Latest news with #IndianSecularFront
Hans India
3 days ago
- Politics
- Hans India
Laws must be strictly applied against illegal migrants: Bengal MLA Nawsad Siddique
Indian Secular Front (ISF) MLA Nawsad Siddique has called for strict legal action against illegal immigrants following Operation Sindoor, during which over 2,000 alleged illegal Bangladeshi immigrants have reportedly been deported since early May. Emphasising the need for the rule of law, Siddique said, 'Whoever is an illegal citizen in India, whether they are Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Afghanistani, or anyone else, our country is a democracy, we have a Constitution, we have laws, and we all must abide by them. Against illegal migrants, the law should be strictly enforced.' His remarks come amid mounting political pressure on the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal to clarify its stance on the deportations. When asked whether Trinamool would allow illegal Bangladeshi immigrants to stay in Bengal or take action to expel them, Siddique responded cautiously: 'I don't know what they will do. Those who come illegally, the laws that exist in our country should be applied to them strictly.' According to media reports, since the launch of Operation Sindoor on May 7, Indian authorities have deported more than 2,000 alleged illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. The operation followed a nationwide verification drive aimed at identifying undocumented foreign nationals. Many of these individuals, the reports state, were airlifted in Indian Air Force aircraft from various detention centres across the country to border points in eastern India. They were then placed in temporary camps under the custody of the Border Security Force (BSF), where they were given food and provided with Bangladeshi currency if necessary. After brief detention, they were 'pushed back' into Bangladesh. Additionally, Delhi Police have, in a concerted capital-wide drive, identified 470 people as illegal Bangladeshi migrants and another 50 as foreigners who have overstayed and deported them via the land border to Bangladesh.
The Hindu
24-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
ISF MLA Nawsad Siddique writes to Jadavpur University authorities against ragging of Muslim student
West Bengal's Indian Secular Front MLA Nawsad Siddique has written to Kolkata's Jadavpur University authorities alleging harassment of a first year Muslim student at the varsity. This is one of the many ragging incidents that have come to light at the premium university in recent years raising questions about the impending ragging issue at this premium institute. The first-year undergraduate student of International Relations has complained that he was heckled and ragged by two research scholars from his own department. 'They threatened me and did not allow me to leave. I am really scared and feel threatened. I ask you to take strict action against them,' the letter addressed to the Pro-Vice Chancellor issued by the student said. The student also raised concerns over the ragging issue at the university. 'I was ragged in the same institute which had so many movements against ragging,' he added in his official letter on May 21. When contacted by The Hindu, the student who has raised these concerns did not want to make further comments as he feels intimidated by the turn of events and also added that his parents are scared for his safety. In reaction to his letter, MLA Nawshad Siddique wrote a letter on May 22 and said that this type of abuse is tantamount to a type of ragging. 'He comes from an under-privileged community and is from a backward region where higher education among them is visibly poor. This type of threat would make these students more vulnerable and would invisibilize them in the long run,' Mr Siddique's letter to Jadavpur University officials stated. He asked the authorities to take immediate action against the perpetrators. The ISF MLA also mentioned how a ragging incident in 2023 had led to a student's death inside the university hostel, a case which remains to be solved even after two years. Various other ragging incidents have been reported on the campus within these two years, even as the campus saw massive protest rallies and multiple deputations against the ragging culture at both the campus premises and hostels. On the other hand, the two research scholars who were accused of harassment have also filed a counter complaint with the Internal Complaints Committee and claimed that they were harassed by the first-year student. An urgent anti-ragging committee meeting was organised at the university on May 23 to discuss the issue. Students Federation of India representatives at JU have also written to the university and asked for detailed investigation into the matter and said that strict punishment must be given to all accused if proven guilty. University authorities who did not want to be named said that this whole incident was a political scuffle, and according to him eyewitnesses have claimed that there was no issue of ragging.
Indian Express
22-04-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
Opinion Why Mamata Banerjee's visit to Furfura Sharif is not merely ‘Muslim appeasement'
On March 17, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee visited Furfura Sharif, a popular Sufi shrine in the Hooghly district — almost a decade after her last visit — and took part in Dawat-e-Iftar. Notably, this was the first time that Banerjee was acting as the host of the Iftar party, before which she held a meeting with the local religious leaders. Earlier, a small group of Pirzadas — primarily Pirzada Toha Siddique — used to organise and control such events. However, Siddiqui, who earlier had had a good relationship with the TMC and seemed to act as a political bridge between the party and the Muslim community of the state, gradually lost his relevance — mainly due to two factors. One, the emergence of other Pirzadas from Furfura pir-family and two, the formation of the Indian Secular Front (ISF) as a political party in 2021. Therefore, this Iftar marked a crucial point in the TMC's electoral politics in a state of which Muslims constitute almost 30 per cent. This politics should be read in three layers. First, the imagination of a visible 'Muslim politics' — a social negotiation with a presumed homogenous community. Second, the politics centring Furfura Sharif, an influential religio-cultural centre, and third, the growing relevance of the ISF, a platform that aims to consolidate Muslim votes. Many have seen Banerjee's visit as just another attempt at shoring up Muslim support ahead of the 2026 state assembly elections. The Leader of the Opposition in the state's legislative assembly, BJP 's Suvendu Adhikari, was quick to term it another case of 'minority appeasement'. However, this is a very simplistic, reductionist reading of different factors. It reveals only the surface-level understanding of a complex political approach. To delve deeper, we need to understand both Furufura Sharif as a cultural space and the ISF as a political platform. Why Furfura Sharif matters In terms of significance, the Furfura Sharif is said to be second only to the Ajmer Sharif. But it's different from other Sufi shrines. The Furfura Sharif Sufi order was founded by the socio-religious reformer, Pir Maulana Shah Sufi Abu Bakr Siddique (1846-1939), popularly known as 'Dadahuzur' among his millions of disciples spread across what is now West Bengal, Assam, Tripura and Bangladesh. The shrine's legitimacy stems from Dadahuzur's legacy. His descendants constitute the Pir family that acts as custodians and managers of the shrine. The Furfura Sharif order (silsila) is closely knit and embedded in living networks between the Pirs, their disciples, and novices. These disciples connect with the broader community through regular visits to shrines, madrasahs, masjids, and waz-mahfils (preaching events). Given this closeness between the Pirs, Pirzadas, and their disciples, the political 'recommendations' or 'suggestions' made by the former often strongly influence the latter. Enter the ISF The ISF was founded by Pirzada Abbas Siddique — who belongs to the Pir family — in 2021. The party contested the state assembly elections the same year, in alliance with the Left Front and the Congress. It also won one seat from the Muslim-dominated Bhangar constituency, making Pirzada Nawsad Siddique — the younger brother of Abbas Siddique — the party's lone MLA, and in fact, the only non-TMC, non-BJP MLA, in the assembly. Subsequently, the ISF contested the rural panchayat elections in 2023, managing to win around 400 seats despite the massive violence that engulfed the elections. Their performance was the strongest in the southern districts of South 24 Parganas, North 24 Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly, and Medinipur, as well as in the central district of Malda. However, it is the growing popularity of the ISF among Bengali Muslims in Southern Bengal that has eroded Pirzada Toha Siddique's political relevance for the TMC, which seems to be looking for alternative intermediaries within the Furfura Sharif Pir family. Banerjee's visit is significant for this reason as well. The ISF is slowly becoming a growing headache for the TMC as it has clearly been eating into the TMC's Muslim vote bank in some parts of southern Bengal. Further, an overwhelming majority of Furfura Sharif's disciples are poor agriculturalists and precariously placed informal or migrant workers. The ISF has been targeting and mobilising these vulnerable groups to forge a new working-class Muslim politics — of a kind that can be aligned with the social justice aspirations of other marginalised social groups, including Dalits and Adivasis. The possibility of such social justice politics gaining further traction among Muslim voters could potentially pose a serious electoral threat to the TMC, whose strategy for securing Muslim votes has, so far, dodged questions of social justice and genuine empowerment. It has relied, instead, on largely symbolic identity-political gestures and assurances of safety against the anti-minority politics of the BJP. Banerjee's visit to Furfura Sharif needs to be seen as an effort to deflect attention from the social justice politics of the ISF. The BJP and Adhikari might benefit electorally from communalising her Muslim outreach (and the perceived 'Muslim threat' of the ISF), and they may polarise the electorate along religious lines. But this is a calculated risk that Banerjee is willing to take. Not least because she, too, stands to benefit electorally if concerns over Bengali Muslims' safety take centre-stage instead of questions around social justice and empowerment.
