The heat and dust of the just concluded General Elections have settled and are slowly becoming a distant memory with the long awaited results being declared decisively in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led National Democratic Alliance. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to be sworn in for a historic third term and platitudes have been pouring in from near and far. With great power comes great responsibility and PM Modi has truly been an embodiment of this civilisational virtue of Bharat just as great rulers from Raja Harshavardhan to Rani Ahilyabai Holkar were before him.
PM’s Consensual Approach
PM Modi has displayed statesman-like qualities throughout his tenure by taking along his opponents as well as their voters and letting go of any perceived bitterness. The Muslims of Bharat are a testament to this but the Hindus, Dalits, tribals and those who support the Opposition in West Bengal have had no such luck.
History often repeats itself; first as a tragedy and then as a farce and nowhere but West Bengal does this ring the truest. Every election, national, provincial or local is marred by sporadic violence during campaigning and state sponsored violence post declaration of results.
Terrorising Opposition
Loot, molestation, rape, arson, murder and violence are an integral part of the electoral process in West Bengal, since the last five decades during the regimes of Congress and Left. However, they have seen an exponential rise since Trinamool Congress came to power in 2011. The stakes for Trinamool are unmistakably high since every renewed mandate obtained through fraudulent means is a self perceived license to engage in financial embezzlement and extortion from the state exchequer and beneficiaries of welfare schemes. Opponents who can potentially win elections are individually and severally targeted post polls to extract revenge for having the temerity to contest against the Trinamool. Elections are a complete sham with ballot stuffing, voter intimidation and result manipulation being carried out brazenly with the entire bureaucracy being a mute witness to the shenanigans of the ruling party criminals turned leaders.
2021 saw massive violence unleashed post declaration of Vidhan Sabha results on May 2. The violence continued unabated for weeks with no let up despite numerous directives of the National Human Rights Commission and the honourable Calcutta High Court. Fifty six karyakartas of the BJP including Manash Saha, candidate from Canning Purba, were brutally murdered. Hundreds of women were violated, thousands of karyakartas were rendered homeless and property worth crores was destroyed. This was a calculated bid to terrorise Opposition activists to such an extent that no one ever has the temerity to ever campaign or contest against Trinamool Congress.
Organisationally, BJP West Bengal was in shambles post the violence in 2021 but recovered to a certain extent due to persistent efforts from leaders like Shri Suvendu Adhikari, leader of the Opposition. The party faithful were upbeat due to the ruling party being embodied in numerous scams and many of their strongmen in jail. The public sentiment was in favour of BJP but due to organisational weakness in certain pockets and conspiracies by a section of the bureaucracy the results were somewhat lower than anticipated with a net decline of six seats. The post poll violence started even before the date of results with Hafizul Sheikh, a BJP karyakarta being hacked to death in Nadia on June 2. Once it was abundantly clear by the evening of June 4 that Trinamool would be ahead of BJP, unabated violence started on the lines of what transpired in 2021.
List of Violent Incidents Since June 4
- Criminals affiliated with the Trinamool threatened and attacked the homes of numerous villagers in Tufanganj, Minakhan, Kharagpur, Habra and Sonamukhi
- Ruling party leaders attacked BJP karyakartas Asit Paik in Hingalganj, Satyajit Das in Narayangarh, Mamoni Das in Caning, Mritunjay Ghosh in Bhangar, Pramod Singh in Barrackpore, Anindita Sarkar in Naihati and Rahul Das in Metiaburuz
- BJP party offices have been besieged and damaged in Baranagar and Tapan by ruling party workers
- TMC goons kidnapped BJP karyakarta Dinesh Maduli from Gopiballavpur
- TMC workers violently threw out BJP agents from counting centers in Bishnupur and Diamond Harbor
- CPM candidate from Jadavpud, Srijan Bhattacharya has alleged various party faithful have been threatened and abused
Four hundred companies of Central Paramilitary Forces remain in West Bengal on the orders of the Election Commission to prevent any untoward incident and post poll violence. The extent of violence coupled with total lack of cooperation by the provincial bureaucracy has rendered 40,000-odd paramilitary jawans ineffective and directionless. Magnanimity in victory; albeit a grossly engineered one or other such lofty ideals would not occur to anti India, pro Jihadi criminal syndicates like the Trinamool Congress.
According to the state’s Chief Electoral Officer, at least 24 individuals have sustained injuries in the ongoing violence. The unrest has persisted in the days following the elections, with clashes erupting in districts such as Cooch Behar, North 24 Parganas, and South 24 Parganas. On June 2, a BJP worker lost his life in Nadia district, reportedly in an act of post-poll violence. Another murder was reported from the same district just days later, underscoring the escalating tensions in the region.
