TMC MPs, silent and indifferent during Murshidabad anti-Hindu violence, now tour Jammu and Kashmir to assess the situation after Pahalgam terror attack
A five-member delegation of Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders is on a three-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir to assess the situation following the Pakistan-sponsored Pahalgam terror attack and Pakistan’s artillery firing in the border villages. The delegation comprising Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien, Nadimul Haque, Mamata Bala Thakur, TMC minister Manas Ranjan Bhunia and Rajya Sabha MP Sagarika Ghose visited Srinagar, Poonch, and Rajouri to interact with locals and extend “solidarity, empathy and sympathy”.
The TMC leaders met Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah as visited the residence of National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah. The TMC delegation met the family of retired army officer Amarjeet Singh who was killed in Pakistani shelling on 8th May.
Sagarika Ghose and other TMC leaders in the delegation also visited the Christ School which was hit by shelling and claimed the lives of twin siblings Zayn Ali and Zoya.
On 22nd May, Sagarika Ghose asserted that the border villages of Jammu and Kashmir have suffered the most, and the delegation has come to tell the people that they are not alone. She stated that the border villages must not be “ignored,” and they must get the attention and relief and rehabilitation they deserve.
“We, a five-member delegation of public representatives from Bengal, have come to Kashmir on a journey of solidarity, empathy, and sympathy. The border villages of Jammu and Kashmir have suffered the most… We have come to tell the people of border villages that they are not alone… Our voyage here reflects our commitment to an inclusive India where every citizen’s needs are cared for and attended to. The border villages must not be ignored. They must get the attention, the relief, and rehabilitation they deserve”, she told reporters in Srinagar.
While the TMC leaders are claiming to have arrived in Jammu and Kashmir to express solidary and empathy for the victims of those killing in Pakistani firing earlier this month, their ‘empathy visit’ is more of a political tour.
At a time, when even foremost advocate of the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has decided not to raise this issue, TMC leaders brought up the statehood issue.
“It is a legitimate aspiration of the people. We firmly believe that Statehood must be fully restored to J&K. We believe that the elected government of J&K must be the empowered agency to look after the welfare and well-being of the people of Kashmir,” Sagarika Ghose said.
“The federal principle is ingrained in our Constitution… we believe that the elected government of Jammu and Kashmir must be the empowered agency to look after the welfare and wellbeing of the people,” she added.
TMC leaders travel all the way to Kashmir to express solidarity with victims of Pakistani violence, but fail to stand by the victims of anti-Hindu violence in Murshidabad
On the face of it, TMC delegation’s Jammu and Kashmir visit may seem like a genuine effort towards understanding the plight of the victims of Pakistan cross-border firing, however, it reeks of political opportunism when juxtaposed against the party’s tepid response to the anti-Hindu violence in West Bengal’s Murshidabad in April this year.
In Jammu and Kashmir, TMC leaders projected a unified front against Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, positioning the party as responsible national players, however, their statements, dripping with overwhelming empathy were missing when Hindus were attacked and killed by Islamist mobs in Murshidabad last month during anti-Waqf Act protests.
Sagarika Ghose could find time to visit Kashmir to meet families of those killed in Pakistani firing, however, she did not care to meet the family of Hargobinda Das and Chandan Das who were brutally killed by Islamist mob in Dhulian’s Shamsherganj for simply being Hindus. Forget meeting the Hindu victims of Murshidabad violence, TMC leaders had resorted to downplaying the attacks and playing political blame-game.
It, however, seem like TMC indulged in politics of convenience by visiting Kashmir but skipping Murshidabad due to the revelations of involvement of local TMC leaders in Murshidabad violence. The report by the fact-finding formed by the Calcutta High Court highlighted that local TMC councillor Mehboob Alam and MLA came with rioters on 11th April and saw the violence and went away. The report says that these attacks were carried out on directions of Mehboob Alam adding that the local police in the TMC-ruled state remained inactive and completely absent when Islamist mobs ran riots.
While the state was burning due to communal violence, members of the ruling All India Trinamool Congress (AITC or TMC) were preoccupied with downplaying the incidents, placing blame on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and even Hindus from other states as well as alleging conspiracy.
Instead of acting against the Islamist rioters, TMC leaders including motormouth Mahua Moitra issued a video helplessly pleading the rioters to halt their rioting. This outspoken leader, who positions herself as a staunch feminist and a fierce advocate against majoritarianism appears to have lost her voice when it comes to addressing the oppression of Hindu minorities in Murshidabad. The necessity of catering to the Muslim vote-bank incapacitated even the most “fearless” leaders.
Similarly, Sagarika Ghose who is empathising with victims of Pakistani brutalities in Kashmir, had turned apathetic to the plight of innocent Hindus in Murshidabad as her party’s votebank attacked them. Ghose had blamed the BJP for violence and declared Bengal police as “best in the country” even as the latter failed to act against Islamist mobs and remained nothing more than a mute spectator, a fact confirmed by the fact-finding committee’s report.
Sagarika Ghose’s apathy towards Hindus, however, is not shocking given it is an undeclared prerequisite for joining the Trinamool Congress. Ghose had not only downplayed anti-Hindu Murshidabad violence but also downplayed the Sandeskhali unrest last year. She brushed off the raging controversy as a ‘local land dispute.’ OpIndia had reported the testimonies of several women of Sandeshkhali. They courageously narrated the sexual exploitation suffered by them at the hands of TMC leaders such as Sheikh Shahjahan and his aides, Uttam Sardar and Shiba Prasad Hazra.
While illegal land grabbing by the Trinamool Congress was one of the concerns of the villagers, it wasn’t the crux of the issue. The former ‘journalist’ shrewdly dismissed key concerns of women’s safety and threats of gang rape received by the victims from her party leaders. Besides denying the harrowing experiences of the women in Sandeshkhali as a ‘local land dispute’, Sagarika Ghose accused the ‘outsiders’ of politicising the issue. Here, the ‘outsider’ reference was for the BJP. Apparently, downplaying Islamist violence or TMC-orchestrated political violence as a non-issue, blaming the BJP and secularising communal violence has become part of TMC’s SOP.
TMC leaders, however, have only been following their supreme leader, Mamata Banerjee. Not to forget, the West Bengal Chief Minister had last year attempted to downplay the harassment and sexual exploitation of women at the hands of Trinamool Congress goons. During a public meeting at Birbhum, she dubbed the unrest in Sandeshkhali as a ‘minor incident’ and blamed the BJP and the media for amplifying the issue in the public discourse.
Mamata Banerjee, who has a pathological obsession with fighting against the Kafirs (Islamic term for non-Muslims) had also downplayed the Islamist mob violence in Murshidabad. She even attempted to shift the blame from Muslim rioters to the Border Security Force (BSF) and the BJP as well as called it a “well-planned conspiracy”.
What further exposed the apathy of TMC towards victims of violence in West Bengal was that when Murshidabad was grappling with Islamist mob violence against Hindus, the TMC MP from Bahrampur, Yusuf Pathan, was ensconced in “calm surroundings” and was sipping tea. His Instagram post had sparked massive outrage last month.
Similarly, Derek O’Brien, who had been very vocal against the Waqf Act, also shared pictures of his lunch a day later on 13th April, on Instagram. “Sunday lunch. Home. Kolkata. Rice. Dal. Palong saag (spinach). Tengra maach (catfish) jhaal. What are you having for Sunday lunch?”, wrote O’Brien in the caption.
While TMC MPs like Khalilur Rehman and Samirul Islam made token visits to Murshidabad, the absence of Bahrampur MP Yusuf Pathan and the focus of TMC’s top brass on downplaying the Islamist violence against Hindus to shield its Muslim votebank reveal a callous disregard for their own state’s victims.
TMC’s hypocrisy is glaring. The party sends high-level delegation to Jammu and Kashmir leveraging the emotional issue of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism to deflect public attention from their governance lapses in home state. The TMC delegation’s Kashmir visit to express solidarity and demand statehood restoration demonstrated that the party is playing politics of convenience. TMC is not a stakeholder, it is neither in power in Jammu and Kashmir nor in Centre, yet it is raking up the statehood issue to position itself relevant in national politics, all while failing to protect innocent people from its own party goons and Islamist rioters in West Bengal.
The Trinamool Congress’s desperation to tour Kashmir, while failing to firmly stand with the victims of Murshidabad Islamist violence, exposes the party’s double standards. The party is quick to champion peace in a region where it faces no direct accountability but dodges responsibility where it is accountable.
Even the seriousness of TMC’s solidarity, sympathy, empathy and whatnot for the victims of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism can be comprehended from the theatrics the party displayed during appointment of multi-party delegations which were to visit foreign countries to present India’s anti-terror stance and inform allies about Operation Sindoor.
The TMC chose not to send its Lok Sabha MP Yusuf Pathan who was nominated by the centre or any other Member of Parliament in the multi-party delegations “They cannot decide a member’s name on their own. It is not their choice. If they request, the mother party will decide as is customary,” West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee stated.
“How can the union government decide the representative of Trinamool? They should have held discussions with the opposition to decide which representative a party will send,” party’s National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee argued. “The BJP government is at the helm of affairs. They can decide for their party, but not for Congress or AAP (Aam Aadmi Party),” he added.
The government selected the MP from Murshidabad to be a member of the delegation after its floor leader for the Lok Sabha, Sudip Bandhyopadhyay, stated that his health prevented him from taking part in the campaign. According to TMC, the government did not consult them. After high-voltage political drama, the TMC dropped its boycott plan and decided to send Abhishek Banerjee as a member of one of the multi-party delegations, considering the national sentiment.
TMC demonstrated an outpour of empathy for victims of Pakistan-sponsored Islamist terrorism in a region where it faces no direct accountability and cruel indifference towards victims of Islamist mob violence in a state it is under scrutiny. While standing in solidarity with the innocent victims of Pakistani attacks in Jammu and Kashmir is not wrong, however, nailing national optics while turning a blind eye to Islamist attacks on innocent people in own state begs the question: Why TMC runs out of ‘solidarity’, ‘sympathy’ and ‘empathy’ for victims of violence be it Islamist mob violence, or political violence in West Bengal?
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