Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has good reason to be worried: her blatant minority appeasement policy has started triggering the anticipated blowback from Hindus. Hindus have, in small but growing numbers, started gravitating towards Hindu Samhati, an apolitical body formed nine years ago to unite the Hindus and protect the rights of the community.
Till last week, the Hindu Samhati was considered to be a fringe group with limited appeal and following. The collective wisdom in media and political circles in Kolkata has been that Mamata’s unchallenged sway over Bengal will ensure that such an organisation attracts but few supporters. And with Trinamool Congress (TMC) never shying away from unleashing its goons on anyone seen as a challenge to the party, there was little scope of anyone mustering the courage to even covertly support an organisation which poses a direct challenge to the TMC. After all, even established political parties like the CPI(M) and Congress had succumbed to the Trinamool’s strong-arm tactics, so how could a non-political Hindu organisation rear its head in Bengal’s landscape?
But this collective wisdom was shaken to its roots on 14 February 2017, when more than one lakh people from all over Bengal, and some from the rest of the country and even abroad, turned up for a rally to mark the foundation day of Hindu Samhati. The rallyists were a determined lot, and unlike the ones who are 'brought' to Mamata’s so-called ‘mega’ rallies, were not paid to attend it. They made it on their own on trucks, on buses, by train and even on foot out of sheer conviction and courage. What’s more, they were not deterred by attacks on them by militant Muslims in at least a dozen-odd places in the districts around Kolkata. Heads bandaged, broken arms cast in plaster, faces and bodies bruised and battered, they nonetheless made it to the heart of Kolkata where the rally was held. And their presence enthused the others to not only make common cause with them but to resist the aggression by Muslim fundamentalists who have been targeting Hindus.
Swarajya
The one lakh-odd people who flocked to central Kolkata to attend the rally knew they would be targeted by Trinamool goons once they return to their homes. And they have been. But that did not deter them from journeying to Kolkata. It was, after all, a matter of faith, a battle to safeguard their religion and their way of life. They were all very ordinary folks, all very poor or lower middle class that make them more vulnerable to the ruling party’s strong-arm tactics. But, the fact that they braved the odds and didn’t care about what miseries Mamata would bring upon them in future, is indicative of the fact that a slow churning is taking place in rural Bengal against Mamata’s policy of minority appeasement that has emboldened Muslims to attack and loot Hindus, Hindu homes and business establishments and temples.
The mammoth crowd at the Hindu Samhati’s rally stunned the know-all journalists in the mainstream media and the Trinamool. But they need not have been so surprised. Mamata’s appeasement policy--the granting of stipends to Muslim clergy, the grant of many favours to them, the favouritism shown towards Muslims in matters of jobs and contracts and the fact that a major slice of many welfare measures implemented by the state are being cornered by Muslims with the active connivance of Trinamool leaders--has triggered a lot of resentment among the Hindus who feel discriminated against and deprived.
Swarajya