The decimation of the Left in West Bengal is synonymous with the rise of competitive communalism in the State where political violence may have been a routine but communal polarisation, which is on display at the moment, was starkly absent in the almost three-decade-long Left rule.

The CPI(M), which ruled the State with a large minority population that witnessed two partitions — in 1947 and in 1971 — believes that the minority communalism and pandering to the worst of the fundamentalist elements among the Muslims by State Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has validated the majority communalism of the BJP. According to CPI(M), there have been 47 riots in the past three years in the State, particularly after 2016 elections. Between 1977 and 2011, when the CPI(M) lost its government in West Bengal, communal violence and religious polarisation was unheard of in the State.

“There were incidents of violence, but they were never interpreted as communal clashes. Now mainstream media is interpreting the TMC-BJP fight as communal clashes. The latest Kankinara riot started as a conflict between the TMC and the BJP. But it was degenerated into a communal clash,” said CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Nilotpal Basu.

The CPI(M) said that for the mutual convenience for both the parties, they wanted to push the Left out of the political landscape of Bengal. “Economy is in a very bad shape. Between 2004 and 2011, Gujarat was a poor second to Bengal in producing jobs in small and medium sector. The entire thrust of the TMC initiative was against setting up of industrial units,” Basu added.

Basu blamed the BJP, too, for the problems in traditional industries such as tea and jute. “All major crops like paddy, potato and jute have faced a price crash. The tea and jute industries are also collapsing. Both State and Centre Governments are responsible for this. Tea is export oriented. There is great opportunity for jute due to focus on eco- friendly packing materials. But there’s no interest for both the governments. So to divert attention from these problems, TMC and BJP are engaging in communalism,” he said.

Basu said that in the anxiety to oust the Left, the TMC anchored a rainbow coalition which included all kinds of communal forces. “On the right, they had Muslim fundamental forces and the BJP. It galvanised during that Nandigram agitations. After having come to power, the TMC understood that the challenges to their rule will be posed by the Left. Given the composition and demography of the population, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee assiduously developed a strategy of keeping the Left at bay. At one level, it was severest of physical attacks and on the other hand, she went for large-scale appeasement of minority communal forces and tacitly encouraged the BJP and the RSS. During the last 4-5 years, there is an unprecedented proliferation in the number of RSS shakhas in the State,” he claimed.

The State also saw “legitimisation of religion in politics” by extending allowances for Imams, overtly encouraging minority communalism. That made the ground fertile for the entry and the expansion for the Hindu communal forces as well. The Left’s understanding with the Congress in 2016 somewhat blunted the BJP’s growth. Between 2014 and 2017, there was a seven per cent vote share drop of the BJP. But subsequently due to intensification of attacks, the BJP gained ground. The last panchayat election led to great alienation of the TMC from the people,” he said.

The State also saw competition between the BJP and the TMC in organising Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti. “In Bengal, Ram was always seen as a hero of an epic. Looking at Ram as a God was not part of the Bengali cultural religious traditions. The result of this mixing up of religion with politics was communal polarisation. It started as political polarisation, but led to communal polarisation. They created a binary between BJP and TMC. We believe that it can be fought back,” Basu said.

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