West Bengal poll violence through democracy’s prism
Elections are often described, even casually, as a metaphor for a battlefield to build up a mere electoral contest to a trench war. But when an election to a small Assembly constituency actually turns into one, like Nandigram in Purba Medinipur, West Bengal, did on Thursday, it sends a chilling message. When the CM of a state, who’s also a candidate, is virtually stranded in a booth, two hours, and has to be escorted out to safety, and when Section 144 has to be clamped around booths, questions need to be asked about the Indian electoral process. And about where we are headed as a democracy. Questions can also be raised and should be raised about why she was there. What kind of strategy, what aspect of political fire-fighting took her to the epicentre of strife? It was no political thriller we were watching on an OTT platform, this was real. Boyal, the area where the incumbent CM Mamata Banerjee was stuck in her wheelchair, saw two sides of the big fight, TMC and BJP, shout slogans like war cries, stones and sticks in the hands. The complaint was that the TMC polling agent was not allowed anywhere near the polling station. Elsewhere, her arch rival, BJP candidate Suvendu Adhikari, claimed that his polling agents too were not allowed into 122 booths. So jamming of elections, allegations of rigging, intimidation, violence, you name it, there was not a single election malpractice that was not alleged. And some of it reported too. Media on the ground bore the brunt of some of the brickbats.
The Election Commission’s observers later reported that despite ‘sporadic’ bits of violence, polling went on smoothly. Is it done and dusted then? Till we encounter the next Nandigram? It is of course commendable that not one round of bullet was fired or lathicharge or teargas used. But at what cost? This almost macabre pitched battle, not of ballot, took place in full media glare. It’s time we ask ourselves what is the worth of a victory won under such circumstances. What is the worth of an election that can only be conducted in the presence of large posses of Central and state security forces. Some of the answering has to be done by the EC too. An institution must stand with the people, not political forces. Bengal too must ask itself where it went astray.