Author: Editorial
Publication: The Statesman
Date: January 26, 2002
Introduction: Buddhadev takes a
bold step
Buddhadev Bhattacharya deserves
a big dose of credit for not only being honest in publicly acknowledging
the large presence of unauthorised madrasas in West Bengal’s border districts
“run with foreign help and petro-dollars for churning out anti-national
elements” but also promising to take action against them. What he said
in Siliguri in his no-nonsense and welcome style of acknowledging unpalatable
truths is a refreshing departure from the conceited denial syndrome that
his predecessor Jyoti Basu suffered from. Basu ensured that the Muslim
vote bank was intact for his party flatly denying infiltration of Bangladeshi
subversives into West Bengal, the presence of ISI agents in the state and
the rise of Muslim fundamentalism in the border districts. That petro dollars
and foreign radical Islamists were poisoning the mind of the state’s Muslims
against other communities never bothered him. POTO was a repressive legislation
framed with the purpose of targeting Muslims before the crucial assembly
elections in four states. SIMI’s ban too was strongly disapproved although
the police in a recent submission before Delhi High Court revealed details
of this outfit’s bid to create a rift between the majority and minority
communities and “its firm belief in pan-Islamic concept and its implementation
in the state”. It was this indulgence given by the Basu regime that emboldened
the ISI and radicals to cause the bomb blast at the New Jalpaiguri station
in 1999 killing 9 people and also open madrasas without, the knowledge
of the Madrasas Board which controls 590 such institutions in the state.
Buddhadev is right in wanting to put the unauthorised madrasas under the
scanner.
Jyoti Basu failed to bring the minority
community into the state’s social and economic mainstream which, unlike
in other non-Marxist ruled states, has forced a vast segment to suffer
from a sense of alienation. While he and his party used the Muslim vote
bank to strengthen the Marxist power base nothing was done to socially
and economically improve the lot of this community still steeped in neglect
and privation. Nothing has been done to modernise the madrasas curriculum
to equip their students to face the challenges of a competitive world.
But who cares so long as Muslims keep voting for the ruling Marxists en
masse!
