How Sandeshkhali Episode Captures The Grim Reality Of Bengal’s Political Culture

From a reign of terror to extortion, no allegation is new to the politics of West Bengal for the last 50 years. From the Congress party in the early 1970s to the 34 years of leftist rule and now Trinamool Congress (TMC), the political culture has remained a constant.

The allegations of ‘sextortion’ by Trinamool leaders, as raised by the poor women of Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas, not far from Kolkata, is a new addition to this list, and is consequential.

Anyone who has lived in the state for long knows that, except in brief phases, democracy here has been mostly absent or managed. Peace was always purchased against subservience to the ruling party. Criticism, even in the most democratic form, was costly.

Even research activities that did not suit the taste of the ruler were resisted. One of the consequences of that has been the low level of research done on the marked changes in the religious composition of the population since the 1980s. The sustained persecution of Hindus, across the border, has little reflection in Bengali media or literature.

The stranglehold has increased with time, both due to compulsions of national politics (most evident during the coalition years in Delhi) and intellectual cover extended by the so-called secular-liberal ecosystem.

Few pointed out that the high incidence of ‘political violence’ in West Bengal is contradictory to the claims of the state of upholding democratic freedom, including that of the press.

It is also insufficient to see political violence in Bengal through the lens of the National Crime Bureau numbers alone. That is because violence in Bengal is a tool to instill fear so that future opposition is warded off. This aspect is not captured in the data. 

Every case of the killing of opposition activists, every loss of job or harassment of a journalist who dared to criticise the ruler sends a message to others that they must fall in line.

No one questions if laws meant to ensure safety of women and prevention of narcotics are instead misused to curb criticism. If the state is so strict in ensuring the security of women, why does it rank so high in acid attacks?

Questioning may be crucial for democracy, but those questions are reserved for Narendra Modi or Yogi Adityanath.

So, West Bengal is where it is today.

A TV journalist was arrested while reporting live from Sandeshkhali for alleged violation of the modesty of a woman, and everyone in the fraternity got the message to go slow in reporting on ‘sextortion’.

In a private discussion with this writer, after the 2021 assembly election, a Delhi-based economist from a top university justified the atrocities on Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters.

The list of victims had many women. One elderly woman was allegedly gangraped before her grandchildren. 

The same intellectual framework that once helped the left to hide skeletons in the cupboard is now working overtime to manage the narrative for the Trinamool on a national scale. 

Yes, these intellectuals switched sides in 2011, but that was due to the involvement of the ultra-left.

Further, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee lost some critical support for trying to change the political culture of the state. The Maoists announced their opposition to Bhattacharjee through a landmine blast, targeting the chief minister, in 2006.

Over the next five years, they unleashed a reign of terror in the forested Jungle Mahal districts in South Bengal and killed thousands, including 148 hapless passengers of Jnaneswari Express.

During this period, authors, poets, film and theatre personalities, and singers made a beeline to be photographed with Maoist leaders. They also wrote newspaper op-eds justifying the ‘rebellion’ and criticising Operation Green Hunt, which sought to tackle the Maoist menace.

The change of power in Bengal in 2011 had its genesis in the ‘free zones’ created in Jungle Mahal and Nandigram and the protests in Singur. It is an open secret that Maoists played a pivotal role in both Nandigram and Singur. Islamists joined hands with them in pockets, too.

With the BJP now sweeping national elections and the Congress failing to fulfill its role in the opposition, the ultra-leftist and Islamist lobbies are desperate to ensure a status quo in West Bengal.

That Bengal is a border state and major powers with deep pockets are active in Bangladesh adds another dimension to this equation. 

However, that does not mean it's smooth-sailing for Mamata Banerjee. She is fearing a split in Muslim votes (vis-à-vis consolidation of Hindu votes) in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.

The BJP won 18 seats out of 42 in 2019. Most probably, they will get as many or more seats in 2024. However, there is a sharp difference of opinion in the party whether they should give that extra push to assume power in the state.

The BJP is apprehensive that if they assume power in Bengal, the Islamist and leftist ecosystem may go to any length to unseat them. Moreover, once out of power, Banerjee may become the face of the opposition in Delhi.

The BJP has done away with Nitish Kumar’s national ambitions. They are happy with the underperformance of Rahul Gandhi’s Congress. They would not want to give the opposition a chance in national politics.

Bengal is important to Indian politics due to the large number of members it sends to the national parliament (42). But national politics alone lacks either the ability or intention to change the political narrative of the state. (Bihar suffers from a similar dilemma.)

So, Bengal will continue as a ‘democratic’ version of Mao’s China, where there was neither economic prosperity nor political liberty. From the second-most industrialised state in the 1960s, Bengal now joins ranks with Bihar as a failed state. The decline in fortunes has been secular.

Cheerleading for the ruling party is the only safe bet in this environment. No one knows this better than TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh. He was a Rajya Sabha member of Parliament (MP) from Trinamool and the chief executive of Sradha Media in 2013, when the Rs 2,500-crore Saradha chit-fund scam broke out.

Ghosh referred to Chief Minister Banerjee as the “biggest beneficiary.” He was immediately arrested. By his admission, Ghosh underwent ‘third-degree’. Soon, hundreds of complaints surfaced from almost every nook and corner of the state. He spent the next three years in almost every jail in Bengal.

Images of the harassed man, desperate to tell his side of the story to reporters during appearances in courts, and the effort of the police to suppress his voice, are preserved in newspaper archives.

A decade later, the Saradha scam is history and Ghosh is now the spokesperson of the TMC. The Supreme Court transferred the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in May 2014 when Narendra Modi was assuming power in Delhi. Little headway seems to have been made since then.

Meanwhile, Banerjee has won two assembly elections. West Bengal has seen waves of scams.

Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of Calcutta High Court did his best to bring the guilty to book. Cases were transferred to central agencies left, right, and centre. Several ministers and top functionaries of the state education and public distribution system landed up in jail. 

However, there is no immediate sign of any decline in the confidence of Banerjee. As the cheerleader of Trinamool, Ghosh is now defending his party on Sandeshkhali. 

Shahjahan Sheikh was the uncrowned sultan of Sandeshkhali during leftist rule. He switched sides to Trinamool around 2010. 

He has been reported “absconding” for nearly two months since the Enforcement Department (ED) raided his house in connection with the PDS (public distribution system) scam. His gang assaulted ED officials and, in return, the local police filed a complaint against the ED itself.

Banerjee did not say anything against Sheikh then. She is yet to criticise him even now.