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West Bengal is India’s political
murders state
WSN Network
Two things in
Calcutta
are a fact of life: the unpredictability of how long it will take
you to reach from your home to your office, and the political
murders. Indian media is reporting little about the latter, but the
fact remains that had even a fraction of what is happening in
Calcutta and elsewhere in West Bengal had happened in Punjab, the
anti-Sikh media of India would have termed it nothing less than
terrorism.
So much blood of
flowing down the
Hooghly
river these days that even the outgoing West Bengal Governor Gopal
Krishna Gandhi was forced to refer to the prevailing situation as a
“tandava” of political violence.
Scores of
political murders are being swept under the deluge of media hype
about Naxal activities. While it is true that the Maoist-hit
southwest part of
West Bengal
will take a long time to emerge from the turmoil, and not without
paying a heavy price, it is in rest of the region that the political
bloodshed has become a daily routine.
The CPI(M) and
Trinamool Congress (TMC) cadres clash routinely and local newspapers
are reporting a string of murders over the last few weeks. Now,
under pressure from Mamata Bannerjee who is set to fight, win and
become the next CM of West Bengal unless she mismanages the show
drastically, the Centre has sent a team to the state to investigate
the political violence.
The Trinamool
has claimed that 150 of their workers have been killed after the Lok
Sabha polls; the CPM’s corresponding figure is 107. The state
government, meanwhile, pegged the official number of deaths at 69.
Clearly, whatever the true figure, it is clear that the state is
witnessing large-scale political violence. Now, just pause and think
what would have been
the media hype
had any such violence happened in
Punjab?
There is
bloodbath and lawlessness
in
West Bengal.
Sasan, a Red bastion that was controlled by CPM strongman Majid
Master for more than three decades, hit the headlines of local
papers when in early November mobs allegedly comprising Trinamool
Congress workers took matters into their own hands and assaulted the
leader. For years, no opposition flags were hoisted in this small
village until clashes took place and 20 people from both sides were
reportedly injured. Later, two political activists were killed in
clashes. Khanakul, a block in
Hooghly
district, was burning two weeks ago. In a clash, a villager was
killed and the OC along with several others was injured. Similar
altercations have been seen in other parts of Hooghly, Burdwan,
Birbhum, Nadia, Murshidabad and North and South 24 Parganas. Senior
officials in the Home Department believe that the police are
reluctant to act only because of a possible change of guard in the
2011 Assembly polls. Moreover, in the current scenario, where the
Trinamool Congress has gained in force, it is difficult for police
to handle the situation.
The recent clash
in Panihati, a suburban area of Kolkata, has opened the eyes of
ruling party and the government. It was a clash between the CPM’s
students wing SFI and TMC’s Chatra Parishad, but it took 10 hours
for the police to quell the unrest. The clashes are mainly taking
place in nine South Bengal districts, where the CPM was routed by
the Trinamool Congress. All the 19 Trinamool MPs won from these
districts and in the panchayat elections last year, the CPM received
a drubbing in these areas.
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Mamata:
The nemesis
Clearly,
when it does not suit the ruling Congress to hype up the
violence, Indian obsequous media happily obliges. Because the
choice for the Congress is between Mamata Bannerjee and the deep
blue sea, the Centre sent a probe team to West Bengal but did
not focus too much on the violence for weeks. Congress wants to
somehow sustain its alliance with TMC because on its own it has
failed to make a dent in the communist stronghold. It already is
suffering the humiliation of having its top trouble shoooter
Union Minister Pranab Mukherjee project Mamata as the chief
ministerial candidate and only then talks of rejuvenating the
party. Mamata Banerjee is eroding the Congress and has a clear
upper hand. |
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16
December 2009 |
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