(EDITORIAL) Our Calcutta newsletter published yesterday [June 5] was sombre reading. Each one of the long list of facts quoted by our Calcutta correspondent is in itself an indictment of the Government of West Bengal. We had sincerely hoped that with the signing of the Inter-Dominion Agreement in April last, conditions in India, especially in West Bengal, would rapidly change for the better and a fair deal would be assured to the Muslim minority. But the tales of suffering coming from Calcutta are doleful enough to shake even the most robust of hopes.

… The frontier searches have become humiliating. Muslims proceeding to Eastern Pakistan are … being robbed of even those articles which are classified as non-prohibited. … Even in the case of grants to charitable institutions the West Bengal Government are alleged to be showing discrimination against the Muslims. While the Agreement speaks of curbing all tendencies to any economic boycott of the minorities, the Muslims in Calcutta are being systematically ousted from their position in the trade and commerce of the city and denied employment in any non-Muslim concerns.

Published in Dawn, June 6th, 2023