Before every major election in West Bengal, the question of the Muslim vote comes to the fore. As the State gears up for the panchayat polls, this has again become a point of discussion in political circles.
The debate has heated up after the arrest of Indian Secular Front (ISF) MLA Naushad Siddique. In a House of 294 members, there are 43 Muslim MLAs — 42 belong to the Trinamool Congress; Mr. Siddique is the only Muslim MLA who does not represent either the Trinamool Congress or the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Mr. Siddique represents the Bhangar Assembly constituency but draws his support from Furfura Sharif, a prominent religious shrine in Hooghly district. His brother Abbas Siddique, a peer (religious leader) at Furfura started the ISF before the 2021 Assembly polls. The ISF entered into an alliance with the Left Parties and the Congress, presenting a third alternative to the people of the State. However, in the highly polarised Assembly polls of 2021, the Left parties and the Congress drew a blank, and only Naushad Siddique was elected to the State Assembly.
Larger game afoot
On January 21 this year, as Naushad Siddique and his supporters were taken into custody, the ISF supporters first clashed with the Trinamool Congress at Bhangar and then with the police in Kolkata. Subsequently, several party workers were arrested.
Many believe that there is a larger politics at play behind these arrests. It is crucial for the Trinamool to hold on to its Muslim support base in the State. Division of these votes may have an impact on the party’s electoral prospects in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Therefore, any redistribution of the Muslim votes and the presence of parties such as the ISF is not good news for the Trinamool.
In Bengal, Muslims are not targeted for their religion. Also, the Trinamool Congress has vehemently opposed the proposals of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). Yet, Muslims lack adequate political representation in the State Assembly and government jobs. A report by Nobel laureate Amartya Sen’s Pratichi Trust along with the Association SNAP and the Guidance Guild in 2016 pointed out that among the literate Muslims, only 2.7% had a graduate degree or higher. Only 17% of the Muslims in the State lived in urban settlements against the national average of 28%.
Muslims in the State did not have a voice during the Left Front’s regime as well. The shift of the Muslim votes towards the Trinamool started after 2006 when the Sachar Committee report highlighted that the Muslims in West Bengal were worse off than their counterparts in most other States in terms of socio-economic indicators.
Over the past few years, Mamata Banerjee’s politics has ventured towards soft Hindutva.. Her government has rolled out cash incentives for community Durga Pujas, released funds for upgrading temple infrastructure, and is organising Ganga Aartis. The Trinamool leadership has also remained silent on issues like the construction of the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya and the triple talak issue. The party’s decision to field Babul Supriyo, who was previously with the BJP and was the MP from Asansol when riots erupted in the city in 2018, from Ballygunge had also upset a section of Muslims.
Little option for Muslims
The ruling party believes that since Muslims cannot support the BJP they have little option but to vote for the Trinamool.
The arrest of Naushad Siddique has been criticised not only by the Left parties but also by the BJP that has so far not made any serious attempt to engage with the Muslim population in the State.
A section of civil society representatives has hit the streets in the city protesting against the arrest of the ISF MLA and slapping of several cases on him. “ The Trinamool Congress is trying to intimidate the ISF by these arrests. It wants the ISF to join the Trinamool rather than oppose its politics,” Prasenjit Bose, an economist and activist based in Kolkata, said.
In the midst of the politics around the ISF MLA’s arrest, Muslims in West Bengal feel let down by both the ruling party and the Opposition, and is trying to discover an electoral voice that the community has been seeking for the past several decades.
shivsahay.s@thehindu.co.in
