Polling came to a close in what was a fiercely fought election politically and literally. The polls concluded with nearly 50 people, mostly political workers, having lost their lives as attacks and counterattacks, attacks with ammunition, hurling of bombs, booth capture and destruction of voting ballots became the order of the day in the polls. The official toll stands at 37 including around 18 killed on polling day itself, but with two days to go until counting, the toll is likely to go up further depending on how sensitive the situation is on counting day.
While according to some, election-related violence is the ‘norm’ in Bengal with clashes known to take place between rival political groups since the days when the Communist Party of India was at the helm in the state, in today’s day West Bengal stands out as an exception even among similarly placed states for the high rates of political violence especially in rural areas of Bengal.
The violence has unfolded even as the Union government deployed central security forces in a bid to maintain calm in the state -- with a blame game now breaking out between the Border Security Force, which has been deployed to the state and the State Election Commission. The former accused the latter of failing to give adequate information on sensitive booths in the state.
Once a weapon of choice for political parties, political violence has quickly fallen out of favour across the country with elections at all levels being largely peaceful -- be they Lok Sabha, State Assembly Elections or Panchayat elections. However, violence hasn’t been completely eradicated. Reports of violence have intermittently emerged from several states including UP, Bihar, MP, and Rajasthan among others. However, Bengal stands out simply for the scale and regularity with which it accompanies the political process.
One of the hallmarks of a mature democracy is its ability to hold peaceful elections and to peacefully transfer power from one regime to the next. Violence is not a legitimate tactic and should have no place in a democracy. It must be noted that in West Bengal all political parties have been resorting to violence over the years and continue to do so even now. The BJP, which has been accusing the ruling TMC of aiding and abetting the violence is no exception when it comes to using violence as a tactic to fight polls.
In such a situation, where political parties are of the belief that one needs to counter violence with violence in order to emerge as a strong force, a reduction in violence will take place only when and if all political parties come together and sign a ceasefire of sorts with a kind of mutual understanding that they will fight elections with words rather than with bullets, bombs and swords. Either the Union Home Ministry or the Election Commission of India will need to take the initiative and call all political parties to the negotiating table in order to thrash out genuine commitments from political parties to change their ways and set themselves on the path to peace. The question is who will bell the cat?
