As Mamata vigorously accepts the BJPs communal challenge in Bengal, she falls afoul of her old allies.
Taha Siddiqui, Pirzada of Furfura Sharif, Hooghly, a leading conservative Muslim voice in West Bengal, is angry with Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress government. He has voiced his disenchantment in public, saying archly that Mamata must not take Muslim voters for granted, knowing that the TMC can ill afford to ignore discontent within the community that comprise 28 per cent of the state’s electorate, that too months before Lok Sab ha elections, wherein Muslim voters’ support is crucial for the TMC to thwart the growing threat of the BJP. At a protest rally in Calcutta, Siddiqui said the TMC was as adept in communal politics as the BJP.
The immediate ‘provocation’ was a rec ent decision made by the government to give a Rs 10,000 grant each to all the community Durga Puja committees this year. For 28,000 such pujas across Bengal, the total expenditure from the exchequer would be Rs 28 crore. Openly questioning Mamata’s secular credentials, he said the government should not sponsor any particular festival. And if so, such grants should be given to other religious festivals too. Whether the government’s use of state funds violates India’s secular frame work is now being debated in Calcutta High Court, after a PIL was filed against the rationale of such a decision.
This story is from the October 22, 2018 edition of Outlook.
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This story is from the October 22, 2018 edition of Outlook.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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