Buddhadeb following in the footsteps of Mulayam?

NEW DELHI: In the aftermath of Nandigram, West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee seems to have embarked on a “woo Muslims” journey. A week after meeting Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind leader Mahmood Madani in the capital, the chief minister has made a plea to the Centre for setting up an Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) campus in his state.

Mr Bhattacharjee, who was in Delhi on Sunday to attend the meeting of chief ministers and chief justices convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, has sent letters to the Prime Minister and Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh demanding that the AMU campus be set up in the state’s Murshidabad District, which has a Muslim population of over 20%.

Mr Bhattacharjee, who was also in Delhi last week to attend his party’s central committee meeting, is understood to have discussed the issue during his meeting with the Prime Minister. The Rajinder Sachar committee’s findings on minorities in India show the Muslims to be in a dismal state, educationally and economically, in West Bengal and had suggested that such a university be set up in the state.

The CPM also felt that the educational backwardness of Muslims in the state could be because of the Left Front government’s policy to discourage mushrooming of private educational institutions.

The chief minister, during his trip last week, had met the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind general secretary at the Banga Bhawan. This was his first meeting with the Jamiat leader after the Nandigram flare-up. The Muslim body had strongly protested against the violence. The chief minister, who had earlier invited the wrath of the community, is apparently now trying to reach out to the Muslims, who form a large proportion of the population of Nandigram.