Bengal Riot Crisis has once again exposed deep communal fault lines in West Bengal. In this explosive Oneindia exclusive, renowned political commentator and IPCS Senior Fellow Abhijit Iyer Mitra addresses the Murshidabad unrest where over 400 Hindus were allegedly forced to flee following Waqf-related clashes.
Is Mamata Banerjee losing control of the state? Is this a case of targeted demographic engineering? Why are Muslims issuing open death threats and walking free?
Abhijit Iyer Mitra doesn’t hold back as he dissects the Bengal Riot Crisis, the silence of the TMC, the failure of West Bengal Police, and the Centre-State power struggle behind the chaos.
Watch till the end to understand how deep the Bengal Riot Crisis goes — and what it means for India’s national security.
#BengalRiotCrisis #AbhijitIyerMitra #MurshidabadRiots #MamataBanerjee #OneindiaExclusive
~PR.282~PR.274~HT.410~
Is Mamata Banerjee losing control of the state? Is this a case of targeted demographic engineering? Why are Muslims issuing open death threats and walking free?
Abhijit Iyer Mitra doesn’t hold back as he dissects the Bengal Riot Crisis, the silence of the TMC, the failure of West Bengal Police, and the Centre-State power struggle behind the chaos.
Watch till the end to understand how deep the Bengal Riot Crisis goes — and what it means for India’s national security.
#BengalRiotCrisis #AbhijitIyerMitra #MurshidabadRiots #MamataBanerjee #OneindiaExclusive
~PR.282~PR.274~HT.410~
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NewsTranscript
00:00April 2025, Murshidabad district in West Bengal has witnessed severe unrest following protests
00:05against the newly enacted Waqf Amendment Act 2025.
00:10The legislation which has received a presidential assent on April 5th and came into effect on April 8th
00:16introduces significant changes to the governance of Waqf properties, including allowing non-Muslims
00:22on Waqf boards and altering the functioning of Waqf tribunals.
00:26Protests have escalated into violent flashes with demonstrators blocking highways, disrupting
00:32train services and engaging in stone pelting and arson.
00:36The violence has resulted in multiple fatalities and injuries and extensive property damage as well.
00:43Authorities responded by deploying additional security forces and suspending internet services in affected areas.
00:50Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has criticized the amendment, labeling it as anti-secular
00:55and asserting that it would infringe upon Muslim rights.
00:59She has also condemned the lack of consultation with state government prior to Bill's introduction.
01:06Now to talk on the same, today we are being joined by Mr. Abhijit Ayer Mitra.
01:10Thank you so much, Abhijit, for joining us.
01:13And Abhijit is a prominent political commentator and senior fellow at Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies,
01:20known for his incisive analysis on national security, governance and socio-political dynamics.
01:27He brings a nuanced perspective to the contemporary issues.
01:30So today we will be talking to him.
01:32Abhijit, now to begin with, let us try and understand what is your understanding of the Waqf Amendment Act
01:39and its impact which is happening.
01:41How do you see what is currently happening in Bengal with respect to the Waqf properties
01:45and the broader public response that is coming?
01:48Right. So that's a, I mean, I could literally talk for 20 minutes about just that one question.
01:53So let's first deal with the Waqf Amendment.
01:55What it's done is, see, there was a clause called Waqf by user,
02:00which is, you know, tomorrow if I go and decide that I'm going to pray on a empty plot of land every Friday,
02:09by convention it becomes mine and I can claim it.
02:12I don't need to show a title deed, no property laws apply, I can literally just grab it.
02:17Now, if you notice, there's a lot of anger about Muslims in India coming out on the streets and praying
02:22or on fallow plots of land.
02:24I think we saw that in Burga and Noida and things like that.
02:26Why? Because it's a precursor to land grabbing.
02:30In Old Delhi, you actually see this by both communities where, you know, Hindus or Muslims,
02:34they'll set up a little temple or a mazar.
02:37Now, you don't know who the hell is buried in that mazar,
02:39but once it's been set up, you know, you can go grab that 10 feet.
02:43I mean, if you've been to Old Delhi, you'll see the roads are very narrow.
02:45But even in that narrow plot, there is land grabbed.
02:49Now, once the Hindu grabs the land, there are all kinds of legal recourses.
02:53But once the Waqf claims that land, there is absolutely no, there was no legal recourse to it.
02:58Now, 4 lakh out of 8 lakh Waqf properties are this kind of Waqf by user,
03:03which is essentially a grabbed piece of land, all right?
03:07Now, what this has done is, it doesn't negate the use of the land.
03:11You can say, oh, pray and things like that.
03:13It's just that you can't claim the land after that.
03:16You can't say, well, I've been, our ancestors have been praying here for the last 20 years.
03:19Therefore, this land is mine.
03:20And then Waqf issues a notification.
03:22It belongs to Waqf.
03:23And that's it.
03:24This is number one.
03:25I might be Divya.
03:27I can't put a claim to it.
03:28I might be any social, government, anybody.
03:33I can be India and still I will not be able to say this is my land.
03:36It creates a complete negation of the laws of evidence and jurisprudence on ownership
03:43with regards to just one particular community, right?
03:47Now, given that our secularism is dharma nirpeksh, you literally can't do that.
03:52So it violates the fundamental secularism principles of that, this thing.
03:56The second thing is that this is a property management board.
04:00This isn't a religious board.
04:01So after the 22 seats on the board, eight have to be Muslim because those are the religious
04:07scholars and scholars of Islamic jurisprudence and things like that who sit out there.
04:13But that doesn't mean that the remaining whatever 15, 16 odd seats are have to be filled
04:19in by non-Muslims.
04:21Muslims can also be part of it.
04:23Now, the thing is, why are Hindus being appointed out there or minority, other minorities being
04:28appointed out there?
04:29Yeah.
04:29Very simply, because if vaqf, if Hindus can donate to vaqf, why can't Hindus administer
04:36the vaqf?
04:36This is not, this is a property administration that has to follow corporate principles.
04:42This can't be a, this is not a religious administration.
04:45We need to understand this very clearly.
04:47This is not saying a Hindu is going to recite the azan at a mosque or something like that.
04:51This is not a fundamental religious practice.
04:53It is not essential religious practice in that sense.
04:56Yesterday, what happened at the court hearing was that my interpretation of it is the CJI
05:03realized there's probably going to be very significant rioting if the land grabbing isn't ascended
05:07to.
05:08So he wanted, he asked the solicitor general for a way out saying, what have you, what is
05:12the categorization based on?
05:15Yeah.
05:15Which Dushar Mehta could not respond to adequately.
05:19And the second one was the question of Hindus sitting on the board, which again could not
05:23be responded to adequately because again, the points that I made were not made in court.
05:29I don't know why it was not done, but it wasn't done.
05:32Second, let's come to Murshirabad in Bengal.
05:35Now see, unlike Punjab, where the partition was, you know, there was almost an equivalent exchange.
05:40In Bengal, there was no such equivalent exchange.
05:44It was overwhelmingly Hindus coming in from Bangladesh or what was East Pakistan at the
05:48time.
05:49And only about, say, 600 to 6 lakh families went in, Muslim families, Muslims, not families,
05:56left for East Pakistan at that time.
05:58So it was never an equal division in Bengal, number one.
06:02Second, we need to remember, Murshirabad was given to India because it clearly had over
06:0850% Hindus living out there.
06:11Today, Murshirabad is 70% Muslim.
06:15Now, even allowing for the natural birth rates of Hindus and Muslims, if you go through the
06:21Bengal censuses or rather the census of India done in Bengal, you look at the birth rates
06:26and things like that.
06:27It still does not support a 70% Muslim population in the Murshirabad MP district, the parliamentary
06:34constituency today.
06:35So clearly, there has been a lot of infiltration that has happened from Bangladesh to India in
06:41that period.
06:42In fact, if you go through the 1961 census, it had already become 58% Muslim.
06:50Okay.
06:50And remember, the 61 census was done based throughout 51 and 61.
06:54And even by 51, it had become a Muslim majority area.
06:59Yeah.
07:00Right.
07:00So there have been all these issues out there.
07:04The third thing we need to remember is, look, Sunni Muslim polity in India, ossified in 1857.
07:12It remains feudal.
07:13It is based on, you know, the relationship between the feudal lord and the fiefs because
07:18none of these work properties have ever been used for the benefit of the community.
07:22It is driven out by people who sit on the board to their chamchas and whatnot and what have
07:27you for rents, for putting up new buildings, which they get a lot of money out of and things
07:33like that.
07:33There is zero accountability out here.
07:36Now, sitting, being one of the largest property owners in India, if most of your community are
07:42consumed to ghettos and slums and things like that, there is something fundamentally very
07:47wrong out here where the property management is not being done properly.
07:50You haven't set up a Muslim children's education fund.
07:53What exactly is that work plan for?
07:56You know, there are lots of questions regarding this.
07:58The point is the feudal elite want to protect their power.
08:01And the tool of political negotiation of Sunnis in India has always been street power, which
08:06is what is getting mobilized in an area like Murshidabad.
08:10What is happening with the government is two different things.
08:12Understand, violence in India is never spontaneous.
08:16So, I did want to ask you also, now Chief Minister Mantha Banerjee has very conveniently
08:23called this act anti-secular and also she has heavily criticized the center as well.
08:28Now, she has not commented at all on what is being done to the Hindus or they are being
08:34forced to flee, you know.
08:35So, how do you assess the political dynamics between the state and the central government
08:39also in this context?
08:41And do you believe that the state governments can format, you know, like this unrest or
08:46stoke tensions deliberately to politically oppose the central government?
08:49Absolutely.
08:50So, violence is the oldest tool that has been used in Bengal for a very long time.
08:55People don't realize, you know, this notion of the Bengali Bhodrolok being very sweet and
08:59singing Hindustan and Yungdik and reciting Robindro Shongit, even tea merits a little
09:06Robindro lyric or something like that.
09:09This is a very cultivated image that only applies to maybe 1% of Bengal.
09:14Bengal has always been an extremely violent place.
09:17Politically, it has been extremely violent.
09:20It saw the worst violence during partition, worse than Punjab, in fact.
09:24The Kolkata Noah Khali riots, I think everybody remembers that.
09:27There was nothing compared to that anywhere close to that in Punjab.
09:30Through the 50s and 60s, you saw intense political violence.
09:34The entire Naxalism movement happened out there.
09:37You have seen waves upon wave of political violence.
09:40You have also seen huge amounts of migration happen, which has significantly been curtailed,
09:47but has not gone away completely.
09:48Right.
09:49So, why else would Mamata Bharatji oppose the BSF setting up fencing, refusing to give them
09:53land?
09:53I think you saw this report two weeks back where the BSF and CRPF were saying that.
09:58So, this has been a consistent problem out there.
10:01As for violence, look, it happens in every state where governments actually instigate violence
10:06in some form or another to further their political goals.
10:11The problem out here is this is laying the preparatory groundwork for significantly greater
10:17violence.
10:17Why is it that only Muschidabad started rioting when there are other Muslim majority areas
10:23in Kashmir, in Kerala and things like that who are not rioting?
10:27There are pockets throughout the country if we talk about Muslim majority areas firstly.
10:33Yeah, Hyderabad and things like that.
10:35Kaide Millat district in Tamil Nadu.
10:37Things like that.
10:38Why isn't it happening out there?
10:40So, this is very calculated.
10:42It is the polarization that's happening before the 2026 Bengal state election.
10:47Now, if you look at what happened in the last election, the Muslims voted en masse for
10:54Mamata.
10:56And the Hindus in the western part, that is the Bihar bordering areas, voted largely for
11:02the BJP, but there was a significant percentage of Hindus, say about 15-20% who were the swing
11:07who kind of tilted it towards Mamata in the last election, in the general election as well.
11:12So, what has been happening out here is she wants to consolidate, which is, I think, she
11:17wants to consolidate and that is what is happening out here.
11:19This is, there was no generic, spontaneous reaction on the ground at all.
11:27Then suddenly Mamata starts saying we will not let it be implemented.
11:31Then the violence starts.
11:33So, you know, to quote that famous Twitter phrase, chronology, samjhiyeh.
11:38Yeah.
11:39Right.
11:41So, can we say that what Mamata Banerji is also doing is ki pehle bhadkau or phil cha ki
11:46you know marham lagau.
11:47Something on those lines.
11:49Also, there have been reports of communal violence in Murshidabad.
11:53Of course, we are talking about that.
11:55What do you think, who do you think specifically is behind these riots?
11:59Will it be right to, you know, say this out in the open?
12:06Yeah, yeah.
12:07Look, it's one-sided violence.
12:10There is no Hindu and Muslim violence happening out there.
12:12It is very clearly Sunni Muslims who are going rioting.
12:15Now, we don't know who has organized this.
12:16Is this TMC choreographed or is it local leaders in collusion with the TMC?
12:22Because there's only one party whose political interest it serves right now, which is the
12:27TMC out there, right?
12:30It's too simplistic to say that Mamata Banerji is losing control of the situation.
12:35No, no, no.
12:35Mamata Banerji is absolutely not losing control of the situation.
12:38Look, I think the entire Assad Bommai case, it was very clear that an administrative breakdown
12:46does not equal constitutional breakdown.
12:49Remember, this was the same logic that was applied in Manipur as well.
12:53There was an administrative breakdown, which does not equal a constitutional breakdown.
12:57So it does not merit the imposition of Article 356, which is President's Rule.
13:02Article 355, which is taking away the Home Ministry from the state government, again,
13:10is based on a constitutional breakdown.
13:13Now, the constitutional breakdown, see, Mamata came very close to it saying VAKF will not
13:18be implemented.
13:20But she did say, she said, we will go challenge it.
13:23So this is a classic case of, you know, hunting with the hounds and running with the hares,
13:27where one hand says, ha ha, do some riots here, make it clear you don't want this act.
13:33On the other hand, she's saying, please, we beg you, you saw that video of Mahoa Mahitra
13:39grubbling in front of her Muslim constituents to not riot and things like that.
13:44Yeah.
13:44I wasn't talking to the Hindu.
13:45She was only talking to the Muslim saying, please don't get angry and riot.
13:48I mean, there's a Hindu riot.
13:50There's not an iota of sympathy for the thousands of Hindu families that have been displaced in
13:56Murshidabad, who are now seeking central protection, by the way.
13:59You know, this is what the Asar Bombay judgment did was, it's given a huge amount of leeway
14:09to a state government to play with violence, but not cross a certain line, you know, keep
14:17shifting goalposts and things like that.
14:18And literally nothing can happen to you.
14:21Yeah.
14:22Tell us something.
14:23Is it justifiable for any group, including the Muslims, to issue threats?
14:27Now, we're a country, we've got all kinds of religions being practiced openly, very happily.
14:33But is it okay for any group to issue threats to the other and including death threats, which
14:39are being done right now from Muslims to Hindus, especially when they come to power?
14:44There is a talk about when we come to power, then we will look into it.
14:48What does this say about a society when political or religious dominance is being used to intimidate
14:53the other communities?
14:54So, this is actually a very sad commentary on the state of law and order in India and
15:01how pathetic our police forces are.
15:03And this is not just the West Bengal police.
15:05You know, the very fact, see, why do we have these laws which place the onus of outright
15:10sentiment on the individual and his freedom of his or her freedom of speech instead of on
15:15the state, which is meant to prevent riots?
15:18You are under policed.
15:21Your jurisprudence is pathetic.
15:23The Supreme Court will decide something one day.
15:25Any court will decide something one day.
15:27They will not stick to precedent and they will pass a completely contradictory order tomorrow.
15:31The entire state of law and order in this country is a joke.
15:34Even basic things like putting, you know, video cameras on cops, body cams on cops, both to
15:41protect the cop as well as the victims and things like that is not being done.
15:48The one thing which, you know, every time I've tried to organize a conference on police
15:53reforms, a lot of companies come trying to fund it.
15:57And then they all very mysteriously back out because, you know, police don't want to be
16:02reformed.
16:03It's a whole sort of, we know, for example, the Bombay police is in cahoots with the underworld.
16:08It's a sort of Bollywood land underworld police nexus.
16:13You've seen how many police officers used to party at Dawud Ibrahim's house and things
16:17like that.
16:18Those videos are still available on YouTube, even if the, you know, the videos of the
16:211980s and 90s are extremely grainy.
16:24Those are still available out there.
16:25It tells you a lot.
16:27The, it is still a very colonial police in that sense.
16:31It is not meant to sort out people's problems.
16:34It is just meant to ensure that people don't make a nuisance of themselves.
16:38Okay.
16:39Now, talking about communal harmony, now given the recent unrest, what do you think are
16:44the potential long-term impacts on communal harmony and social cohesion in this particular
16:50region?
16:50So, you know, this notion of communal harmony that we have.
16:54I find it laughable because there is no real harmony.
16:58You know, one...
16:59Aren't we supposed to have it?
17:01Aren't we supposed to?
17:02Should we not be having it?
17:04We definitely should be having it, right?
17:06Well, look, in a Disney world land where everything is fairy tale princesses and princes and, you
17:13know, it's the first sight, one true love and everybody lives happily ever after.
17:18That doesn't happen in real life.
17:20In India, it has been...
17:22It has not been mutual tolerance.
17:24It has been mutual ignorance because we live in ghettos, even in Delhi.
17:28I mean, you go to Delhi.
17:29Tell me one mixed religion neighborhood.
17:33You go to Seelampur, Okhla, Nizamuddin.
17:36Nizamuddin, these are Muslim ghettos.
17:39Yeah, but then you're talking about Muslim ghettos specifically.
17:43So, probably just about the Muslims, which, you know, again, but I have lived in Bombay.
17:48I've lived in Delhi.
17:49All couple of other parts of India as well.
17:51So, usually in regular societies, people don't live together.
17:55You have a, you know, you have a Sikh neighbor.
17:58You have a Christian neighbor.
17:59Everybody is celebrating things together at large and communal violence is not happening
18:04just for one particular thing, you know.
18:07Understand, it is not the business, Muslim business owner who goes around rioting.
18:11Yeah.
18:12It is the ghetto person who goes around rioting, which is probably about 80 to 90 percent of
18:16the Sunni population out there.
18:18I'm specifically excluding Shias out here because Shias are very rich.
18:22There are Shia communities like the Ahmadis, Daga Khanis, the Dawdi Boras and things like
18:26that, who, you know, who are insanely rich, who will probably be able to afford another
18:34antilla and things like that, and they don't need to live out there.
18:37Notice, there is no real Muslim gentrified.
18:41You've lived in Bombay and Delhi.
18:42Tell me one Muslim gentrified neighborhood.
18:46You will have Muslim societies, even in Bombay.
18:49You will notice all the Jain and Hindu societies don't even let Muslims buy flats out there.
18:53It is actually very, you'll have a token Muslim at best and there are Muslim societies
18:59separately, right?
19:01Which is why Bombay is the highest number of these complaints to Zomato and Swiggy ki,
19:06there was mutton brought in or chicken brought in and things like that.
19:10Even in Delhi, you look at neighborhoods like, you know, Jorba or Sabdarjang enclave or
19:15Sundar Nagar and things like that.
19:17There'll only be a token Muslim here and there.
19:19It is, we are a very, very segregated society and that street veto comes from the 90% of
19:27Sunnis who actually live in the slums, who the Waqf was meant to benefit and it has failed
19:32spectacularly because it has been completely captured by these Muslim feudal elites who
19:38use it for their own purposes.
19:39Right, okay, now just your view on the role of media, you know, and how it is going about
19:47covering the Work Remendment Act anti-violence in Bengal.
19:50Now, do you think there is a risk of misinformation also happening in certain pockets shaping the
19:54public opinion?
19:56Look, there's always going to be a risk of misinformation.
20:00But, you know, the thing here is, again, with misinformation is also free speech.
20:04If you believe that the earth is flat and the sun rises in the west, you know, you can't
20:11be thrown in jail for that.
20:14If, you know, so if I believe, you know, Divya is evil and she's going to come and kill me,
20:19I have every right to believe that.
20:21You can't say, you can't tell me what I get to believe and what I do not get to believe.
20:25Again, this problem, this entire notion of hate speech, misinformation, these are all
20:32tools employed by the state to reduce their own responsibility of law and order and maintaining
20:37the peace and place the onus on the individual.
20:41Right.
20:41This is what a colonial state does.
20:43It is also what a woke state does.
20:46Absolutely.
20:47That's a great remark.
20:49A woke state also does that.
20:50Any closing remarks, Abhijit, before we...
20:53The only closing remark is, I wish the government argues much better in court and there are
21:01lots of carrots and sticks available to the government, which I don't know why they're
21:04not using.
21:05They seem fundamentally reluctant to use.
21:09They're all about carrots and they seldom use sticks.
21:12I think, you know, when training a child, there has to be some level of punishment.
21:19Yeah.
21:21You don't have to beat somebody.
21:22You just ignore somebody that itself is punishment.
21:26Absolutely.
21:27But here, ignoring will not be enough.
21:29And I think the stick needs to be taken up.
21:31And at any point in time, communal violence is not acceptable.
21:35Killing people is not acceptable, irrespective of whatever religion they might belong to.
21:39So had it been Hindus doing it today or Christians doing it today, anybody would have been doing
21:43this today.
21:44It would have been equally bad.
21:45And the fact that it is being done in, you know, in Bengal needs to be stopped right
21:52away.
21:52And the state needs to stand up and take a, you know, Mamata Banerjee needs to stand up
21:58there and talk about what is being done to the Hindus as well, that they are being thrown
22:02out.
22:02But also, let's be clear, Mamata Banerjee will never do that.
22:05Remember, she came to power in Bengal based on taking away the Muslim vote and on the street
22:11veto, which you saw in the opposition to the Tata nanoplant in Nandigram.
22:16Was it Nandigram?
22:17I forget where it was.
22:18But anyway, it was in opposition to the Tata nanoplant.
22:22It was the street veto.
22:23Now, a person who's come to power on the basis of a street veto, you know, telling them to
22:28stop using the street veto is like, you know, telling a human being to stop using oxygen.
22:33So I don't think that the fiber of the TMC is that they out-communisted the communists
22:39in that sense.
22:40So a leopard can't change its spots.
22:42It's impossible to do.
22:45Do you think it is by time the center's running intervenes in a big way here?
22:49They can't, because there are fundamental issues with, you know, what I fundamentally
22:55believe to be completely illegal judgments, like the basic structure doctrine, the collegiate
22:59doctrine of this.
23:02The Esar Bombay case was required, but I think, you know, every law, there is not a single
23:09law, even in the most advanced well-policed state, which will not be abused every now and
23:13then.
23:13So the problem is the judiciary doesn't bring it back when the abuse happens, when it suits
23:21the Supreme Court, they just stick to the dictum.
23:25And when it suits them, they will completely throw the dictum into the garbage.
23:30Yeah.
23:31All right.
23:32Thank you so much for joining us, Abhijit, and for sharing your insights on this critical
23:35issue.
23:36Of course, it's super complex and a sensitive situation in Mushidabad.
23:40We at Mananday appreciate your time and expertise.
23:42Thank you so much.
23:43Thank you so much, Debia.
23:44So as we've discussed, the Wakf Amendment Act has stirred up sharp political and communal
23:49reactions, and the violence we are witnessing raises urgent questions about governance, social
23:54cohesion, and the responsibility of both state and the central authorities.
23:58At the heart of it all, we must not lose sight of the human cost, the fear, displacement, and
24:04the polarization that communities are facing.
24:07It's now more important than ever for the dialogue, for accountability to happen, and
24:12come to prevail over the division.
24:15Thank you so much for joining us.