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Taking Stock
Price of Betrayal
By Rizwan Ullah
 In
the two preceding articles (MG April 1-15and MG April 16-30) I stated that
during the years following the independence Muslims of West Bengal had no
voice although half a dozen Urdu dailies and some periodicals were coming
out from Calcutta. The ruling Congress party had taken Muslim votes for
granted and did not care a fig for them. Muslim masses were groping in
total darkness, floating in a rudderless ship.
The Urdu press failed to show even a glimpse of light. The Muslim press
was free in the sense that it could display news reports anyway it liked.
But the freedom of the press lies in the freedom to comment on issues as
they arise. That freedom was far to seek. People from the intelligence
department and their agents haunted newspaper offices little realizing
that the exposure of their identity was a disqualification.
The decade of sixties opened with a good score of anti-Muslim riots which
had a definite pattern, that is, to destroy home and small scale
industries run by Muslims, throwing Muslim artisans out of their jobs and
chasing away Muslim workers from the factories in the industrial belt of
the eastern states. Calcutta had its share in a big way. Worst riots broke
out in 1964.
Muslims suffered heavily. The communist party too could not do any good in
those dark days as it was overwhelmingly involved in anti-US agitations in
the wake of American inroads in Korea and later in Vietnam. This
overindulgence in the proxy on behalf of the erstwhile Soviet Union
distracted party’s attention from the issues boiling at home. Thus for
the communists and as a matter of fact for all progressive forces many
years were wasted and lost. That was one reason among others for the
unrest in the emerging generation of youth. It took various forms of
violent movements, which is not the subject matter of this writing. But
still it may be pointed out for the benefit of all that the agitational
politics detracts attention from constructive and developmental activities
and results in the unrest in the society as a whole.
However, the Muslims of West Bengal had hardly come out of the trauma of
communal riots when they were overtaken by the ominous shadow of the
Indo-Pak war of 1965. It was then that most vicious act was committed by
the ruling Congress party in the state and as a consequence it lost the
mandate for ruling the state any longer but for a short stint under the
chief ministership of Sidharta Shankar Ray with the blessings of Mrs
Indira Gandhi. As soon as the war broke out thousands of Muslims all over
the state were indiscriminately arrested overnight. They included several
Urdu editors in addition to many respectable and elderly Muslims including
those who were known Congress supporters and party workers. They were
gradually released months after the end of the war. It was a severe shock
to the Muslim community followed by a big jolt for the ruling Congress
party in the forthcoming general elections. The party had to pay a heavy
price for its blind foolishness just as the erstwhile Soviet Union had to
pay after its aggressive involvement in Afghanistan. The West Bengal
Congress lost the election and had to face the split.
When a stable society breaks up from within, it raises dust in addition to
the splinters and results in the emergence of conflicting groups fighting
for a hold. Bangla Congress, a splinter group of the Congress led by Ajoy
Kumar Mookherjee formed a coalition government with the Communist party in
1967. Jyoti Basu was deputy Chief Minister. This government was short
lived for it was menaced from within by coalition partners and by more
aggressive and extremist elements such as Naxalites and other war groups
on the eastern, western and northern fringes of the state.
The Congress party in West Bengal was so much drunk and blind with power
that it could not see other blocks of voters also such as workers in the
industrial belt. Left parties rightly cultivated them. They too had an
umbrella, the erstwhile Soviet Union. It was helping the socialistic
pattern of society, that is Bharat, in establishing the infrastructure for
heavy industries which in due course accommodated a huge working force
which formed a big vote bank for left parties. At the same time another
vote bank for these parties was in the making, the East Pakistan refugees.
In due course they proved to be a powerful pool of party workers. Failure
of the then ruling party in settling them roused their ire against it and
they were more than ready to try others.
The biggest blunder of the Congress was that it failed to see those shifts
in the voter pattern. In those circumstances 20-25 percent Muslim voters
would have been the surest and solid supporters of the party. But its
blurred vision could not observe it. In the meanwhile came the Bangladesh
movement and finally the emergence of the state from the ashes of the
erstwhile East Pakistan. It was an extremely emotional situation for the
West Bengal Muslims and the Urdu Press.
To say that Muslims were sentimentally pro-Pakistan as was the impression
generally given by the media in the country would be oversimplification of
a very complicated situation. Most of the Muslims in West Bengal,
especially the Urdu speaking people in Calcutta and other towns, had their
past relations in Bihar or eastern UP and people from these areas had
migrated to East Pakistan, thus their past had partly expanded up to East
Pakistan. They were naturally disturbed to see the same generation of
their kins coming to grief and facing another holocaust. The feelings of
Bengali Muslims would not have been less painful. They were receiving
brickbats of jeers from all sides.
However, the Congress party was returned to power in 1971 elections
sailing on the Bangladesh wave when Mrs Indira Gandhi was shown as an
incarnation of Devi Durga in full fury but had to take recourse to
emergency to retain power though short-lived. The Left Front in West
Bengal wrested power in 1977 to which it still sticks. A mellowed Congress
party in the state lost the confidence of the Muslim voter for which it
must curse its betrayal to them and none else. The picture does not seem
to be bright for the party in the forthcoming elections. q |
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