Let Them Reap What They Sowed

There is already legitimate fear that, as the besieged Jamaati leadership of Bangladesh seeks refuge in India, it will be welcomed with open arms by unscrupulous elements to foment communal trouble here. That must not be encouraged

The March 30 rally organised in support of the Jamaat-e-Islami in Bangladesh by a group of Islamist parties in Kolkata was, unfortunately, largely overlooked by the national media. Yet, those who cared to scan through the news capsules have been rightly alarmed by this blatant display of support for a group of men responsible for the massacre of three million people. Between the months of March and December 1971, the Jamaatis’ razakar militia collaborated with the Pakistani Army to squash the nationalist Bengali movement in what was then East Pakistan. In the process, they raped, maimed and killed millions, burnt down entire villages and displaced millions more.

Four decades later, a handful of those razakars are finally being brought to book, thanks to the war crimes trial initiated by the Government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. However, if the coalition of Islamic organisations in Kolkata have their way, the likes of Jamaat-e-Islami vice-president Delware Hussain Sayeedi (whose crimes during 1971 earned him the nickname ‘Butcher of Mirpur’) and his brand of merry men will go scot free, never to be held accountable for their heinous actions.

Members of the Islamist coalition — that includes groups such as the All-Bengal Muslim Youth Federation, the Sunnat-ul-Jama’at, the Madrasa Student Union and the Welfare Party of India, among others — that gathered at the Shahid Minar grounds in central Kolkata this past weekend, believe that the trial against Sayeedi and other Jamaat leaders is unfair and politically motivated. Specifically, they remain opposed to the death sentence handed down to Sayeedi, the senior-most Jamaati in Bangladesh, who they argue is being persecuted for his religious and political beliefs.

Now, the Islamists in Kolkata are by no means the first or the only group of people to claim that the trial is unjust. Others have also said that Bangladesh’s international war crimes tribunal does not always meet global standards; but then again, the tribunal, for the most part, has credibly defended itself against these allegations. Even then, it is one thing to hold the legal processes of the tribunal to scrutiny and quite another to say that Sayeedi and his ilk committed no crimes at all, which is exactly what the Jamaat supporters would like you to believe. In fact, Syed Jalaluddin Umari, the chief of the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, which is the Indian franchise of the Jamaati party, has even gone so far as to say that there were no war crimes at all during the 1971 war.

Such a perversion of the truth is, no doubt, both appalling and infuriating; yet, it is by no means illegal. In a democratic country such as ours, there is space — political, social and constitutional — for the peaceful expression of even the most virulent of opinions. To that extent, the protesters were well within their rights to hold a rally, even if it was to support mass murderers. But as galling as that may have been, it was perhaps still not as morally reprehensible as the deafening silence maintained by the political establishment of West Bengal on the issue. Indeed, in the several days that have passed since the March 30 rally, neither of the State’s two main political outfits — the Trinamool Congress or the Left Front — has thought it fit to offer a counter-response.

Interestingly, this is despite the fact that the average Bengali, including the vast majority of Bengali Muslims, remains vehemently opposed to the Jamaatis and their brand of politics. For instance, the chief of the one of the Islamist groups Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind, Maulana Siddiqullah Chowdhury, who has made no secret about his support for the likes of Sayeedi, was routed in the 2011 Assembly election. He was contesting from the Domkol constituency of Murshidabad district, which is almost 90 per cent Muslim, and yet he managed to secure less than three per cent of the votes. He had played the religion card to the fullest.

Moreover, mainstream Bengali society has come out in whole-hearted support of the Shahbagh protesters — as is evidenced by the many exhibitions, panel discussions and cultural events that have been organised in Kolkata and elsewhere to show solidarity for Bengalis across the border. So, why then are those who have been elected by this same society and claim to represent Bengal, so reluctant to rein in fringe elements and speak up for the majority of the people?

The answer, as expected, lies in the dirty details of vote-bank politics. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress rode to power on the back of minority votes. In fact, Islamist organisations played an important role in mobilising public support during the Singur protests which proved to be the game-changer in the 2011 Assembly election. Expectedly, therefore, Ms Banerjee has spent the past two years engaging in the worst kind of minority appeasement politics that there can be, and her Government’s silent support for the Jamaati supporters is only further proof of that.

As for the Left Front, do not forget that this Muslim vote-bank was traditionally its own, and that the Front will do nothing to further alienate this group, given that it already lost some part of the pie to the Trinamool. There is nothing new in this kind of cynical vote-bank politics — indeed, it is the routine in the country; yet, the moral bankruptcy of Bengal’s political establishment that has been reflected in its decision to maintain such a conspiracy of silence, is deeply disturbing.

Equally worrying also is the implications this might have on India’s national security. With the protests in Bangladesh only gaining in strength, the Jamaatis there have also notched up their game. Their ‘march to Dhaka’ that has been scheduled for later this week that is expected to unleash yet another round of violence and bloodshed is proof of this. The Government of Bangladesh, in response, has also intensified its crackdown on the Jamaatis, and there is enough evidence to suggest that the latter are already fleeing their country and moving into India. In fact, Indian troops along the porous Bangladesh border have already been put on high alert to tackle the crisis.

It in against this backdrop that a section of Muslim Bengalis’ support for the Jamaatis, and the tacit support they receive from the Government of West Bengal, becomes hugely problematic. There is already legitimate fear that, as the Jamaati leadership of Bangladesh seeks refuge in India, it will be welcomed with open arms only to foment communal tensions in the near future. Add to this mix, news reports that Bangladesh’s police believes that the terror group, Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, is also being revived under the leadership of Jamaat leaders in coordination with some Afghan war veterans, and the situation seems definitively terrifying.

(This article was published in the Op-ed section of The Pioneer on April 4, 2013.)