Did Mamata Banerjee government fail in pre-empting Bengal riots?
Recent communal clashes in West Bengal, especially affecting Ranigunj, are a matter of grave concern. The riots seem to be motivated and inspired by political parties vying to grab power. It is therefore important that this progressive state should exercise restraint and discretion in rejecting all provocations to trigger any communal riots.
Unfortunately, the occasion which saw the riots hit West Bengal was Ram Navami, the birthday of Lord Ram. It was shameful to see swords and daggers in full display during the Ram Navami procession compounded with inflammatory slogans sufficient to ignite passions leading to communal violence.
It's not that this forward thinking and enlightened state has not seen any Hindu-Muslim riots in the past. However, the current riots are sadly becoming more casual than they were in the past. People are becoming increasingly used to such incidents. A feeling is gaining ground among members of both communities that the crude and open show of arms, delivering hate speeches and mindless violence is normal. This is a dangerous trend.
The latest communal clashes not only saw loss of innocent lives and injuries to hundreds but also witnessed violence targeted at police as a senior police officer lost his right hand after a bomb was hurled at him. Police officials always bear the brunt of communal clashes by virtue of forming the first line of defence in such incidents of violence. This time too, it suffered a casualty.
The riots quickly spread to other districts of WB including Purulia, Murshidabad, Burdwan and Asansol.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee must govern the state with an iron hand. The people in the state do not deserve to live in a state of fear or under the shadow of any religious extremism because it's the tussle between political parties that is driving the state to communal tension and riots. Innocents threatened by this cycle of violence need to be protected by the state - be it a Hindu or a Muslim.
The important question to ask here is did the state law and order machinery rise to the occasion to contain the riots before they travelled to other districts? More importantly, did the state intelligence wing alert the authorities in time about the tension building up? The state knew about Ram Navami celebrations. Then how come precautionary measures were not in place? How many preventive arrests were made? This assessment is part of elementary policing. Were these aspects adhered to? The answer is most likely no because then the magnitude of the clashes would have been less.
Significantly, WB has witnessed ugly communal riots in Basirhat, Malda, Murshidabad and other places in the recent past. These places are reported to be on the edge waiting for a tiny spark to trigger off riots of such enormity that it will be difficult to return to normalcy for months.
Does the land of Rabindranath Tagore, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Chittaranjan Das and several other Bengali stalwarts deserve communal violence and wanton destruction? Certainly not.
Political ideologies and differences apart, the state should revamp its law and order set-up, rejuvenate the intelligence machinery, step up more effective coordination with powers in North Block and try to use Central Reserve Police Force- Rapid Action Force and other specialised units to neutralise any hostile quarters trying to incite violence. The state should also consider keeping the Army on standby to meet any communal challenge.
Last but not the least, the Bengali intellectuals, the men and women of letters, cine stars etc must come out of their dens and lash out at the communal forces by organising peace marches, and workshops as part of the awareness campaign educating the new generation about the hazards of the communal fallouts.
This violence has to tackled on a war-footing to being back peace in the state and every part of the society should be on board to remedy the ailment afflicting the state. We should not forget that both the communities have scores of religious festivities celebrated round the year. Unless the authorities take prompt pre-emptive action, people in the state will continue to live on the edge.