Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday dared Union home minister Amit Shah — albeit without naming him — to deliver on his promise of hanging rioters “upside down” within hours of Bengal police arresting a young man who was seen dancing with a firearm at a Ram Navami procession in Howrah last Thursday.
“A BJP leader recently said in Bihar what he would do to the rioters,” the chief minister said, referring to Shah’s prescription of the medieval-era punishment to rioters, made at a rally in Bihar’s Nawada on Sunday.
Shah had complemented his solution — “dangaiyeon ko ulta latka denge (we will hang the rioters upside down)” — with a loaded statement on “appeasement”, a dog whistle for blaming a particular community.
On Tuesday, addressing a party programme at Digha in East Midnapore, Mamata contested the stereotype about the religious identity of rioters that Shah tried to portray. She mentioned that the police had arrested Sumit Shaw, who was brandishing a firearm at the Ram Navami rally in Howrah, from Munger in Bihar.
Then she dared Shah to take action against Shaw, by reminding the Union home minister what he had said. “You had spoken about hanging the rioters.... The police have arrested a hired rioter who was brought in from Bihar. I don’t want to say that all Hindi-speaking people are rioters or all Urdu-speaking people are rioters. My question is, why aren’t you doing to rioters what you had promised?” Mamata asked.
Multiple BJP sources conceded that Shaw's arrest had come as an embarrassment for the party at a time its leaders were trying to blame Trinamul’s “appeasement politics” for the clashes in Howrah and Hooghly.
Several senior BJP leaders — such as the present and former state presidents Sukanta Majumdar and Dilip Ghosh, respectively — openly mentioned the “risks” staring at Hindus in Bengal, clearly capturing the saffron camp’s attempts at portraying Muslims as rioters and Hindus as victims. The truth, however, is that hard-liners from both sides have been busy reaping political benefits from the skirmishes by provoking people belonging to their communities.
Governor C.V. Ananda Bose, who cut short his north Bengal visit because of the situation in Rishra, described the trend as “mobocracy” and condemned it.
On her part, Mamata, who on Monday reminded the majority community of its duty towards the minorities, sought to highlight the humane side of all the religions, besides accusing the BJP of destroying the secular fabric and engineering riots.
“They tried to defame the name of Ram and entered Howrah with guns, bulldozers and tractors.... After peace returned to Howrah, they danced their way to Rishra,” said Mamata, hinting that there was a method in the madness as communal strife spread from one place to another.
“The Hindu religion doesn’t talk about taking guns to processions…. They are not Hindus, they are BJP goons. Have you ever seen Durga Puja processions, Id celebrations or Christmas gatherings turning violent?” the chief minister asked.
The armed “dancer” (in yellow kurta) at the Ram Navami procession in Howrah on Thursday, seen brandishing a gun in the footage. On Tuesday, it emerged that he has been identified as Sumit Shaw and arrested in Munger, Bihar. Sourced by The Telegraph
“I am also a Hindu, a religion that talks about peace and co-existence of all religions,” Mamata added.
Aware that the BJP is trying to gain political traction in the state by projecting her as someone appeasing “one particular community”, Mamata went to the construction site of a Jagannath temple, modelled on the Puri temple, that the state government is building in Digha.
The Trinamul establishment expressed confidence that her stern message that the government would not spare anyone involved in rioting would reassure the Muslims at a time there is a sense of insecurity in the community.
The BJP camp, on the other side, is bullish about its prospects in the upcoming panchayat elections and next year’s Lok Sabha polls based on its preliminary assessment that the communal strife over Ram Navami processions would help it consolidate Hindu votes.
What remains to be seen is whether the attempt to inject religion as the central theme into the political discourse of Bengal — a trend that began in the national political landscape nine years ago — will help the BJP reap dividends and whether it will keep the state on a communal short fuse till the general election.
