West Bengal, India: On April 22, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) Chairperson and West Bengal Chief Minister asked Muslims to unite and vote against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha elections. She made the contentious remarks during the Calcutta Khilafat Committee event organised at Kolkata’s Red Road on Eid-al-Fitr wherein she congratulated the Committee’s members and called for the unification of Muslims.
She said, “Today the Constitution is being changed, history is being manipulated…I am ready to give my life but will not let this country divide,” while drawing cheer from the Muslims present in the crowd. Furthermore, she vowed to not allow the implementation of National Register of Citizens (NRC) in West Bengal, a pan-India register which aims to register all legal citizens so that illegal immigrants living in India can be identified and deported.
Calcutta Khilafat Committee
Calcutta Khilafat Committee was established in 1920, opposite the Nakhoda mosque in Kolkata. The Committee is the original committee which was established to implement the Central Khilafat Committee’s aim to preserve the Ottoman Empire.
It is pertinent to note that Khilafat was an Islamist movement based on an extra-territorial allegiance to the Ottoman Empire. Thereafter, as the Khilafat movement was failing, its allegiants turned violent against Hindus. The anti-Hindu riots broke out in most parts of colonial India.
The Moplah Riots, often touted as the Hindu Genocide of Malabar, stacked staggering figures of violence against Hindus. As far as Hindu victims are concerned, we do not have any official figures. Yet from the writings, statements of victims and available documents, we can conclude the riots claimed thousands of lives about 10,000. The estimates show that nearly 300 temples were partially or fully damaged, and properties worth crores of rupees belonging to Hindus were looted or burned. About 2 lakh Hindu refugees reached various relief camps in neighbouring districts.
Dr BR Ambedkar said about the Malabar genocide: “The (Khilafat) movement was started by the Mohammedans. It was taken up by Mr Gandhi with tenacity and faith, which might have surprised many Mohammedans themselves. There were many people who doubted the ethical basis of the Khilafat movement and tried to dissuade Mr Gandhi from taking any part in the Movement the ethical basis of which was so questionable.” (Pakistan or Partition of India, pages 146,147).
He wrote, “As a rebellion against the British Government, it was quite understandable. But what baffled most was the treatment accorded by the Moplas to the Hindus of Malabar. The Hindus were visited by a dire fate at the hands of the Moplas. Massacres, forcible conversions, desecration of temples, foul outrages upon women, such as ripping open pregnant women, pillage, arson and destruction— in short, all the accompaniments of brutal and unrestrained barbarism, were perpetrated freely by the Moplas upon the Hindus until such time as troops could be hurried to the task of restoring order through a difficult and extensive tract of the country. This was not a Hindu-Moslem riot. This was just a Bartholomew. The number of Hindus who were killed, wounded or converted, is not known. But the number must have been enormous.”
It is pertinent to note Mamata Banerjee’s presence at Calcutta Khilafat Committee’s event, an organisation and movement which led to anti-Hindu riots across colonial India and the Hindu Genocide at Malabar, and furthermore calling for Muslim unification for electoral benefit in 2024 Lok Sabha elections indicates she prefers polls over Hindu lives.
Mamata Banerjee’s anti-Hindu comments on Ram Navami violence
It is pertinent to note that Mamata Banerjee’s recent comments come after her anti-Hindu statements made in regard to the Ram Navami violence, further fanning an anti-Hindu sentiment in the State while pandering to Muslim extremists in the State.
On April 10, the Calcutta High Court reserved its order in BJP MLA and West Bengal Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari’s PIL seeking a CBI/NIA probe into the incidents of violence that occurred during the Ram Navami procession.
The Court made oral observations that the reports prima facie show that the incidents of violence were all pre-planned as stones pelted from rooftops could not have been taken there within 10-15 minutes. The Court said there was an intelligence failure. The Court said, “Reports prima facie show they (violent incidents) were all pre-planned. There is an allegation that stones were pelted from the rooftops, obviously, stones could not have been taken in 10-15 minutes to the rooftop…There was an intelligence failure.”
On March 30, Mamata Banerjee fanned anti-Hindu rhetoric in view of Ram Navami violence. She said, “I want to request those who are taking out Ram Navami procession, please do but do it peacefully. Kindly avoid Muslim areas as Ramzan is going on. Celebrate peacefully but don’t try to create violence. Don’t get provoked. Some BJP leaders are saying they will move with swords and knives during the procession. I say criminal offence is an offence.”
While West Bengal burned, the Chief Minister said, “We never stopped any community to hold any event. It is highly unlikely that the minority groups could have started the clashes as they are busy with Ramzan prayers, we have arrested 31 people so far,” claiming that the Muslims could not have been the instigators as they were busy with Ramzan. Furthermore, she alleged that “One can easily understand the people who started the violence were not localities. They were hired by the BJP and were carrying guns and petrol bombs. They first attacked people from the minority communities.”
West Bengal Post-Poll Violence
A ground report by the Fact-Finding Team of the Group of Intellectuals and Academicians (GIA) has exposed the conspiracy behind West Bengal Post-Poll Violence. The GIA report released on May 29, 2021, was submitted to the Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy.
The GIA report titled ‘Khela in Bengal 2021’ – Shocking Ground Stories is a Fact-Finding Report on The violated women of West Bengal, Use of Rape, Gender Violence & Sexual Assault as a tool of Political Control.
GIA is a group of professional women and entrepreneurs, media persons and academicians committed to social justice and nation-building. The members include Monika Arora, Advocate, Supreme Court of India, Delhi High Court, Prof Vijita Singh Aggarwal, Professor, GGS IPU, Ms Sonali Chitalkar, Assistant Professor, Delhi University Dr Shruti Mishra, Assistant Professor, Delhi University, Ms Monica Agarwaal, Entrepreneur.
When asked by the Organiser, was the ‘Bengal violence’ similar to ‘The Delhi riots’, was a planned conspiracy to which Advocate Monika Arora replied that both Bengal violence and Delhi riots are not comparable, but it was definitely a planned conspiracy because everywhere it was ‘Khela Hobe-Khela Hobe’ was chanted and then TMC cadres who are accused attacked the non-TMC supporters who voted for BJP, Bengal police are listening to the complaints of victims and is informing the TMC leaders who are the perpetrator that a complaint has come against you and do something about it, the state is supported to the TMC cadres.
The GIA report reads that the women have been raped, stripped, beaten and violated in the most horrific ways. Crude bombs have been used, men murdered, and shops and ration cards looted.
The GIA report reveals that women have been singled out for most horrific terror and intimidation. Many incidents of rape, grievous bodily harm, the threat of rape, stripping and sexual violence occurred. The streets were sites of dehumanisation of women of all ages. While the TMC party’s high command and leaders belong to privileged backgrounds and did not face the violence overtly and covertly supported by them.
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