What happened on Saturday in Kolkata with the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) general secretary and Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee is unacceptable and highly condemnable. Nothing can justify any act of violence. Even hardened criminals and murderers can’t be treated like that.
This country’s government is run according to constitutional and legal processes. If people have grievances with TMC and its leaders they can use the legal process. But taking law into your own hands will only lead to anarchy. Like Mahatma Gandhi said long back, “an eye for an eye will turn the whole world blind”. Violence avenged with violence has no end. It will not stop anywhere.
Another TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee, also known for using provocative and foul language when the TMC was in power in Bengal, was targeted on Sunday in Hooghly, a day after Abhishek was pelted with stones and eggs in Kolkata.
People in West Bengal appear to have a lot of anger against the TMC for multiple reasons, including the authoritarian way the party functioned. The anger was manifested in the huge voter turnout and the results, which saw the TMC biting the dust against all its own expectations. The TMC was so overconfident about victory that its leaders issued open public threats to political opponents.
Take, for example, Abhishek Banerjee’s statement, ahead of the counting of votes, which was scheduled on May 4, “I spared you (BJP voters) last time, this time I will take full responsibility of dealing with you. After May 4, I’ll see whose father comes from Delhi to save you. I will see which godfather from Delhi comes to your rescue… I challenge Amit Shah… If you have the guts and if you are truly your father’s son then be present in Bengal after the results. I want to see how big a thug you are…”
Such was the extreme arrogance that the TMC leadership showed till the last day of counting. Its leaders even threatened police officers from other states, who had been deputed for election duty by the Election Commission of India.
When violence took place against the political opponents during the TMC rule, its firebrand MP Mahua Moitra sought to philosophise it, saying “violence is the part of political culture in Bengal.” She went on to say that Bengalis are “charam panthis” (extremists). “Bengal’s political history has always been violent. Violence is part of our political history. That is not dependent on TMC or BJP. There is very little we can do about it,” she said in an interview while the TMC was in power in Bengal and unprecedented violence was taking place against political opponents.
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These statements of TMC leaders, which they made out of sheer hubris for having been in power for three terms and overconfidence that they will win again, have started to haunt them now. As party MPs and leaders are facing public wrath, these old statements and speeches are being played and circulated on multiple social media platforms.
It is an accepted and acknowledged fact that the TMC used to unleash reign of terror on its political opponents and out did its Left predecessors in political violence. Particularly after every election victory, the TMC-backed goons would intimidate, torture and kill their political opponents and nobody would bother. Even the Congress then, despite its workers getting targeted, preferred to observe complete silence lest they annoyed and antagonised Mamata. The same Congress leaders have now come in open support for her as she is facing public anger and backlash.
Well aware of the “violent political culture of Bengal”, as Moitra would put it, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his victory speech after Bengal election results, appealed to people to maintain peace and not indulge in violence. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) pressed its cadres into service against any sort of political violence in the aftermath of the election results.
By and large, and as compared to the 2021 election aftermath, there has been far less violence in West Bengal this time. Violence did take place this time also, but the extent, intensity and scale were far less and negligible as a massive number of security forces remained deployed. Moreover, it was not only the victorious BJP workers, the TMC cadres even after defeat targeted those who had supported the BJP.
But no violence is acceptable in a civilised society that is governed by law and constitution. Moreover, it is neither the Left nor the TMC rule anymore in Bengal, it is the BJP which is in power. The BJP cannot and must not project itself as the mirror image of the TMC or the Left and must not be seen encouraging violence against its political opponents.
The acts of intimidation, stone or egg pelting, in all likelihood appear to be spontaneous rather than planned or sponsored. The onus still lies on the government to prevent these. In case such incidents take place, those responsible must be brought to book immediately. In the modern age when every incident is recorded “live”, it is not difficult to identify the culprits. The onus is on the BJP to prove that actual change has started taking place in Bengal.
As far as the TMC leadership is concerned, it must introspect as to where its entire grassroots cadres and leadership vanished even in its strongholds like Diamond Harbour about which Abhishek Banerjee had challenged Amit Shah that he cannot win from here even if he takes 10 births. In less than a month of making such a statement, Abhishek had to run for his life in the same Diamond Harbour area. That must be a lesson, not only for the TMC but all those who are blinded by power that hubris and pride hath a fall, always.
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