BY NAVAID HAMID
The recently concluded municipal elections in West Bengal
seem to have brought the firebrand, Mamata Banerjee, whose Trinamool
Congress is the second largest group in India’s ruling United Progressive
Alliance and who is herself the union railway minister, one step closer to
the chief minister’s chair at Writer’s Building in Kolkata. If it had been
any state other than West Bengal, which has been ruled by the Left Front
for more than three decades, one would agree that local body elections are
rarely an indication of future trends in the battle for the highest office
in the state. But the massive erosion of the Left’s political base in West
Bengal is no ordinary political event and cannot be lightly dismissed.
The state has been a strong bastion of the Left movement
in India. After the collapse of the USSR from where the Left has always
taken inspiration, many wondered how long the communists in India would
hold on to their fort. Opponents of the Left parties scoffed at their
chances of survival and predicted their downfall sooner or later because
of the declining interest in Marxist ideology across the globe.
Ironically, it was not the declining interest in Marxism
that led to the ongoing decimation of Left rule in West Bengal. The
arrogance of its leadership, the slow process of development and policies
that are biased against the Muslims in West Bengal are major factors that
are harming the electoral interests of the Left alliance in the state.
Being the dominant partner in the Left Front in West Bengal, the Communist
Party of India (Marxist) seems to be the main culprit in the Left Front’s
sad decline.
Soon after the results of the local body elections were
announced, the chairman of the Left Front and secretary of the CPM in West
Bengal, Biman Bose, admitted that the Left Front had lost because of the
decline in support for Left parties among Muslims. He is absolutely right
and this was indeed a bold and candid admission by a top CPM leader.
The discontent with the CPM-led front among the Muslim
community was so great that now, for the first time in its history, the
Bally Municipality in Howrah district will have members occupying the
opposition benches. And all the opposition members in the 35-member
municipality will be Muslims belonging to the Trinamool Congress.
The erosion is not a sudden phenomenon. I envisaged the
breeze of change about three years ago when the West Bengal chapter of the
Jamiat-Ulama-i-Hind spearheaded a campaign against the state government’s
move to acquire farmland in Singur and Nandigram. So jittery was the Left
leadership that it approached the Jamiat’s central leadership in an
attempt to dissuade the group’s state unit from continuing the protest. In
subsequent years the Muslims of the state became increasingly convinced
that the CPM and its allies were indulging in acts of discrimination
against the community.
Muslims, who constitute a little more than a quarter of
the state’s population, have been the most neglected, marginalised and
discriminated group in West Bengal for more than three decades under
leftist rule. This sad truth has also been corroborated by the
Sachar Committee, constituted by the Manmohan Singh government during the
UPA’s first tenure to study the status of Muslims across India.
With no government jobs, no financial backing to Muslim
entrepreneurs and denial of opportunities proportional to numerical
strength to be Left alliance candidates in various elections, whether to
local bodies or Parliament, agricultural land has been one of the basic
sources of income and empowerment for a sizeable percentage of rural
Muslims in West Bengal. A substantial number of the farmers affected by
the state government’s move to acquire land for the Tata Motors plant were
Muslims and the state Jamiat saw this as the perfect opportunity to jump
into the fray along with others and raise its voice against the
acquisition of farmer’s land for the Tata Nano project. It was the
first-ever attempt by a non-political Muslim group in the state to raise
its voice in an organised way against the leftist hegemony of the past 30
years. Over the past five years or so whenever I spoke to ordinary Muslims
in West Bengal, they complained bitterly about the state administration
and the Left leadership. This phenomenon was entirely new to me.
On March 3, 1978 Jyoti Basu, the then chief
minister, admitted on the floor of the West Bengal legislative assembly
that the Muslims of West Bengal were very, very backward due to several
historical reasons. In subsequent election manifestos, the Left Front
proclaimed the principle of due share for the minorities, including the
Muslims.
Seven years before this candid admission by Jyoti Basu,
the West Bengal cabinet of a democratic coalition government of the
Congress, the Muslim League, the Praja Socialist Party, the Communist
Party of India, the Forward Bloc, the Gorkha League, the Congress (O) and
the Jan Sangh adopted, on June 27, 1971, a resolution on proportionate
reservation for Muslims and other minorities in public employment and
decided to appoint the Talukdar Commission (headed by JN Talukdar, a
retired Indian Civil Service officer and former chief secretary) to
investigate reasonable preferences for minorities, including Muslims, in
government services. After the fall of the democratic coalition
government, the Left parties along with the Muslim League of West Bengal
were in the forefront of the demand for reservation for Muslims in
employment and submitted a memorandum to the governor of West Bengal in
1972.
Ironically, the same Left Front, after taking over the
reins of power, appeared to have forgotten its earlier intentions,
proclaimed through the Talukdar Commission and the joint agitation for
reservation for Muslims in 1972. Not only did the Left Front do nothing to
fulfil the promises it had made to the minorities, and particularly to
Muslims – to empower them, educationally, economically and politically, it
also bitterly opposed the demand for reservation for Muslims and even
denied them their equitable share in the political hierarchy by denying
them party nominations proportionate to their numbers in election after
election.
Never once in their 34-year history as rulers have the CPM
and its allies been able to send more than seven per cent of Muslim
representatives to the state assembly for the simple reason that they have
never seriously addressed the question of the low representation of
Muslims in the state legislature.
In the recently concluded municipal elections, out of the
86 candidates fielded by the Left Front in the district of Murshidabad,
only 25 were Muslims, accounting for less than 30 per cent of the front’s
candidates in a district where Muslims constitute 70 per cent of the total
population. And here, in a district with the highest concentration of
Muslims, the CPM has never considered a single Muslim worthy of heading
the party’s district unit. What is even more amazing is the CPM’s defence
of its partisan act, the party’s reasoning that it was not necessary to
have representatives from among a particular community just because the
community formed the majority in that area. If this is true, why then has
the party also failed to give representation to Muslims in those
constituencies where Muslims have a lesser numerical strength? The
situation in Malda, another district with a densely concentrated Muslim
population, is no different from that in Murshidabad.
The Kolkata Municipal Corporation will now have more
Muslim councillors than ever before, courtesy of the Trinamool Congress.
The Trinamool Congress bagged seats in 11 Muslim-dominated wards whereas
the Left Front only managed to win eight (CPM – four, Revolutionary
Socialist Party – two, Forward Bloc – two) and the Congress won three.
On the issue of the Women’s Reservation Bill too, the CPM
has taken a strong stand opposing the demands of Muslim and OBC women for
a sub-quota in the Women’s Reservation Bill. It has also been misleading
the nation with the disingenuous assertion that Muslim women have
benefited from the introduction of a women’s quota in panchayats and other
local bodies. This is in fact a hollow argument which makes no mention of
the fact that the Muslim women who have been getting elected have won in
constituencies that have either overwhelmingly or substantially Muslim
populations. Another relevant factor that is also deliberately ignored is
that these are small constituencies of around 5,000 voters and cannot be
equated with the sprawling assembly or parliamentary constituencies of
around 2,00,000 and 10,00,000 voters respectively.
Caught on the wrong foot after the Trinamool Congress lent
its support to the Muslims, backing their demand for a sub-quota for
Muslim women in the Women’s Reservation Bill, the CPM through its leader
Basudeb Acharia tried for the first time to be seen as favouring the
sub-quota as well. At an all-party meeting convened by Congress
troubleshooter Pranab Mukherjee on April 5, 2010 Acharia stated: “This is
not constitutionally possible. But we are not opposed to looking at a
proposal if brought by the government.” Mr Acharia fails to see that with
the process of a major constitutional amendment to provide a quota for
women in the legislatures already underway, it would be much easier to
include a sub-quota for Muslim women at this stage itself. Moreover, the
Constitution of India debars discrimination on the grounds of gender. If
this were not so, there would have been no need to amend the Constitution
and initiate the process for reserving seats for women in Parliament and
state assemblies.
Instead of opening new modern educational institutions for
Muslims, the Left Front government through the state madrassa board took
control of the madrassas in West Bengal and introduced modern subjects
into their curriculum. While one cannot deny the importance of teaching
modern subjects in the madrassas, has this really helped the Muslims in
West Bengal on a larger scale? The Sachar Committee pointed out that the
most educationally backward Muslims in the country belonged to the state
of West Bengal. The statistics provided by the committee are adequate
proof of the malaise and the discrimination faced by Muslims living in the
state.
Over the last 34 years the Left Front government has not
only discouraged the opening of new modern educational institutions by
Muslim NGOs, rejecting their applications for recognition year after year,
but has also failed to actively address the issue of Muslim educational
empowerment as evidenced by its failure to open government schools in
Muslim-concentrated pockets in the state. This is nothing but criminal
negligence on the part of the leftist administration, denying
opportunities for education to the state’s Muslim community.
By taking control of the Islamic madrassas, even if
indirectly, the Left Front government abdicated its constitutional
responsibility to protect and promote the educational interests of the
Muslim community in the state. Most of these madrassas subsequently became
centres of education for pupils of all castes and religions.
After the Left alliance’s electoral victory in 2006, at a
public reception organised by the Milli Council, which has supported the
alliance’s candidates in assembly elections, the Left leadership through
Biman Bose assured the Muslims of West Bengal that the state
government would set up a primary school in every Muslim-concentrated
village in the state. That promise was not considered worthy of
implementation.
With regard to the presence of Muslims in public
employment and recruitment by the state government, the following
statistics are sufficient to comprehend the Left’s true inclinations in
West Bengal:
On August 31, 1977 the proportion of Muslims in the Indian
Administrative Service (West Bengal cadre) was two per cent while in the
Indian Police Service (WB cadre) it was four per cent and in the Indian
Foreign Service (WB cadre) it was one out of 78. The proportion of Muslims
in the West Bengal Higher Judicial Service and the West Bengal Police
Service was two per cent and six per cent respectively while the number of
Muslims in the West Bengal (Senior) Forest Service amounted to nil.
(Source: Q. 202 dated May 5, 1978 as in Legislative Assembly Reads.)
Out of 211 officers in the Calcutta Corporations, six were
Muslims and out of the total number of 32,935 employees of the Calcutta
Corporations, 4,230 were Muslims. (Source: Q. 208 dated April 21, 1978
as in Legislative Assembly Reads.)
On April 1, 1978, in the information and broadcasting
department, out of 44 Class I officers, one was Muslim; out of 76 Class II
officers, one was Muslim; out of 723 Class III employees, 12 were Muslims;
and out of 398 Class IV employees, 15 were Muslims. (Source: Q. 1424
dated April 28, 1978 as in Legislative Assembly Reads.)
On April 1, 1978, in the rural and small-scale industries
department, out of the 119 Class I officers, not one was a Muslim; out of
385 Class II officers, 20 were Muslims; out of 1,498 Class III employees,
53 were Muslims; and out of 839 Class IV employees, 30 were Muslims.
(Source: Q. 1428 dated April 28, 1978 as in Legislative Assembly Reads.)
On April 1, 1978, in the Calcutta State Transport
department, out of 98 officers, one was a Muslim and out of 13,232
employees, 101 were Muslims. (Source: Q. 280 dated March 7, 1979 as in
Legislative Assembly Reads.)
Now let us look at the trend in recruitment of Muslims in
state services in January 1980, recorded almost two years after the
statistics for 1978 provided by the state government in the state
assembly. The government responded to various questions with the following
statistics:
The number of Muslim recruits as recorded in 1980 says a
lot about the sincerity of the Left parties with regard to the upliftment
of Muslims in West Bengal.
This is what the Sachar Committee had to say about the
plight of Muslims in West Bengal after 30 years under the supposedly
secular and unbiased leftist combine: In West Bengal, where Muslims
constitute about 25 per cent of the population, their share in government
employment was just 4.2 per cent. The presence of Muslims in higher
positions in state public sector undertakings was nil.
On February 8 this year Chief Minister Buddhadeb
Bhattacharya announced a 10 per cent quota in government employment for
Muslims under the OBC category. The CPM and other Left parties patted
themselves on the back for the move. But what does this proposal actually
mean? It is important to understand that the total reservation in
government employment for OBC communities in the state of West Bengal is
only seven per cent. If the state government proposes to give Muslims a
sub-quota of 10 per cent from within this seven per cent quota for OBCs,
the scheme amounts to little more than a cruel joke. Apart from that, more
than four months after its announcement, the proposal has yet to be
notified.
Most people wonder about the reasons for the Left
leadership’s indifference to or bias against a powerful “vote bank” of 25
per cent, the overwhelming majority of whom have always stood like a rock
behind the leftist combine in every election in the state. In trying to
understand the rationale for its actions, I arrived at certain
conclusions.
With the decimation of the Congress in West Bengal, the
traditionally dominant groups infiltrated the Left parties and these
groups continue to occupy positions of power and privilege despite the
shift in political power within the state. Despite the slogan of power to
the people, the rhetoric about social and economic equality and the
emphasis on democratic values, there exists within the Left leadership a
powerful section from among the dominant groups that has influenced
decisions and exploited the Left’s ideology.
Bengal has not held aloof from the regions that have been
a breeding ground for those who strongly desired the revival of far-right
Hindutva nationalism. In his book entitled Hitler’s Priestess,
British historian Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke revealed that the renowned
Bengali spiritualist, Savitri Devi, compared Adolf Hitler to Kalki, the
last avatar of Vishnu. According to the author, Hitler was once worshipped
in elite Bengali homes in Calcutta. The right-wing Hindutva forces in
India have always been admirers of Hitler’s politics and his Nazism and
some even proclaimed him a great nationalist. It has long been a practice
of right-wing political activists to use religious figures to push their
political agenda.
The rise of the Left movement in West Bengal and its
capture of political power may well have forced the right-wing forces to
alter their tactics and infiltrate the Left parties. While this
observation certainly requires detailed study, it cannot be dismissed
outright. Though many people are aware that the Left leadership does not
believe in the caste hierarchy, many would be astonished to hear that the
overwhelming majority of the Left leadership in fact belongs to the upper
castes.
One of the major reasons for the Left’s diminishing
influence in the cow belt of northern India is its lack of trust in and
commitment to grooming leaders from within the OBC sections of Hindu
society.
There was a time when the Left parties had considerable
influence in Muslim-concentrated pockets in the northern states of Uttar
Pradesh, Bihar and Delhi but this has now been totally eclipsed. The major
reason for the near decimation of the Left in these areas is its failure
to groom Muslim leaders. It is important to point out that these Muslim
pockets have never been centres of labour movements in independent India
because of their low representation in government and semi-government
undertakings. Muslims in these pockets have always been involved in
traditional artisanship and they supported the Left parties as an
alternative to the Congress party because of their anger against the
ruling Congress administration. With the rise of the caste-oriented
parties from the 1980s, they have found better alternatives in the new
political configurations, as these parties have, to some extent at least,
groomed leaders from within the community.
Another major reason for the decline in the Left’s
influence among Muslims in the northern states is its forceful stand in
favour of a common civil code and its opposition to Muslim personal laws.
Incidentally, the Left has also groomed and consistently supported several
persons bearing Muslim names who have denounced religion and proudly
proclaimed themselves to be non-believers. Being sensitive to the issue of
religion, ordinary Muslims perceived the Left parties as being in concert
with the far-right Hindutva forces on the issue of personal laws and this
also played a major role in widening the gap between Muslims and the Left
in northern India.
We now come to the Left’s relations with the Muslims in
Kerala. Whenever the Left has been out of power in the southern state of
Kerala, it has taken special care to seek allies among the Muslim
community. With a small swing of one or two per cent, election results in
Kerala can dramatically alter power equations. The Muslim League has a
history of being at loggerheads with the Left Front in the state and is a
long-standing ally of the Congress. To counter the Muslim League, the Left
has always sought help from other Muslim organisations in the state. In
the recent past the Kerala unit of the Jamaat-e-Islami, the Indian
National League (a breakaway group of the Indian Union Muslim League) and
the cadre of the People’s Democratic Party led by Abdul Nasir Maudany have
openly supported the Left Front. As a thanksgiving to Abdul Nasir Maudany,
the state leadership of the CPM had campaigned for Maudany’s release from
a Tamil Nadu jail and had not only shared a dais with him but also highly
praised his leadership.
In a conversation with me after the last assembly
elections, E. Ahamed, currently the minister of state for railways in the
union government, was bitter about the Jamaat-e-Islami’s role in the
defeat of Congress and Muslim League candidates. I was not surprised, as I
was aware of the politics of the Kerala Jamaat.
Recently, the Left Democratic Front (LDF) chief minister
of Kerala, VS Achuthanandan, issued a statement on the rise of Muslim and
Christian communalism in Kerala. The secretary of the Kerala committee of
the CPM, Pinarayi Vijayan, also attacked the Jamaat-e-Islami. The harsh
statements and the parting of ways were not unexpected.
Achuthanandan’s sudden discovery of the rise of Christian
communalism must be seen in the light of the merger of the Kerala Congress
(Joseph) and the Kerala Congress (Mani) headed by the Christians. The
Kerala Congress (Joseph) was a part of the LDF alliance before it quit the
LDF to pave the way for its merger with the Joseph group.
Interestingly, the ruling LDF under Achuthanandan then admitted the PC
Thomas group of the Kerala Congress into the LDF. PC Thomas was once a
minister of state, and his Indian Federal Democratic Party was a coalition
partner, in the National Democratic Alliance government led by the BJP’s
mukhota (mask), Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
The Left’s confrontation with the Muslim groups began
after the Solidarity Youth Movement, the youth wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami,
revived its agitation against the acquisition of land for the construction
of a highway through Kinaloor in Kerala’s Kozhikode district. Earlier,
during the reign of the United Democratic Front too, Solidarity was in the
forefront of the campaign against the move by the then Congress-led
government to acquire the land – an agitation which, ironically enough,
the Left parties had supported at the time. Now, after the LDF government
decided to revive the project and initiated the process of land
acquisition, Solidarity has revived its agitation.
The other major reason for the confrontation was the
announcement by the Kerala Jamaat that it would field 700
candidates in the upcoming panchayat elections. The announcement sent
shock waves through the LDF which feared heavy losses in the panchayat
elections with the Jamaat’s entry into the fray.
In another significant development, the Indian National
League (INL) severed its ties with the LDF, a move provoked by the LDF’s
refusal to formally admit the INL into the ruling alliance. Having
waited for a long time, the INL finally came to the conclusion that
however much the LDF may want the INL’s support, it was not prepared to
grant the INL partnership status. Strangely, the LDF seems to use
different yardsticks for different parties. It has no hesitation in
admitting a former BJP ally who heads a Christian-dominated party into its
coalition but is reluctant to give equal status to the Indian National
League which it has suddenly discovered is communal too. n
(Navaid Hamid is general secretary of the Movement for
Empowerment of Muslim Indians, MOEMIN, and a member of the National
Integration Council. He can be reached at [email protected].)