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Taslima is catalyst of anti-Left Muslim anger

In fact, it is learnt that the Kolkata police had intelligence suggesting that a violent movement was brewing over her stay in the state.

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KOLKATA: If you connect the dots from Nandigram to Rizwanur and Taslima Nasreen, three seemingly unconnected events, what you get is a formula for broadbased Muslim mobilisation against the Left Front government in Bengal.

Nandigram symbolises a peasant fight – many of them Muslim - to avoid acquisition of land in the name of development. The second involved the mysterious death of a Muslim youth who had married a Hindu businessman’s daughter against the latter’s wishes. The third is a controversial Bangladeshi author who has attracted the ire of Muslims because of her rabid statements against Islam.

By mixing the three issues, which led to violence and brickbatting in Kolkata on Wednesday, several Muslim organisations have managed to hijack the Nandigram platform for their own ends.

Says Siddikulla Chowdhury, state secretary, Jamait-e-Ulema-I-Hind, one of the main forces which resisted the CPI(M) at Nandigram: “In order of importance, Nandigram, overall development of Muslims in Bengal, Rizwanur and Taslima are the four major issues we are agitating for (and holding) against the state government.

Taslima is part of, though not the main, issue. And on this, we are saying that the state and Union governments should ask Taslima to control her anti-Islamic writings. She does not fit into the secular character of West Bengal.”

His organisation now sees an opportunity to force the state government to take action against Taslima much before her visa expires on February 2008.

The Jamait gained popular support by leading the opposition to land acquisition in Nandigram. It aligned itself with the Trinamul Congress and fringe elements of the Congress under the banner of the Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee (BUPC). While Trinamul provided the political content, Jamait supporters were the foot soldiers who ousted CPI(M) supporters from the latter’s stronghold in Nandigram Blocks I & II.

They lost the battle earlier this month when the CPI(M) “recaptured” the territory in a controversial, if illegal, private raid, but the Jamait reckons it can still win the war by widening it to include more Muslim causes.

That’s where Rizwanur and Taslima Nasreen come in, with Taslima providing the ultimate glue. With her strong anti-Islam writings, she has angered not only radical Muslims, but even reformist ones.

Asghar Ali Engineer, a Mumbai-based Muslim widely labelled as a “moderate,” is not sure she should be given an extended welcome in India. He told DNA: “If too many people are unhappy about her residency in India, then the government might reconsider whether inviting larger social disorder to accommodate an individual is really worth it.”  (See ‘Violence and mayhem achieve nothing’ on p11)

Three religious organisations —the Jamait, the All India Minority Forum, and the Furfura Sharif Muzadeedia Ananth Foundation — have launched an “oust Taslima” campaign to mobilise minorities across the country and take on the CPI(M) in West Bengal.

In fact, it is learnt that the Kolkata police had intelligence suggesting that a violent movement was brewing over her stay in the state and the West Bengal government had, over the past one month, sounded her out about relocating herself to another city, but Taslima is believed to have refused because she felt safer in Kolkata.

Repeated calls and SMS requests to her mobile from DNA did not elicit any response. She does not step out of her residence on Rawdon Street, an upmarket locality in central Kolkata, which is guarded round the clock by Kolkata police personnel.

Says Chowdhury of the Jamait: “If she refuses to control her writings, her visa should not be extended. But we have never called for any physical harm to her. Neither does the law of the land allow us to do that nor does our organisation believe in such undemocratic actions.

I can assure you that as long as leadership is in the hands of the Jamait, these people will not be permitted to spread communal violence. If need be, I will personally issue a statement notifying our disassociation with any one who takes undemocratic or violent paths,” Chowdhury said. #

Prasanta Roy, sociologist and political analyst, claimed “the riots were not communal since communities were not the target. The violence was against the police, that is the administration. It may have been because of pent up grievances against the administration. The Taslima issue added fuel to that.”

Gautam Ghosh, a film-maker who led civil society’s protest march against the Nandigram violence some days ago, however sees the Kolkata violence as mass frenzy. “Sensible people must come together to put a stop to this or else it will be a disaster,” Ghosh said.

Ghosh may not be off the mark since many Muslim organisations obviously believe that they can consolidate anti-Left sentiments by using Taslima to rally minorities across the country. In August this year, Taslima was attacked at the Hyderabad Press Club when she had gone for the launch of the Telugu version of her book Shodh.

Not too long ago, in 2003, the Left Front government too pandered to the minorities by banning Taslima’s Dwikhondo, the third part of her autobiography.

In the wake of Nandigram, the CPI(M) has once again been caught in a political bind over the minorities’ violent opposition to Taslima. This became evident over the shifting stand of Left Front chairman Biman Bose in less than 24 hours. On Wednesday evening, Bose said, “If Taslima is the cause of breach of peace in this state, she should go immediately.” He said that the writer’s visa was extended at the behest of two central cabinet ministers from West Bengal.

But on Thursday, perceiving that such a strident statement placating the minorities could sully the secular credentials of the Left, Bose clarified that his statement was a `qualified one based on the word `if.”

Within the secular, democratic parameters of the country, no decision could be based on religion. At the same time, every individual should be careful about he or she says. It should be in consonance with that secular and democratic fabric. “It is for the statement government to make an assessment on this,” Bose said.

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