Mocking Democracy
The cpi(m) and the West Bengal government are guilty of perpetrating mob violence in Nandigram.
Neither the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nor the Congress lay much store by democratic practices in their day to day functioning. It is the Communist Party of India (Marxist) – CPI(M) – that has been until now the only all-India political party that has, by and large, adhered to democratic procedures and processes. However, the actions of its cadre in Nandigram in East Medinapur district of West Bengal in the past week, with the acquiescence and silent encouragement of the state govern ment, have at one stroke destroyed much of this reputation.
The well-planned “recapture” of Nandigram from anti-land acquisition forces by hundreds of well-armed cadre has made a mockery of all the basic norms of democracy. The situation in Nandigram was, to be sure, extremely complex and did not admit of easy resolution. But what does it say of a party and its government that mobs of cadre are allowed to go on a spree terrorising and occupying villages controlled by their opponents while the administration and police stand aside?
The state government was admittedly in a bind with the Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee (BUPC) continuing to barricade the area and effectively ruling it out of bounds to the administration. Worse, the hundreds of families of CPI(M) sympathisers forced out in March surely had as much of a right to their homes as the protesters. The unearthing of arms subsequent to the CPI(M) operation indicates that there were elements in Nandigram preparing for another tragedy. But none of this justifies in any way the state government’s silent connivance in the CPI(M)’s “recapture” of Nandigram. The much publicised request for central government police forces, which when they did arrive, were, according to newspaper reports, slowed on the roads by CPI(M) supporters in order to allow the “operation” to be completed, is cynical politics at its worst. (The claim that Maoists were inciting the villagers of Nandigram surely cannot be given serious consideration, even if there may have been a few Naxalite supporters in the area.)
The statement by the CPI(M)-dominated Left Front regime in West Bengal that the police was not sent for fear of a repeat of the incident of March 14, when over a dozen people were killed in a similar operation, begs the question – why have an elected government and police forces of any kind at all if they cannot ensure a fair hand for all citizens? The reason for the recurrence of violence on such a scale in Nandigram, barely seven months after the killings in mid-March, lies in the state government’s failure to address the issue of delivering justice to the victims of the earlier incident. Despite the well-documented human rights violations that occurred on that day, no police officers were transferred from their posts, none of those accused of rape and murder charged or arrested, and worse still, not a single minister or even state level leader of the ruling party chose to visit the affected people to assure them of their welfare. The list of institutions that failed to perform their functions is a long one: the Calcutta High Court that waited until November 16, five months after hearings were completed on a writ petition on the March violence, to deliver its judgment and the National Human Rights Commission and the National Women’s Commission, neither of which took serious cognisance of reports of human rights violations and rape. The much delayed announcement of compensation to families of the people killed in the March violence, made on the eve of the latest CPI(M) assault, only served to highlight the cynical way in which such basic humanitarian gestures are being manipulated by the ruling regime.
The opposition has to take more than its share of responsibility for the tragedy. There is no doubt that the BUPC leadership, parti cularly Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress, which has come to dominate the multiparty coalition, has been equally cynical in its manipulation of a genuine peasant struggle for its own narrow aims of grabbing power. The forcing out of several hundred families of CPI(M) supporters from their homes in Nandigram during the initial phase of the entire agitation, for example, was already indicative of the Trinamool’s thuggish inclinations. The several attempts of the state government to broker peace in Nandigram also failed because of the Trinamool’s dubious quest, with an eye on next year’s panchayat elections, for direct physical control over villages that were a left bastion for decades.
The battle between the BUPC and the CPI(M) in Nandigram has today gone well beyond the original struggle of small farmers fighting to protect their land from forced acquisition by the state for a special economic zone project. But the question remains as to why the CPI(M), which claims to be left and progressive, has failed to challenge the dominant political culture and instead ended up offering a lesson or two to its rivals in the use of criminal means to further political interests. The statement of the chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya on November 13 that, “the opposition have been paid back in their own coin” only serves to sadly confirm that the authoritarian rot goes to the highest levels of the party.
The Congress and BJP are regularly implicated in mob violence; not so the CPI(M) until now though it has been increasingly accused of exercising party rule in administration in West Bengal. The Nandigram tragedy has changed per ceptions. The behaviour of the party cadre and the attitude of senior functionaries does not augur well for the future of democratic functioning in India, fragile as it is in so many ways.
The cpi(m) and the West Bengal government are guilty of perpetrating mob violence in Nandigram.
Neither the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nor the Congress lay much store by democratic practices in their day to day functioning. It is the Communist Party of India (Marxist) – CPI(M) – that has been until now the only all-India political party that has, by and large, adhered to democratic procedures and processes. However, the actions of its cadre in Nandigram in East Medinapur district of West Bengal in the past week, with the acquiescence and silent encouragement of the state govern ment, have at one stroke destroyed much of this reputation.
The well-planned “recapture” of Nandigram from anti-land acquisition forces by hundreds of well-armed cadre has made a mockery of all the basic norms of democracy. The situation in Nandigram was, to be sure, extremely complex and did not admit of easy resolution. But what does it say of a party and its government that mobs of cadre are allowed to go on a spree terrorising and occupying villages controlled by their opponents while the administration and police stand aside?
The state government was admittedly in a bind with the Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee (BUPC) continuing to barricade the area and effectively ruling it out of bounds to the administration. Worse, the hundreds of families of CPI(M) sympathisers forced out in March surely had as much of a right to their homes as the protesters. The unearthing of arms subsequent to the CPI(M) operation indicates that there were elements in Nandigram preparing for another tragedy. But none of this justifies in any way the state government’s silent connivance in the CPI(M)’s “recapture” of Nandigram. The much publicised request for central government police forces, which when they did arrive, were, according to newspaper reports, slowed on the roads by CPI(M) supporters in order to allow the “operation” to be completed, is cynical politics at its worst. (The claim that Maoists were inciting the villagers of Nandigram surely cannot be given serious consideration, even if there may have been a few Naxalite supporters in the area.)
The statement by the CPI(M)-dominated Left Front regime in West Bengal that the police was not sent for fear of a repeat of the incident of March 14, when over a dozen people were killed in a similar operation, begs the question – why have an elected government and police forces of any kind at all if they cannot ensure a fair hand for all citizens? The reason for the recurrence of violence on such a scale in Nandigram, barely seven months after the killings in mid-March, lies in the state government’s failure to address the issue of delivering justice to the victims of the earlier incident. Despite the well-documented human rights violations that occurred on that day, no police officers were transferred from their posts, none of those accused of rape and murder charged or arrested, and worse still, not a single minister or even state level leader of the ruling party chose to visit the affected people to assure them of their welfare. The list of institutions that failed to perform their functions is a long one: the Calcutta High Court that waited until November 16, five months after hearings were completed on a writ petition on the March violence, to deliver its judgment and the National Human Rights Commission and the National Women’s Commission, neither of which took serious cognisance of reports of human rights violations and rape. The much delayed announcement of compensation to families of the people killed in the March violence, made on the eve of the latest CPI(M) assault, only served to highlight the cynical way in which such basic humanitarian gestures are being manipulated by the ruling regime.
The opposition has to take more than its share of responsibility for the tragedy. There is no doubt that the BUPC leadership, parti cularly Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress, which has come to dominate the multiparty coalition, has been equally cynical in its manipulation of a genuine peasant struggle for its own narrow aims of grabbing power. The forcing out of several hundred families of CPI(M) supporters from their homes in Nandigram during the initial phase of the entire agitation, for example, was already indicative of the Trinamool’s thuggish inclinations. The several attempts of the state government to broker peace in Nandigram also failed because of the Trinamool’s dubious quest, with an eye on next year’s panchayat elections, for direct physical control over villages that were a left bastion for decades.
The battle between the BUPC and the CPI(M) in Nandigram has today gone well beyond the original struggle of small farmers fighting to protect their land from forced acquisition by the state for a special economic zone project. But the question remains as to why the CPI(M), which claims to be left and progressive, has failed to challenge the dominant political culture and instead ended up offering a lesson or two to its rivals in the use of criminal means to further political interests. The statement of the chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya on November 13 that, “the opposition have been paid back in their own coin” only serves to sadly confirm that the authoritarian rot goes to the highest levels of the party.
The Congress and BJP are regularly implicated in mob violence; not so the CPI(M) until now though it has been increasingly accused of exercising party rule in administration in West Bengal. The Nandigram tragedy has changed per ceptions. The behaviour of the party cadre and the attitude of senior functionaries does not augur well for the future of democratic functioning in India, fragile as it is in so many ways.
ইকনমিক অ্যান্ড পলিটিক্যাল উইকলিকে অভিনন্দন সঠিক প্রশ্নগুলো তুলে ধরার জন্যে।
