Hindus of West Bengal, already reeling under large-scale violence supported by the ruling dispensation, are now faced with the threat of Jizya. No, this is not ‘fake news’ as slick left-liberal propaganda sites make it to be, or Mamata Banerjee’s police may convince you to think. The state-backed oppression of the Hindus who supported or worked for the BJP can be compared to that of the Hindus in Kashmir and Bangladesh now.
After innumerable brutal killings, mass rapes and driving people out of their homes, now the next step that follows Islamist domination of any geography, the Jizya has been introduced in the state. As we had reported earlier, tens of thousands of Bengali Hindus have been displaced and forced to abandon their villages, with many forced to even seek refuge in neighbouring states like Assam.
During the exodus, many Hindus had left their rickshaws, cycles or two-wheelers in the villages which were picked up by TMC and Islamist goons. These criminals are now demanding a hefty sum of money to return these belongings to the poor Hindus who are trying to return to their regular life routine.
In the villages of Bonpara and Malipara in the East Bardhaman district, Muslims are in the majority and have cornered the minority Hindus and are allegedly demanding about Rs. 2 lakh from every Hindu family to allow them to live in peace, as per a report in Sirf News. These used to be Hindu villages, but the constant change in demography has relegated the status of the Hindus to a minority at the mercy of the Muslims who are, allegedly, exploiting their helplessness after the poll results.
Similar incidents have also been reported from Chakda, Canning and parts of Nadia district. Islamists are demanding anywhere from 80 thousand to 5 lakh rupees from each family. A BJP leader is said to have paid a heavy amount of extortion money in a East Bardhaman villages to make peace with the Islamists.
In a news piece covered by Bengali YouTube channel Arambagh TV, anchor Safiqul Islam says that his own father’s shop was closed by some local TMC leaders because of a ‘personal feud’. It must be noted that Safiqul and his wife were arrested by WB Police in June 2020 after they started exposing the ruling TMC’s corrupt practices. However, in the video, a local TMC youth leader comes and opens the elderly man’s shop, saying he need not fear anyone. Safiqul then says that he has received calls from other violence-affected people from different parts of the state, that they are being asked 30 thousand to 50 thousand rupees to be allowed to open their shops or get their possessions back. He advises such people to approach government officers, instead of politicians.
Such extortion demands were also corroborated by social worker and BJP candidate Devdutta Maji who told HinduPost about a BJP supporter who is being told to cough up INR 50K if he wants to operate his e-rickshaw (Toto) again.
Commoners are saying that no effective action is being taken to protect the poor and persecuted Hindus, as Islamists and TMC goons continue to persecute and extract Jizya. While many BJP leaders have reportedly switched off their phones, TMC MLAs are anyway missing in action since their party is behind the terror directed at BJP supporters.
Jizya is a tax amount that is levied on non-Muslim subjects by Muslims rulers. The Jizya was commonplace in Bharat during the medieval centuries of Islamic rule, which the Hindus had to pay just to be allowed to live and practice their faith as second-class citizens. It is appalling that the same taxation of inequality and discrimination has made a comeback in Mamata Banerjee’s Bengal, albeit in a different form.
The Centre must take cognizance of all the wrong-doings and unlawful practices that have been rampant in the sensitive border-state since the victory of TMC on 2 May without further delay. Shockingly, the Calcutta High Court has said that it is ‘satisfied‘ with the way the Mamata Banerjee government has handled the post-poll violence, and has rejected the Centre’s plea to set up an SIT (Special Investigation Team) to probe the same.
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