“Holding elections cannot be a license for violence and HC has seen earlier instances of violence… elections cannot be accompanied by violence.. if persons are not able to file their nominations and if they are finished off while they are going to file it then, where is the free and fair election?”
—Supreme Court on the West Bengal violence in West Bengal during the Panchayat Polls, State of WB And Ors. v. Suvendu Adhikari And Ors. SLP(C) No. 12294/2023
On June 23, 2023, there was another round of drama where all opposition parties did a photo session in the name of unity. There have been many such attempts earlier that turned into disasters for the constituent parties and the nation. The only difference is the second, third, and fourth front actors are coming together to form an anti-BJP front.
After that photo-op, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee remarked, “If this dictatorial Government returns this time, there will be no elections in future”. While saying so, she forgot that the Supreme Court had dismissed the petition of her Government regarding the deployment of Central Forces to conduct free and fair local body elections. None of the members participating in the meeting had a sense of democratic responsibility to remind Ms Banerjee that there are no free and fair elections in West Bengal. Ironically, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury is one of the petitioners in the court against Mamata’s regime.
Since the announcement of Panchayat Polls to be held on July 8 for the more than 74,000 representatives at various levels of rural West Bengal, the State has seen nothing but murder of democracy. At least 12 persons have died till June 29. Continuous news of violence is pouring from Murshidabad, Birbhum, East Midnapore, East Burdwan, Coochbehar, and North and South 24 Paraganas districts. A Block Development Office in South 24 Parganas was assaulted by a mob for distributing nomination forms to Opposition candidates. In Murshidabad, police caught a local Trinamool Congress leader with a handgun. Many people have approached the courts because they could not file nominations due to the goondaism of the ruling party. Police personnel are attacked with stones and bombs if they do not toe the ruling party’s line. After the final withdrawal of nominations, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) is now left with 61,934 candidates, while the BJP, CPI (M) and Congress now have 39,617, 36,257 and 12,636 candidates, respectively. 9.5 per cent of the seats have remained uncontested. All these numbers were discussed in the court when Mamata’s counsel shamelessly opposed deployment of the Central Forces.
Violence and elections have been a given equation in West Bengal, and talking about it hurts the ‘Bengali pride’ of TMC. The 2018 Panchayat polls also witnessed large-scale violence killing 20 people, and the ruling had bagged around 90 per cent of seats, of which 34 per cent were uncontested. The naked dance of murders, rapes and torture by the State machinery after the 2021 Assembly elections is a documented history now with the book Democracy in Coma. And Mamata Banerjee still has the guts to talk about democracy and elections if the BJP returns to power in 2024. Rahul Gandhi, who world-over showcases his Mohabbat ki Dukaan, has no intent to make Bengalis part of his Bharat Jodo and no courage to talk against the real Nafrat ka Bazar established under the Mamata regime.
West Bengal’s reputation for scientific rigging of polls with manipulation of voters lists and booth capturing, intimidation of candidates and voters, supported by violence, has been known for decades. Right from the 1937 elections, Muslim League introduced violence in the electoral process: Suhrawardy, the then Chief Minister, mainstreamed violence as a tool of political blackmailing. The Great Calcutta Killings of 1946 forced staunch nationalists like Syama Prasad Mookerjee and Sarat Chandra Sen to accept the Partition on religious lines.
In the 1970s, communists reintroduced the violence and politicisation of police machinery as effective instruments of governance, as they did everywhere else. Bengal voted for Mamata Banerjee to get rid of violent politics. Instead, her TMC bettered the art of State-sponsored corruption and violence. The land of Bankimchandra, Tagore, Vivekananda and Aurobindo needs to be liberated from this inhuman politics. The real spirit of West Bengal should be reawakened to eliminate this licence of violence under the garb of democracy.
