1,794 persons were killed during ten months of this year (2009) ended on October 31, in West Bengal. The Home Minister of the State Shri Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has stated this in reply to a written question by Shri Partha Chattopadhyay, Leader of the Opposition, in the current session of West Bengal Assembly. He further mentioned that these are all ‘political murders’. If other categories of murders are included, then the number of people killed, will be much higher. Does it not push us to draw a conclusion that West Bengal has turned into a big killing field? No doubt, this remains a fact.
Situation in West Bengal is so tensed that the Central Home Minister P Chidambaram was compelled to send a 3-member observer team to the State to get a first hand report of the situation and to find out the actual reasons behind it. Unfortunately, the team members have discharged their duty only by visiting the Writers’ Buildings (Secretariat of the State) and went back to New Delhi. They did not care to visit the places like Jangal Mahal, Lalgarh and other parts of West Midnapore, Bankura, and Purulia districts, where indiscriminate murders are going on. Instead of controlling the situation, Police and administration allegedly are aiding and abetting this killing game.
In fact, this was an extension of red-terrorism which was perpetrated in Nandigram and Keshpur in West Midnapore in late 2008 and early 2009. But one should keep in mind that Left parties including CPM, Naxalites, Maoists etc. did not have any faith in democracy. They simply used to take advantage of democratic rights to extend their terrorist activities. On December 25, Ashok Mitra, former Marxist Finance Minister of West Bengal has publicly said that the ruling party of the State has no connection with the grass root level people and there has been absolutely no inner party democracy. Hence, whatever they have been doing have similarity with autocratic actions only. Obviously, this was the disease of the Socialists in Russia and East Europe for which they were crumbled down. Same fate is waiting for the Marxists and Socialists here. Shri Mitra was addressing a meeting organised to remember Chitta Basu, a Forward Bloc MP who passed away few years back.
It is because of this “Stalinist heritage”, soon after coming to power in West Bengal the Left Front especially the CPI(M) had started establishing reign of terror in the state with “ghastly killing of Sain Bari inmates” in Burdwan where after killing the son, the killers had sprayed the blood of the deceased son on the face of the mother. This was the starting point. After that so many such incidents took place. There was no resistance. People simply became nonplussed. The alleged killers, who were in the jail, were set free under parole. The subsequent Left Front government, instead of pushing them back to jail, made them minister and Member of Parliament. Recently a Bengali daily newspaper published a news saying that three persons, who were on parole for the last seventeen years, are holding crucial posts in public offices – Benoy Konar was made a member of the central committee of CPI (M), Nirupam Sen was made the Industry Minister of the State and Anil Bose is the Member of Parliament from Hooghly. The very next day of its publication, by a rejoinder letter to the newspaper, it was said that the government had withdrawn cases against them. Hence, there is no question of parole or punishment. Incidentally these three persons were implicated in Sain Bari murder case. This is a glaring instance of how rule of law is being vandalised in the State.
In another case, the then Chief Minister of West Bengal Jyoti Basu had flatly refused to implement the court verdict and in our judicial system there is nothing which can punish the law enforcing body for such lapse. In Rajabazar area of Kolkata, a multi-storied mosque was built on the land of a Shiva temple. The owners of the temple protested against it. They went to corporation and to the concerned department of the government. But nobody paid any heed to their appeal. Then they went to the Calcutta High Court and prayed for justice. After hearing of the case, Justice Bhagwati Prasad Banerjee had given a verdict to demolish the illegally built mosque. As Rajabazar area, where the mosque is built, is predominantly a Muslim infested area and Jyoti Basu’s party was dependent on their votes, he flatly refused to implement the High Court order. Nobody could do anything about it.
There are so many instances of ignoring such court orders. Intimidating judges by transferring them to other states or to remote areas, is another weapon they used frequently. In fact Justice AN Lala, and Justice Barin Ghosh who were giving verdicts in several cases which went against the wish of the Left Front government, were transferred to other states. Justice Ghosh had been sent to Andamans, as if he was destined to ‘Kalapani’. Justice Lala was sent to Allahabad.
Only two years back, the people of Nandigram (West Midnapore) put up a strong resistance against the ruling party sponsored barbaric attack on people who were opposed to CPI (M) and that was for the first time, the ruling party had to accept defeat. On the other hand, ruling party had employed goons to ‘teach the people a good lesson’ as they were not toeing the line of the ruling party. Even then, when they had actually failed, the police opened fire against innocent people as the Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had issued the firing order. At this point, the shameless ruling party took refuge in the lap of Maoists whose terrorist activities were not prominently noticeable in this state. But the ruling party with the help of Maoists had started taking revenge against the opposing people. For this purpose they had opened a new front in Lalgarh, Jangal Mahal etc. of the same district.
Even after this blame-game, it has become crystal clear when the fact came to light that not a single person among the 250 arrested from Maoist infested area was a Maoist. They all are family-men without any connection with Maoists. In fact, in the name of mowing down the Maoist terrorists in the State, the State power has let loose the ‘state terrorism’. The Central Government has to identify this aspect of the terrorist activities in the State if they seriously want a solution of the problem.
