Some events feel predictable, almost inevitable, as if they are written in advance, like it was almost pre-determined. Bengal’s destiny now seems to be heading down that very path.

Mamata Banerjee and the Trinamool Congress’s (TMC) open appeasement politics had paid enough dividends in the past, but the anti-Waqf Amendment Bill protest that is picking up speed and furore, and which for a moment seemed a good ploy with its perfect timing to take the attention off the 26,000 teacher’s recruitment scam pressure now looming over the TMC government, might boomerang in a way that the TMC had never envisaged.

Hindu-Muslim riots in Bengal have a long and complex past, rooted in both colonial-era tensions and post-independence political dynamics. The list is long, beginning in 1946 with the Great Calcutta Killings, then the Noakhali riots in 1947 followed by the Calcutta Riots of 1964. 1992 saw the Babri Masjid Riots and then in 2007, there were riots in Deganga. That was not all. 2013 saw the Canning riots and 2017, the Baduria-Basirhat riots. More recently, 2021-2023 experienced the post-Election and Ram Navami clashes.

This fact must be remembered by every administration in West Bengal – that Bengal can react in a jiffy and it is best to be cautious and keep peace among Hindus and Muslims.

Politics has its peculiar downside. It makes popular leaders forget many things; that power is not permanent and that popularity comes with a shelf life. Most importantly, the tides could turn anytime.

The after-effects of divisive politics prove themselves with time. What do you do your vote bank turns rogue and becomes uncontrollable? Is that........

© News18