Countering Bengal Political Violence

 

While there were expectations that BJP would offer Mamta Banerjee a stiff fight in the Bengal elections, the end outcome was a decisive victory for her. The BJP however which used to struggle to open its account managed to become the largest opposition party. In fact, the entire opposition space is occupied by the party with the Left and the Congress drawing a blank. It was a sad ending for the Left which had once ruled the state for 34 years. The moment election results were out, there was sporadic violence with the Trinamool cadre attacking the BJP voters. Disturbing videos were seen floating through the social media. The Governor had to publicly reprimand the Chief Minister at her swearing in. Apparently, it is the force from the minority community that seems to be attacking the majority. The political violence is not something unusual.

 

Bengal has been witness to political violence for decades. The Senbari killings to the burning of Anand Marg monks to Marchijhappi violence to attacks on Mamata to firing in Nandigram and many others bear testimony to the violence that happened during the Left rule. It was impossible for many an opposition worker to stay and fight the Left. The Left had politicized the police force through recruitment of constables only from the cardholders, something they replicated with the teachers also thus cementing a formidable ground machinery at work to enable them win elections. In 2007, the firing at Nandigram, essentially Muslims being victims turned upside down the social coalition which Jyoti Basu had built up. The ground now was clear, there was large scale defection among the minority votes as also among the Bahubalis of Bengal towards the Trinamool beginning of the end of the left. It must be said that the Bahubalis remained loyal to Trinamool and that perhaps tilted the victory towards her. The BJP went into the election without any leader being projected as the Chief Ministerial candidate something that did not stand in good stead. The organic leadership was still unknown while the party might have been reluctant to hand over the reins to the newcomers at least until an electoral cycle had passed. Now that Suvendu Adhikari has been the Leader of the Opposition, there would be some fight in the state.

 

As the state descended into political violence, there have been demands from many quarters for Central intervention. There has been a visible unhappiness and perhaps even anger over the alleged inaction by the Centre. The action that the social media supporters of the BJP want is the dismissal of the Mamata Banerjee government. This perhaps is something not feasible given the overwhelming victory in the recently concluded elections. It would set a stronger sympathy wave for Mamata even if the judiciary does not intervene and restore her government. The political violence is never a pretext that can justify the invocation of Article 356 especially after the Bommai judgment. Therefore, there certainly exists certain constraints on the part of the Central government. There have been advisories under Article 355 which are sent to the state governments. There is definitely a pro-active Governor who took an unprecedented step of visiting the places hit by political violence. There is no easy solution for the political violence. This has been endemic to the Indian political system in many states.

 

For instance, political violence has been very ugly in Kerala. The Left has been known to intimidate its political opponents even killing them. Political deaths are routine in Kerala. In fact, in Bihar, it was the control over Bahubalis that led Laloo Yadav to rule the state for nearly 15 years. Very few people could dare to come out and vote against the government without the fear of being killed. In Uttar Pradesh, the Mulayam Singh family has been known to use muscle power to keep itself in power. Law and order has routinely during these times. In Andhra Pradesh, the political fights were prolonged with many political leader falling prey to the violence. In states like Tamil Nadu or Karnataka these have taken a more sophisticated turn thus being outside the eyes of the media. Madhya Pradesh too had its share of political violence as did Maharashtra and Gujarat. Every state has had its own flavor of its violence. It took the counter moves of mobilizing people on the streets that led to the change in power equations. Mamata herself has been the victim of Left violence for years. She had fought on the ground for nearly two decades before she was able to turn the tide. Therefore, it is something the BJP has to do in Bengal to counter the tide. They need to get their leadership act together. The people would be interested to vote but the fear of the bahubalis deter them from doing so. The central forces certainly are reassuring but are not permanent. They leave the moment the elections are over. The people have to deal with the local dons and the police who often owe allegiance to the ruling party and there is complicit deals among them. The ruling party often provides protection to the dons in exchange for their political support in the elections. To end the political violence, the only solution would be to put an end to these musclemen through arrests and quick convictions something which Nitish did in Bihar to bring back the sense of normalcy.

 

At this stage ,the Centre while sending advisories should have to use its agencies to fix the bahubali culture. They must be arrested by various central agencies and booked. Furthermore, there must be a quick trial and conviction. This would enable bringing down the violence since they would fear reprisal. Meanwhile in parallel, the state unit must get active and protect its cadre. There must exist a counter-retaliation at the ground level. The bully must be countered on the ground and no other substitute exists for the same. The single sided battle cannot continue. There will be police action but there must be counter protests to police action as well. In absence of these, it would be difficult to ensure the dons do not come to the rescue of the Trinamool. The sooner it begins, the better it would be.