The Rs 500 increase in the allowance for Muslim clerics, including muezzins, comes at a time when the TMC is trying to stem erosion in its Muslim vote bank.
At a time when Mamata Banerjee is said to be concerned about an erosion in the Trinamool Congress’s (TMC) Muslim vote base, she announced an increase in the monthly allowance for Muslim clerics and balanced it out with an increase in the stipend for Hindu priests (purohits).
Banerjee made the announcement at a meeting of imams and muezzins at Kolkata Netaji Indoor Stadium on Monday. “Our capacity is limited. I would request to increase their (imams and muezzins) allowances by Rs 500 per month. We will also increase the allowance of purohits by Rs 500 per month,” Banerjee said, adding that her secular credentials are often questioned whenever she attends programmes organised by religious minorities. There are about 30,000 imams and 20,000 muezzins in the state who receive financial aid from the government.
At present, imams receive Rs 2,500 per month while muezzins get Rs 1,000, a stipend that the government first announced in 2012. Eight years later, a year before the state went to Assembly polls and faced with a rising BJP, Banerjee announced a monthly allowance of Rs 1,000 and free housing for 8,000 poor Sanatan Brahmin priests in the state. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief has also been providing Durga Puja committees sops and aid before the festival.
“Money is being spent to spread hatred among communities in the country. The BJP is funding to instigate communal tension ahead of the Lok Sabha polls I am against any form of animosity based on religion,” Banerjee said at the meeting.
Earlier this year, in February, the TMC lost a bypoll in Sagardighi in Murshidabad district to the Congress, indicating a slide in its hold over Muslims in a constituency that was considered its stronghold. This set alarm bells ringing and the following month Banerjee effected a series of changes in the party’s minority leadership. set up a five-member committee headed by state minister Siddiqullah Chowdhury, who is also the state president of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind, and gave him the responsibility of Malda, Murshidabad, and Dakshin Dinajpur districts, which are all minority-dominated. The Jamiat has deep roots among the Bengali-speaking Muslims of the state. Banerjee also lowered the profile of Firhad Hakim, also a minister, by taking away his responsibility for Murshidabad, Howrah and Hooghly. Hakim is identified as an Urdu-speaking Muslim leader.
Earlier this month, Banerjee told the West Bengal Assembly that her government was doing its best for the welfare of minorities and funds allocated for these communities had risen eight-fold since 2011, when the TMC came to power. Banerjee said the allocated expenditure for the state Minority Affairs Department in the 2023-’24 financial year is Rs 4,233 crore against Rs 472 crore in 2010-’11.
In a message to the minority community, the Chief Minister on Monday told them about how she had been “maligned” for standing by them. “When I attend iftars during Ramzan, my photographs are ridiculed. BJP even attempted to change my name. However, I do not care about it because my duty is to see that people of different religions don’t fight with one another. People and humanity are one. Just because I am born into a Hindu family or you are born into a Muslim family doesn’t mean that we are different. When I engage in a cultural dance with Adivasis, announce a holiday on the birth anniversary of Matua Thakur, and garland Rajbanshi leaders, nobody says anything. All their anger is reserved for the minorities,” said the TMC chairperson.
Targeting Opposition parties in the state, she said, “Some BJP leaders are using money to create a divide among minorities. Since the CPI(M) does not have any shame, the CPI(M), BJP, and Congress are forming boards and doing politics together. One more has joined their group now. He is being branded as an influential leader using money. They are using misinformation to spark riots. BJP’s work is to use CPI(M) and Congress in Bengal against us. Some young men are being misguided and are doing politics in the name of Furfura Sharif. This should not be the practice. There is no politics in Belur Math. Similarly, there should be no politics with Furfura Sharif as we keep our faith in our minds and hearts, and above everything. We have been vocal against all issues and attacks on our minorities. We are the first to take up the issues and fight for them till the very end. We have already said that we will not allow Uniform Civil Code. They had brought in NRC-CAA (National Register of Citizens and Citizenship Amendment Act) but we did not allow for its implementation in the state and will never do so”
The CM said she respects the contributions of Muslim clerics in spreading awareness of her government’s welfare initiatives such as Mission Nirmal Bangla, Janani Suraksha Yojana, Kanyashree, and Sabuj Sathi. “I have constituted a committee comprising a group of ministers who will look into the development of Waqf properties. They will submit their report in three months. We had given recognition to 307 unaided madrasas, 700 more will be recognised this year. There are a lot of unregistered madrasas where students cannot avail of the state government welfare schemes. We will identify the same using the help of local community members.”
Hitting out at Mamata, Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari of the BJP said, “Are Hindu priests at the mercy of Mamata Banerjee? The announcement aims to buy minority votes in the state ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. We condemn such politics.”
ISF leader Naushad Siddiqui, the lone non-BJP Opposition MLA in the Assembly, said, “Original Imams were outside Netaji Indoor and duplicate imams were inside.”
CPI (M) leader Shamik Lahiri said the CM aims to sharpen the state’s communal divide. “The TMC wants to flare up communal issues to help BJP gain ground as such divisive policies and politics only help the BJP. The TMC has done it with an eye on Lok Sabha polls,” he said.
Source-The Indian Express
#Mamta Banerjee#Stipend#West bengal
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