The West Bengal state administration is succumbing to pressure from a section of hardline Islamic clerics and allowing "Taliban-like" laws to reign in several pockets of minority-concentrated districts, including villages where Hindus are in a majority. An all-girls football match was blocked by the local administration in Malda district's Chandipur village after clerics from a local mosque objected to it last week. Earlier, it took a court order to ensure that a school in Murshidabad district on the India-Bangladesh border could perform its annual Saraswati puja. There are several other complaints too.

As the president of Progressive Youth Club in Malda district's Harishchandrapur, Reza Razi had organised an all-girls football match in neighbouring Chandipur village and roped in National Award and Arjuna Award winners like goalkeeper Krishna Das and Sujata Kar to play. The game, scheduled for last week, was blocked by the local administration after clerics from a local mosque objected to it. Chandipur is a Hindu-majority village.

Razi, a retired government school biology teacher is a sports buff. "The BDO of Harishchandrapur, Biplob Roy, had a meeting with us and the dissenting clerics," Razi told The Sunday Guardian. "It was decided that the match would be held as scheduled, but the match was cancelled later on, citing orders from the top."

Razi said that Roy did not reply to his 12 March letter demanding an explanation, and did not return his calls. This newspaper's repeated calls to Roy's cell phone went unanswered. Razi complained that threats came from a group of clerics headed by Maulana Maqsud Mufti, belonging to a mosque in another village. They sought to stop the football match "as it was against Sharia law" and because they felt the players' clothes were skimpy. Mufti could not be traced.

The state administration's move has been criticised by none other than the pro-Trinamool Congress Imam Barkati, the chief cleric of Kolkata's Grand Tipu Sultan Mosque, who shares the dais with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee whenever she announces sops for minorities. "The government should not have stopped the match or succumbed to diktats of dress codes. The game is played even by Pakistani girls," said Barkati.

Swami Bishwatmananda of the Hindu charitable NGO, Bharat Sevasram Sangha (BSS), voiced concern about threats to monks at the centre in Beldanga, a subdivision on the India-Bangladesh border, in Murshidabad district. Beating drums and playing music or singing songs while taking idols for immersion allegedly face protests.

"We have several centres in Bangladesh, but we do not face such threats even there, as the administration is tough," said Bishwatmananda.

A Bengali newspaper reported last December that a section of villagers were objecting to the celebration of the annual Saraswati puja at Kamnagar High School in Beldanga. The school, with an 80:20 Hindu-Muslim student ratio, has been celebrating the annual event since 1967. A PIL was filed in the Kolkata High Court and it was cited in court that a former Muslim principal used to extend the school recess by 30 minutes on Fridays to enable him to go home for prayers. A legal battle ensued over legitimising daily prayers inside the school premises. Finally, a court order a few days before this year's Saraswati puja ensured that the festival could be celebrated in the school.

Kartik Maharaj, the head of BSS' Beldanga monastery claims to have come under repeated threats from the Muslim radical fringe for not succumbing to their diktat. He said they have been facing opposition for the last five years. Apparently, blowing conch shells and painting sacred motifs for auspicious occasions by homemakers is often facing opposition in areas close to the border in Beldanga, Farakka thana, Arjunpur village, Hariharpara and Nowda in Murshidabad. In spite of the arrival of police, the cremation of a corpse was allegedly not allowed at a 200-year-old cremation ground in Arjunpur last year, as the practice was deemed un-Islamic.

However, the TMC's Murshidabad district president, Abdul Mannan Hossain, rubbished all this by saying, "These allegations are all canards spread by the RSS and VHP. Murshidabad is a classic example of peace and communal harmony in the entire country."