Violence, both murderous and verbal, is not clandestine in West Bengal’s politics; in and out of election season it erupts, spreads and simmers on the edges of the continuous flow of tense vocal confrontations between the ruling party and the Opposition. This is normal. It has been so for decades.
The answer to the entirely rhetorical questions, why is there so much violence in West Bengal, and its follow-up, why cannot governments control and extinguish this violence, is simple: It’s the history, stupid! It is the continuity of tradition, one part of which is physical and murderous violence and the other part of which, paradoxically, is unending disputation by a highly conscious, politically invested population.
Identity politics in West Bengal is split over party allegiance. The landscape is dotted with party flags that proclaim the dominance of one political party over all others in the area. Violence is, at one level, a territorial imperative manifest. The scale and intensity of the conflict fluctuate depending on the challenge to the dominant political force.
In the 1960s, the Congress’s dominance was challenged by the Left and regional parties in an intensification of the confrontations that had built the reputation of West Bengal as a turbulent state. In the 1970s, Congress, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and its friends and foes and the Naxalite movement escalated the violence several notches. In the 1980s, the Congress and the CPI(M)-led Left Front were engaged in settling scores through violent confrontations.
In the 1990s, a revival of the Congress produced leaders like Mamata Banerjee and that started off a new era of violence. By 2008, Maoist violence was resurgent and the Trinamool Congress had gained enough strength and substance to take on the CPI(M), in very violent encounters in Nandigram. The new theatres of “operations”, with bombs, guns, squads and ambushes included Khejuri in East Midnapore, Lalgarh in West Midnapore, Singur, Khanakul and more.
The violence has never affected voter enthusiasm and determination to participate in the rites of democratic politics. Through the years of turbulence in West Bengal, voter turnout has been sustained at a high of over 72-75 per cent, though in some elections the peaks have been higher. Despite West Bengal’s reputation for rigging the polls, by “scientific” manipulation of voters lists and booth management or outright capture, there is no dispute that people turn out in very large numbers to cast their ballot.
It has been argued that these turnouts are organised by an army of enforcers, that is, threats and intimidation. What is beyond dispute is that political parties, especially the ruling party and the emerging alternative or principal challenger, have the remarkable organisational capability to man the polling stations, and the voters and get the mandate.
“Central forces,” “central observers,” stern directives by successive election commissioners, at the central and state level, independent watchdogs, media presence, angry voters, rich and resourceful political parties with wizard campaign managers — none have successfully created a strategy to curb violence in all its variety. The legendary election commissioner T N Seshan did ensure free, fair and, above all, peaceful polls in West Bengal in the 1990s, but that did not impair CPI(M)’s domination over territory and its capacity to contain the opposition.
The expectation was that the 2023 panchayat elections would be a tough challenge. The expectations are turning out to be accurate. In the normal course, it is the ruling party that is challenged, which means the Trinamool Congress. This time, the challenge is, it appears, for the parties in Opposition, starting with the Bharatiya Janata Party as the leading party, the CPI(M) which seems more confident and organised than before, the Congress which is engaged in defending its turf in specific districts and the newly hatched Indian Secular Front.
The panchayat election, which will decide the fate of some 73,000 panchayat representatives, comprising 928 zilla parishad members in 22 districts, 9,730 Panchayat Samiti members, and 63,229 Gram Panchayat members, requires that political parties in the contest get their acts together for that one day.
The violence that was anticipated during the nomination filing period has happened. Bombs, guns, pipes, cricket stumps, lathis, bamboo sticks and a variety of deadly implements have been used to threaten and prevent candidates from filing their nominations. Teams of Trinamool Congress loyalists, including one Bashir Molla found with a gun, have attempted to block other parties from filing their nominations in Murshidabad, North 24 Parganas, Birbhum, East Midnapore and pretty much every district in the state. The Opposition too has retaliated with substantial firepower and manpower. The Calcutta High Court has intervened and ordered the State Election Commission to requisition central forces and CCTV cameras to contain the violence and possible booth attacks on voting day.
The ongoing process of filing nominations and the violence that invariably occurs during this crucial time is one chapter of the expected pre-poll violence. By day’s end on Tuesday, about 93,425 panchayat nominations had been filed. Of this, the BJP had filed 37,565 nominations, the CPI M 30,249 nominations and the Trinamool Congress and the Congress a few thousand each.
Till the Trinamool Congress gets down to filing nominations for all the seats in the panchayat elections, the violence – bombs hurled, clashes with bamboo poles, sticks and stumps and other deadly implements — will remain between the parties opposing each other in the local areas. This would include clashes between the Trinamool Congress and the BJP, the CPI(M), the Congress and ISF and between some of these opposition parties vying for area domination.
When the Trinamool Congress begins filing nominations, there will be clashes, bloody and intimidating, between rival claimants to panchayat seats. West Bengal had a sneak peek of the levels of intra-party violence when Abhishek Banerjee organised the US-style primaries, to put together a list of nominees approved by the local party and voters during his Nabo Jowar (New Tide) outreach. It is unlikely that the party will organise cold bottled water, roses and cups of tea for intraparty rivals on the lines of the welcome it organised for opposition candidates arriving in BDO offices in Asansol in West Bardhaman district or in Birbhum district.
It remains to be seen how many seats are won uncontested in the 2023 panchayat elections. In 2018, the Trinamool Congress won about 34 per cent of the seats without contest. Whether this was a consequence of violence and perceptions of threat or outright fear of the Trinamool Congress or it was a result of weak opposition parties not having the organisational capability or the manpower to field 20,000 plus candidates is open to debate.
It is not in the Trinamool Congress’s interest to encourage its unruly army of supporters to use violence against the Opposition in this panchayat election. The party and the government of Mamata Banerjee are fully engaged in damage control operations on account of the visuals of mountains of cash confirming the pervasive corruption in the teacher recruitment scandal, the illegal coal mining scandal and the illegal transborder cattle trade. It is also up against anti-incumbency having ruled the panchayats for over 15 years.
The uncertainty of its control over party supporters is evident in its tactics of sending out teams of ministers and senior party leaders, with thousands of party symbols issued against the approved official list of candidates. The party has a record of symbols being snatched and clashes over claims by rival candidates.
And all this is just the beginning phase of the 2023 panchayat election.
The writer is a senior journalist based in Kolkata.
