BJP Has Golden Opportunity To End Saga Of Political Violence In Bengal: Here's How It Can Do That

Bengal is not new to political violence, but over the past few years, ever since the BJP started gaining popularity in Bengal, political violence has increased sharply in the state.

Over the past three years, nearly 120 leaders, office-bearers, workers and supporters of the BJP, including an MLA, were allegedly killed by Trinamool cadre or supporters. A few times that number have been assaulted, their homes looted and properties destroyed, or banished from their villages.

Attacks on the BJP have increased sharply ever since the party’s surprise win in 18 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in Bengal in the elections last year.

As the crucial Assembly polls scheduled for April-May next year approach, political violence can only be expected to rise in Bengal.

And this is where the Union Government has to get proactive and curb spiralling political violence. Though law and order is a state subject, the Centre has enough powers to ensure state governments adhere to the rule of the law.

It is imperative that the Union Government mounts pressure on the Mamata Banerjee government to put a stop to political violence.

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has to start sending frequent advisories to the Bengal government to maintain law and order.

The Union Government has powers under Article 355 of the Constitution to ensure that an errant state adheres to the rule of the law and that the government in the state governs in accordance with the law of the land.

Article 355 states: It shall be the duty of the Union to protect every State against external aggression and internal disturbance and to ensure that the government of every State is carried on in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution.

Apart from sending an advisory every time a case of political violence is reported, the MHA can pile pressure on the state machinery by frequently summoning the chief secretary, the director general of police, the state home secretary and other top state officials to New Delhi to advise them to function as per the law and ensure the state machinery’s impartiality.

This will, no doubt, anger the Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee and she will start alleging interference in the administration of the state.

Banerjee will try to muster sympathy on this ground and launch a high-decibel campaign. She will try to project herself as an embattled lady valiantly trying to fight the BJP--a David versus Goliath fight--in upholding the ‘dignity’ of Bengal and protecting her bastion (Bengal).

But the BJP can easily out-manoeuver her politically by launching a high-decibel, nationwide campaign to publicise and highlight the terrible depredations of the Trinamool cadres.

The BJP has a distinctive advantage over the Trinamool: it has a strong pan-India presence while the Trinamool is organisationally confined to the geographical boundaries of Bengal. Thus, launching a nationwide campaign on political violence in Bengal will be an easy task for the BJP.

Such an intense and extensive nationwide campaign will put the Trinamool and its chief on the back foot. It will also serve to enthuse BJP workers, functionaries and supporters in Bengal who are now fearful of attacks from the Trinamool and have no faith in the state administration’s impartiality.

The culture of political violence in Bengal was initiated by the Congress under then chief minister Siddhartha Shankar Ray in the late 1960s and early 1970s to fight Left terrorists (the Naxals) and the CPI(M) which was on its ascendancy in Bengal at that time.

After coming to power in 1977, the Left, mainly the CPI(M), perfected the art of using violence as a tool to intimidate and annihilate political opponents and dissidents. That was as per its ideology that advocates annihilation of class enemies.

The Left was very liberal in loosely branding all political opponents as ‘class enemies’ and beating them into submission or killing them.

The Trinamool, which is often said to be more left than the Left, enthusiastically adopted the methods of the Left and started targeting political opponents.

But this political violence has to be put to a stop. Over the past seven decades or so, thousands of people have been assaulted and killed and many more times that number have suffered losses to their properties or have been insulted and threatened into submission or silence in Bengal.

This is completely unacceptable in a democracy. The BJP has a golden opportunity to end this shameful saga of political violence in Bengal.

It (the BJP) leads the ruling coalition at the Centre, is ruling many states and is strong in most states ruled by other parties, and has become a strong force in Bengal. It is thus in a pre-eminent position to put a stop to political violence politically and through strong administrative measures.

The BJP-led NDA Government at the Centre needs to put the Trinamool government on notice immediately and force it to restore the rule of the law in the state. There should be no qualms in reading out the riot act to top state officials and, if need be, to the chief minister.

Simultaneously, at the political level, the BJP has to name and shame the Trinamool at the national level by launching a high-decibel and sustained campaign against the Trinamool’s depredations in Bengal.

Violence has become a disgraceful blot on Bengal, and it is high time it is wiped off and Bengal’s politics cleansed of the ugly blood splashes.