the party is waking up to changing political undercurrents in the grassroots, where it can’t practice the politics of appeasement any longer without facing backlash. The ugly realities of social media have also dominated and shaped the narrative, where real and fake news have co-existed to flare up emotions. Hence, Didi can no longer brush aside flare-ups by branding them as small incidents.

In this moment of crisis, Mamata needs to act tough and act against nefarious elements involved in rioting and spewing of venom.

This needs to be done keeping narrow political equations aside. For inspiration, she can listen to her innumerable speeches, where Didi has taken pride in state’s secular fabric and boasted about its rich culture where both Rabindranath Tagore and Nazrul Islam have been toast of Bengalis throughout the ages. The Bengali identity of citizens of Bengal is still much more dominant than their respective religious identity, one of the reasons why BJP continues to be non-starter in the state.

Cracking down on Jihadists with hardline Wahabi ideas, on fringe Hindu organisations looking to fish in troubled waters are the first and foremost step the administration needs to take to restore confidence of people.

The formation of peace-keeping forces is a welcome step by Mamata Banerjee. But it needs to be truly apolitical and representative of all religions should be there to ensure its success and maintain peace across the state. The genie of communal polarization is almost out of the bottle in Bengal. Only Mamata Banerjee, enjoying unprecedented support of the people can put it firmly back. She just needs the political courage to do so.