People's Democracy

Violence & Terror

To Doctor A Popular Verdict

Editorial

THE renewed stridency of the demand for the unwarranted imposition of President’s Rule in West Bengal cannot be brushed aside as mere tantrums of a spoilt loser. This time round, it is a combination of a Machiavellian and fascist macabre act. The tactics of Ms. Mamata Banerjee and the Trinamul Congress have all along been one of whipping up violence and terror as a means of doctoring the popular verdict of the people in elections. This was more than evident in the Panskura by-election last year.

However, clearly admitting that through such methods alone it would be impossible to dislodge the ruling Left Front government, Ms. Mamata Banerjee has been demanding the imposition of President’s Rule only for the purpose of utilising central rule to distort the popular verdict of the people. Having failed in the past, with the assembly elections now imminent in May 2001, the Trinamul Congress has once again, resorted to politics of violence with sharpened knives.

Consider the facts of the recent incident. A political rally organised by the Trinamul Congress employs 2000 trucks to bring people from outside as the local response was lukewarm. Following the rally, on totally fabricated facts, a bandh is organised the next day which is replete with violence. In this atmosphere, a house is gutted in Garbeta. Immediately allegations are hurled at the CPI(M) for having "massacred" 18 Trinamul supporters. The numbers, however, kept changing. All the people supposedly missing, according to the list in a complaint filed with the police, by a known criminal, now absconding, are persons with a longstanding criminal record. That such people are claimed by the Trinamul as their supporters itself speaks volumes of its character.

What is worse is the fact that a large number of explosives and ammunition appears to have been there before the place was gutted. What were these Trinamul "activists" (with criminal records) doing with such arms and ammunition? These are facts that need to be enquired into and the state government has, with this precise intention and to book the culprits, ordered a CID enquiry.

The Trinamul Congress, however, is either not interested in ascertaining these facts, or, which is more likely, is interested in suppressing these facts, lest its role in patronising criminal elements to further its political objectives gets exposed.

For the Vajpayee-led NDA government, the exposure and curbing of such criminal activities is, of course, of no concern. How can it be? The BJP, on its part, utilises the worst methods for engineering communal riots claiming thousands of lives and spreading misery and bloodshed, to advance its political interests. Therefore, it is not surprising that a bunch of political mercenaries constituting the NDA team recommend the imposition of President’s Rule in the state, on the basis of a fabricated account of an incident in one village.

Curiously, the People’s War Group (PWG), operating mainly in Andhra Pradesh, has claimed that those missing are their activists! Reports in some newspapers have also indicated that the PWG and the Trinamul Congress were engaged in an arms sale and blood flowed on the contentious monetary transactions! Can it be that the Trinamul Congress was procuring arms from a banned organisation to intensify its violence and terror activities in the run-up to the assembly elections in May?

The Union Home Minister, the constitutional custodian of internal security, would do well to probe these questions. Instead, he has chosen to publicly state that West Bengal is a fit case for President’s Rule! What else can be expected from a person chargesheeted by the courts in a criminal conspiracy to destroy the Babri Masjid?

This BJP-led NDA is extending the limits of political degeneration. It bemoans the fact that it is not in a position to impose President’s Rule because it lacks a majority in the Rajya Sabha. The considerations for imposition of central rule, dismissing a democratically elected state government, no longer appear to be guided by the constitutional prescriptions of a break-down of law and order all over the state. Instead, it is being guided by its partisan political needs. This is the surest recipe to destroy the democratic and federal content of the Indian Constitution.

The comical aspect of this whole drama came from the NDA convenor who, sitting in Mysore trying to set his own house in order, shoots off a statement seeking the imposition of central rule in Bengal!

It merits repetition to state that the people of West Bengal will give a fitting rebuff to all such forces who are seeking to manipulate popular verdicts through violent and terroristic methods, and seeking to subvert the Indian Constitution. In the run-up to the elections, West Bengal will see the consolidation of all reactionary and communal forces who are making their last ditch effort to prevent the return of the Left Front to office. In the interests of safeguarding and deepening democracy, in the interests of safeguarding the gains made by the working people in Bengal under the Left Front rule, and in the interests of ridding our society and polity of such unscrupulous, unethical and criminal elements, the people of Bengal will, once again, give a fitting rebuff to these forces.