Herald View: Bengal burns as BJP fiddles to bag a few more seats in the Lok Sabha

BJP’s desperate attempt to win as many seats in West Bengal to make up for its much-anticipated losses in the Hindi heartland has plummeted the eastern state in a spiral of political violence and acts of vandalism. It is true that Bengal has had a history of political violence. In the late 60’s, the Naxalite Movement was in itself an armed movement and the counter-movement tactics of the then Congress state government was also extremely violent. The culture of violence was institutionalised during the Left Front rule from 1977 to 2011 and the ruling All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) duly inherited the same in 2011. But this was never communal in nature. After the Noakhali days of pre-Independence India, this is for the first time, communal polarisation has engulfed the state again.

The irony is that it is all happening under the watchful eye of the Election Commission of India (ECI) which has conveniently looked the other way. West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh were the only states where the police top brass was reshuffled upon the ECI’s orders. Both are ruled by parties that stand against the BJP. In spite of opposition parties requesting for the same in NDA-ruled states like Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh, no such order has been passed. This is specially relevant in light of the massive violence and arson that BJP supporters indulged in on the streets of Kolkata in the evening of May 14, Tuesday, where they ransacked the historical Vidyasagar College, set fire to two wheelers and broke the bust of Bengal Renaissance idol Pandit Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar.

It is also true that the ruling AITC and its leader, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, is in no mood to cede any ground to the BJP. And this has led to a series of fights and confrontations between the ruling party and the BJP. It is also true that as the AITC is so well entrenched in the state, Bengal’s BJP supporters and workers have not been able to match them. So, as is evident from those who have been arrested for indulging in violence in Kolkata during the Amit Shah roadshow, the BJP has thrown in money and hired muscle power from states like Assam, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and even from as far as Gujarat.

Reports have come in from Kolkata how the Taj Bengal luxury hotel was teeming with BJP workers from Gujarat. Nearly all hotels in the city, from budget to luxury, have been booked by these outsiders. This is dangerous as Bengali sentiment, already hurting from the insult of Vidyasagar, may give rise to a linguistic xenophobia which the state has not witnessed ever before. One hopes good sense will prevail and Bengal’s electorate will defeat the forces seeking to divide Bengal’s society on religious and linguistic lines.