CULTURE: West Bengal has had a culture of violence going back to the Leftist regimes. For 34 years the Left parties ruled West Bengal and converted it into a State of goons.
By Rajan Narayan
Democracy in India has degenerated into the battle of the bullet. Almost specifically the crude bomb. The recently concluded West Bengal Panchayat polls have been the most violent in recent times….
The battle of the ballot is increasingly turning into a battle of bullets. In the recently concluded West Bengal Panchayat election the bullet substituted for bombs. Thousands of bombs were thrown at each other by rivals participating in the Panchayat election. Bengal has a tradition of violence ever since it was controlled by the main Left party. The party which owes its ideology to the Russian dictator Joseph Stalin who believed violence is the only solution. Not surprisingly the first Naxal movement started in West Bengal.
COMMIE RULE
THE Communists ruled West Bengal for 34 years. The cadres of the Left were all militant communists. They took over and controlled every village in Bengal. The Left volunteers were extremely violent using guns and crude bombs and iron rods to maintain control over the village. No rivals were permitted, if any came up they were driven away by force. The first West Bengal chief minister was Dr Bimal Roy, a distinguished doctor. He was followed by Dr Jyoti Basu a very sophisticated and highly educated leader who was considered for the post of prime minister of India.
The problem started with Basu Bhattacharya taking over as the chief minister. Bhattacharya, a liberal like the late prime minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh, had removed all controls. Basu offered the Tata Group of Companies a huge plot of land at Singur (Nandigram). The left cadres immediately protested against diversion of agricultural land for industrial use. The chief minister of West Bengal was also questioned about encouraging capitalism.
As Manmohan Singh pointed out you cannot help the poor unless you generate money by encouraging industry. Basu very strongly pleaded that the project should be approved. The Maruti project would generate more than one lakh jobs. This is when the fight started between current Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress and the Left party. Mamata Banerjee, who was originally part of Left wing, launched a violent fight against Basu Bhattacharya. The consequence was that the progressive chief minister had to drop the Tata project in Singur. The factory shifted to Gujarat which was eagerly waiting for investment.
LEFTIST MINDSET
PRIMARILY, the mindset of the Left cadres in West Bengal were against industry. This helped Mamata Banerjee to take away the cadres of the Left. The cadres were offered very high incentives in the Panchayat and State government. With the result that Mamata Banerjee managed Trinamool Congress to defeat the Left and end 34 years of leftist rule.
The recently concluded Panchayat election has been the most violent ever. This is because in addition to the Left and the Trinamool, the BJP was involved. The BJP has never achieved any success in West Bengal. The BJP has played the battled of the ballot with equal violence. What is disturbing is that lakhs of crude bombs have been used resulting in mass casualties.
SCARED MEDIA
INTERESTINGLY, the media is so afraid of both the Trinamool and the Left that there is very little honest news reporting about the Panchayat election violence, either in the electronic or the print media.