No end to political killings in West Bengal : India

By Soudhriti Bhabani

Kolkata, Jan 31 - Political killings taking place across West Bengal since last year's Lok Sabha polls are making people recall some of the gory days of the 1960s and 70s when political violence had engulfed the state.

As per figures given by Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee in the assembly late last year, 69 people were killed in clashes between Jan 1 and Nov 13, 2009. Of them, 47 were from the ruling Left Front major Communist Party of India-Marxist -, 15 from the Trinamool Congress, and four from the Congress. Two others were affiliated to the Jharkhand Democratic Party and another to the Jharkhand Party -.

Of those killed, 28 were victims of political clashes in Maoist-hit West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia districts. Besides, 12 policemen were killed in the state during the same period.

Going by the claims of rival political parties and daily media reports of deaths in clashes, the statistics provided by the chief minister seemed quite conservative.

The CPI-M has claimed that at least 163 of its party cadres have lost their lives across various districts like East and West Midnapore, Bankura, Purulia, South 24-Parganas and Murshidabad since May 16, 2009 - the day the Lok Sabha election results were out.

On the other hand, Trinamool top gun Partha Chattopadhyay told IANS that 166 of his party supporters have been killed in the past eight months. Amidst the blood-letting, political leaders were busy blaming each other for the violence.

The CPI-M has accused the opposition of trying to push the state to lawlessness to set the stage for President's rule, while the Trinamool Congress-Congress combine has charged the Marxists of using violence as a tool to regain their lost political turf after a series of defeats in recent polls.

'Trinamool Congress' main political capital is confrontation; so they are killing people to trigger a fear psychosis across the state ahead of next year's assembly elections. The number of killings has skyrocketed due to the weakening of the CPI-M and the rise of the Trinamool Congress in the rural belts,' senior CPI-M leader and party's central committee member Mohammad Salim told IANS.

'They - also outsourced political killings to the Maoist ultras in the western districts, Bankura, Purulia and West Midnapore, as they cannot fight an electoral battle democratically. The Maoists are pinpointing our cadres and killing them brutally in the region.'

Salim alleged Trinamool was sponsoring political killings to destabilise law and order in the state so as to demand imposition of President's rule.

On the other hand, Chattopadhyay said: 'We have informed the central home ministry from time to time about the violence. But that has not yielded any positive result so far.'

Reiterating his party's demand for early assembly elections, he said: 'The LF - government must be ousted to stop the ongoing violence in the state. We demand early assembly polls to restore peace in West Bengal.'

State Congress legislative party leader Manas Bhuinya also blamed the CPI-M for the political conflicts, saying: 'The state government has completely lost control over the law and order situation. The CPI-M is now trying to recapture its lost control in the rural bases with the help of firearms which it has stockpiled over the years. The current situation reminds us about the killings that we saw in the late 60s and early 70s in the state.'

Political analyst Samir Kumar Das termed the whole situation as a 'micro-level political turf war'. He said the killings and counter-killings have no resemblance with what happened in the 70s.

'What we are seeing now is mostly micro-regional clashes that are taking place with political forces killing their rivals to regain control over a particular region. It has no connection with the situation that we witnessed in the 70s when we had mostly seen ideological conflicts which had much greater socio-political perspective,' Das said.

Political observers fear the ongoing clashes, particularly in the rural areas, could increase in the coming months in the run-up to the assembly polls, with the opposition sniffing a chance to recapture power by ending the LF's uninterrupted reign since 1977.

'The only option we have to counter these violent attacks is people's support,' CPI-M leader Shyamal Chakraborty said. 'We have to go door-to-door to make people understand about what our opposition is doing. It is only the masses who can stop the ongoing bloodbath.'

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