Author: Editorial
Publication: The Statesman
Date: April 20, 2003
Introduction: Panchayat poll reduced
to a farce
Mamata Banerjee's apprehensions
over the 11 May panchayat poll are justified. It is now established in
as many as 19,000 out of 58,357 constituencies opposition candidates have
been unable to file nomination papers because of terror tactics adopted
by the CPI-M. It is inconceivable that the ruling party could win as uncontested
as many as 10,000 seats. This has never happened either in West Bengal
or elsewhere earlier. In block after block in West and East Midnapore,
Hooghly, Bankura and parts of Howrah, the two 24 Parganas and Burdwan districts,
the Opposition has been forced to concede such large number of uncontested
seats. In Hooghly alone the ruling LF, specially the CPI-M, has scored
uncontested victories in 1,200 seats. The picture is worse in Midnapore's
Marxist-liberated zones like Kespur, Garbeta and Pingla where the Marxists
specially targeted seats bagged by the Trinamul-BJP alliance in the last
election. To physical attacks and killings have been added original psychological
terror - shrouds, widow's apparel and death threats have been sent to Opposition
households. Figures speak for themselves. 1,850 such wins were recorded
in 1993, five years later they came down to 668. This year's figure is
nearly 20,000. It is probably worse; unknown independents have filed nominations
in an effort at damage limitation, they will withdraw at the last moment
and swell the number of uncontested winners. Yet the state election commissioner
Ajay Sinha says the nomination process was conducted in an orderly manner
and described allegations to the contrary as baseless, despite the evidence.
He is only echoing the lies mouthed by CPI-M leaders earlier. For someone
who has not exactly covered himself with glory during his service career
he is lucky to be rewarded with a lucrative post-retirement job. He is
needed to ensure the success of the Marxist tactics to encourage some Congress
victories in order to damn the real opposition - the Trinamul. Pranab Mukherjee
inadvertently confirmed the plot.
What is disquietening is the rising
graph of Marxist terror in every successive election. They experimented
with the Kolkata Corporation elections in 1990. Its lumpen elements armed
with guns and bombs captured booths and rigged the poll which Jyoti Basu
called a "glorious victory." The State Election Commission and the police
abdicated their functions. The technique was repeated unabashedly in other
elections including the Salt Lake Municipal poll in 2000 and 2001 assembly
elections. The CPI-M don't believe in the maxim "as you sow so you reap"
- they want to grab what they can and the devil take the hindmost. But
it has already been paid back in the same coin by the Jharkhandis who got
their candidates elected unopposed in Jamboni. Will Alimuddin Street draw
the obvious lessons and mend their ways?
