A few posters drew attention in the social media which were found within & outside the campus of Jadavpur University, Kolkata. Beside Gate No 1 of the University i.e. the gate of Aurobindo Bhavan, the administrative building, there appeared a poster that read وَرَبَّكَ فَكَبِّرْ. In English, this perhaps means (as suggested by Google) “And Your Lord Glorify” i.e. glorify the lord you worship.
The poster’s content in Bengali also claimed that injustice, oppression, vulgarity, brazenness, malevolence & violence had captured the present time because of a flawed system, worship of fake gods, distance from the Islamic God & vaunting display of materialism & to tackle all these, the Islamic Youth Federation of West Bengal planned to organize a State Convention at the Nur Mohammad Smriti Mahavidyalaya of Dhuliyan, Murshidabad on October 20, 2024. And for such cause, the poster mentioned, they were in a promotional drive in the period between October 1-October 19, 2024. Apart from Jadavpur University the Islamic Youth Federation had pasted the same poster in various Government Colleges across West Bengal.
The poster appeared to render a message for propagation of Islam as the Islamic Youth Federation unambiguously slammed ‘worship of fake gods’ & posed to ‘glorify their lord’. Such message might have reminded people of a recent speech of Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim wherein he said it was the duty of all Muslims to offer Dawat-e-Islam to all those who were not fortune’s favourite to be naturally born in Islam. Within less than 3 months thereafter, appearance of such posters for unapologetic propagation of Islam doesn’t appear coincidental, nor seems devoid of political significance. Hakim’s speech and the Islamic Youth Federation’s poster announcing drive of religious propagation seem two parts of the same chain of events.
People of West Bengal, cannot logically look at such posters from a simple and innocent perspective because of several factors primary of which being West Bengal is a Hindu Homeland created historically & electorally in the Undivided Bengal Assembly for the non-Muslims of Undivided Bengal in 1947. It is pertinent to recall that Undivided Bengal was originally proposed to be included in Islamic Pakistan while 46 per cent Hindus of Undivided Bengal did not agree to be part of an Islamic country. So Bengal was partitioned between Muslims & non-Muslims to create West Bengal to be retained as part of Bharat. West Bengal, thus, was created in 1947 strictly to avoid Islamic aggression even in lieu of getting only 37.4 per cent land for 46 per cent Hindu population of the then Undivided Bengal. Non-Muslims of Bengal settled for less amount of land simply to avoid the Islamic aggression in West Bengal.
In such a State, propagation of Islamic Faith may logically be viewed as political aggression which is contrary to ethics and morality. As per Article 25, right to propagate religion too is no unconditional right but is subject to conditions like public order, health & morality. Unapologetic propagation of Islam in the Historical Hindu Homeland of West Bengal, apart from being contrary to morality, may also disrupt the public order by significantly altering the religious demography of West Bengal.
Moreover, Islamic Youth Federation Convention has been organized in the same place i.e. Murshidabad where the currently banned organization PFI had organized a grand convention in February 2022. PFI is a known terror organization & was banned under UAPA by the Government of India since September 2022. Though the PFI offices & several other places under their occupation were raided by the NIA on September 27 all over the country, none of the PFI men were arrested from West Bengal. Probable cause of West Bengal PFI operatives’ going scot-free was that they were members of different political parties too, thus keeping their presence overlapped in both political & terror sectors.
Under such situation, surge of an organization in the name of Islamic Youth Federation needs to be observed under the investigative microscope to identify their true objective under the changed political scenario on the other side of 2216.17 kilometres long West Bengal – Bangladesh border. This perhaps requires due attention of the Home Ministry of the Government of India.
Moreover, Jadavpur University’s International Relations Department appeared to have doubtful activities such as organizing a meeting with Umar Khalid in January 2020. One month before Delhi Riots, Umar Khalid & Yogendra Yadav had come to Jadavpur University to address the students there following which Delhi Riots broke out in the very next month. It appeared they had come to Kolkata for fund collection. While Umar Khalid had allegedly orchestrated the Delhi Riots 2020 instigating people through various WhatsApp groups one of which was reportedly named ‘Hum Bharat ke Log’, International Relations Department of Jadavpur University too had drawn graffiti on the walls of the department building writing ‘We the people of India’. Such similarities between the name of Umar Khalid’s WhatsApp group & Jadavpur University IR department’s wall graffiti appeared remarkable. Professor Imankalyan Lahiri, Head of the Department of International Relations Department, said the IR department graffiti was aiming at raising consciousness amongst students about the constitutional values of India. However, the graffiti didn’t portray only the preamble of the Constitution but also slammed Hindutva in Western colloquial slangs & various other slanderous pictorial expressions depicting the pre-existing controversial structure at Ram Janmabhoomi, Ayodhya. Along with all these, the IR department of Jadavpur University had started organizing IFTAAR & AZAAN etc. during the Eid Festival for last a few years in the Open Air Theatre of the University while the University didn’t grant permission to the students to celebrate Ramnavami this year & appeared to take a misleading & manipulative pose regarding granting permission for the same. While initially granting permission on a verbal note, the University Authority backed out on the last day stating probabilities of communal tension to be created upon celebration of Ramnavami. Such self-contradictory behaviour of the Jadavpur University Authority appeared to violate the core principles of Bharat & also the preamble of the Constitution in letter & spirit.
Keeping all such information in mind, the Islamic Youth Federation’s poster & banners within the University campus that quotes a poem by Faiz “बोल कि लब आज़ाद हैं तेरे, बोल ज़बाँ अब तक तेरी है” perhaps as a part of ‘Jashn-e-rekhta’, deserve a close-look evaluation from the national security perspective. In this regard, it is also relevant to recall another speech of the Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim that went viral wherein he claimed in 2021 that a day would soon come when half of the West Bengal populace would speak Urdu. Last but not the least, it is also necessary to know & discuss who are the Islamic Youth Federation marking as “fake gods” & how can any god be fake? Academic discussion on such topics seems to be a need of the hour.
