The state of West Bengal is again at crossroads with the idea of integral Bharat being challenged by jehadists, supported by secularists
Jisnu Basu
Bengal was the epicentre of Indian renaissance in 19th century. Swami Vivekananda reminded the nation of her glorious heritage of thousands of years. He rejuvenated the intrinsic competitiveness of the countrymen. When Europeans were roaming in the jungles, our forefathers used to discuss about the hymns of creation. In every field of knowledge like philosophy, literature, science and political achievement, the country made unbelievable achievements. Bankim Chandra composed the song Vandemataram, Yogi Aurobindo announced Vandemataram as Rashtra Mantra. The first image of Bharat Mata was painted by noted artist Abanindranath Tagore, Goddess dressed in saffron, standing on a stream full of lotus. Bhagini Nivedita wished to take the
painting throughout India to motivate youth in freedom
struggle. Youth from different parts of the country came to Kolkata to bake themselves in the fire of patriotism and revolution. Novel laureate Rabindranath returned his
knighthood in protest against the massacre in Jallianwalla Bagh.
Inspired by the writings of Rishi Rajnarayan Basu, Nabagopal Mitra started Hindu Mela in 1886. Jyotirindranath Tagore composed song for Hindu Mela and Rabindranath composed the poem Shivaji Utsav. In 1905, confused British planned to divide Bengal in two parts on the basis of religion. Freedom fighters, poets, writers, teachers came out with the common people to protest against the decision of weakening Bengal. Due to their pressure, the government had to withdraw the decision of Bengal Partition. That was a golden time for real resurgence of India.
A young Muslim poet from Bengal,Kazi Najrul Islam, protested against the inclusion of Khilaphat movement with Indian freedom struggle. He composed a poem Kamal Pasha praising Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. His poem, ‘Anandamoyeer agomone” (on arrival of Goddess of joy) was published in his journal Dhumketu (the comet) in issue dated September 26, 1922. In that poem, he described Bharat Mata as goddess Durga. Nazrul was arrested for this poem and the British government banned the magazine.
Probably because of the soul of Bengal, Choudhury Rahamat Ali didn’t include Bengal in his original proposal of Pakistan in the year of 1933. In his pamphlet Now or Never the name of Punjab, North West Frontier Province (Afghania), Kashmir, Sindh and Balochistan were proposed for Pakistan. In 1925, Muslim League organised riots in Kolkata but that could not break the social fabric. Netaji Subash Bose left Kolkata on January 16, 1941 and that was the turning point in the Indian freedom struggle. Congress leadership agreed to negotiate with Muslim League at the cost of entire Bengal. Bengal including Kolkata was given to Pakistan. When the slaved states wished to be separated from North America, Abraham Lincoln said, ‘I don’t believe in two states, America is one nation”, and went for Civil War to keep America united. Unfortunately, India didn’t get an Abraham Lincoln at the time of Partition to say, “I don’t believe in two nations”. Bengali women got the
independence of India at the cost of the lives of their husband and children and their own chastity. When Nehru and other leaders were busy in distributing lucrative ministerial berths, Kolkata was busy in earning two square meals for refugees and protect my daughters from fanatics.
Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee was the youngest Vice Chancellor of the University of Calcutta. At that crucial moment, he came down from the ivory tower of academia. He along with NC Chatterjee, BC Shinha, Prof Meghnad Saha succeeded to protect Western part of Bengal from Pakistan. West Bengal was formed with the Hindu majority districts of Bengal and became a province of Indian Union. Since then West Bengal has become the safe haven for Bengali Hindus to take refuge. Millions of Bengali Hindus had been forced to come from East Pakistan or Bangladesh in later stage and got safe shelter in West Bengal.
Dr Mookerjee left the portfolio of a Union Minister to serve the refugees in Kolkata and other parts of West Bengal. When Article 370 was introduced for Kashmir he protested. He called for “Ek Bidhan, Ek Pradhan and Ek Nishan’. He visualised the upcoming danger of Kashmir issue and liked to have a full and final solution. He travelled to Kashmir without taking permit and was arrested by the police of Shekh Abdullah. Dr Mookerjee was the first person to be killed in police custody in independent India. Nehruvian administration brought the dead body to Kolkata by air at 1 o’clock. His popularity was so immense that about one lakh people assembled at Kolkata airport in a midnight. Journalists compared it with the gathering with funeral procession of Gurudev Rabindranath.
Bengal forged its rugged patriotic nature in the fire of freedom struggle. Even Partition couldn’t erode its
character. The declination actually came well after Partition. We should remember the actual moment of the landslide. West Bengal was furious after the murder of Dr Mookerjee. Congress always pampered Communists in Neheruvian doctrine. Lefts played an important role in this moment to save the face of Congress in West Bengal.
Dr Mookerjee died on June 23, 1953. On July 1, 1953 11 trams were burned in Kolkata to protest against one paisa hike of second class Tram fare by Calcutta Tram Company. Calcutta Tram Company was a British private
company and was not connected with the state government. Communists set the trams ablaze and Congress ruled state government arrested their leaders and gave a VVIP treatment inside the jail. Confused people forgot to ask the question, ‘Why was Dr Mookerjee murdered in custody?’ Justice delayed and justice denied.
Bengali refugees have been treated like guinea pigs. A large number of them came from East Bengal since
sixties and were from Scheduled Castes communities. Most of them were from “Namahsudra’ sub caste. Congress government at the Centre sent them to Dandakaranya, Mana Camp or Malkangiri in Orissa. They were forced to live in an inhuman condition. Leftist leaders used to visit the places and assured that, whenever the left would come to power they would arrange for refugee settlement inside West Bengal. In January 1977, left front government came to power with full strength. In 1979, Left front government ordered for open fire on Hindu refugees settled in Marichjhapi island of Sunderbans. About 900 persons, most of them from Scheduled Caste communities were killed in the state violence by Left Front government. No positive action was taken to issue the citizenship to Bangladeshi refugees settled in West Bengal. Both refugees and infiltrators were treated as their vote bank. There was no effort of nourishing patriotic feeling among the people.
For the last few decades a heavy inflow of Bangladeshi infiltrators has been observed. Neither the Left-front government nor the present TMC government has taken any step to curb it. Rabin Ghosh, a Left-front MLA looted the Bangladeshi infiltrators from the custody of Maharashtra Police, when Kurla Express entered Uluberia Station of Howrah district in 1992. Shakil Ahmed, main operator of Burdwan blast, who died in the
incident, was a Bangladeshi national. He managed to get his voter identity card from Karimpur, Nadia in 2007. Thus thousands of infiltrators got voter cards, ration cards, who maintain favorable relation with the Jihadi
elements in both sides of Bengal. Trinamool Congress doesn’t have any kind of ideological obligation; it is party with a single objective of remaining in power. As a matter of fact the volume of infiltration, smuggling of fake notes and illegal supply of cows have increased several times than earlier. Every year the demography is changing in the bordering districts.
West Bengal has lost its non-communal face. During their tenure CPM completely surrendered to the Jihadi forces. An Imam of a Mosque in Kolkata served an ultimatum against Bangladeshi poet Taslima Nashreen in 2007. The fundamentalists organised riots in Kolkata and roads in central Kolkata were blocked for a couple of days. Two CPIM offices were set ablaze by the goons. Fanatics organised a huge rally to support vice-president of the
Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, Delwar Hossain Sayeedi, one of the prime accused in 1971 genocide in Bangladesh. At present a considerable number of ministers, political portfolio holders and Members of Parliament from ruling TMC party had close connection with fundamentalists. Communal leaders issuing medieval Fatwa against political leaders, poets and the police is not taking any step against them.
West Bengal is sitting on an explosive bed. Successive governments have chosen to maintain silence and
indirectly allowed the problem to flourish. The latest report on terror heat map in Southeast Asia paints a very worrying picture for India. West Bengal shares 2200 km of it, and has turned out to be one of the most suitable routes for terror operatives from Harkat-ul-Jihadi al-Islami (HuJI) and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) to organise terrorist activities throughout India. The supportive mood of state government would yield the deadliest return for entire country.
The intellectuals, poets, journalists and columnists have also lost courage to protest against Jihad. They are afraid of the fate of Taslima. No so-called progressive
intellectual came forward to support Taslima, when she was thrown out of the state. One brave young lady
journalist reported the atrocity in Dulagrh last year. FIR was lodged by police against her and the media didn’t air the news of Kaliachak. In January 2016, Police Station at Kaliachak was looted by Jihadis and criminal records of 10 years were burnt. Kaliachak, Malda is just 8 km away from Indo-Bangladesh boarder. The media was also silent on the brutal murder of Dalits in Juranpur, Kharagpur and other places. No poet raised any voice after the acid attack on a Dalit girl at Hanskhali, Nadia. No writer spent a word to protest against the barbarian sexual harassment continuously being meted out to the poor Dalits in the rural Bengal. Because they know the result, Jihadis wouldn’t spare them. To maintain their progressiveness so-called poets, writers and columnists presently target Narendra Modi or Adityanath Yogi, as they know that none of them would issue a fatwa afterward.
The Magi of West Bengal are looking for the Bishop of Bishops candlesticks, who would say, “You have your soul to lose, West Bengal! it is of more value than the temporary monitory benefits and political achievements”.
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