Mamata Banerjee's Bengal vs. Gujarat Statement: Has Didi Gone Senile?

Some people have a tendency to forget, and some people deliberately become forgetful. Now, it is difficult to say whether West Bengal's Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has a problem with forgetting or if she only remembers those incidents that benefit her politically. In her typical style – sitting in a wheelchair and lifting her saree from her left leg just enough to show the plaster on her foot – Mamata Banerjee said something last week that now suggests that maybe Didi has really gone senile. There should be no surprise, because Didi is now 66 years old.

It is no secret that Mamata Banerjee has a problem with Gujaratis. Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah are both Gujarati and both are trying to ensure the Trinamool Congress's defeat in the election and have a BJP leader in that post, Didi's anger towards Gujaratis can be understood. If anything does not go according to her wishes these days, she blames it on Modi and Shah. Didi made an appeal to the Muslim voters of West Bengal which the Election Commission considered a violation of the Model Code of Conduct and banned her from campaigning for one day. After that, her anger erupted towards the Gujaratis. In an election rally, Didi said that she would not let West Bengal become Gujarat. True, Bengal cannot become Gujarat, Gujarat cannot become Odisha, Tamil Nadu cannot become Punjab, and Punjab cannot become Bengal.

But the matter was not so simple. For the last ten years of her rule, she has been accused of Muslim appeasement. To win the election, the support of the Muslim community is needed, and for the Muslim vote not to be divided, it is necessary to create fear against the BJP among Muslim voters. In this context, Didi, referring to the Gujarat riots, said that she would not let Bengal become Gujarat. The question is, is the condition of the Muslim community in Gujarat worse than that of the Muslims in West Bengal, or are they living in fear? What happened in the 2002 Gujarat riots is well known. But today, the Muslim society of Gujarat is more economically capable than that of any other state. After 2002, the last communal riot in Gujarat occurred in the city of Vadodara in 2006. This means that in the last 15 years, there has been no communal riot in Gujarat.

Now, let's look at what happened in West Bengal during Didi's tenure after 2011, when Mamata Banerjee became the Chief Minister for the first time. In February 2013, riots broke out in some villages of the Canning police station area. At around two o'clock in the night, a religious leader of the Muslim community was going somewhere on a motorcycle. The police said that the Maulana had about eleven and a half lakh rupees. The Maulana resisted the robbery, and the robbers killed him on the spot. What was a criminal case turned into a communal riot the next day. Criminals have no religion; the robbers were Hindus, so about 200 Hindu houses were burnt, and eight shops belonging to the Hindu community were looted.

In May 2015, a group of Hindus was returning from a fair in the Kaliganj area of Nadia district. On the way, there was a mosque from where they were attacked, stones were thrown, petrol bombs were hurled, in which four people died and eight people were injured. In January 2016, riots broke out in Kalichak, Malda district. It was not a communal riot, but it was no less. But a crowd of about one lakh from the Muslim community was protesting against a controversial statement by a Hindu leader of West Bengal. The police stopped them, and then the security personnel were attacked. Government property was damaged, and about 30 policemen were injured. According to the police, they had destroyed the illegal cultivation of opium on 1500 acres of land in the Kalichak area, for which they were attacked. Some Muslim leaders were accused of inciting the rioters and were later arrested.

In December 2016, riots broke out between the Hindu and Muslim communities in Dhulagarh, Howrah district, adjacent to Kolkata. It was reported that a religious program of the Hindu community was being held there, and a procession of the Muslim community was passing by on a nearby road on the occasion of Eid-e-Milad. Songs were being played loudly on loudspeakers. Members of the Hindu community asked for the songs on the loudspeaker to be played at a lower volume, after which an argument broke out between the two communities. After this, a riot broke out, crude bombs were thrown, and houses and shops were looted. It was alleged that the local police remained silent spectators. Later, the police blamed non-local Muslims for the riots and detained about 56 people.

In July 2017, about 5,000 people from the Muslim community were protesting at the local police station in Baduria town of Basirhat subdivision in 24 Parganas district. The police had arrested a 17-year-old school student from the Hindu community. The student was accused of posting a photo of Hazrat Muhammad on his Facebook account, which was considered objectionable. The agitated Muslim community wanted the police to hand over the student to them. The police rejected their demand, after which riots continued in this area for three days. The police station was vandalized. Temples, houses, and shops of the Hindu community were attacked and set on fire. According to government figures, one person died and 23 were injured in the riots. The blame for the riots was once again placed on non-local Muslims, and the matter was soon hushed up.

These were the five riots during the ten years of Mamata Banerjee's rule; it would not be appropriate to mention minor riots here. The reason for these riots was the administration's policy of appeasement of a particular community. The Muslim community constitutes 27 percent of the total population of West Bengal, which is much higher than in any other state in India. If three percent of illegally infiltrated Bangladeshis are added to it, it becomes about 30 percent. Didi remained in the post of Chief Minister for ten years by following this policy, but this time the Muslim vote seems to be divided. It is Didi's compulsion to create fear of the BJP among the Muslim community. If the Muslim community does not vote en masse for the Trinamool Congress, then Didi's chair could be in danger. Now, if Didi does not remember these riots that happened during her rule and only remembers the Gujarat riots, then either she is deliberately misleading the public, or has Didi gone senile?