During the celebration of Ram Navami, widespread communal violence broke out in parts of the Howrah and Hooghly districts of West Bengal. Beyond the political blame game between the ruling Trinamool Congress and the opposition BJP, the police’s inaction shows that chief minister Mamata Banerjee has failed at her job. In West Bengal, panchayat polls are coming up soon, and the general elections are set for the next year. Banerjee and the TMC’s weak response to these incidents indicate that the party is desperate to show support for Muslims after losing the Sagardighi by-election, in which more than 60% of the voters were from the community. If Banerjee goes back to her old politics of polarisation based on appeasement, law and order in Bengal will get worse.
About 30% of the voters in West Bengal are Muslims and the community has always supported the ruling parties in the past. In the early days after Independence, the community sided with the Congress, but when the communist movement rose to prominence in the late 1970s and the CPI(M)-led Left Front won in elections, the Muslims supported the regime. However, after the Nandigram and Singur incidents, which brought Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress into the limelight and ended the 35-year rule of the Left, the community shifted completely towards the TMC. The Left government also tried to make peace with the Muslims, and when Banerjee took over, she did the same thing. However, she is not subtle and has never hidden her pro-minority image.
The most significant aspect of this situation is that Mamata Banerjee misleads Muslims, resulting in discontent. The TMC’s loss in the recent Sagardighi by-election to the Left-Congress alliance has nothing to do with the Bharatiya Janata Party, as the saffron party performed as expected. Muslims have not voted for Mamata Banerjee due to a significant lack of trust in the community regarding the TMC’s politics.
Mamata Banerjee must recognise that the worst aspect of her politics is the corruption of her party’s top leaders. Everyone can see that not only have TMC leaders participated in corruption, but they have also received protection from the party. Money power, muscle power, regional influence, and the desire and grid for power are now so prevalent in Trinamool that every community is concerned about its politics. The TMC desired a Ram Navami devoid of communal violence because it would have provided peace of mind to minority groups. However, Banerjee failed again. Along with Mamata Banerjee’s overwhelming victory in the Bengal assembly elections of 2021 and rampant corruption, violence has become the new norm. From post-election violence to the daily deterioration of law and order, Bengal has experienced a number of violent incidents.
After the complete failure of the Mamata Banerjee administration to maintain law and order in Bengal during Ram Navami despite repeated warnings, it is disgraceful that the TMC is now attempting to profit from polarisation. It is common knowledge that Muslims will never vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party, but if Banerjee continues to play this political game, it will harm the common citizen and Bengal’s harmony. If the saffron party is responsible for the communal violence, the police must investigate and take appropriate action. If the ruling party renders the verdicts, however, communal violence is being used for political purposes well before police inaction.
In a democracy as expansive as India’s, it is obvious that each political party will have its own methods. Today, however, with the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party, India’s politics is shifting from accommodation to development for all. At this point, politics that attempt to please everyone or exploit the religious sentiments of minorities will have a chilling effect. Likewise, Banerjee cannot allow West Bengal to experience and control violence throughout the entire year. The development agenda of the Mamata Banerjee government must prevail, but it is also imperative that the Trinamool Congress work diligently to end corruption within the government.
Mamata Banerjee’s politics is being rejected in states other than West Bengal. In the recent elections in Tripura, the TMC performed poorly. On the other hand, Banerjee’s party has not performed well in Meghalaya despite a great deal of hype. Previously, the TMC was unable to influence the Goa assembly elections. This demonstrates that Mamata Banerjee’s politics has reached a dead end, and the public has become fearful of it. Concerning the linguistic divide, it is important to note that Tripura has a sizeable Bengali population but that the party performed poorly.
Bengal deserves peace, development, and harmony. No political party, and most importantly the ruling party, should exploit the feelings of minorities or demonise Hindus for political gains. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee will have to cease her appeasement-centric politics once more today. The state of law and order in Bengal must improve, and it is time for the administration of the state to operate independently. The Calcutta High Court has repeatedly cautioned the West Bengal police and called attention to their bias in favour of the TMC. If Mamata Banerjee believes that allowing police inaction and partisan control of the administration will help her politically, she is incorrect. This will only increase the minorities’ fear, and discontent will rise.
The author is a Columnist and Doctoral Research Scholar In Media & Politics. He tweets @sayantan_gh. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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