WB poll violence

THE panchayat elections in West Bengal have again brought to the fore the state’s long and ignominious history of political violence. It is beyond comprehension how a breakdown in the rule of law can be accepted as an integral part of electoral politics. The persistence of the culture of bloodshed and vendetta is a blot on all norms of civilised behaviour, let alone democratic ideals. Its genesis, ironically, is linked to a watershed governance model. The decentralisation of power by the Left Front transformed rural Bengal, setting up the base for its three-decade rule. This also ensured that the levers of state power took strong roots in the vast rural belt.

Since the panchayat elections were fought along political lines, partisanship was a natural consequence. The divide in the social fabric undermined the gains. Fearful of the retributive violence that losing political and economic control could entail, the rank and file would go to any lengths to hold on to or wrest power. The result was the normalisation of bloodshed, be it in the Lok Sabha, Assembly or panchayat polls. Cutting across ideological lines, all parties have condemned the violence that has claimed several lives this time round. Any intent to change the narrative is entirely missing. In the 2013 and 2018 panchayat elections, too, poll-day deaths dominated the headlines. Central forces being deployed for panchayat elections is a sad commentary on the state of affairs there.

According to the 2021 National Crime Records Bureau report, West Bengal accounted for the highest number of political murders in the country. It has been recording, on an average, 20 such killings every year since 1999. The police and the poll panel have a lot to answer for. The all-pervasive sub-culture of fear and anger needs a political solution, a consensus to put a firm end to the savagery.