The Calcutta (not Kolkata) violence didn’t come as a surprise. Several foreboding omens of Muslim discontent had indicated what to expect. It was planned well, executed perfectly, and extracted the desired harvest.
The script unfolded in the lanes and bylanes of east and central Kolkata, where police were cramped for space. Fearing they would get trapped, the forces didn’t venture into the lanes.
The attacks, too, were planned in a manner that they could be countered only by opening fire. This was a risk police were not ready to take - especially after the high court’s strictures on the Rizwan case and Nandigram.
The Quivering Buddha quickly called in the Army to take charge. This sudden zeal to action was flagrantly absent during the recent Nandigram bloodbath unleashed by his own party’s goons. Buddha could ill-afford to let his goons retaliate now because the Muslims openly rioted as a specific religious group under the aegis of the All India Minority Forum (AIMF).
The slaughtered Muslims (also the refugees) in Nandigram provided another pretext to these organizations to renew what they are historically adept at: hollering that minorities are in danger. Nandigram was the excuse the AIMF and others gave for starting the riots. A long-forgotten Taslima Nasrin suddenly, mysteriously resurfaced on their radar.
Earlier in the day, activists of the All India Minority Forum protesting the violence in Nandigram and Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen’s visa extension on Wednesday indulged in brickbatting, blocked roads and clashed with police.
The Left in West Bengal is deservedly reaping the bitter rewards of indulging the Mullahs. The Jamiat Ulema has already thundered.
"We want the Centre to invoke Article 356 in West Bengal. We also want Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to go. He is an arrogant and stubborn leader. Let a sincere leader come as the chief minister. Please remove him. The United Progressive Alliance government should take action to send message to the poor people that they care," says Maulana Mahmood Madani, All India general secretary, Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Hind.
The most stinging slap comes later, the ultimate insult to Indian secularism, as is.
…Buddhadeb has made a Gujarat out of West Bengal. I do agree with the view. Some murderers regret the crime and some feel proud of what they have done. Buddhadeb and Narendra Modi are proud of what they have done. Buddhadeb is saying that the killings are a fitting reply to whatever happened in the last 11 months. Buddhadeb and Modi both have no regrets for violence and that makes them similar to each other.
He is right in many ways. Madani has–perhaps unwittingly–awakened to the fact that the Indian Left has always politically manipulated the Muslims. The most illustrative instance of this points to the evidence-gathering phase of the Ayodhya debate. The Left, which had promised the moon to the Muslims scampered when their "evidence" amounted to naught.
The current violence in Calcutta has historical precedents mostly in intent and method. An oft-recurring feature of the freedom struggle was the threat of unprovoked violence issued by Muslim organizations of this nature to ensure that their demands were met. Till date, the appeasement-precedent that Mahatma Gandhi set continues almost unaltered.
Hardly any condemnation emanates from the mainstream media, liberals, intellectuals, or keepers of the society’s communal conscience. No outraged editorials against the AIMF or allied organizations. Eminent bloggers who relish taking regular potshots at the BJP, and condemn the wholesale selling of hate are not bothered to even alert us to this shameful incident. I guess their energies are solely reserved for overactive activism on the Gujarat riots.
It is bad enough that this has happened but it infinitely sad that it happened in West Bengal. In a perverse twist of fate, the land that gave India an entire galaxy of freedom fighters, thinkers, philosophers and poets is today steeped in comprehensive depravity. In less than a hundred years, the extent of West Bengal’s turpitude makes us wonder if Bankim, Vivekananda, Aurobindo, Tagore, et al were real men.
Tags: Commentary, History, Indian Politics, Islam Watch, Media Watch, Pseudo Secularism Hall of Shame, War on Communism, Weblogs
Buddha behaved in a cool manner by refusing to fall into the trap set up by the Jamait.
Anyway this riot brought back memories of ‘46.
This is serious. Much as I would like to see the end of communist thuggery in Waste Bengal, this sort of organised violence by scoundrels is unwelcome. The CPI(M) has been playing with fire and Mamta Banerjee and the Congress have blown it back at them. The TMC/Congress plan in WB seems to be cut out the Muslim vote block from the Left Front. In Waste Bengal, as you might know, there isn’t as much of a difference in vote share between the two fromts, as much as in seats. By carving out a chunk, the seats balance could be changed drastically. This is how Kerala politics works. But given the general backwardness of Waste Bengal, it could become a lot worse. The CPI(M) Waste Bengal Gauleiter, Biman Bose, has already capitulated, and suggested that Taslima Nasrin may be removed from Waste Bengal. You shouldn’t expect much from a ignoramus like Amit Varma. This is the guy who exchanges notes with pseudoscientific cranks like Jim Stossel and halfwits like Jonah Goldberg. Varma is the typical ill-read Indian “rightist” intellectual - a group that is less odious than none except the “leftist” intellectual.
The Kangress/TMC combine are as bad as the commies. The Islamic grievance mongering promoted by these pseudosecular thugs will come back to bite Bengal and the rest of India in the ass.
sleeper cells are waking up, aren’t they? they do the same thing in bangalore, and blame it on Annavaru, Cauvery, Hindu-Muslim, and what not.
The eminent bloggers and MSM have done a good job in the case of Nandigram - from the point of view of a ’secularist’ like me at least. In fact, was quite pleased to hear your so-called eminent bloggers, as well as MSM attacking Buddhadeb and CPIM.
I had a conversation with one of those “in the know” people from Kolkata, he claimed many of those involved in the violence in Nandigram were BD Muslims, and that it was very stupid of the BJP to play up the Muslim harassment angle.
This might be a rumor purposely planted by the commies, but in any case it does not make any sense to play up the “oppressed” Muslim card. I do not see any utility in giving the Muslim fanatics yet one more reason to kill kaffir Hindus.
At the right time, the commies are dont have the face to answer the peoples of Gujrat at the election campign. the dont even talk on the POST GODRA after this incident.
yaa, muslims are testing the hindu response. Bigger things will come.
Has Teesta Sheetalvaad made any statement regarding the Tasleema issue? Or is her highness maintaining a studied silence to main communal harmony.
[...] I had written earlier that the likes of Jamiat had suddenly woken up to Taslima’s insults to Islam, etc in a context completely unrelated to her. Taslima has been incessantly hogging the news. Is this some shady strategy to divert attention away from Nandigram, the original trigger for the Kolkata violence? SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “The Taslima Nasreen Opportunity: Squandered”, url: “http://www.sandeepweb.com/2007/12/02/the-taslima-nasreen-opportunity-squandered/” }); [...]
[...] Mahmood A. Madani, one of the prime torchbearers of the recent Calcutta riots, expounds on Taslima Nasreen’s "offensive passages" in Dwikhandita. He supports intellectual debate "but not rubbish." [...]