Disquieting signals in forces firing on voters

The death of four persons in firing by the personnel of Central Industrial Security Force in a booth in Sitalkuchi Assembly constituency in West Bengal, and the death of a fifth person in violence in another booth in the same constituency, give out far too many disquieting signals. A clear picture of the two events is yet to emerge but a preliminary assessment leaves one in no doubt that the central armed police forces that were entrusted with the task of facilitating free and fair elections failed to meet the challenge.

The claim of the security forces that they fired at the people in selfdefence prima facie defies logic. There have been no reports of widespread violence or of security personnel suffering injuries. It is natural that minor issues could crop up during elections but there will mechanisms to deal with them. It looks like there was no effort to take the local political leadership into confidence and calm the mob which the security forces allege gheraoed them. They forgot the fact that they were called in to help the polling process, and not to quell a local mutiny. It is deeply disturbing that the protectors, who have been trained to do a professional job, became responsible for the death of those they are to protect. A thorough investigation must be conducted to unearth the facts that led to the loss of so many lives in an otherwise eventless and protracted election process.

Politicians joined issue no sooner had the news of the mishap reached them. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has been inimical to the central forces from the very beginning, and the latest incidents will fuel her charge against them. Her series of statements against the central forces would have made the local population suspicious of their intentions. It is an irony that Ms Banerjee had betted on the presence of the same central forces to ensure a fair election in the state 10 years ago. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was campaigning in West Bengal at the time when the unfortunate incidents happened, lost no time in blaming the chief minister for the violence. This is unfortunate. The Prime Minister should have counselled peace and calm instead of targeting his political opponent. The very fact that it was the forces under the Union government that shot the people down should have tempered the Prime Minister’s response but it did not work that way.

The Election Commission has a lot to learn from the Cooch Behar incidents. It practically takes over local governance once the election process is set in motion. We do not know what instructions it had passed on to the security forces when it despatched them to the states; clearly they used the force not to the optimum but to the maximum. It is also evident that there is no local command and control system to address issues even though the West Bengal elections are conducted in eight phases with only two or three districts going to the polls at a time. The EC must ensure that it uses its powers to act in an efficient and non-partisan manner; grand statements alone are not enough.

The claim of the security forces that they fired at the people in self-defence prima facie defies logic. There have been no reports of widespread violence or of security personnel suffering injuries.