OPINION: Why Bengal sees so much violence during elections?

The recent Panchayat elections in Bengal were on predictable lines. So was the poll outcome- the ruling TMC bagged 80 percent of the seats, with BJP distant second. Gun shots, bomb blasts, arson and multiple murders marked the poll process. Taking note of the massive outbreak of violence in the state in the wake of polls, the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday (July 12) said, the election results "will be subject to" the "ultimate orders" that it may pass in connection with petitions filed on poll related violence and "electoral malpractices".

The Calcutta High Court's directions to the State Election Commission (SEC) have to be seen against the backdrop of orgy of violence that has left at least 45 dead since polls were announced in the state on June 8. There are reports from several districts of booth capturing and damaged ballot boxes. While different parts of India witness sporadic violence on various pretexts, the two states- Bengal and Kerala, however, standout in this respect. Kerala, for political murders and Bengal for its gory record of election related mayhem.

Trivandrum and Kolkata- nearly 2500 kilometers apart, are the southern and eastern tips of India respectively. Both have been the pride of India- with a distinguished history and an eventful past. While Kerala, apart from many other achievements to its credit, is also the birthplace of Adi Shankar, Bengal has led India's socio-cultural renaissance and its freedom movement.

Rabindranath Tagore of Bengal brought honour to India, by winning the first ever Nobel prize for the country for literature in 1913. Swami Vivekanand, the intellectual and globe-trotting monk of modern India, explained to the world, India's plural- all-embracing ethos in an idiom which the contemporary world can comprehend and appreciate. Netaji Subash Bose added-a unique dimension to India's freedom struggle against the British. Over a century back, Gopal Krishan Gokhale, a senior Congress leader had said, 'what Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow'. But that's now history.

Today, both, Bengal and Kerala are in news, often for wrong reasons. The cult of violence defines the public life of the two states. The reason for this deprivation is common- domination of Communism in the mind space of the two states over a long time.

Bengal had its first brush with mass violence in 1946, when on August 16, the Muslim League launched "Direct Action" for a separate Muslim homeland after the British exit from India. Thousands of Hindus were killed in the ensuing riots lasting several weeks. The day also marked the start of what is known as 'The week of the Long Knives'. Subsequently, the League's ideological Comrade-in-arms, the Communists, took over, from where it had left, and continued the gory tradition, till they lost power in 2011, after remaining in office for seven consecutive terms.

The current panchayat poll in West Bengal, were held across 73,887 seats in 22 districts. The violence witnessed in the elections isn't a new phenomenon. In 2003 for instance, as the CPI(M) battled a rising Mamata Banerjee, 76 people were killed. Gun battles, arson, politically inspired gang wars and crude bombs are a daily occurrence during the campaign.

Irrespective of the party ruling at Kolkata, the vicious cycle of violence, retaliation and retribution has continued unabated. In 2018, with the TMC in power, 23 people were killed across Bengal, with 12 of them losing their lives in violence on the day of polling. The TMC, which emerged victorious in around 90 percent of the seats, won 34 percent of these uncontested. Thousands of people alleged that they were not allowed either to vote or to contest the elections.

Violence is central to Communist paradigm. Though, as a political party Marxists are over in the state, but the venom they injected in the socioeconomic - political system has obviously outlived them. This violence is now ingrained in the state's psyche and political culture. It's the new normal. All parties, that have been in the government- the TMC now, and the CPM and Congress before it- have resorted to violence while dealing with their respective political opponents.

In West Bengal political parties continue to patronise a system that draws sustenance from cadres nursed by crime and extortion. The CPM, while in power (for over three decades), raised a huge army of lumpen elements that lived on violence, and wore ideological and party masks to buy protection.

This model of politics has corroded the state institutions. Such a political- social nexus based on extortion, flexing of muscles, running rackets, making bombs, means young men and women are denied access to a growing economy shaped by ethics, an honest work culture, technology and knowledge. Once hooked to crime, laced with an ideology and political respectability, these young men and women find themselves utterly useless to do anything meaningful in life.

No wonder aspiring young have no option, but to leave the state for other parts of the country and abroad, in search of better opportunities and stable lives. The unskilled too have little choice- either to leave the state or become a part of one of the political gangs - with exposure to all the risks inbuilt in such an uncertain life. The violence, mostly affecting the poor and the underprivileged, has undermined the moral authority of civil society and sanctity of the electoral process. Mamta, while in opposition, was supposed to be fighting against this regressive Marxist model. She was expected to break the mould, instead her politics is now shaped by that very mould !

Bulk of the lumpens who worked for CPM while it was in power, have since turned into TMC workers after Mamta was sworn as Chief Minister. They changed their political label, but not their occupation or traits. They now do the dirty work for TMC, which they used to do for Marxists. In turn, the new regime offers them the patronage, which the CPM provided them earlier, while in power.

Is it possible to bring an end to the violence that pervades West Bengal? Violence and democracy cannot co-exist. Ballot is a substitute for bullet. At some stage, the nexus between political power and the underworld will have to be broken. Ballot has little relevance when bullets fly freely.

(Mr. Balbir Punj is a Former Member of Parliament and a Columnist. He can be reached at: [email protected])

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