CONTROLLED ELECTIONS IN BENGAL

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to provide relief to the BJP which had sought its intervention following widespread incidents of violence, intimidation and rioting against the party candidates keen to file nomination papers for the Panchayat elections in West Bengal. The court said that the right forum is the State Election Commission. Technically, the apex court cannot be faulted. The SEC is the first forum for all such disputes before the judiciary can have reason to step in. Given the tell-tale evidence of violence by the Trinamool Congress supporters at various places in the State when the candidates of the Congress, the CPI(M) and the BJP went to file their papers. The BJP, the Congress and even the CPI(M) had demanded that the last date of filing of nominations be extended beyond April 9. While the Congress filed the case in the Calcutta High Court, the BJP sought the intervention of the apex court, emphasising that this was a rare occasion when the BJP and the Congress were on the same page because the goons of the ruling party had systematically intimidated their candidates, preventing them from filing nominations. With the State police and administration colluding openly with the ruling party thugs, it was not possible for fair and free elections to be held in the State. No doubt, the same situation had prevailed for over three decades when the Left Front was in power, but Mamata Banerjee had ousted the Marxists on the plank of change (poribortan). Nothing at all seems to have changed with her becoming the chief minister, with the goons who had earlier run the protection industry in the State merely changing allegiance from the Marxists to the TMC. The CPI(M) has no reason to complain since it was responsible for injecting the cult of violence and criminality in the state politics, empowering the local cadres to dictate to the civil and police administration, running extortion rackets, and generally behaving in a lawless manner. There is no improvement in the law and order situation, with the TMC cadres now calling the shots in the administration. However, what has added a notable dimension into the old situation is the intensive and aggressive effort by the BJP to grow in the State. With nearly a third of the population belonging to the minorities, whose leaders were earlier mollycoddled by the Marxists and now by the TMC, the BJP is tapping the resentments and antipathies of the majority community. However, unlike the Marxists, the TMC has allowed the minorities a freer hand in meddling in the local-level affairs. For instance, the recent riots and violence on the occasion of Ram Navami was a new phenomenon.

Also, the steady infiltration of the Rohingyas, particularly from Bangladesh, is altering the socioeconomic scenario in a number of border districts with the majority community feeling intimidated and apprehensive due to their claim on the meager resources of the State. Mamata’s considered policy to pamper the minorities with an eye on the elections is resulting in a backlash among a section of the Hindus who are now veering towards the BJP. The clashes in several places between the supporters of the TMC and the BJP at the time of filing nominations for the 42,000odd panchayat seats indicates the slow and steady growth of the BJP thanks to the wrong-headedness of the ruling TMC. Mamata’s ambitions to play a stellar role in the central politics can suffer a blow should she fail to moderate her pro-Muslim tendencies and hold in check her violent supporters who are a law unto themselves. With such a terrible record in governance, Mamata undermines her own claim to lead an anti-BJP coalition at the national level. She should prove herself as a good administrator before laying claim to be the joint opposition candidate for prime ministership.