At a ‘Yogdaan’ ceremony in Domohoni village in Jalpaiguri. Partha Paul.
Over a week, as The Indian Express travelled across a swathe of rural
West Bengal covering Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar, Coochbehar Lok Sabha seats
and also parts of Raigunj, Balurghat and Nadia where the BJP gained the
most, the story is the same: hundreds of Muslim families in village
after village are signing up with the BJP at what are called “Yogdaan”
ceremonies held almost on a daily basis since results came on May 16.
No
cumulative numbers are available yet but according to lists offered by
the local BJP units in these places, the number would have crossed
50,000 in Jalpaiguri alone.
Their
reasons are a blend of political confidence, inducement, fear and the
vacuum created by the local Left leadership, all riding on an aggressive
hardsell by local BJP leaders who are using Narendra Modi’s name to
underline that “development,” (jobs, protection and money) is on their
agenda, not Hindutva. In a region where 30-40 per cent of the population
is Muslim, this rhetoric comes with constant references to a
Modi-majority Centre.
So
after namaz, as New Delhi was preparing for the swearing-in ceremony,
Samiruddin Mian and over 150 families, comprising over 500 voters of
Banglarjhar and Patkakhocha villages under Domohoni Village II Panchayat
in Jalpaiguri district joined the BJP. The venue of this Yogdaan
ceremony was a patch of farmland next to a Durga temple, teeming with
about 3,000 new BJP supporters.
Aliyar
Rahaman, an elected village panchayat member of Domohoni Block-II, was
with the Revolutionary Socialist Party, a constituent of the Left Front,
but this election, he says, has changed equations. “Eight village
panchayats in this area belonged to the RSP and two to the CPM, most of
these have now switched to the BJP,” says Aliyar.
Asked
why, he says: “In the villages, we can’t live without politics. For
generations, our fathers and grandfathers have been with the Left. Even
in this Lok Sabha polls, we voted for the Left. But we lost miserably.
Our top leaders have disappeared. They are not to be found. We want to
be with a powerful party. BJP is the most powerful party,” says Aliyar.
Says
his colleague Azizul Haque: “Muslims have always been safe and secure
in this state, either under the Left or now in the TMC. Here, they form
nearly 30 per cent of the population, this gives us the confidence to
test a new political formation and see how that plays out.”
There
is a set pattern in these Yogdaan ceremonies. Assembled BJP leaders
read out a “pledge” before officially accepting the new entrants. The
oath reads: “I fully and wholeheartedly announce myself as a
nationalist…I believe in national integrity and secular state
principles…I am inspired by the ideals and principles of the Bharatiya
Janata Party…I pledge to abide and live by the Indian Constitution.”
At
one ceremony as the oath is being read, Azizul, an elected panchayat
member of Singimari-Chandrabad village in Jalpaiguri, says many Muslims
in his village do not buy the CPM’s line that a Modi victory would
endanger their lives. “We know what happened in Gujarat but that was 12
years ago,” says Azizul, “he never said anything anti-Muslim in his
speeches.”
There
are three steps to membership. Step One: Before the pledge, each
application is vetted, said Shyamal Barman, BJP general secretary
(Organisation), Jalpaiguri. “We weed out those who have misused
development funds or have been booked for crimes like rape,” he says.
Step two: a cooling-off period for two months and, three, signing up
primary and active membership forms.
Under
Barman’s jurisdiction in Changrabandha near Mekhliganj — close to the
India-Bangladesh border — Asekar Rahaman, a 24-year-old graduate tells
an assembled crowd in one Yogdaan ceremony: “From today, we are BJP’s
soldiers. I was born a little before Vajpayeeji’s government. If the
Muslims are to be deported from India to Pakistan and Bangladesh under
the BJP’s dispensation then by now I should have been in Pakistan, Dhaka
or Barishal. We have come to realise that the BJP is not a communal
outfit,” says Asekar. The local BJP leader, Shyamal Saha, visibly elated
at Asekar’s speech offers him a “gairik” (saffron) salute.
“The
magnitude of the BJP’s victory has certainly overwhelmed a majority of
these Muslims and this is behind their shifting loyalty,” admits Deepen
Pramanik, district president of Jalpaiguri BJP. “The Left is defunct in
almost all local bodies. They don’t find the Trinamool a viable
political choice and so they are coming to us,” says Pramanik.
There
are some Muslims who admit that fear is a factor, too. “The fear and
panic of living in the extreme margins of a new power structure drove us
to this transition. In the highly politicised rural environment, we
need an umbrella of protection from a mighty party. Or else, we are in
danger,” says Azizul Haque, a former elected panchayat member of
Moynaguri who has joined the BJP.
Asked
about Muslim induction in BJP, Bijoy Krishna Barman, the newly elected
TMC MP from Jalpaiguri, denies any knowledge. But when told about
specific examples, Barman says: “Yes, some people made mistakes. But
they are now coming to the TMC. What does the BJP have to offer them?”
asks Barman. Gautam Deb, Minister for North Bengal Development, is more
cautious. He says he is yet to get detailed reports from the field. “If
it is true, we will have to look deep into it,” Deb says.
Speaking
to The Indian Express, Rezzak Mollah, the veteran estranged CPM former
state committee member and an important leader of Muslims, confirms that
“thousands of Muslims” are joining the BJP not only in North Bengal but
even in South Bengal districts. “It is a massive wave now. This is
primarily because the CPM and other political parties have failed to
give the sense of security and protection to Muslims. It’s a choice born
out of compulsion. The moment an alternative platform can be offered to
these sections, the Muslims will return,” said Mollah who is now building up a Social Justice Manch aimed at Muslims and Dalits.
At
the Alimuddin Street party headquarters in Kolkata, the top brass
shrugs it off. Says Biman Bose, politburo member and the state secretary
of CPM: “Let detailed reports come to us for scrutiny. Till then we are
not paying any heed to such rumours.”
Sukhovilas
Verma, a retired IAS officer and the defeated Congress MP nominee from
Jalpaiguri, doesn’t take this as lightly. “This (Muslims joining BJP) is
a most natural and spontaneous transition in the absence of Congress
and a declining Left. The Muslims who had been with either the Congress
or the Left have little option now but to go for the BJP,” says Verma.
Rahul
Sinha, the state president of the BJP denies there is any coercion.
“These people (Muslims) have tried all options and have only been
cheated and exploited through their lives. They are now falling for a
new option in BJP and hoping to get a better deal from a party that has
come to rule the country. We welcome them.”
Amid
the conflicting claims, one thing is clear, however. The most visible
political mobilisation post-election is in the BJP camp and the Yogdaan
ceremony is a key element of that.