By Arun Srivastava
What a coincidence! On July 13, while Justice Amrita Singh of Calcutta High Court was telling the lawyer of the State Election Commission, Kishore Dutta, that the lust for pecuniary gain and a job for five years was at the back of huge amount of electoral violence in the state, on the same day, a 14-second video clip circulating on social media shows a person resembling BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari exhorting his men: “The streets will show the way. Such a situation will have to be created that (Article) 355 will become a must. There is no other way out for Bengal. One has to get a lot of things done. How one has to get them done, I know.”
No doubt this video clip provided the right opportunity for West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to nail BJP, based on Adhikari’s comment, that it was proof of violence during the panchayat polls being orchestrated by the BJP with ulterior motives. The clip is said to be the part of an interview given to a Bengali news channel by Adhikari. Mamata said: “This (clip) proves that the violence was man-made, with ulterior motives. The people should know of this reality.”
The TMC spokesman tweeted: “Shocking, clinching evidence of how BJP incited violence in Bengal during panchayat election. He says openly on camera that BJP “must create an atmosphere in Bengal to bring in President’s Rule. This is why BJP unleashed violence – to bring Bengal under the direct rule of Modi Govt.”
Nevertheless, the two statements are quite conflicting, while Justice Singh attributes it to lust for money, Adhikari’s remark unravel a deep conspiracy. One thing nonetheless is quite clear that Justice Singh’s observation does not reflect the ground realities. She nurses her own views. Obviously, any judicial order based on this presumption would be far from the truth.
This development has taken place alongside Calcutta High Court’s stern direction that the declaration of results would be subject to its final orders in connection with matters, which it is hearing over allegations of electoral malpractices on the day of polling. The court has made several interventions since the election process began. It posted the matter for hearing on July 19. The petitions are about large-scale violence and alleged electoral malpractice, and appeal for re-polling in around 50,000 booths.
In this backdrop, it is worth mentioning that only on July 14, the TMC national general secretary accused a section of the Calcutta High Court of acting in a partisan manner to “strengthen a particular political party” and hoped that the judiciary would work impartially and without prejudice. Describing it as unprecedented in India’s post-Independence history, he said; “A HC judge had given the judgment that if Subhendu Adhikari were to commit a crime in future, no action can be taken against him. Even to lodge an FIR one has to take the court’s permission. The same judge has ordered that Asoke Karan should also be given protection. What is the HC’s compulsion? What is the compulsion of this judge, that all those who are in Suvendu’s shadow have to be protected? Why have police’s hands been tied?”
Meanwhile, an editorial in TMC mouthpiece ‘Jago Bangla’ on Friday said while Trinamool respected the judiciary, the courts should listen to all before passing orders or making observations. Some recent observations had given rise to impression that these were more due to personal beliefs and influenced by emotions, instead of logic or reasoning. Faced with the situation, TMC leaders even said that they were ready to face contempt of court for airing their views.
There is no denying that the false presentation by the BJP has formed the ground for the HC intervention. It is really shocking to witness how the BJP has been systematically subverting and trampling the constitutional provisions for their electoral gains. BJP has come to realise that the opposition leaders must be compulsorily engaged in legal battles. During this Modi Raj, the BJP across the country has evolved a sophisticated strategy to mislead the judiciary through a continuous drip-feed of deadly disinformation. It has launched a two-pronged tactical attack on its opponents: first, is to use the office of Governor and create the situation of political and administrative uncertainty; the other is to use ‘Godi media’ (pro-Modi media) to circulate false narratives.
It was with these twin objectives that BJP national president J P Nadda had sent the fact-finding team to Bengal. Acting on the complaint of the state leaders would not have been trustworthy, so the task of the so-called ‘fact-finding team’ was to feed misinformation and make the people believe what they say. Expectedly enough, the team regurgitated the allegations of the state leaders.
This “fact-finding team” had to create a “moral” pressure on the Governor to dismiss the Mamata government and put the state under president’s rule. Though the BJP’s chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said: “A responsible leader of our party of his stature, could not have said something like that”, the remark of the former union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who is heading the five-member ‘fact-finding team’, had requested Governor Bose to invoke his powers to protect and save democracy in Bengal. Do the BJP leaders feel that people of state are fools not to correctly decode the message behind Ravi’s request?
What a contrast then that while BJP’s Samik Bhattacharya said “As a party, we are against the invocation of Articles 355 and 356 to have Presidential rule imposed”, Subhendu Adhikari, the Leader of the Opposition, called for the situation to deteriorate so that intervention of the central government through Article 355 or Article 356 (President’s Rule) becomes plausible. Ever since Mamata Banerjee rode to power for the third successive term in 2021, the BJP and its Hindutva constituents have been clamouring for President’s rule in Bengal. Even some rightist leaders have been harping on that Bengal has become a ‘Bengalistan’ or ‘West Bangladesh’, underlining the rank Islamophobia driving their hate campaign.
In their pursuit of power, the BJP even did not deter from misusing the BSF. More than a year back, Mamata had revealed: “I have come to know that BSF personnel are going to villages and harassing people in areas that fall under their purview. Don’t allow BSF to enter 50 km of the area beyond the international border in the state because they are entering the village, killing people, and throwing them on the other side. Ask the BSF to take state police in confidence while working on any operation.”
In fact, the state government has been having a strained relation with the BSF. The matter was brought to the knowledge of Amit Shah, the Union home minister. Some months back, Mamata had hit out at the home ministry for increasing the BSF’s jurisdiction from 15 kms to 50 kms. She claimed that the Government of India increased the operation limit so that the BSF can harass the voters in panchayat elections. She said, “Why did they do this? Because they know Panchayat elections are coming and that the new operation limit will cover several villages that will cast their vote. In this way, the BSF personnel can harass the voters. They do this anyway.”
BSF’s role caught peoples’ attention after it alleged that State Election Commission didn’t respond to its letters seeking details of sensitive booths. BSF Deputy Inspector General (DIG), S.S. Guleria, PRO, Eastern Command, said, “We had written several letters since 5 July, seeking details of the sensitive booths, but we received no reply.” Guleria added that the reported deaths that occurred Saturday at the polling booths were not under the CAPF’s cover. He said: “We conducted the polls smoothly wherever our troops were deployed.”
However, SEC Rajiv Sinha strongly refuted this allegation and affirmed that the information regarding sensitive booths was indeed provided to the district magistrate/superintendent of police. Sinha said; “We have recorded our communication with IG BSF. They have also confirmed it”. But Guleria reiterates that the SEC’s claim of providing details of sensitive booths was ‘false’. Only the government records know who is speaking the truth and it must be placed in public domain to allay the notion of misuse of BSF by Modi government.
Mamata during her election campaign had also accused the BSF of scaring voters in border areas at the behest of the saffron camp, and asked the police to keep a close watch. But the BSF officials dubbed the allegations of threatening voters as “baseless” and “far from the truth”.
However, in a significant development, chief secretary HK Dwivedi held a meeting with IG BSF, state’s home secretary and other government officials. The move acquires importance as it took place after a directive from the Calcutta High Court and chief minister’s tough talks to police for taking action against the perpetrators irrespective of party colour. The main complainant was BSF. It had complained to the chief justice of High Court about SEC not providing the list of sensitive booths.
As if these are not enough to disgrace Mamata and pull down her from power, the BJP leaders have moved fast in the direction of communalising the panchayat poll politics by fielding Ananta Maharaj, a protagonist of “divide Bengal”, as its candidate for the July Rajya Sabha polls. Nominating Maharaj notwithstanding serious protest from state RSS leaders is testimony to the fact that politics of splitting Bengal along religious lines enjoys the blessings of the Modi-Shah combine.
A state RSS functionary said: “We have informed the party (the BJP) about our discontent with the nomination of Ananta Maharaj. How can a self-styled king be a lawmaker in a democracy? Neither the party here nor the Sangh had thought that a self-proclaimed king would become the BJP’s Rajya Sabha nominee. What is his connection with the party? The RSS strictly feels the candidate should have been a political person”. (IPA Service)
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