Muslim clerics protest against Mamata’s funding for puja pandals

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s recent announcement to present a whopping Rs.28 crore to 28,000 community Durga Puja committees across the State has incurred the anger of Muslim clerics and influential Muslim organisations who, for long, have been her steadfast supporters. On October 3, days before the beginning of the Durga Puja, the biggest festival in the State, Muslim organisations, led by the All Bengal Minority Youth Federation (ABMYF), took to the streets in Kolkata in a massive display of protest.

Chanting slogans against the Trinamool Congress government, around 40,000 protesters, along with a large number of influential clerics, demanded a hike in the honorarium and stipend that the imams and muezzins of West Bengal have been receiving since April 2012. The imams receive an honorarium of Rs.2,500 a month and the muezzins Rs.1,000. The protesters want these figures to be doubled. “We are against the government giving money for any religious activity. Our Constitution does not allow it. Around 56,000 imams and muezzins are given honorarium and stipend through the Wakf Board. When the State government started giving honorariums to imams in 2012, the High Court ruled a year later that it cannot do so. Similarly we protested against the State government giving money for the Durga Pujas,” chairman of the ABMYF Mohammad Quamaruzzaman told Frontline .

The protest also brought to the fore a number of other grievances that a sizeable section of the Muslim community in the State have been harbouring against the Trinamool government. “Mamata Banerjee had promised to grant recognition to 10,000 new madrasas in the State but so far only 234 have been recognised. In these madrasas, even midday meals are not provided. If the Chief Minister can give Rs.2 lakh annually to a club, then why should a madrasa not get Rs.2 lakh as well? Is a club more important than an education institution for the Chief Minister? We demand that at least Rs.2 lakh be given annually to the 234 madrasas that have been recognised so far,” said Quamaruzzaman.

Another demand was that there should be more representation of Muslims in the police force in certain areas of the State. “Due to the politics that is being practised all over the country, there is growing tension between Hindus and Muslims in many places. This is very unfortunate, but in these places Muslims are feeling insecure, so we want more Muslim representation in the police force, from the constable level to the level of the superintendent of police. Then Muslims here will feel more safe,” said Quamaruzzaman.

The Muslim community’s disgruntlement over Mamata Banerjee’s brand of politics is an ominous warning for her. Her recent political overtures at the time of Hindu festivals are perceived as an attempt to counter accusations of minority appeasement that is often levelled against her. “This government has taken up the policy of the BJP. Mamata di has begun to adopt in West Bengal the same line that Yogi Adityanath is taking in Uttar Pradesh,” Quamaruzzaman said at the protest rally.

The ABMYF has threatened to hit the streets after Deepavali and stage an even greater protest. “We want the government to sit and explain its actions to us. If it cannot do so, then we will hit the streets this time in a far bigger way,” said Quamaruzzaman.