People's Democracy

A FOUL attempt by heavily armed Trinamul Congress goons to run riot at Kespur in the district of Midnapore was foiled in the nick of time by the villagers in and around the township when they noticed suspicious-looking men, their faces shrouded in sheets of cloth, moving about in the pre-dawn darkness on April 30. Even as their cries raised the alarm, the villagers braved the danger, confronted the 50-odd armed criminals and cooped them up in one part of the village through sheer superiority in numbers.

Eyewitnesses told INN over telephone how more than 5,000-odd villagers came rushing out to nab the killers the moment the alarm was raised. The police appeared subsequently, and 54 history-sheeters who swore by their loyalty to the Trinamul Congress were handed over to police custody along with a large cache of arms.

Secretary of the CPI(M)’s West Bengal unit, Anil Biswas told INN that the incident was yet another proof of how the Trinamul Congress, now more then ever despairing of electoral reverses, was hell-bent on creating large-scale terror in what had once been the happy hunting ground for them under the infamous "Panskura line." Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya said the incident brought forth the "true face of the Trinamul Congress" before the people.

As per reports received from eyewitnesses, 50-odd goons in the Trinamul’s pay were intent on mounting an attempt to reoccupy the "enemy terrain in the vicinity of Kespur." Their primary target was Chenchura village from where they would later on infiltrate right into the belt of villages to the south and west of Kespur township and later into the town itself.

The police officers who went to arrest the Trinamul goons from Chenchura village, informed INN that they had nabbed 54 armed criminals. The arms cache recovered included 12 sophisticated rifles, 20 country-made single-barrel guns, seven .12 bore guns, country-made .32 calibre single-shot revolvers, and more than 200 rounds of cartridges of various calibres.

From the number of spent shells recovered from the spot where the brave villagers held up the miscreants, the police believe that the criminals were desperate to escape the possibility of mass lynching and had therefore fired wildly around them for a considerable period of time. The villagers did not touch them. But, in the face of intense gunfire, they did not wilt either and did not move away from the escape route which they had blocked.

Those arrested included hardened criminals like Piar Ali Qazi and Mohd Abdul Mannan of Kespur, and Kinkar Ghosh and Shankar Dolui of Garbeta. They have apparently confessed before the police officers looking into the case that they had all been funded and equipped by the Trinamul Congress candidate from Kespur and former Congress strongman Rajani Dolui, to "brook no delay in capturing Kespur as early as possible before it becomes too late." Apparently, Dolui was briefing them even as Ms Mamata Banerjee was waxing eloquent at an election meeting held nearby on the "need to maintain democratic norms under every circumstances." Perhaps the word democracy has a different connotation in her lexicon.

Anil Biswas told INN that the CPI(M) has already lodged 17 complaints against the Trinamul Congress for its consistent attempts to create a situation of anarchy in various parts of the state, especially in Midnapore. Biswas urged upon the Left Front workers to remain vigilant and refrain from falling into any trap of provocation set by the forces of reaction.

In the meantime, a short visit to Garbeta constituency confirmed the veracity of a somewhat strange rumour making the rounds in the metropolis that the Trinamul Congress candidate "has expressed a keen desire to get beaten up by Left Front workers." Here the Trinamul Congress has put up Mohd Rafiq, a strongman, as its candidate against the sitting CPI(M) MLA and minister Susanta Kumar Ghosh.

It was learnt that a few days back Rafiq had broken down before the Trinamul chief Mamata Banerjee, sobbing out that the outfit’s chances in the assembly polls were receding fast in the entire Midnapore district. Mamata had then allegedly chided him as to what prevented him from provoking a Left Front worker into beating him to an inch of his death, thus providing the leader with a handy excuse to approach the Election Commission with a strongly-worded request for declaring the district as "troubled."

Poor Rafiq then went around in his own bumbling manner, heaping a variety of verbal abuse on every Left Front worker he came across, hoping against hope that he would get at least a slap or two in return. Finding that the Left Front workers were in no mood to oblige him, Rafiq is said to have gone crying to his leader again. We await the sequel with interest. Incidentally, it is the same Rafiq who had, out of loyalty to his leader, earlier acted as her chauffeur during her election campaign in Kolkata and its suburbs.

In the meantime, more dramatics of the Trinamul variety unfolded in sordid stages in Kolkata.

When Trinamul candidate for Rashbehari seat, Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, and his supporters heckled and prevented poll officials from wiping off the graffiti that he had put on the walls of a government building, an FIR was lodged in his name. The moment the police went to arrest him, dozens of Trinamul goons gathered at his residence, daring the police to take away "our leader from our midst." As the situation was about to turn the way Chattopadhyay and his boys wanted, chief electoral officer Sabyasachi Sen quickly defused the situation, asked the police to go slow and not arrest the Trinamul leader for the moment. Chattopadhyay was left fuming with unspent rage. Another chance of provoking an incident thus went down the drain. (INN)