After Ram Navami clashes in Rishra, Bajrang Dal can't hide its glee

The situation is ripe for setting up a unit in this industrial township, the organisation’s convener in Serampore told this newspaper

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Kinsuk Basu   |   Rishra (WB)   |    05.04.23  : The communal strife in Rishra has left at least one organisation smug — the Bajrang Dal. 

The youth wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a Right-wing Hindu nationalist organisation founded by M.S. Golwalkar among others to “organise, consolidate the Hindu society and to serve and protect the Hindu dharma”, has found fertile ground in this Hooghly town, barely 25km from Calcutta, to open its next unit and that too in a month’s time.

The situation is ripe for setting up a unit in this industrial township, the organisation’s convener in Serampore told this newspaper. The Bajrang Dal is one of the organisations named by chief minister Mamata Banerjee as responsible for fomenting the clashes. 

“We will convene a meeting of our functionaries very soon and open a unit in Rishra,” Sanjeet Kumar Yadav, the Bajrang Dal’s convener in Serampore, adjoining Rishra, said on Tuesday afternoon. 

“By April, the committee will be in place. We have been planning to set up a committee (of the Bajrang Dal) in Rishra for some time. Now it is even more necessary. Mahol badal chuka hain. Hindu khatre main hain (The scene has changed. Hindus are in danger),” Yadav said.

A quiet township on the banks of the Hooghly — with over 60 per cent of its population Hindi-speaking and residing in a pocket dotted with several jute mills, factories and textile units — Rishra has not witnessed communal violence in the past few decades, said a trader in his sixties on Tuesday afternoon, standing outside his stationery shop that had to be kept closed in view of the clashes between Hindus and Muslims.

Several vehicles were set on fire and shops vandalised after a clash broke out between two groups during a Ram Navami procession on Sunday evening. The violence continued on Monday when a police van was torched and a vehicle set on fire, bringing suburban train services to a halt for over two hours from 10.30pm on Monday. 

Senior officials of the Rishra municipality — established in 1944 — said the violence was restricted to six — out of a total of 23 — wards, where the minority population is significantly higher, hovering a little above 50 per cent, than the average. 

“Wards 1-5 and Ward 23 witnessed violence during Sunday’s trouble. Of these six wards, those within 1-5 have a significant minority population. Ward 4, for instance, has around 65 per cent and ward 5, around 85 per cent minority population,” said a senior official of the municipality. 

A section of Trinamul leaders conceded that Rishra had been a weak spot for the party during the parliamentary elections of 2019 when it lagged by 5,000-odd votes though Kalyan Banerjee, the party’s candidate, went on to win the Serampore seat.

A section of the population in Rishra said they were yet to fathom how a procession could lead to such violence that the district police were forced to clamp Section 144 and Internet services had to be discontinued in several parts.

“There were flames in pockets and people kept running from one place to another as glass bottles and stones kept landing,” recalled Sujal Singh, a young resident of Sandhya Bazar, which had no Internet services on Tuesday. “Many people had blood on their faces.”

Around 48 hours since the procession triggered violence, Rishra remained eerily calm on Tuesday with most streets wearing a deserted look and a few peeping from behind balconies and windows but not stepping out for fear of the heavy police deployment. 

A group of people sitting around the Alhhabadi Masjid in Sokal Bazar area refused to talk when this correspondent walked up to them.  Shops closed, markets shut, they walked into their houses when this correspondent tried to speak to them.

“We can only say that even the British couldn’t divide Rishra. Now there is an attempt to do so,” said Guddu Sheikh, fear written on his face. 

Contrast this with Yadav, who could hardly hide his glee. Although he spoke extensively about the dangers facing the Hindus, some of his aides told this correspondent in private that the “uprising of the Hindu community” in the past 48 hours “by way of taking the Muslims head on” has given them hope that the organisation would be an instant hit among the Hindu youths. 

As part of its larger objective, the organisation, among several activities, conducts physical training for youths. “The Hindu youths will not think about jobs or their democratic rights here.... They will be used as members of a doctrinal army against another community. The plan can’t get more sinister than this,” said a schoolteacher, who refused to be named.