Baduria-Where the effect saw more debate than the cause

The world runs on cause and effect. Cause and effect are the two sides of one fact. There isn’t smoke without fire. However, the present day scenario, thanks to Facebook, is different. While people are talking about one side where the smoke is perceivably thick, they are either willfully or in the pursuit of following popular suit, forgetting to mention or talk about the other side or the fire or simply — the CAUSE.

In the onset, it would be wise to mention that this blog does not support violence (irrespective of which religious outfit is behind it), does not wish to hurt sentiments, does not believe in politics of appeasement and definitely does not support what is going on in Baduria-Basirhat.

A visibly tensed situation has shrouded a very beautiful part of Bengal. For the ones who haven’t seen Baduria or Basirhat but have taken the liberty to tarnish the image of the place by calling it a “hub of terrorism” and attributed it to the “root cause of violence”, Basirhat is a place where people of several communities live in peace. On a visit to Basirhat, which is also a hub of jaggery (Gur), during times that are not palpably tensed, it is evident that the place is a beautiful small town with palm trees dotting the entire landscape. The air around is cool and the people are helpful. So what went wrong? Why this violence?

In the strongest possible words whatever is happening should be condemned and admonished and if possible, steps should be taken towards normalcy. However, not at the cost of maligning the present day government that has ordered a judicial probe into the entire incident. While Facebook is breaking with posts on the effect, the violence, and tagging the Trinamool Congress with communalism and calling it a follower of minority appeasement policy, nobody is interested in talking about the single Facebook post that led to the entire incident.

While violence cannot be justified no matter what, selective priority should also be refrained from. As a brushing up session let us go back to the root cause.

A Facebook post, obscenely hurting the sentiments of followers of Islam, made its way through Hindu fanatics to their Muslim counterparts which was enough to ignite the flames of hatred when the latter took to arson and violence. While the person, a Hindu (though I wanted to ignore his religion, I had to mention it to make certain things clear), was arrested for his Facebook post, the idiosyncrasy of the people who call themselves Muslims led to the torching of vehicles and an irate mob went on a rampage.

But interestingly, social media followers and users conveniently forgot the cause that is the obscene Facebook post and simply went on to talk about the “mismanagement of the government”, “the audacity of the police to not allow political leaders to enter the area” (completely forgetting that the area is under Section 144 CrPC), the “communal” face of Mamata Banerjee and so on and so forth.

Selective nature of the common man of India and also of journalists often leads to serious crises in the country. While it is the duty of the scribes to uphold what is true, even people should use their logical minds to dissect an issue and think about it with an open mind.

The way Facebook is reacting to the entire incident is not only irresponsible but is also leading to a major crisis as some are blocking their logical minds while others are just following suit with blinkers on.

Some have also gone to the extent of calling the visit of the BJP and CPI(M) leaders a “peace mission”. Have we forgotten that it is the same CPI(M) that misruled Bengal for 34 years and incidents such as Garbeta, Singur and Charu Market follow it home as laurels? And about BJP, well it is hard to open one's mouth these days as it becomes a prestige issue if you are called an anti-national for not standing up for the national anthem or for eating beef!!