We all know how caste panchayats try to stop inter-caste marriages in the interiors of North-Western India. They hold kangaroo courts and deliver instant and exemplary ‘justice’ hoping such brutal acts would deter all potential ‘deviants’ to try and cross caste boundaries. We also know how freedom of expression often attracts lethal fatwas. But we always tend to think that such incidents happen beyond the realm of our liberal and democratic ‘mainstream’ – either in some remote feudal badland or only in a fundamentalist culture! And we are told such fundamentalism flourishes only in Madrasas and Masjids. But what happens when a young Muslim man from the world of computers and graphics designing decides to marry a Hindu girl he loves? And that too in progressive cosmopolitan Kolkata, the capital of Left-ruled West Bengal?

Well, as Rizwanur Rahman discovered and we all have discovered through his experience, such a marriage is considered a taboo by the rich and the powerful, a ‘crime’ which needs to be punished with nothing short of murder. It is perhaps not difficult to understand that industrialist Ashok Todi, whose daughter Priyanka had legally married Rizwanur in the month of August, could never agree to this marriage. But what is really shocking is that the police took it upon itself to do Todi’s bidding and ‘free’ Priyanka. And imagine the extent to which the top brass of Kolkata police went in its mission! They repeatedly threatened Rizwanur, even calling him and Priyanka over to the police headquarters and ‘advising’ them to part ways. In spite of their full knowledge of the marriage having been legally registered on August 18, they filed a case of abduction against Rizwanur. And finally when Rizwanur’s battered body was discovered on railway tracks on September 21, the Police Commissioner of Kolkata promptly described his death as an unfortunate case of ‘suicide’! In a Press Conference, he said “After taking care of the daughter for 26 years, if the family finds one morning that she has left them to start a new life with an unknown youth, parents cannot accept it. The Todi family reacted because Rizwanur’s social and financial status did not match theirs; she was a rich girl from a Marwari family while the boy was Muslim and from a middle-class background.” Asked whether the police should have got themselves involved in the parents’ bid to break up the marriage, Mukherjee declared, “Then who will get involved? Do you think the PWD will intervene? This is how we deal with such cases.”

Don’t these public statements by the Kolkata Police Commissioner reek of communal and class bias? Don’t they go against the right of an adult woman to marry according to her own choice? Why did CPI(M) leaders and their state government remain silent on such offensive communal and anti-woman pronouncements by the Police chief? What happened to CPI(M)’s proud claim that Muslims facing persecution by the RSS and communalised police in Gujarat are welcome to settle in West Bengal where the state machinery is secular?

Rizwanur has of course left behind ample evidence of his will to live – he gave intimation to the police and to many of his friends regarding the threat to his life. The Police Commissioner’s role becomes perfectly understandable when one realises that he is also the President of Cricket Association of Bengal; that Todi, apart from being the managing director of Lux Hosieries, is also the kingpin of a betting mafia, and that Todi had ‘facilitated’ the election of the Police Commissioner Mr. Prasun Mukherjee as the CAB chief. What we see here in action is however not at all a ‘private’ relation between the top cop and a city business baron, it is a veritable nexus between the police top brass, big moneybags and the underworld.

But there is more to the nexus than mere financial muscle and licensed and unlicensed gunpower – what enables the nexus to have a free reign is political blessings from the powers that be. Have we forgotten how Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee had thrown his entire weight behind Mr. Mukherjee’s candidature (he however lost the first time he contested before being elected unopposed on the second occasion)? Buddhadeb Bhattacharya refused to order a CBI enquiry, reluctantly ordering a CID enquiry which meant that the police would have sat in judgement of themselves! Is it just the government’s ‘compulsion’ to keep the police top brass in good humour? The Todis and Sardas (Govind Sarda, the infamous jute baron, who is a prime accused in the notorious blood kit scam) are of course all ‘esteemed investors’ in the eyes of the Left Front government and it does not have the will to take any action against them even if they habitually steal the provident fund of their employees.

The Chief Minister of West Bengal Mr. Buddhadev Bhattacharya had to bow ultimately before the unprecedented public outrage and was forced to transfer Kolkata Police Commissioner Prasun Mukherjee, Deputy Commissioner Gyanwant Singh and Ajoy Kumar, Assistant Commissioner Sukanti Chakraborty and Sub. Inspector Krishnendu Das for the role they played in the mysterious death of computer graphics teacher Rizwanur Rahaman after 26 days of the incident. And this decision came just after severe indictment by Kolkata High Court, which ordered for a CBI probe into the whole matter. The CBI enquiry can decide whether Rizwanur’s death was suicide or murder; but the Police Commissioner’s own statements are an open admission and in fact an aggressive ideological defence of the fact that the police did indeed hound Rizwanur to break up his marriage on grounds of class and religion. ‘Transfer’ is hardly sufficient punishment – someone who openly proclaims communal and anti-woman views ought to be dismissed from the police force.

The role of the West Bengal Women’s Commission headed by eminent academic Jasodhara Bagchi too was objectionable. The Commission was silent on the Police Commissioner’s remarks. As late as October 9, they chose to visit Priyanka Todi at her parents’ home; and later, on October 15, they visited Rizwanur’s mother and assured her that they would convey her wish for a CBI enquiry to the Chief Minister. In the statement issued following the visit to Priyanka, they informed the press that Priyanka had said she had returned to her parents of her own accord hearing of her father’s ill health from the police and not under police pressure; she intended to persuade her parents to accept her marriage and then to return to her husband and she failed to understand why her husband had committed suicide; she was traumatised by Rizwanur’s death and still loved him; she did not like the media publicity over her husband’s death and wanted to “move on” and live a normal life. No doubt, for a young woman traumatised by her husband’s death, it is difficult to accept the painful possibility that her loving family on whom she now relies for emotional and possibly material support might have had a hand in his death. But Priyanka has not denied that her parents were opposed to her marriage; neither has she denied that it was the police who told her she should visit her father since he was unwell. She has not accused Rizwanur of any ulterior motive in complaining of police harassment, rather she has reaffirmed that she married him out of love and intended to return to the marriage. Rizwanur’s own written testimony point to insistent police harassment – and above all, the Police Commissioner’s own statements are an admission and in fact an aggressive ideological defence of the fact that the police did indeed attempt to break up the marriage. Priyanka’s remarks in no way undermine any of this evidence of gross communal and patriarchal misconduct on part of the police. The Women’s Commission is not expected to establish whether or not Rizwanur was murdered; but it is expected to demand action from the state government against public functionaries who act to curb women’s rights. Instead, the Women’s Commission remained silent on the ideologically objectionable remarks of the police chief and his own admission that he endorsed the police interference in the marriage, and confined itself to faithfully relaying Priyanka’s words to the press, in a manner that subtly suggests that the media should desist from pursuing the case, that Priyanka absolves the police of the charge of interference and concurs with the police claim that Rizwanur’s death was a ‘suicide’.

After Nandigram., the response of ruling CPI(M), AIDWA leaders and the WB Women’s Commission to the Rizwanur matter are a comment on how the commitment of the state government to corporate heads seriously undermines the CPI(M)’s commitment to secularism and women’s rights.

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Kolkata Demands Justice for Rizwan

After the CBI enquiry was ordered and the police officials transferred, the club to which Rizwanur had belonged hung up a poster, with the slogan “Commissioner aur Todi Ki Jori, Aawam Ney Tori”. For the past month the whole of Kolkata witnessed unique protests. ‘Candle light vigil’—a newly formed organization erected a portrait of Rizowanur besides the pavements of Kolkata’s prestigious St. Xavier’s college, and lit candles on the footpath. Numerous people from all walks of life came from different corners to St. Xavier’s college pavement, not only to light a candle but also to register their protest against the State Govt. by signing petitions for justice. These mellowed candle lights soon created a prairie fire of protest all over Kolkata and even the CM seemed to concede that it was growing public opinion and media coverage that finally forced the govt. to act against the police officers.

Our party and its mass organizations also took a number of initiatives. A team of Kolkata Nagarik Sammanay, a citizen’s forum led by our party, visited Rizwanur’s home and met his mother, brother and other relatives the day after the incident. They also spoke with the members of Tiljala Noble Man Union Club, with which Rizwanur was closely associated. The team was led by veteran party leader A B Chowdhury, Comrade Bibhas Bose and others.
On 3 October, Kolkata Nagarik Samanay & AIPWA jointly organised a protest meeting at Tiljala, near Rizwanur’s home. A large number of people attended the meeting and heard the speakers with rapt attention. Rizwanur’s maternal and paternal uncle Taj Mohammad and Wadur Rahman, eminent intellectuals like Nabarun Bhattacharya, Bibhas Chakraborty, Meher Engineer, Sujat Bhadra, President of the club mentioned above Moinul Haque, AIPWA leaders, Shukla Sen and Indrani Dutta were the speakers.

On 5 October CPI(ML) organised a March to the Lalbazar thana. Hundreds of party activists participated in the rally which started from Subodh Mallick Square. Wadur Rahman and his neighbours also participated in the rally. A huge police force stopped the rally and arrested 30 comrades, including Comrades Partha Ghsoh, Kalyan Goswami, Jayatu Deshmukh, leaders of WB State Committee. Later they were all released.

On 7 October a delegation team led by Mohd. Salim, All India President of RYA and Moloy Tewari, Member of National Executive of AISA visited Rizwanur’s home. A protest meeting was organised near his house, which was attended by people of the Tiljala. 