Mamata and Muslims

Muslim appeasement is a way of life in West Bengal more than just a political gimmick.

 

Pre Mamata Legacy:

The CPI-M government spend increasing on madrasa education and scholarships, allowances and hostel facilities for Muslim students. Most spectacularly, it raised the allocation to the state’s Minorities Development and Financial Corporation to INR 425 crore, up from INR 7 crore in 1998. That amounts to an increase of nearly 6,000 percent over a 12 year period.

 

Mamata Legacy:

 

 

 

Not to be out done by the previous government, Mamata promised sops galore. While she was Railway Minister from 2009 to 2011, Banerjee used the resources of that ministry to cater to the West Bengal electorate, and to Muslim aspirations in particular. Thus, over a seven months period in 2010 she inaugurated or laid foundation stones for no less than 120 railway projects in West Bengal, many of them in areas with a significant Muslim population.

 

Moreover, in 2012 her government would provide loans and stipends to 75,000 Muslim students, up from 52,000 in 2011. In all, the monetary support to the minorities department in the state budget had been increased by 76 percent in just one fiscal year. 

 

This is of course not the end, 760 Muslim girls were given bicycles for travelling to school and back. This was termed as "women empowerment"!  

 

She sanctioned 10000 madrasas in West Bengal, establishment of Aligarh Muslim University in WB and three Haj Towers in a row.  

 

She increased the number of scholarships given to Muslim students from 4 lakh students per year to 17 lakhs in 2011-12 to 22 lakhs the next year.

 

She has also declared forthcoming establishments of  56 Muslim marketing hubs, where 56000 Muslims will get employments in coming days.

   

Mamata Banerjee  topped the other appeasements by declaring Rs. 2500 per month as Imam Honorarium and Rs. 1000 for Muazzins with other facilities.

 

Though Mamata Banerjee is habituated beating her own drum of success, most of the fund has come to West Bengal from Central Govt., through  the multi-sectoral development project (MSDP) for poor Muslim women, launched under the Prime Minister’s 15-point programme for minorities, which followed the Sachar report on so called Muslims’ plight.

 

As per the report available from Union minority affairs ministry, it is said that the state had received Rs 800 crore towards the scheme last year (20111-12) but will receive Rs 1,100 crore this year (2012-13).

 

She has described her government’s decision to bring the minorities under the ambit of reservation by including them in the list of Other Backward Classes (OBC) as a major achievement. For fulfilling her desire Mamata Banerjee’s  Govt has also included Sheikh/Shaik (Sk.) Muslim community in the State OBC list and declared the matter publicly.

 

Of the 144 different categories who will benefit from the 17 per cent OBC reservation, 87 categories (59 in class A and 28 in class B) are Muslim minority.

 

She also lists the achievement of her government in  the declaration of second language status to Urdu in areas where the Urdu-speaking population is more than 10 per cent as a major victory.  

 

Finally, Durga Puja is followed by Id-ul-Zuha and she allows  the illegal slaughter of cows around Durga Puja pandals.

 

As election are always around the corners in Bengal, wonder where the tall order of appeasement ends?