The recent violence in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district , in which Hindus were targeted by mobs apparently protesting against Waqf Amendment Act 2025 passed by Parliament and approved by President of India, demonstrated that how the lives of peace-loving citizens are endangered in a politically and communally motivated situations . This has given a feeling that Hindus, in this country, are still vulnerable to communally -driven politics and frenzy.
In quite realistic terms, every citizen in this country has right to live. But the protestors in West Bengal had no right to kill the members of Hindu community, torture and harass them. This is failure of the law and order machinery, more worrisome is the fact that the communally motivated violence was allowed to take place when there was no obvious provocation.
NEWS ANALYSIS
The reports of the violence from West Bengal are disturbing where the majority community in the country starts having second thoughts about its existence at the hands of lynch mobs. This leads to highly critical and complex situation, posing a threat to the national security and communal harmony. Murshidabad district in West Bengal is a minority- dominated area – that is that Muslims are in majority there. Taking advantage of their higher numbers, they took on Hindus, the minority in the district.
In Parliament, the Waqf amendment bill was discussed and debated for several hours. The issue of its being good or otherwise was played live before the country’s audience. There were logics and counter-logics from both sides. But ultimately, in parliamentary democracy, the issues are decided and bills are passed on the strength of numbers. The bill was passed with a majority in both Houses of Parliament. It is now sub-judice as the Supreme Court is hearing all the petitions challenging the Act, the government also is pressing ahead with its stand- legality, constitutionality and necessity of the Act.
The violent protests are deeply disturbing. These become more troublesome as it tends to script a template that wherever the minority community is majority, they would target the latter. This sorry state of affairs has another aspect that the elements from Bangladesh – where Hindus already are facing existential threat to their lives, properties and places of worship.
It has sent a hugely disturbing message to the Hindus across the country, but particularly for the community in Jammu and Kashmir , which is reeling from the violence against the Hindus in 1990s and thereafter. Displaced Kashmiri Hindus, better known as Kashmiri Pandits, have not been able to return to their homes in the Kashmir Valley. They have become refugees in their own country. Their plight denotes that they are people of nowhere. They are averse to the idea of living as refugees in their own country forever, as this hurts their dignity as citizens of a nation– that is now reckoned as a global leader. But the option to return to their homes in the Valley, though the LG administration has undertaken construction of their dwellings in various parts of Kashmir, is still not open to them. They have not developed confidence in the system to return and stay there without any fear. Their worries are rooted in the situation as Pakistan is continuing with its attempts to disturb the situation. It was Pakistan assisted by Islamists in the ranks of terrorist group who had forced their exodus in 1990s.
There is a revolutionary change in the situation following abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019 and the people in the Valley are relishing new birth – they have come out of the dark hours to embrace normalcy. They have learned to live life on their terms and not under the dictates of Pakistan and its agents. But for Kashmiri Pandits, as they view it while calculating of their return, there are many challenges still in place. It is a dilemma that the community alone can understand.
The country cannot afford recurrence of such situations again.