Taking the anti-Modi docket a bit too seriously, members of the oppositions at time forgets where to draw a line. Days after Congress MP from Kerala, Shashi Tharoor wondered if Talibanisation in Hinduism has started, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today echoed him and said that the BJP and the RSS are creating “Talibanis among people”.
As reported by Financial Express, while addressing Trinamool Congress’ annual ’21st July Martyr’s Day’ rally in Dharmatala, expressing her so-called concern on the recent lynching cases in the country, West Bengal chief minister was quoted as saying, “The way lynching is happening everywhere in the country, they (BJP, RSS) are creating Talibanis among people. In BJP and RSS, there are good people whom I respect but some are playing dirty games.”
The chief minister seems to be in cahoots with Senior Congress leader and an accused in the Sunanda Pushkar death case, Shashi Tharoor, against whom a case was filed in Kolkata High court for his ‘Hindu-Pakistan’ jibe for ‘hurting religious sentiments and insulting the constitution’.
Earlier on July 18, news agency PTI had quoted Tharoor as wondering if Talibanisation in Hinduism has started. Recently, Tharoor had made a controversial statement that if BJP comes to power in 2019 again, it will turn India into Hindu Pakistan. “They are asking me to go to Pakistan. Who has given them the right to decide that I am not a Hindu like them and so I cannot live in India?…”The BJP’s talk of ‘Hindu Rashtra’ is really dangerous and will destroy this nation. Has Talibanisation started in Hinduism?” PTI quoted Tharoor as saying.
Though Congress and its leaders are known for their derogatory remarks and false equivalences, they also have the tendency to stand by defending their statements with impunity. Tharoor has not only stood firm to his statement but also refused to apologize for the same.
Mamata during the rally did not only recapitulate Shashi Tharoor’s biting and insensitive remarks but also with utmost conviction declared that her party will win all 42 seats of West Bengal in 2019 Lok Sabha elections and to ensure that, the TMC will start “BJP Hatao, Desh Bachao” campaign on August 15. “We will start ‘BJP Hatao, Desh Bachao’ campaign on 15th August. 2019 will be a big blow, Bengal will show the path…We will win all 42 seats in 2019 Lok Sabha elections from West Bengal,” Banerjee said.
It is rather startling that the so-called lawmakers show the least regard towards the Indian judiciary system. Coming just a day before Mamata Banerjee’s remark, the Supreme Court, which is the highest judicial forum and final court of appeal under the Constitution of India, while hearing the long-pending Babri Masjid-Ram Temple land dispute case, rapped Rajeev Dhavan, who was representing a Muslim party in the case, for using the term ‘Hindu Taliban’.
Dhavan, during the hearing, tried to draw parallels between the Taliban and the Kar Sevaks, calling the latter “Hindu Taliban”. Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and advocates present during the hearing objected to the use of the term, calling it inappropriate. Clearly, the soi-disant flag bearer’s of our country give this apex body no preponderance and do what they deem fit, viciously fanning their current sole agenda, ‘Modi vs All’.
It is believed that West Bengal under TMC is fast turning into a laboratory of appeasement politics, where religion decides the quantum of development and the access to resources.
Mamata Banerjee’s criticism of the RSS resolution passed in its Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha (ABPS) 2017 held at Coimbatore expressing “grave concern on jihadi violence in West Bengal” exposes her own culpability and close involvement in allowing the expansion of jihadi and Islamist elements in the state.
This was not the first time that the hollowness of Banerjee’s claim of West Bengal being an oasis of progressive thought and action has been exposed. Last year, Mamata Banerjee ensured that the self-styled poet Srijato Bandyopadhyay, was protected and the people who lodged a complaint against the poet for hurting their religious sentiments as “Hindu jihadis,” penalized.
Seventy years after the formation of West Bengal, where Hindus were meant to live in dignity and safety, the situation has turned around. From preventing Hindus to undertake one of their most poignant and sacred tasks, that of the immersion of the Durga idols post Puja, to clashes over Ram Navami celebrations, to altering the syllabus in such a way that names and expressions that are quintessentially part of Bengali culture get erased from collective memory to allowing rampages on Hindu establishments, Banerjee is turning Bengal into a frontier province of lawlessness.
