“We will bring the politics of change, not vengeance” – said Mamata Banerjee before assuming power in 2011. Maybe her “politics of change” included dragging her opponent party member by using cable wires to make a noose around his neck and then beat him to death. This was the fate of a 35 year old BJP worker named Abhijit Banerjee. I call this “politics of change” because Mamata Banerjee had already rejected vengeance.
Political Violence has it’s roots in Bengal since the despotic communist regime. After 2011 people of Bengal desperately wanted a change and that change came through Trinamool Congress. But it soon became what it fought against. The panchayat election in 2003 gained infamy for the death toll under the communist regime while the 2018 poll set a record in the number of seat won without a contest. As Shri Ramakrishna taught us: A tree laden with fruits, will bend more. But it seems that the TMC has misread the electoral mandate given by the people. In a healthy democracy the voice of the critics can be won by the work you do for your state and not by choking the same voice to death.
But the TMC workers has started ransom looting of shops, killing opposition party workers and also giving rape threat to women as reported by the chairman of the Women’s right body, Rekha Sharma. People of Bengal even migrated to the nearing states of Assam owing to the violence. Previously Bengalis migrated from Bangladesh to Bengal and now they have to migrate from Bengal to the nearby state. The Great Calcutta killings of 1946 was done by fanatics which had separatist motives but after the “political change” in Bengal it is carried out by the democratically elected government. There is also a certain section which wants to imbibe that there is no political violence in Bengal after the election results were out but there can be no denial that post poll violence is happening in the state.
The Chief Minister has herself come forward appealed for peace and also announced compensation that is the biggest proof. Now as Mr. Subha Pratim Roy Chowdhury of Civil Rights Research collective group AAMRA has admitted that the ongoing pandemic has restricted the movement of fact finding teams to area affected by violence. Therefore the fact checking carried out by the administrator is a welcome move but only one side of the story. Moreover if the Trinamool Congress equates this win to the 2016 Bengal Elections then she will be gravely mistaken. During 2016 elections there was not a concrete oppsoition to tackle the current regime in Bengal. There were issues of corruption, Cut-Money but bengal lacked a solid opposition to counter the Trinamool Congress. But now the Bharatiya Janata Party has emerged as a strong opposition in Bengal. There is a rise of the saffron flag in Bengal and it’s role as a opposition will have to be closely monitored in the coming times.
It is high time for the Chief Minister and the member of her party to start respecting the mandate and ensure to secure for the people of Bengal– A government of laws, and not of Men.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/kolkata/2003-and-2018-when-bengal-panchayat-polls-turned-bloody/story-Tdgcn4ZBsURTNc7V7BuwFO. htmlhttps://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/suvendu-adhikari-post-west-bengal-elections-violence-tmc-bjp-7309946/ https://www.epw.in/journal/2018/28/special-articles/%E2%80%98cultural-misrecognition%E2%80%99-and-sustenance.html
