Following the incessant online hounding and ‘Sar Tan Se Juda’ threats by Islamists against Hindu social media influencer Sharmishtha, the Kolkata police, instead of protecting her freedom of expression, chose to side with the Islamists and arrested her Friday (30th May). The Kolkata Police travelled all the way from West Bengal to Gurgaon, covering a distance of 1500 km just to arrest Sharmistha, a 22-year-old law student, who merely voiced out her opinion against the terrorist state of Pakistan. The fact that Sharmishtha tendered an apology and deleted the viral video, did not deter the Kolkata police from arresting her.

Mamata government and her commitment to her core vote bank

The incident goes on to show Mamata Banerjee’s unwavering commitment to her core voter community which goes beyond logic, fairness, reasonability and even international boundaries. The “Royal Bengal Tiger”, as Mamamta Banerjee describes herself, unleashed the mighty state machinery against a young woman who, in a patriotic zeal, made a video in response to a Pakistani troll who denied the persecution of Hindus and the brutal massacre of Hindus in Pahalgam.

Sharmishtha’s only crime was that she defended India’s relaliatory action against Pakistan whose support for Jihadist terrorists who kill non-Muslim ‘Kafirs’ is an open-secret. Even though her video was filled with expletives and had a charged tone, it was targeted at Pakistani trolls who had been running fake narratives on social media trying to deny the religious motive behind the Pahalgam terror attack. An emotionally triggered Sharmishtha mocked the Pakistani troll and criticised the Islamic idea of 72 hoors and their prophet which triggered the Islamist mobs to whom the concept of criticism and is as alien as the concept of a round Earth. Sharmishtha’s reaction to the Pakistani troll was completely natural and in sync with the collective emotional state of the entire country after the heinous Pahalgam terror attack. But, apparently Sharmishtha’s respose to a Pakistani troll amounts to a criminal act in India can only be explained by looking at the lawbook of the West Bengal government.

Hindu lives do not matter in Mamata Banerjee’s West Bengal

The action of the Kolkata police, however, is no surprise considering that the Mamata government is habitual of bending over backwards to appease Islamists. The present case is just another example of the blatant hyprocrisy of the Mamata government which turns a blind eye to the plight of Hindus persecuted by Islamist mobs in its own state.

The entire country witnessed how Mamata government in West Bengal failed to protect Hindus from Islamist mobs in Murshidabad and Sandeshkhali and allowed their persecution by Islamist mobs right under its nose. The Muslim-dominated Murshidabad district witnessed large-scale incidents of violence, vandalism, arson and targeted attacks against the Hindu community on 11th April in the garb of protests against the new Waqf Amendment Act. Hindu families lost their homes and livelihoods. Their water tanks have been poisoned and they were subjected to both rape and death threats. In the aftermath of the violence, several Hindu women narrated the harrowing details of the brutal violence. The Hindu women were asked to trade their honour for the lives of their husbands and children. The Islamists asked them to get raped to save their families. They asked the Hindu women to erase their sindoor and convert to Islam.

Similar incidents of persecution of Hindus came to light last year in Sandeshkhali. In February 2024, several areas in Sandeshkhali of North 24 Parganas district in West Bengal witnessed massive protests mainly by women. These women demanded the arrest of TMC leader and Mamata Banerjee’s close aide Sheikh Shahjahan and two other TMC workers, Shiba Prasad Hazra and Uttam Sardar, believed to be close to Shahjahan.

Hundreds of women residents of Sandeshkhali came out on the streets with brooms, sticks and farming tools and blocked the roads. These women alleged that married Hindu women from the area are picked up, based on how young and pretty they are, and are violated night after night till the TMC men are “satisfied”. The husbands of these women were also threatened and told that they have no “right” over their wives. If they attempted to stop the exploitation of the women, they were mercilessly beaten.

Notably, the alacrity displayed by the West Bengal police in arresting Sharmishtha was enitrely missing when the Hindus of the state were being subjected to brutal violence and humiliation at the hands of Islamist mobs. Instead of acting against the Muslim perpetrators, Mamata Banerjee, a woman herself, downplayed the sexual exploitation of Hindu women and termed the rape cases as ‘minor incident’. Seeing the inaction of the West Bengal government, the Calcutta High Court directed a CBI investigation into the matter which the state government vehemently opposed.

The Hindus of West Bengal have been consistently experiencing unchecked violence and persecution by Islamists under the watch of the Mamata government, which displayed great zeal in sending its police force miles away to arrest a young woman exercising her constitutionally guaranteed freedom of expression well within the bounds of law but turned a blind eye to the violence taking place against Hindus in its own backyard. The Mamata government is setting new standards of appeasement in the state, the cost of which is being paid by the Hindus living in the West Bengal and even beyond.

Blasphemy by proxy: Mamata’s Bengal criminalises dissent, shields Islamist violence

The duplicity is glaring. A young woman can be jailed for a social media video that was promptly deleted after online backlash. Meanwhile, men accused of rape, rioting, and land grab in Sandeshkhali roam free. This is not governance. This is not secularism. This is selective law enforcement driven by vote-bank politics.

Worse, many who threatened Sharmishta with rape and death on social media have not faced a single police knock on their doors. In a true democracy, issuing death threats would prompt immediate legal action—regardless of the faith of the perpetrator. But in Mamata Banerjee’s Bengal, it seems that if you belong to a certain community and scream the loudest, the law will not just ignore you—it will act against your victim instead.

What we are witnessing is the institutionalization of blasphemy laws by proxy, where criticism of Pakistan or Islam, even when not targeting Indian Muslims directly, is met with penal consequences, but attacks on Hindus, Hindu beliefs, or Hindu lives are treated as administrative inconveniences to be brushed under the carpet.

This pattern of governance is not just a threat to Bengal—it is a threat to the very idea of India. The Constitution guarantees freedom of expression, equality before the law, and protection from persecution. But under this regime, those rights are extended only selectively—filtered through the lens of political utility and religious appeasement.

Mamata Banerjee and her administration must answer a fundamental question: Do they serve the Constitution of India or a parallel Islamist consensus that dictates what can and cannot be said or done? Because right now, the answer seems painfully clear.

Until this blatant hypocrisy is called out—and punished at the ballot box—young voices like Sharmishta’s will be stifled, victims of Islamist violence will remain unheard, and Bengal will continue its tragic descent from a land of intellect and revolution to one of fear and communal opportunism.

It is time for the nation to wake up.