July 28, 2013

Save Democracy in West Bengal

Save Democracy Campaign

The Polit Bureau in its meeting held on July 20, 2013 has called for a countrywide campaign to “Save Democracy and to Defeat the Violence and Terror in West Bengal”, on August 7.

The panchayat election campaign and the polling have been marked by large-scale booth capturing, false voting, blockade of villages and violent attacks on the Left Front and opposition candidates and their polling agents.

Even before the polling, around 6000 Left Front candidates were prevented from filing nominations. After that, in many places, CPI(M) and Left Front candidates and supporters were stopped and attacked while campaigning. Till July 20, 19 CPI(M) and Left Front members and supporters have been killed.

More than 2500 booths were fully or partially captured and the polling rigged in the nine districts where poling has taken place in the first three phases.

This attack and rigging of elections is reminiscent of the 1972 rigged assembly elections. What is being witnessed in West Bengal is a brazen and outright attack on democracy and democratic rights.

The Polit Bureau has decided that all state units of the Party should observe August 7 by taking this issue to the people through holding of protest dharnas, meetings and processions.

On August 7 protest day and subsequently, meetings will be organised in the state capitals/major centres during the rest of the month of August.

Jul. 20, 2013 

Bengal Panchayat Elections Rigged

 Friday, July 26, 2013

Press Statement

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement: 

Rigged Panchayat Elections in West Bengal

The three-tier panchayat elections in West Bengal which have just concluded, has led to an unprecedented situation. The entire election has been marred by widespread attacks, intimidation and rigging. Thousands of candidates were prevented from filing nominations. In many places opposition candidates were prevented from conducting their election campaign among the people; the polling process was vitiated by widespread rigging, prevention of people casting their votes and violence against opposition candidates, their polling agents and supporters.

The run-up to the panchayat election saw determined efforts by the Trinamool Congress government to subvert the polling process itself. It required the State Election Commission going to the High Court and eventually the Supreme Court to get a decision to have a five-phase polling (against the wishes of the state government) and the direction to deploy central police forces along with the state police.

Despite these verdicts, the TMC government did everything to undermine these decisions. The Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee herself declared that central police forces need not be deployed. Shockingly, ministers in the government publicly threatened the State Election Commissioner and warned her of dire consequences. Defying the court order, the central police forces were not deployed at the polling stations with a few exceptions.

In the run-up to the elections, there were widespread attacks on the Left Front and the opposition. Around six thousand CPI(M) and Left Front candidates were physically prevented from filing their nominations. This led to a situation wherein for the Zilla Parishads in Hooghly, out of the total of 50 seats, the Left Front could not file candidates in 10 seats. In 6191 seats in the three-tier panchayats, TMC candidates were declared elected unopposed.

During the campaign, TMC ministers and leaders made the most provocative speeches inciting violence against all opponents. No action was taken against them. All through the campaign Left Front and Congress candidates were attacked, their campaigners including women beaten up and injured.

During the polling which began on July 11 and concluded on July 25 what was witnessed was a state-sponsored rigging of the elections by the TMC. In all the districts put together, a total of 4470 booths were completely or partially captured. For instance, in Burdwan district 909 booths, 750 in West Midnapur, 429 in South 24 Parganas and 400 booths in Coochbehar were captured. (See Annexure I).

In many booths, polling agents of the CPI(M) and the Left Front were driven out after which stamping of ballot papers took place. In fact all opponents of the ruling party faced a similar situation in many areas. In many areas from the morning itself people were not allowed to leave their homes in the villages to go to the polling booths to vote. Hundreds of Left Front supporters and workers of other opposition parties were injured in attacks when they attempted to go for polling. Many of them have suffered serious injuries and have been hospitalized. Even some candidates to the three tier Zilla Parishad, Panchayat Samiti and Gram Panchayat were not allowed to vote in many places. Even two Members of Parliament, Mahendra Roy in Jalpaiguri district and Nripen Roy in Coochbehar district were prevented from voting.

The state police which was stationed at the polling booths refused to intervene when attacks took place of workers and voters of the Left Front. In many instances, the police lathicharged or arrested those who were resisting the attacks or asserted their right to vote. In a planned manner, the central police forces were not deployed in many of the hypersensitive and sensitive booths.

Despite the orders of the State Election Commission and the High Court directive motorcycle gangs were not stopped and were allowed to move freely to terrorise the opposition and the voters. Even on the day of polling these gangs threatened people from going to polling booths.

The violence during the election campaign and during the polling has led to the deaths of 24 CPI(M) workers and supporters. (See Annexure II).

At no time has such a brazen attack and perversion of the democratic process of elections taken place in West Bengal or in the entire country.

The results of such a rigged election can only be a distorted one. 

Annexure – I 

Booths Captured



Phase
District
No. of Booths



I
Paschim Medinipur
750

Purulia
0

Bankura
34



II
Hooghly
731

Purba Medinipur
241

Bardhaman
909



III
North 24 Parganas
311

South 24 Parganas
429

Howrah
291



IV
Malda
99

Murshidabad
19

Nadia
97

Birbhum
140



V
Coochbehar
400

Jalpaiguri
0

Uttar Dinajpur
0

Dakshin Dinajpur
19




Total
4470

N.B.: Over and above the figure of captured booths mentioned in the list, a good number of booths were partially captured. 
In some cases, voters were not allowed to enter the booth or after two/three hours of polling the Left parties’ polling agents were driven out from the polling station and TMC people stamped on the ballot paper indiscriminately. 
In certain centres, after complaints were lodged with the State Election Commission or District Panchayat Election Officer, police intervention took place and polling resumed at the polling Centre.

Annexure – II

       List of Left Front Workers Killed Between June 3 and July 25, 2013
         Sl.
         No
Date
Name
District
Party
 1
3-Jun-13
Golam Mostafa
Murshidabad
CPI(M)
 2
7-Jun-13
Subhas Mondal (55)
Dakshin 24 Pargana
CPI(M)
 3
9-Jun-13
Dilip Sarkar
Bardhaman
CPI(M)
 4
9-Jun-13
Madan Saren (48)
Bardhaman
CPI(M)
 5
13-Jun-13
Kalimuddin Sarkar
Maldaha
CPI(M)
 6
14-Jun-13
Bhaskar Majumder (53)
Birbhum
CPI(M)
 7
21-Jun-13
Debsaran Ghosh (44)
Murshidabad
CPI(M)
 8
21-Jun-13
Amar Ghosh  (44)
Murshidabad
CPI(M)
 9
25-Jun-13
Ramjiban Khamri (65)
Paschim Medinipur
CPI(M)
 10
28-Jun-13
Akbar Ali (23)
Maldaha
CPI(M)
 11
1-Jul-13
Ankhiranjan Mondal
Uttar 24 Pgs.
CPI(M)
 12
3-Jul-13
Siatul Sardar (37)
Murshidabad
CPI(M)
 13
4-Jul-13
Md Eklakh
Hooghly
CPI(M)
 14
13-Jul-13
Naosad Sekh (33)
Murshidabad
CPI(M)
 15
15-Jul-13
Sk. Hasmat (40)
Bardhaman
CPI(M)
 16
19-Jul-13
Motherbox Malllick
Uttar 24 Pgs.
CPI(M)
 17
22-Jul-13
Khabiruddin Sekh
Nadia
CPI(M)
 18
22-Jul-13
Ashim Bagdi (25)
Birbhum
CPI(M)
 19
22-Jul-13
Jamir Sekh (40)
Birbhum
CPI(M)
 20
22-Jul-13
Kafiulla Sekh (45)
Birbhum
CPI(M)
 21
23-Jul-13
Billal Mondal (35)
Murshidabad
CPI(M)
 22
23-Jul-13
Fatik Sekh  (36)
Murshidabad
CPI(M)
 23
24-Jul-13
Humaun Mir (32)
Birbhum
CPI(M)
 24
25-Jul-13
Ajiz Ahmed (60)
Uttar Dinajpur
CPI(M)



McCarthyism, Mamata style

By Badri Raina

Recent events seem to suggest that the patron saint of paranoia has passed on the baton to the West Bengal Chief Minister

My alma mater, Wisconsin, is much in the news, sadly for some unlovely reasons; and some equally unlovely events at home remind me of one Joseph McCarthy who used to be a Senator from Wisconsin during 1950-1954, a period which has gone down in American history as the “Second Red Scare”.

The first red scare is associated with the years just after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 when the cry went up on the American mainland that “the Russians are coming”. Much of that has been captured memorably by Robert K. Murray in his book Red Scare: A Study in Hysteria, 1919-1920, published by the University of Minnesota Press in 1955.

But returning to the second scare: it seemed to some American right-wingers that there was a Communist in every closet on American soil, rather a tribute to the influence that Bolshevism had achieved on both the European and American continents during the period between the First and Second World Wars. A no-holds-barred campaign was unleashed to ferret out these commies from all sorts of nooks and crannies. And the method adopted was of making accusations of disloyalty or treason without proper regard for evidence, a procedure led vociferously by Joseph McCarthy, whence the term McCarthyism.

The witch-hunt led to thousands of individuals, among them Charlie Chaplin, Bertolt Brecht, W.E.B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, Arthur Miller, Paul Robeson, Paul Sweezy and many other outstanding intellectuals and creative artists, being hauled up before governmental or private industry panels; the most infamous of these being “The House Un-American Activities Committee”. And most of those summoned found themselves answering accusation by insinuation, innuendo, third party rumour and so forth, with no evidence of actionable criminality. And never mind what Harry Truman had said on record: “In a free country, we punish men for the crimes they commit, but never for the opinions they have.”

Recent events in West Bengal seem to suggest that good old McCarthy may have passed on the baton to our own Mamata Di. In disregard of Harry Truman, not to speak of the Indian Constitution, there is evidence now to believe that the holding of an opinion unflattering to the power-that-be in West Bengal in and by itself constitutes criminality, deserving of an “off with his head” form of justice on the instant.

First there was Taniya Bharadwaj who was instantly branded a Maoist for asking a fairly innocuous question of the fairy queen on a TV channel, then the poor professor from Jadavpur University, Ambikesh Mahapatra, who was arrested for circulating a cartoon determined on the instant to be dangerously subversive of Mamata Di, and now a poor farmer, Shiladitya Choudhury, again, ah, a Maoist, or else why would he ask a question about the rising price of fertilizer, and his inability to obtain rice at Rs.2 a kg, as per policy. So off he goes too to the slammer, and no bail yet either.

How “liberators” turn “oppressors” I was told in confidence by an erstwhile staunch supporter of Mamata Banerjee, the giant killer who it seems is sadly unaccountable to any democratic or legal norm.

It will be remembered that before the last Assembly elections in West Bengal, when Mamata Banerjee was often accused of collusion with the Maoists, it was her riposte that there were no Maoists in Jangalmahal, and that the mischief was entirely owing to the cadres of the CPI(M). Now that the latter is out of power, it makes good political sense to reconstruct the enemy as the Maoist, since everybody knows how dangerous and outlawed they are.

Mamata’s McCarthyist paranoia now seems to extend its reach. She has charged that judgements from courts are “purchased”, that Commissions are useless and wasteful (just when the West Bengal Human Rights Commission has ordered her to compensate Professor Mahapatra and his neighbour, Subrata Sengupta, for the unlawful excesses vented on them, and asked for departmental action to be initiated against two police officers in the matter), and that civil society groups are a nuisance without accountability.

These accusations seem to take in institutions dear to the urban middle class’s heart, and it will be interesting to see whether those that sought “poribortan” for West Bengal had precisely this sort of package in mind. Indeed, there is speculation that where it took the Bengali electorate some three decades to be disillusioned with the Left Front, three years may bring them to reconsider the choices they must make.

Given the assertiveness of Indian democracy, it would seem that McCarthyism of any sort must have a small shelf life, regardless of who its patrons are — a lesson that the Left seems assiduously to want to learn during its exile from power.

(Prof. Badri Raina is a Delhi-based writer.)