By Hannan
Mollah
THE Trinamul Congress
(TMC) government in West Bengal, led by Ms Mamata Banerjee, has during its two
years rule did its best to ensure that democracy is demolished at all levels
--- in government, politics, society and culture.
OUT AND OUT AUTOCRAT
Nor is there any
democracy in her party; she is an out and out autocrat of intemperate,
intolerant and fascistic nature. She does not allow any minister of her
government to take a decision, small or big, without her consent. There is no
elected office-bearer in her party at any level. She is the sole authority of
her party and runs it as her private limited company.
The same thing is
reflected in her governance. She is totally against the opposition parties and
never calls them for a meeting. While the Left parties are an anathema to her;
even her old partners, the Congress and SUCI, are never consulted. She does not
attend the assembly and is not ready to face a question there. To her, the opposition
only conspires against her. She or any of her ministers do not call any
opposition MLA or MP when they visit a constituency. She never invites an
opposition legislator for inauguration of a project in his constituency. She
behaved the same way when she was the railway minister. In the last two years,
her government never called a meeting of the chairpersons of 14 opposition
controlled zilla parishads. Her ministers do not attend any meeting called by a
district, subdivision or block level authority if those meetings are to be
attended by opposition parties.
This same behaviour was
noticed when the TMC was in opposition. Its MLAs were instructed to boycott any
government meeting. She refused to attend any meetings even though the then
chief minister wrote to her seven times. Can a democracy function in this
situation?
As for physical attacks
on the opposition, she came to power with the slogan “Badla noy, badal chai”
(not revenge but change is needed). But the last two years rule is nothing but
a rule of revenge. More than 100 CPI(M) cadres were killed before and another
24 during the panchayat elections. Immediately after she came to power, CPI(M)
and other Left parties came under attack. More than 800 offices of these
parties, trade unions, kisan, student, youth and women organisations were
attacked, burnt, looted, destroyed or captured. On the plea of an incident at
Planning Commission office in Delhi, TMC goons attacked and destroyed 1400 plus
offices of the CPI(M) and mass organisations. Thousands of its leaders and
activists were attacked, and their houses were attacked, destroyed or looted.
More than 5,000 of the CPI(M) cadres were driven out of their houses; women
were assaulted or raped. Even the aged and children were not spared. Thousands
of bargadars whom
the Left Front government allotted land and right of cultivation, were evicted
from their land.
Another problem is that
about 10,000 of cadres were implicated in false cases. While TMC goons attack
opposition cadres, the police arrest the victims themselves and implicate them
in false, non-bailable cases; the goons freely move and threaten their
supporters. Ms Banerjee herself makes provocative speeches against the Left,
encouraging the goons to attack the CPI(M). TMC leaders publicly said they
would kill the CPI(M) the way one kills a poisonous snake. They instruct their
party people not to speak with CPI(M) people, not to go to a tea shop with
them, not to attend any marriage or other functions with them and not to
establish any marital relations with CPI(M) supporting families. Thus they are
destroying social harmony, dividing the common people in villages and towns,
creating hatred among them. This may create a permanent cleavage in society and
damage the social fabric.
GAGGING THE OPPOSITION
These attacks
intensified before and during the panchayat polls. As Ms Banerjee and her party
are out to destroy democracy, deny opposition its rights, generate hatred on
political lines, damage the social fabric and even instigate communal feelings,
they are out to destroy the constitutional institutions and functioning too.
While parliamentary democracy cannot function without an opposition, she is not
ready to allow the latter to function freely. Opposition parties are not being
allowed to hold meetings, not given permission for meetings, and not allotted
grounds and parks.
The media are called
“the fourth estate” in a democracy. But they are under severe attack. Only such
newspapers or TV channels as support Ms Banerjee are allowed to work freely.
Only pro-government newspapers are kept in libraries and government offices. Ms
Banerjee herself advised people to read the papers or view the TV channels
which she prescribes. Newspapers critical to government are being attacked;
more than a dozen of journalists, reporters or photographers were attacked and
their cameras destroyed. If journalists ask Ms Mamata a difficult question, she
immediately dubs them as CPI(M) or Maoist fellows and asks them to leave her
press conference. Daily Ganashakti is
not subscribed to by a library; she has stopped any advertisements to Ganashakti even
though the High Court has asked her to resume it. Even hawkers of newspapers to
her dislike were not allowed to go to people, while hundreds of Ganashakti boards
were destroyed. Thus the government of West Bengal is trying to gag the
opposition opinion and suppress the freedom of media.
Some incidents may be
recalled here. Once a professor forwarded on internet a cartoon on Ms Mamata
and he was instantly arrested; the case against him is not yet withdrawn. One
TMC supporter asked Ms Banerjee in a public meeting about scarcity of
fertilisers; she immediately branded him as a Maoist and asked the police to
arrest him; the case is not yet withdrawn. In both cases, the National Human
Rights Commission flayed the government’s stand and asked for compensation to
the sufferers. But the government refused to accept it. One girl asking Ms
Mamata a question in a TV show was also branded Maoist and Ms Mamata quit the
show. The last two years saw hundreds of such incidents of Ms Banerjee’s
intolerance.
Another area of concern
is the unprecedented growth in incidents of assault against women in Bengal
since Ms Mamata assumed office. In the notorious case of gangrape in Park
Street, she immediately said it was a stage managed show. But when the case
proved to be true, the inquiring police officer was transferred. After a series
of other rape cases, a TMC activist recently raped and killed a college girl in
Kamduni village in Barasat, North 24 Paraganas district. But Ms Banerjee
visited the place only after ten days of the incident and when some women
wanted to talk to her about it, she termed them all as CPI(M) cadres and
Maoists. More than a dozen rapes have occurred in Barasat alone. (In that
panchayat, the TMC won all the seats uncontested as no opposition candidate was
allowed to file nomination.) The National Commission for Women and the National
Crime Bureau have reported that West Bengal now ranks highest in number of
rapes. While Kolkata was once a safe haven for women, now it is rape capital
under Ms Mamata. Of course, to her mind, these are stage managed cases, and a
conspiracy to defame her government.
In West Bengal, peasants
were in a better position due to land reforms under the Left Front government.
They also got government assistance and their crops were purchased by a
government agency at proper prices. Not a single peasant committed suicide
during the 34 years of Left Front rule. But peasants are in great distress now,
and so far 87 have committed suicide. But Ms Mamata says this too is a false
propaganda against her government and no farmers committed suicide in her
regime.
CONSTITUTIONAL
AUTHORITIES ATTACKED
Constitutional
authorities too are under attack. The Human Rights Commission listed dozens of
cases of the government violating the human rights of the people. But most of
the cases were not heeded to. Ms Mamata has showed total disregard for this commission.
Similarly, the Kolkata
High Court made several remarks against the government for violation of the
people’s democratic rights. But the government disregarded many court orders.
After the Supreme Court ordered deployment of central forces for panchayat
elections, her government used them mostly for patrolling on roads and not to
protect voters from TMC goons.
The disregard shown to
the State Election Commission about the panchayat elections is well known. Her
government attacked the commission and the commissioner. Ms Banerjee said the
commissioner had got extension under the Left Front rule and was therefore
working against the TMC government. All her ministers abused this lady, used
filthy languages against her, threatened her and tried to throttle her attempts
to conduct elections properly.
Earlier, the Left Front
government established a vibrant panchayati raj in West Bengal. It was regarded
as an ideal decentralised democratic setup and followed in the whole country
through the 73rd constitution amendment. The Left Front government conducted
seven panchayat elections, all in time. The poor for the first time got an
opportunity to utilise their vote freely, and majority of the elected members
were poor people. But Ms Banerjee tried to destroy this decentralised rural
democracy. She started to ignore the elected panchayats and started to contact
BDOs directly, asking them to work as per her advice. She encouraged the
bureaucrats to ignore elected bodies.
PANCHAYAT POLLS MADE A
FARCE
Her dillydallying in
holding the panchayat elections is ell known. First she announced elections
without talking to the election commissioner or revising the voters list which
is mandatory. The Left Front then approached the CEC who ordered a revision of
electoral rolls; about 25 lakh new voters were enrolled. Then she announced two
days polling with only state police being used, whereas the State Election
Commission asked for five days polling with use of central forces. The
government disregarded it and the EC approached High Court which upheld the
latter’s plea. The government then appealed to a double bench of High Court,
which took a lot of time. When the EC approached the Supreme Court for an early
decision, the latter ordered five-phase election and use of central forces. The
Supreme Court also flayed the bad law and order situation in the state. The
polling period fell in the month of Ramazan and Ms Mamata tried to postpone
election on this plea, but the Supreme Court said the state government was
responsible for the delay and for fixing the polling dates in the month of
Muslims’ fasting. All her attempt to delay the elections thus failed; they were
finally held in five phases.
But Ms Banerjee made the
election a farce. She organised a squad of motorcycle borne goons to terrorise
the people. Though the High Court ordered her to check this force, she did not
pay heed to it and continued the terror activities. As a result, 6000 plus Left
candidates could not file nomination papers and TMC ‘won’ those seats
uncontested. During polling too, TMC goons terrorised the voters with police
help. Central forces were either kept in barracks or used for street
patrolling. As a result, there was wide ranging booth capturing and
intimidation of voters. Driving many voters away, TMC goons thus captured 4,470
booths. The police worked fully in tandem with them. A large number of Left
activists were attacked and 24 killed during the election period. Later, TMC
goons captured many of the counting centres, damaged ballot papers and even
declared their candidates elected without proper counting.
It was thus that the TMC
‘won’ 14 zilla parishads and a majority of panchayat samitis and gram
panchayats. The Left could win in two zilla parishads and the Congress managed
two. The final tally shows that out of 48,800 gram panchayat seats, the TMC won
25,077 seats (51 per cent). In spite of all such severe attacks, rigging and
capturing, Left Front won 15,593 seats (32 per cent) and the Congress managed
5,506 (11 per cent). Even if the result of is uneven, it is not so bad for the
Left in view of such semi-fascist attacks. The TMC victory in fact does not reflect
the people’s support.
This means Ms Mamata’s
resolve to eliminate the Left from West Bengal got a rebuff; the Left still has
substantial support base and strength to fight back for restoration of
democracy.
GROWING ATTACKS ON
STUDENT MOVEMENT
West Bengal has had a
long history of democratic student movement, with regular elections to student
unions. Schools too are managed by representatives elected by guardians. But
the TMC has criminalised a section of students and is attacking the democratic
sections of students. Colleges, universities and schools were attacked by goons
all over West Bengal and many students were killed. Union elections were
announced under strong pressure from students but when the Left oriented
organisations won in colleges where free and fair elections took place,
elections to the remaining were postponed on the plea of violence in
educational institutions. Thus the democratic rights of students were curbed in
West Bengal. When the SFI protested against it, one of its leaders, Comrade
Sudipta Gupta, was killed in police custody, for which a CBI enquiry was
denied.
After observing its
growing isolation from the masses, the TMC decided to dispense with all elected
bodies in the state. Instead of elected bodies, they are now going in for
nominated bodies for management of schools, colleges and cooperative bodies in
the state.
When the true face of
Mamata government came out gradually, it disillusioned even those intellectuals
who had worked hard to bring her to power. Now all such intellectuals, writers,
artists, film actors, poets and professors do say that the paribarton (change)
they had expected has not come. They are now feeling cheated and openly saying
so in their writings, in their TV talks and in public meetings. Minorities too
were influenced by her demagogy and false promises. But they too are feeling
cheated as, within three months of coming to power, Ms Banerjee announced that
she had completed 100 per cent of her promises to the Muslims.
This is thus the
experience of many in West Bengal --- that the promised paribarton has
not come. Expectations of no section of the people were fulfilled. The people
of Singur were assured to get their land back in three months, but nothing has
happened after two years. Dozens of railway projects Ms Mamata had promised as
railway minister have proved false; not a single project whereof foundation
stones were laid was taken up for implementation. Ms Banerjee’s falsehood
regarding the state’s development is increasingly coming to the fore. If
anybody raises a question about it, brutal force is there to suppress him. Thus
this is high time --- not only for the Left but for all the democratic forces
--- to rise to the occasion and fight for restoration of democracy in West
Bengal.
People's Democracy, August 18 , 2013
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