Mix of amity, fear is ‘new normal’ in Basirhat
As the charred remains of the modest house of the 17-year-old boy, who allegedly put up a blasphemous post on Facebook, stand witness to the spate of communal violence in Basirhat sub-division in West Bengal, his shocked neighbours, friends and teachers say that the post was the handiwork of some “notorious elements” and believe that the boy was just used as a tool.
The single-storey house in Magurkhali village of Baduria in which the 17-year-old boy lived, was completely ransacked and partially torched by an angry Muslim mob. As the family of the boy, whose identity is being safeguarded for safety and security reasons, fled to take shelter out of West Bengal, the house has now been kept under lock and key, but the sense of fear and anguish still remains high among residents of the village. The damage wrought by the mob is clear from the torched and scattered remains visible from outside the house.
Gita Ghosh (name changed), who lives right opposite the house where the boy resided, still shudders at the thought of what had happened on 2-3 July. Speaking to The Sunday Guardian, she said, “We know the boy. He had been living here for quite some time now; he can never do something like this. We had never even heard of him getting into a scuffle with anybody here, let alone instigating a communal flare-up. We are clueless how he got that photo and we doubt he created it on his own.”
Ghosh, who was witness to the entire incident, added: “We have also heard that he told his uncle that he himself did not know how that post appeared on his Facebook page. He was scared and, therefore, ran away. Had he been here, he would have been killed. His jethu (paternal uncle) was pleading with the mob to forgive him, but they did not listen to him and barged into their house, ransacked it and set it on fire.” The boy was subsequently arrested by the West Bengal police. According to his neighbours, the boy belongs to a very modest background. He lost his mother at an early age, while his father used to live in a nearby village and worked as a daily wage labourer. The boy was living with his paternal uncle to study in the nearby Rudrapur Radhabhalav Government High School. He had recently passed his Madhyamik (Class 10) exams with good marks and got readmitted to the same school this year.
His teachers and school principal also said that they never had any complaints about the boy. Sampurna Nandan Ghosh, principal of the school, told this correspondent: “He was a nice student, he was regular in school and I have never received any complaints about him till date. I have never heard of him having any scuffle with his friends. Even we were shocked and could not believe when we came to know that he had done something like this. There may be some conspiracy behind it.”
Ilyas Mazumdar, one of his friends and neighbours, is scared and apprehensive that even he could be attacked for being his friend. “I know him (the boy) very well. We joked about many things, but his intentions were never to create any conflict. But now, I am scared for my life. I don’t go out after sundown because they might come back again,” Mazumdar said.
Magurkhali village is mostly inhabited by Muslims and the house of the boy in question is surrounded by Muslim families, barring the one right opposite the house. The Magurkhali Milan Masjid, a mosque in the village, is barely 20 metres from the house in which the boy lived. His Muslim neighbour, Namza Biwi, told this correspondent, “What we saw is beyond our imagination, but we don’t think that he (the boy) could have created an image like that. It has to be somebody else and even if he had posted it, he did not do it with the intention to create riots. We knew him. He was a decent boy and also had several friends from this village who were Muslims. He could not have done it alone.”
Omar Sheikh, Namza Biwi’s husband, said that Hindus and Muslims have always lived like brothers and sisters in the village. “Why would we attack and try to kill somebody with whom we have lived all our lives? We also have Hindu friends and we have shared a good rapport with them. This place was never like this before. All those who had come were outsiders and nobody from our village had done anything,” Omar Sheikh said.
However, the situation in Baduria is normal now, with police patrolling and peace marches being conducted regularly. Schools, colleges and banks have also started reopening, while the transport system is becoming normal.
The recent communal violence in Basirhat has led to massive polarisation along religious lines, resulting in a deep divide between Hindus and Muslims in the area.
Locals belonging to the Hindu community here said that had the Hindus not united even at this hour of crisis, people from their religion would have been “wiped out” from Basirhat and adjoining areas, as mobs allegedly belonging to the Muslim community ran riot for three days, torching houses and shops and desecrating temples. People from the minority community here, however, believe that the Muslims of Basirhat are being “misunderstood” and that local Muslims had nothing to do with the rioting.
Rakesh Ghosh, a local mass leader, told this correspondent, “A divide between the two communities has now been created and this will not go away anytime soon.
Amid the communal tension in the Basirhat region, Raja, the Hindu owner of a small cycle repairing shop in the Muslim dominated area of Teen Mohini, was seen sitting with a group of Muslim friends who also happened to be his co-workers. They were seen sharing their sumptuous lunch together.
Members of the Paikpara Friends’ Association Club, which was attacked and ransacked by an angry Muslim mob earlier this month, are apprehensive about fresh trouble brewing during the upcoming Durga Puja festivities to be held in September this year. Even as the Bharatiya Janata Party in Kerala is poised to launch an ambitious “mass contact” programme beginning 1 August, the state leadership is under siege over corruption allegations levelled against some of its leaders. At the crux of the matter lies an inhouse investigation report into charges that one of its party workers had received Rs 5.60 crore in lieu of sanctioning seats for a medical college. This came to light when the report submitted to the state party president Kummanam Rajasekharan almost two months ago was leaked to the press a week ago. Questions were raised on why Rajasekharan did not take any action over the report, which was prepared under the instructions of party president Amit Shah.
According to the report, We have to be united to protect ourselves.”
Ghosh further added that the desecration of a 200-yearold temple at the heart of Basirhat by the rampaging mob and the entry of local Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLA Dipendu Biswas, who got a few Hindu men arrested instead of the ones who were rioting, led to a massive Hindu consolidation and backlash from the community.
Sadiya, a middle-aged lady Some members said that every year, some or the other small incident keeps happening in Basirhat, but this year, retaliation is expected from both communities in case of any such incident. Locals and the administration are, therefore, treading carefully.
Posters and banners calling for peace and harmony between the two communities have been put up in some areas of Basirhat town by the local administration. The posters display pictures of Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam, both renowned poets.
Lines from a f amous poem by Nazrul Islam stating Hindus and Muslims are two flowers of the same branch, are also quoted in standing outside her house while speaking to The Sunday Guardian, said, “We have not done anything. They are misunderstanding us and what has happened has left us divided.”
Many also believe that the “appeasement politics” resorted to by the ruling TMC government in West Bengal is to be blamed for the growing divide between the two communities—not only in Basirhat, but across the state. the posters.
The 17-year-old boy, who had allegedly posted a blasphemous Facebook post, still remains in judicial cus-
Standing outside his house in the Choto Jiragpur para in Basirhat, Soumitra Chakraborty, a resident, told this correspondent that whatever happened in Basirhat was because of the TMC government: “They (the government of West Bengal) have been protecting members of the minority community for the last six years for the sake of votes, but they do not realise that even Hindus are voters in Bengal. West tody.
The local police station in Baduria, which was attacked by a mob of 2,000 to 3,000 people, has been Bengal will see more such incidents in the future if this sort of dirty politics is not stopped by the ruling party here.”
The “appeasement politics” of the TMC government has led to the growth of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the area, sources said. Basirhat was one of the first places in the state from where a BJP candidate, Shamik Bhattacharya, won a byelection, in 2014, making him repaired, but a few charred cars still stand testimony to the arson indulged in by the mob. The local police in Baduria has been arresting several people allegedly involved in the rioting.
According to local police sources, over 50 people have already been arrested and the police is conducting regular raids at night to get hold of the rioters.
As paramilitary forces are still present in parts of the town to keep vigil and tackle any untoward incidents, a group of CRPF personnel was seen sipping tea sitting inside a temple in Basirhat and having a good laugh on a rainy Sunday evening.
One of the CRPF personnel said that they have been posted outside religious the only BJP representative in the 294-seat Assembly in the state then.
Many in Basirhat also said that the chances of the TMC winning in the next election from this region are bleak as votes will be divided on religious lines.
Deba Das, a Basirhat resident, told this correspondent that if the people are allowed to vote in a democratic manner in the panchayat elections next year, the TMC “will understand the unity and strength of the Hindus in this area”.
However, the Muslims this correspondent talked to here denied that any undue favours had been given to them by any political party because of their religion.
Saiful Mondal, a shopkeeper in the Teen Mohni marketplace in Basirhat, said, “We have not received any favours from the ruling government. This narrative is being spread by political parties to divide us on religious lines for their political benefits. We want to live in peace like we used to do before.” establishments to guard them and since it was raining, they had to take shelter inside the temple.
Just 12 km from Basirhat, the neighbouring tourist town of Taki, which otherwise is crowded with tourists at this time of the year, wore a deserted look with hardly any people around. Hotel owners said that since the day violence was reported in Basirhat and its neighbouring areas, the arrival of tourists have stopped. He, however, said that since last week, some people have started coming and they are hoping that their business would be back to normal is the coming days. There has not been any reports of incidents of violence in the town.