BJP in Bengal offers new model to include Muslims

Saugata Roy | TNN | Nov 11, 2017,KOLKATA: A national brand with regional flavour is what it seems BJP leaders are looking at to calibrate the party's activities as part of organisational expansion. A reading of the speeches on the minorities by BJP leaders in Kolkata — Dilip Ghosh, Mukul Roy and Rahul Sinha — prompts one to guess that the party is treading a path different from the Yogi Adityanath model in Uttar Pradesh.

Instead, the Bengal BJP brigade in consultation with the central leaders is trying to project an inclusive model in a state that has a 27% Muslim population, 8% more than that in Uttar Pradesh.

With the BJP being able to get a toehold in as many as 49,000 booths ahead of the rural polls, BJP leaders in Kolkata didn't harp on majority consolidation while addressing "minority appeasement" by Mamata Banerjee government. Instead, they wanted to include Muslims as worthy citizens of the state rather than mere numbers in vote bank politics.

While BJP state president Dilip Ghosh tried to play on the refugee sentiments of the Hindus who had crossed over to India during Partition, BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha addressed the Muslims of Bengal saying that his party wants to recognise them as worthy citizens. Mukul Roy, on the other hand, quoted Ramakrishna Paramhansa to argue that people in Bengal irrespective of political affiliation have always stood for communal harmony.

If all these come in a bouquet, it is quite different from the hardline saffron shade that accepts Muslims only if they accept Indian (read Hindu) traditions and culture. BJP's argument in Bengal is limited to the assertion of Hindu religious rights that are allegedly been denied in the state. "We have to move court for Durga idol immersion, perform Hanuman Jayanti when some others can take out Muharram rallies with Didi's picture," said Rahul Sinha. Sinha then asked the Muslim brothers if their religious text (Hadis) allows people from other religion to offer namaz.

Mukul Roy, a new entrant to the party, however, harped on Ramakrishna's teachings that say that there is no difference between offering puja to the goddess and offering namaz. Roy recounted how Rani Rashmani, while setting up the Dakshineswar temple, asked a Muslim mazar to stay in the neighbourhood. "It stands still today. Our glorious ancestors have always stood for communal harmony. It doesn't go to the credit of any political party," Roy said while BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya was on the dais.

All these, however, do not wipe out the blot of communal clashes the state witnessed in the past from Hajinagar to Chandernagore, and from Dhulagarh to Basirhat where Hindu chauvinists paid no heed to the state's legacy.