C Pradeep Kumar
West Bengal is burning. Again. But this isn’t a natural disaster or the result of any external invasion. This is internal. Deliberate. Systemic. And no, it’s no longer a mystery who’s lighting the match.
Shops have been torched. Public transport wrecked. Stones hurled. Temples attacked. But here’s what the footage doesn’t lie about — whose shops, whose homes, and whose vehicles are always targeted?
Hindus.
What escapes harm? Mosques. Muslim-owned establishments. Waqf Board assets. Not even a scratch. Coincidence? Not anymore.
The Protest That Isn’t
On paper, these riots are protests — allegedly over Waqf land inquiries. But judicial reviews are underway. The courts are hearing the matter. If it’s about legal grievance, then why is public property on fire? Why are Hindu traders being driven to ruin?
Because this is not a protest. It is revenge wrapped in victimhood, aimed at unsettling the idea of Bharat and intimidating the civil order that sustains it.
The mob isn’t targeting lawmakers. It’s not camping outside courts. It’s targeting temples, shops, trains, buses, and ordinary Hindu lives. That’s not dissent. That’s a pattern — a message scrawled in fire and fear.
Let’s Name the Reality
Now comes the part where most go silent. Because saying it out loud makes people uncomfortable: the perpetrators in these riots are Muslims — not all, but undeniably many. And the deafening silence of the so-called moderates? That’s not neutrality. That’s complicity.
Where are the community leaders calling for peace? Where are the fatwas against violence? Where are the secular spokespersons condemning the carnage? Absent. Utterly absent.
Their silence speaks louder than any statement ever could. Because this isn’t just about a few hotheads — it’s about a carefully curated silence from within. And in politics, silence is often just an endorsement with better PR.
The Political Cowardice
Now look at the usual suspects: the opposition parties. The ones who bend over backwards to prove their secularism — where are their appeals to stop rioting? Missing in action. They’d rather lose a city than lose a vote bank.
This is the appeasement industry at work: burn a train, get a free pass. Torch a temple and be treated like a misunderstood activist. Because calling out violence gets you labelled — but condoning it gets you elected.
History is Watching
From the Khilafat Movement to Direct Action Day, to more recent Ram Navami attacks, the script barely changes. What starts as “protest” ends as pogrom. The targets remain static: Hindu lives, Hindu livelihoods, and the Indian State.
India has always paid the price for trying to negotiate with fundamentalism. Appeasement has never bought peace — only temporary silence before the next fire.
Law Must Roar, Not Whisper
It’s time to treat this for what it is — an assault on national integrity. The Government of India must stop handling communal violence with kid gloves. Here’s what real response looks like:
- Invoke NSA and UAPA without hesitation.
- No bail. No shielding by parties or clerics.
- Review the Waqf Act thoroughly and urgently.
- Bulldoze illegal assets of rioters and compensate victims.
- Prosecute political leaders who justify or ignore such violence as enablers of sedition.
This isn’t about revenge. It’s about restoring order and faith in the Republic.
Appeasement Is a National Betrayal
The idea that all citizens are equal must not blind us to the fact that some have weaponized that equality to attack the very foundations of the State. Those who raise slogans of faith and respond with arson are not citizens in practice — they are insurgents in plain clothes.
We must stop expecting peace from those who have never shown remorse. We must stop whispering truths and start stating them unapologetically.
If India must survive as a united, lawful nation, it must recognize its enemies, not romanticize them.
The time for tiptoeing is over. The fire is real — and so must be the response.
