Kolkata Protests

The communal protests in Kolkata, championed by vandalistic elements, over the issue of the extension of Tasleema Nasreen's visa, that snowballed into violent anarchy, reflect unequivocally and unambiguously the colossal dangers associated with promoting and patronising destructive minority politics whose fountainhead is the culture of appeasement. Some of the elements that participated in the clashes were backed by the Left Front at some point in time in the past to solidify and buttress their minority vote bank. The encouragement of the bigoted ideologies espoused by these rabidly prejudiced and sectarian minority forums, all in the name of 'secularism', has only emboldened these outfits to capture the law into their own hands and create mayhem on the streets, thereby grievously fracturing the pace of normal civic life in Kolkata. The city has been held hostage to the whims and fancies of these narrow-minded people. Tasleema shouldn't be moved out of India in an act of mollification to soothe the despicably violent rage of these lumpen elements.