People's Democracy

BJP Out To Communalise  The Terrorist Attack In Jaipur

Hannan Mollah

AGAIN there was a heinous act of cowardice, killing sixty five innocent people and injuring 277, in Jaipur, by the anti-national terrorist forces. A two-day meeting of Rajasthan state committee of CPI(M) condemned this second terrorist attack in the state, after last year�s blast in the Dargah of Moinuddin Chishti at Ajmer. It also criticised the Vasundhara Raje-led BJP state government which failed to save the life and property of innocent people. The committee expressed deep sympathy with the families of the victims of the serial bomb blast. This incident exposed the inefficient administration in the state. Within hundred metres of police headquarters and almost inside the two main city police stations, such meticulously planned explosions occurred but police remained callous before and clueless after, felt the committee.

The eight blasts took place within fifteen minutes in the walled city and busy commercial centre, from Sanghaneri Gate to Chandpole Gate. The study of the incident shows that it took long extensive preparation and a group of people may have been engaged in this task. But surprisingly the intelligence agency and police failed to act properly. BJP as usual is harping on the need for more stringent oppressive acts like POTA but, when this act was in operation in the country, the BJP government failed to prevent attacks on parliament and Akshardham temple.

To cover its incompetence, the government as usual turned to raise its oft-repeated bogey of Bangladeshis, but the question is who stopped the government to identify such foreign nationals and bring them before court and deport them legally. They propagated for years that there are lakhs of illegal Bangladeshis in Delhi but during their government both at the central and state they failed to deport even a dozen of such foreigners. Now raising such hue and cry again is nothing but hypocrisy as they are ruling in the state of Rajasthan for many years.

After this incident the government started taking action against all Bengali-speaking people, without differentiating between Bengali-speaking Indian citizens and Bengali-speaking Bangladeshi foreigners. The police ordered all landlords in the city to throw out their Bengali-speaking tenants. This has created severe panic among them. They are hurriedly trying to leave Jaipur. It is reported that they are being apprehended in trains and buses and hence prevented from going home to West Bengal. The chief minister of Rajasthan said that the central government wrote to her to collect all �Bangladeshis� and to keep them in a special transit camp. Though home minister Shivraj Patil denied it and said that India is a democracy and no body, even a foreigner, can be detained in such camps.

COMMUNALISING

THE INCIDENT

Moreover, the BJP in Rajasthan is trying to communalise this incident to polarise the vote bank for the coming assembly elections. Recently in Jodhpur the chief minister mentioned that the elections in the state would follow the �Gujarat pattern�. The party in charge in Gujarat has now been deputed to repeat this feat in Rajasthan. This indicates that the BJP is whipping up communal frenzy in the state. Minorities in the state are apprehending communal attacks. The recent riots in Chittor are a pointer to this effect.

After the recent bomb blasts they are now targeting Muslims in general and Bengali-speaking Muslims in particular. The CPI(M) state committee has repeatedly made it clear that it is the bounden duty only of the government to identify foreigners and deport them as per law but they must distinguish between �Bangla bhashi� Indian and �Bangladesh foreigner�. In the name of nabbing illegal Bangladeshi migrants, no Indian citizen either from West Bengal or elsewhere in India must be attacked or harassed. But on the contrary the BJP and RSS activists are trying their best to utilise this incident for polarisation of voters in the coming election.

The state committee of CPI(M) noted with great satisfaction that in spite of BJP's efforts, the people of Jaipur showed exemplary communal harmony and brotherhood. This is a great indicator of the secular traditions of the people of Jaipur. We should work hard to strengthen the feeling of amity and mobilise all secular democratic forces in the state to uphold this secular tradition. The state committee decided to organise large number of public meetings in all the districts on May 26, 2008, to express condolence to the victims and sympathy to their families. Those meetings will condemn the terrorist attacks on innocent people and expose the failure of the government to protect the people. The meetings well also expose the conspiracy of the BJP-RSS communal forces to communalise the atmosphere and appeal to all the secular and democratic forces to unite and preserve the peace and communal harmony in the state.

The state committee also noted that the BJP rule is proving to be one of the most corrupt regimes in Rajasthan. The government is facinBJP Out To Communalise The Terrorist Attack In Jaipurg a series of corruption charges and ministers are forced to leave the government. The chief minister�s office is also not above board. The media has been full of such stories. The factional fight within BJP is also intensifying. To divert the people�s attention from all this, the BJP is fanning communal passions. The party will bring all these matters before people during the campaign.

The state committee called upon all its units to be vigilant and take up people�s issues affecting their day to day life along with the above matters.