If the demand for jute ropes skyrockets as it does for a few chemicals, the tradesmen in West Bengal know that an election is soon in the offing. If the demand peaks, it must be in the rural body or Panchayat and municipal elections, where the candidates contesting under different flags number more than two lacs. The chemicals—nitrates, sulphur, phosphorous, and the like—and the jute ropes for tightly tying are essentials for bomb-making, which has flourished in Bengal and is an industry in almost all the districts.
Though the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections are noisy, there is nothing comparable to the violence in the Panchayat elections, which is the battle for the control of villages from where power emanates and reaches the upper corridors of power.
Despite the recurring violence before, during, and after polls, there seems to be a dismissive attitude by the courts, which seem to have resigned themselves to the situation until more body counts become glaring when they react. The recalcitrant State Election Commission, headed by retired babus, parrots the state government’s narratives, safeguarding their jobs and pleasing their bosses, obstinately refusing to accept the reality of poll-related violence, and stonewalling every move to conduct the elections in a peaceful manner. The knives are sharpened, lethal weapons appear everywhere, and gunpowder smoke engulfs the embattled rural Bengal as killings go on with impunity. It is time for polls!
Bengal’s tryst with violence is historical. More Bengalis have been hung by the British, and the State has witnessed bloody scenes post-independence. The actors in the warring battles of Bengal were replaced with Congress and the Naxalites, and later with the Communists and the Naxalites. The faces replaced could not replace the psyche of Bengal, where violence became a part of the agenda to capture power. Instilling fear and banishing opponents from the villages, who become refugees until they beg for forgiveness, often by forfeiting their rights to till their lands or to do any small business, which are norms to this day.
The post-poll violence after the West Bengal Assembly elections sealed the fate of many who joined the BJP in the hope of the defeat of the ruling party, Trinamool. Trinamool won decisively, even to their own surprise. May had to flee their villages, and those who stayed were ‘punished,’ with the BJP party staring helplessly as law and order after the polls is a state subject.
Many extreme faces have emerged in most parties in Bengal, flexing their muscles and daring the law and courts. The simple rural folks pray obeisance to the gang lords, raising them to deity levels. Local problems are sorted out faster by these elements under the very noses of the state officials responsible for maintaining law and order in the villages.
In all probability, the present panchayat elections are likely to return the ruling Trinamool handsomely, for reasons not relevant to this topic. Hypothetically, and in the unlikely event of a BJP win, nothing would change in Bengal at the ground level in the villages, with those fleeing being from a different party. The gangsterism will continue for a long time, and there may be no respite too soon.
Joy Bangla!
Sampath Kumar
Intrépide Voix
