The three-member committee appointed by the Calcutta High Court to inquire into the Murshidabad violence in West Bengal, which took place on 8 April and continued to fester till 12 April, when the Central Armed Police Forces were deployed and brought matters under control, has severely indicted the state government’s handling of the situation. It has been confirmed that the Hindu population was singled out, people were killed and as many as 113 homes looted and destroyed. This was done in the vicinity of the local police station under the leadership of a local TMC Councilor. The rampage was triggered by protests against the Waqf Amendment Act.
The committee has highlighted the fact that the police not only failed to act against the troublemakers but also forced the fleeing Hindus to return to the scene of the riots. Looked at from the perspective of earlier such incidents, such as Sandeshkhali, it is yet another confirmation of the blatantly communal politics being indulged in by the Mamta Banerjee led TMC government. Once again, the main opposition party, the BJP, is asking the Chief Minister to act against the perpetrators, particularly those from within her party. However, as always, she is going to shape the narrative in a way that puts the blame on everybody but herself. In an environment that has little appreciation of the reality and is based on the hold the TMC has over what many claim now constitutes the majority of the state’s population, she is likely to get away with it again.
It is tragic that, despite knowing what is happening in the state, the Union Government has failed to devise a strategy to counter this disastrous state of affairs. The Chief Minister cannot be expected to act against what she has consciously brought about. Somewhere in her mind, perhaps, this is what she believes to be ‘secularism’, but it is just a trade-off with radicals and powerbrokers to cling on to power. The BJP has tried and failed to combat this electorally, but the problem is not just a political one. It has to do with the collapse of law and order to an extent that the sovereign power of the Indian State is under challenge. As such, drastic steps are required – most immediately the declaration of President’s Rule. The situation cannot be allowed to deteriorate in the manner of erstwhile J&K. The ideological cancer that has metastasized in the state needs to be surgically removed before it proves fatal for democracy and secularism.
