A
delegation of the Left Front Committee, West Bengal led by chairman, Biman Basu
and accompanied by the CPI(M) leaders in parliament, Sitaram Yechury and
Basudev Acharia met the Election Commission of India on December 19, 2013 and
submitted the
following memorandum.
WE
are approaching you to express our grave apprehensions at the situation in the
state of West Bengal, which we consider is fast deteriorating, prohibiting
the holding of any free and fair elections. The constitutional
mandate to ensure that the Indian electorate exercises its democratic right in
a free and fair manner rests with the Election Commission. We are approaching
you with a request that you urgently intervene to ensure that the West Bengal
electorate is permitted to exercise its democratic choice in a free and fair
manner.
We
are constrained to bring to your notice the following factors that create such
widespread apprehension amongst the people of West Bengal.
ATTACKS
AND INTIMIDATION
There
are widespread reports that the leaders and the workers of the ruling party in
the state – the All India Trinamool Congress – are engaged in large scale
illegal and undemocratic activities aimed at intimidating people from
exercising their democratic right. All norms so far considered sacrosanct
during election period have been violated during the elections to the panchayats
and municipal corporations. Officials of the State Election Commission (SEC),
election observers, presiding officers, returning officers, etc., have also
been at the butt of such attacks. It may be kindly recalled that SEC had to
approach High Court and finally Supreme Court to get the election conducted
with adequate security arrangements even though orders of the court were not
implemented by the state government in their letter and spirit.
During
the course of the election campaign to the local bodies, instead of SEC,
conducted by the state administration, the ruling party in the state in
collaboration with sections of the personnel of the general and police
administration, has mounted a targeted attack against the workers and activists
of opposition parties, particularly the CPI(M) and Left Front workers. Threats
and intimidation were widely used to prevent the filing of the nomination,
family members of the candidates who managed to file their nominations were
kidnapped to force the withdrawal of nominations. There is a large scale
deployment of armed motorcycle squads defying SEC and High Court order,
threatening and intimidating opposition political workers all across the state.
The areas around the polling stations are 'captured' and on the polling day, a
large section of the polling personnel were forced to surrender. There are
reports of large scale bogus casting of votes as no EVMs were deployed in these
elections. The scale of rigging was so widespread that till date, i.e., many
months of the polling, the SEC is yet to publish the final figure of votes
secured by each candidate in some constituencies. The mockery of democracy has
become so brazen that in some instances fresh polls were
ordered even after the counting concluded in order to ensure the victory of the
ruling party candidates. (Annexure 1)
To
substantiate these points, we are enclosing media reports along with
photographs and CD for your perusal. (Annexure 8-67)
Post-elections,
the victorious opposition candidates, in particular those belonging to the Left
Front, have been murderously threatened to either resign or join the ruling
party in order to control the local bodies, where the ruling party did not
manage to secure a majority. In the meantime, five elected panchayat members
including three office-bearers were killed by the AITC
goons. Further, in Haldia, Halisahar and Arambagh municipalities,
covering districts of Purba Medinipur, North 24 Paraganas and Hooghly, the same
tactics were adopted. It is to be noted that the Congress-run
municipalities were also captured by the AITC in the same manner.
In
fact the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Alipur Court was threatened and attacked
by the ruling party lawyers. (Annexure 2)
Recently
on December 8, 2013 a very senior leader of the Left Front, Naren Dey, former
minister and leader of the All India Forward Bloc, aged 78 years was
mercilessly attacked and seriously injured. He was not even given proper
treatment and discharged from the state run hospital and had to be admitted in
a private hospital in Kolkata, which issued a medical bulletin, detailing the
serious nature of his injuries. (Annexure 3)
There
are instances where even the judiciary has not been spared of such attacks.
(Annexure 4)
CASUALTIES
Since
the AITC has assumed the reins of the state government in May 2011 and upto
November 2013, 142 leaders including two ex-MLAs and activists of the Left
Front have been murdered in such attacks. Those grievously injured and
hospitalised number 7,433. The incidents of rape and molestation, number 1,865.
46,937 people have been evicted from their normal dwellings. 5,547 houses of
Left Front supporters were ransacked, looted and burnt. 2,170 Left Front party
and mass organisation’s offices were either destroyed or captured. 302
educational institutions have been attacked and principals, teachers and senior
staff were not spared of injuries. More than 85 student’s union offices were
captured. 4,237 Left Front activists have been registered under false or
fabricated cases. Of these 1,360 are still in judicial custody and the rest are
not allowed to visit their own residences, some of them who are bailed out even
prohibited to enter their home districts. The total number of those involved in
false court cases are 54,938. Extortion of more than Rs 28 crores is so far
reported from over 9,529 people. In the rural areas, nearly 3,500 cultivators
have not been allowed to cultivate their own land in about 9,223 acres. Under
the land reform legislation of the Left Front government, bargadars and patta
holders were legally registered. Over 27,000 of them, covering an area of over
9,213 acres have today been forcefully evicted.
Other
non-Left opposition parties even the dissidents within the ruling party were
not spared from these attacks. One sitting Congress MLA was brutally
attacked. In one case of a murder of one AITC leader alleged to be
abated by local AITC MLA, the Kolkata High Court ordered a CBI enquiry.
Such
are the consequences of the atmosphere of terror that has been created by the
ruling party in the state of West Bengal.
In
Annexure 5 we are submitting a marked map of terrorised and partly terrorised
assembly constituencies in the state. We are also submitting the names of the
ACs from where the Left Front workers, including common people have been
forcibly evicted from their normal residences.
Media
persons were attacked brutally on two occasions while they were covering acts
of wanton violence. Two councillors of Kolkata Municipal
Corporation belonging to AITC were arrested - one in the murder of a police
personnel and another in the alleged murder of one AITC leader.
We
are requesting the ECI to intervene to ensure that normalcy is restored in
these areas, so that the electorate can discharge their democratic rights in a
free and fair manner during the forthcoming 2014 general election in the
country. Knowledgeable sources presume that another all-out attack may occur
before ensuing Lok Sabha election as it was done on April 10, 2013 on some
fictitious plea.
IMPROPER
ATTITUDE OF CEO, WEST BENGAL
We
are bound to draw your attention to the fact that the state CEO office appears
to be functioning under intimidation by the state government and hence unable
to discharge its proper role as an independent body. One particular instance
will illustrate this general tendency. On August 29, 2013, we had represented
the CEO, regarding the extension of the date for the period of claims and
objections in 12 municipalities where elections were announced. Upon hearing no
response, we sought the intervention of the ECI. Its only upon the issuance of
the ECI notification number 23/WB/2013, dated September 18, 2013, wherein you
had kindly notified the extension upto September 30, 2013 was such a request
accepted. The said ECI notification mentions a letter by the CEO, West Bengal,
dated September 16, 2013. Clearly therefore, while the Left Front had
petitioned on August 29, the West Bengal CEO responded only after the
intervention of the ECI on September 16.
There
are several instances of such partisan attitude. For instance, it is only after
the ECI notification that the SRER was extended last year to take into account
the disruption due to festival holidays.
In
Annexure 6, we furnish your letter of April 23, 2013, concerning complaints of
errors in the ER with reference to three specific ACs. The CEO did not take any
further action in this matter.
Further,
there are instances of the state ruling party leaders being present at the
video conferences being conducted by the CEO with DM and district electoral
officers, which is a clear illegality. One such incident took place on October
29, 2013, where the sabhadhipati of the Bankura zilla parishad was so present.
PAID
NEWS
There
are widespread instances of paid news by the ruling party in both the
electronic and print media. The projection of the chief minister and the ruling
party candidates is brazen as evidenced in the by-election to 159 Bhabanipur
AC. On September 12, 2011, the electronic media, “Channel 10”, organised one
such programme conducted by Kunal Ghosh, who was rewarded subsequently to
become a member of the Rajya Sabha representing the AITC. He is currently
arrested and is in police custody as a prime accused in the massive Saradha
Chit Fund scam.
On
several occasions, the attention of the CEO, West Bengal was drawn to such
instances. Instead of taking any action, they simply informed us that they had
forwarded our complaints to the ECI. Unfortunately, no action had been taken
till date. (Annexure 7)
We
are constrained to draw your attention to all these facts, which are but a tip
of an iceberg. We fully appreciate and completely support the
efforts being made by the ECI through its campaign seeking 'greater
participation for a stronger democracy'. We are delighted to note that this
campaign had a positive impact as seen in the unprecedented turnout in the
recent elections to the five state assemblies in the country.
If
such an effort has to succeed in the state of West Bengal, then your urgent
intervention is necessary to ensure that the above mentioned distortions and
the sorry state of affairs is immediately corrected and an atmosphere conducive
for a free and fair poll is created by instilling the required confidence in
the West Bengal electorate that they can exercise their elementary democratic
rights without the fear of terror and intimidation.
In
the interests of upholding and safeguarding democracy in our country and in the
interests of strengthening the vibrancy of our democratic society, we strongly
urge you to urgently intervene and discharge your constitutional mandate
appropriately to ensure the success of your own slogan, 'greater
participation for a stronger democracy'.
(Annexures
are not published - Ed)
No comments:
Post a Comment