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Journalism of Courage
When did West Bengal break off from the trajectory of national politics and choose a course that would perpetuate a political culture of violence and reactive violence? Perhaps it was in the heyday of leftist struggle both mainstream and Naxalite in decades long past. But the forces of chaos let loose back then seem to have lingered and exploded with a vengeance decades later thus the second tectonic shift in Bengals gory politics,with the bloody cadre assault on Nandigram in November 2007. But the Maoists had been entrenching themselves in sundry sub-divisional areas for years. Over time,the writ of the state government ceased to run in practical terms in parts of the state. Lalgarh,in West Midnapore district,is the consequence of long-term administrative callousness confronting public grievance,the latter exploited,very dangerously,by the Maoists. And Bengal is,at the moment,engulfed by two violent turf wars one between the CPM and the Trinamool Congress,the other between the CPM and the Lalgarhs Peoples Committee against Police Atrocities,allegedly backed by the Maoists.
An inventory of political leaders mostly CPM killed recently in Lalgarh,or of families that have fled their homes,would be revealing enough. But it isnt just Lalgarh thats erupting. On Monday itself,a CPM Burdwan district committee member was shot dead,allegedly by Trinamool activists,while suspected Maoists torched police camps and CPM offices in Lalgarh. In retaliation for the Burdwan murder,CPM cadres reportedly set houses on fire and the party called a 12-hour local bandh. Earlier,on Sunday,about three CPM workers had been killed by alleged Maoists in Lalgarhs Dharampur village. That armed tribals and PCPA members could go on a rampage despite prohibitory orders shows how Lalgarh is beyond all administrative control. True,its been on the boil ever since the arrests following the November 2,2008 attempt on Buddhadeb Bhattacharjees life at Salboni. Lalgarhs tribal leadership has shut out the police since then and had the Lok Sabha electoral process radically altered in April 2009.
