Why is there so much political violence in West Bengal since 2001?
Political violence has reduced in comparison to past in West Bengal. Earlier it was very high. We need to analyse last 100 year to compare the situation of violence in Bengal.
Warning: some pictures may be disturbing.
Year 1905 Bengal partition created massive political upheaval and bloodbath in Bengal. This is not the first or last mass agitations, violence and deaths occurred in Bengal. Later in 1943, Bengal witnessed a massive and biggest recorded in history famine which led to 3 million perished in hunger. People dropping dead in the middle of street or paddy fields were common scene then. Noble Laureate Prof Amartya Sen who saw Bengal famine of 1943 in detail concluded that famine was man-made disaster as Britishers were mostly focused on WWII and Churchil refused send aid. When Churchil was told about the famine death figures in Bengal, he asked ‘Why Gandhi (Mahatma) is still alive?’ Subhash Chandra Bose who was part of Japan controlled Burma government during WWII, also tried to send food material to Bengal from Burma (now Myanmar) but that was also blocked by British. British government formally apologized for much smaller Irish potato famine but never apologized for much bigger Bengal famine or Jallianwala Bagh massacre in India. This proves that Europeans value life of Europeans and not life of Asians. Other people who made extensive research or written books on the famine are Professor P.C. Mahalanobis (legendary statistician who founded Indian Statistical Institute), current MP Shashi Tharoor and Madhusree Mukherjee (who lives abroad).
Bengal famine victims line up for rations in 1943
Indian independence and partition in 1947 brought 3 million deaths due to butchering and communal riots both in Bengal and Punjab. Earlier, administrative partition of Bengal was done by the British in 1905 as they found Bengal was too big and troublesome to be handled by a single governor. Educated middle class Hindu population became more patriotic and anti-British after this 1905 partition. British government subsequently shifted imperial capital to New Delhi in 1911. The Bengal partition 1905 was generally supported by the Muslims of East Bengal because that means more economic development. The division of opinion between hindus and muslims on this partition fueled the fire called “divide and rule” policy of the British and increased riot in Bengal.
Riots and forced migration related deaths continued after independence in what became east Pakistan, this time led by Pakistani army officials. This became acute when a Bengali leader got political majority based on higher population in east Pakistan. Bangladesh is the only country in the world that had to spill its blood for the right to speak its language and not alien Urdu. On the night of March 25, 1971 the Pakistan Army executed Operation Searchlight and the world saw brutality the likes of which has rarely been seen. East Bengal lost 3 million lives (again after 1943 famine and 1947 partition) and 2 million women were violated.
Refugees fleeing east Pakistan with their meager belongings (Photo: Raghu Rai).
Archer Blood was the consul general of the American consulate in Dacca, East Pakistan, in 1971. As the Pakistani military crackdown began in East Pakistan, and the bodies of hindu minorities started to pile up, and thousands upon thousands were killed in a brutal crackdown, Archer Blood's relentless cables to the US State Department left Henry Kissinger's (US secretary of sate) aides "shaken", but evidently not stirred into action. Kissinger remained resolute in his resolve to do nothing to stop the genocide. With no response forthcoming from the State Department, Archer Blood took the (then) unprecedented step of sending a "formal dissent cable" known as blood telegram - a first in the history of the US Foreign Service - on April 6, 1971, bluntly titled "Dissent from US policy toward East Pakistan." Henry Kissinger was "just furious about it." William Rogers, the secretary of state, called up Kissinger to "denounce "the goddam message from our people in Dacca."" He later sent a "stern reprimand to Blood." Henry Kissinger who kept a blind eye to East Pakistan genocide, subsequently, won a Nobel Peace Prize and Archer Blood was ordered to "request home leave and transfer back to the State Department - in other words, unceremoniously sacked" - just one step short of being fired! After US ally Pakistan lost the 1971 war and East Pakistan territory, angry US president Richard Nixon cursed India – ‘India needs a big famine to cut them to size’. This is same mentality of western leaders like Churchill. Indian government should reward Archer Blood.
Blood letting and migration continued for decades even after creation of Bangladesh. In a rally in October 2016, USA Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump had praised Hindu community’s ‘fantastic’ contributions to world civilisation and American culture. He was attending the event that was for the benefit of “victims of terror particularly Kashmiri pundits and Hindu refugees from Bangladesh.” At last there is somebody in west who identified the problem of hindu migrants of Bangladesh.
Meanwhile Bangladesh continue to show huge bloodbath in streets. During religious and other festivals people in cities and villages decent to bloody chaos as people just grab and catch stray cows and animals they find in the open and cut them to pieces. All these gory activity goes on for days as if they are living in 14th century. Few Indian who visited Bangladesh to have a look at their ancestral property or village, comes back disappointed seeing the bloodbath in streets. Bloodbath on flooded streets of Dhaka during festivals was highlighted by a series of pictures and video clips appeared in prominent media globally in October 2016.
Blood in the streets of Dhaka
The situation is no better in West Bengal part of India. In 1970’s Siddhartha Shankar Ray became CM of WB and at that time pro-left Naxalite movement was at its peak. ‘China’s chairman is our chairman’ was their war cry. They used to say – we don’t recognize Indira Gandhi as our leader and we also never recognized Nehru as our leader (this is called communist brainwashing). This irked Indira Gandhi and SS Ray started butchering of naxalite youths. State police was used innovative methods to kill suspected Naxalites. Educated youths from neighborhood were asked to visit police station and after sometime they were let off. As they moved out of police station, they were shot on back by police. This is the way SS Ray used to eliminate suspected naxalites. Lot of families destroyed as they lost their young generation and many escaped from state (Filmstar Mithun Chakraborty also escaped during these time to Bombay as he was a Naxalite). This brutality proved counterproductive and leftist parties under CPIM form the next government. SS Ray was later made Governor of Punjab when militancy was at peak. He did the same thing there. It is alleged that his administration used Punjab Police to eliminate innocent farmers working in fields to be declared as Khalistani terrorists as police was under pressure to prove their performance.
Next wave of violence of violence in WB came under 34 year communist rule of Jyoti Basu. This is the worst phase of WB as he successfully destroyed WB from all directions. There was excessive violence in street, industrial houses, villages and paddy fields. We learned from our history books that Mughal emperor Aurangzeb destroyed India but we saw how Jyoti Basu and his communist goons completely destroyed not just Bengal but entire eastern India. He destroyed all the industry and economy by promoting labour militant-ism as this created a vote bank for his party. As industries closed down, it created an army of unemployment. To pacify unemployed people, he started a scheme of ‘unemployment allowance’ which again proved destructive. His government was paying a mere Rs 50 per month to unemployed youths but that Rs 50 was too important to be ignored for many youths due to economic conditions. This Rs 50 allowance compelled educated youths to become moholla, village, street level goons of CPIM party and the level of violence, political murders, hooliganisms, industrial strike zoomed to astronomical level. This is called butterfly effect – the objective was different and output was totally unexpected. No doubt, Jyoti Basu can be called modern day Aurangzeb or ‘Bhasmasur’ who not just destroyed Bengal with entire eastern India. During communist era, election violence was at its peak. On an election day, 80-100 people used to die. This casualty figure now being reduced to ‘few people’ today as electronic voting machine (EVM) and central police force is used during elections.
Freedom fighters as well as communist goons used ‘desi’ bombs extensively in Bengal
Jyoti Basu’s successor Buddhadev Bhattacharya admitted in state assembly that 35000 people died during CPIM rule till date but unofficial figures put this number as 55000. Compare this with approximately 75000 deaths in terrorism and insurgency affected Jammu & Kashmir over three decades. There was no involvement of terrorism from Pakistan, supply of terrorists, money and AK-47 assault rifles across the border, no grenade attack on security forces, no stone pelting and no biriyani party with Hurriat leaders. There was deaths only due to political rivalry in Bengal and this figure is close to J&K casualty. Bhattacharya was a gentleman (right man in wrong party) and tried to improve law and order by taking on illegal immigrants as they became part of the problem, not just vote bank. He also tried to improve industrial climate and investment (remember Tata Motors Singur plant) but that was too little and too late and goons switched side to Mamata Party.
Mamata Banerjee was aware of all these violence tactics used by communists goons. So, she stared doing the same to destroy the political opponent after coming to power. A large section of communist goons switched their loyalty to Mamata Party and the daily violence and murder continues. People outside the state may get news of some high profile violence cases but people following local media knows that not even a single day passes without violence there.
Another day of violence in Bengal
What is the way foreword? If Mamata Party continues to rule the state, violence will continue. If a new Party comes, there is still no guarantee that violence will recede magically. As CPIM goons changed side, majority of Mamata Party goons will also change side and thus continuing the violence cycle. Army rule, not even President’s rule for a decade seems to be the best solution. But there is no provision for Army rule in Indian constitution, there is only President’s rule and that too undergoes through complex political process. Indian government recently changed a special rule in Jammu & Kashmir which they thought encouraging violence and militancy. Everybody thought that nobody will have courage to change that special rule but government has done that and sky didn’t fall. Similarly, a special Army rule needed by parliament for WB to eliminate repeated cycle of violence. Bengal has history of violent bloodbath for more than a century.
Peace!
Photo: Google achieve
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