The maverick bureaucrat, IPS officer Nazrul Islam, has once again criticised the West Bengal Chief Minister and the Left Front government in an article written as a sequel to the Sachar Committee findings on Bengal Muslims. Nazrul accuses, without naming the Chief Minister, of “double standard,” and the Left Front government of not ensuring proper education for Muslims in the state.

Islam’s scathing attack comes in an article in the book titled “Sankhaloghu Unnayane Sachar Committeer Suparish O Samajsebi-Buddhijibider Bhabna” (The Recommendations of Sachar Committee for the development of Minorities and observations of social activists and intellectuals). The book is a collection of essays by intellectuals and social activists compiled by SM Shamsuddin, teacher of a school in Howrah.

Nazrul Islam, now an Inspector General of Police in the state’s Enforcement Branch, questions Bhattacharjee’s comments on Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind — the Muslim socio-religious organization.

“Recently, we came to know from reports that honourable Chief Minister has called Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind a communal and dangerous outfit. Yet, another former chief minister (read Jyoti Basu) supplemented the accusation saying that only one community could become members of the Jamiat.

“But soon afterwards, we noticed him attending a meeting of an organization by the name of Jamiat Ulema-e-Bangla along with his party’s state secretary and other members of his cabinet. This automatically raises a set of questions.

“Is it that Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind is being described as communal simply because it is opposing the Chief Minister and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Bangla is non-communal because it is supporting the chief minister?”

... contd.