CPM’s 34-year rule in West Bengal (Part 2): Party Machinery, State Terror and Control on the People | Kobad Ghandy with inputs by Raktim Ghosh and Bonhihotri Hazra

(This Part 2 of ’CPM’s 34-year rule in West Bengal’, Part 1 is available here )

by Kobad Ghandy with inputs by Raktim Ghosh and Bonhihotri Hazra

The CPIM party machinery was all dominating in the West Bengal state during their rule. In every social, political, cultural and even in personal matters the CPIM ‘dada’s’ interference was a must. Initially they began with some attempts at land reform but slowly that too degenerated into the old structures that existed earlier. It all started with operation Barga.

Operation Barga

Soon after coming to power in 1977, in 1978 the CPM launched the famous Operation Barga. Operation Barga was a land reform movement, throughout rural West Bengal for recording the names of sharecroppers (bargadars) while avoiding the time-consuming method of recording through the settlement machinery. It bestowed on the bargadars, the legal protection against eviction by the landlords (jotedars), and entitled them to the due share of the produce. Operation Barga was launched in 1978 and concluded by the mid-1980s. Introduced in 1978, and given legal backing in 1979 and 1980, Operation Barga became a popular but controversial measure for land reforms. The ultimate aim of these land reforms was to facilitate the conversion of the state’s bargadars (A Bargadar is a person who cultivates the owner’s land. The Bargadar has to bear all expenses of cultivation, meaning he has to arrange for the cattle, seed, plow, manure, and irrigation. It is then only that it falls under the West Bengal Land Reforms Act.) into landowners, in line with the Directive Principles of State Policy of the Indian Constitution. To date, Op Barga has recorded the names of approximately 1.5 million bargadars. But since its launch after some immediate gains, by the 1990s, most were reversed as the CPM government was more interested in winning over the middle and rich peasantry rather than the bagardars. In fact right from the start there were problems:

According to a 1981 document published by the government of WB, “...the recorded bargadars were forced to pay 50 per cent of the crop even when the landlord only ‘partially’ shared inputs, though legally the landowner had to pay for all major inputs (seed, fertilizer, irrigation etc.) to ensure that share. ... If the bargadar was unrecorded, the situation was much worse. The owners, in such cases, shared 50 per cent of the produce without sharing any input at all: ‘Though the Bargadar is aware of the legal provisions, the situation did not improve’, remarked a report of the statistical cell of the government’s Board of Revenue. [1]

Instead of retaliating, what was the approach of CPIM and its peasant front with respect to this lower stratum of the peasant community during their rule? According to a 1986 document of All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), which is the peasant front of the CPIM, they asked the peasants to restrict the wages of farm labours. According to them, ‘[it] may be necessary to settle for a wage which is lower than the basic demand to win over the rich and the middle peasants’. [2]

During CPIM rule if the peasantry got some early gains in agriculture, after 1990 agriculture suffered a sharp decline. From 1991-1992 to 1995-1996 agriculture had suffered a sharp 16 per cent decline. Again from 1995-1996 to 2000-2001 agriculture had suffered again a steep decline of 9 percent. [3]

In West Bengal, of those registered in 2003, under Primary Agricultural Credit Society, only 14.62 per cent of the pattadars (means a person who holds land directly under the Government under a patta or whose name is registered in the revenue records as pattadar or as occupant and who is liable to pay land revenue in respect of such land and 20.59 per cent bargadars respectively were its member. So the bulk of the pattadars and bagardars had no access of this opportunity to get credit. [4]

According to the West Bengal Human Development Report 2004, there was ‘the rapid increase in landlessness among rural households, despite the continuing process of vested land distribution to pattadars’. It mentioned “that nearly 13.23 per cent of Pattadars and 14.37 per cent of Bargadars had been forced or induced to part with their land over time.” And according to NSS data landlessness of rural households in West Bengal was 39.6 per cent in 1987-88, increased to 41.6 per cent in 1993-94 and again increased to 49.8 per cent in 1999-2000. [5]

In an estimate of the situation in 2007-08 of Pattadars and Bargadars their condition was very critical. More than 90 percent of the bagardars worked in others owned lands getting up to 65 rupees daily wage. While that of the Pattadars was even more critical in this respect. About 70 percent of them were doing work at less than 30 rupees wage a day. In 2007-08 the West Bengal Government fixed a minimum daily wage of 74.33 rupees without meals and 71.3 rupees with meals. Clearly Pattadars and Bargadars get much lower than this minimum daily wage set by the same government. [6]

   You may not have heard of the name of Debabrata Bandopadhyay? He was the pioneer of CPIM’s land reform in WB. He was a civil servant of the Central Government. He said, ’I was then with the Labour Ministry in Delhi. Jyoti Basu and Benoy Choudhury brought me to Kolkata to get Operation Barga going’. He made the blue print of Operation Barga as West Bengal’s Land Reforms Commissioner. [7] Apparently, the CPIM had no intention to give land to the sharecroppers. Debabrata Bandopadhyay said, ’In all of its thirty three years of rule the CPIM did not have time to give sharecroppers ownership rights,... Interestingly successive governments since 1958-led by the Congress, United Front and Left Front had denied these rights, each one of them using the same plea. All three said the time was not yet right’.... ‘’After the work of registering sharecroppers progressed a while, I asked Benoy Choudhury about ownership. He told me the time was not yet right. Today we are in 2008-the time is still not right!’ [8] Debabrata gives another important information about the CPIM’s Operation Barga. He said, ’The registration of sharecroppers completely stopped in 1981 when Operation Barga ended’. [9]

 This deteriorating condition of the rural population of West Bengal was reflected in the growing number of hunger deaths, only a few of which were recorded. Most died silently of so-called disease.

In 2004 it was reported that five adivasis died due to malnutrition and hunger in WB. Such an incident happened at Amlasol, a village under the Banshpahari Gram Panchayat of Binpur—II Block in Paschim Medinipur district of West Bengal. [10]

During 2005 a woman had died due to hunger. Her name was Patu Mura. The then state secretary of CPIM denied such an incident, just like any other ruling party did for any complaint against their government. “Perhaps some will remember, that soon after Patu Mura, an old hungry woman, died in Purulia in West Bengal in September 2005, a debate arose: did she die of hunger or of physical weakness or of unavailability of food or availability of food but absence of access to food or of disease? If some said that her death signified lack of development in the district, the state secretary of the ruling party, CPI (M), infamously said that this death was not an indication of lack of development. Patu Mura had died, but Purulia was developing.” [11]

Around the same time we witness the horrific genocide at Marichjhapi.

Genocide at Marichjhapi

Marichjhapi was the CPIM’s first genocide in WB after forming the government in 1977. Bengal was one of the victims of partition. A nationality was divided into two parts. Not only that, since partition, the refugees who were evicted from the other side of Bengal continued to come to West Bengal. As the refugees were coming in such large numbers, the then Congress government decided not to keep them in West Bengal. As a result, there was much resentment amongst them. They were basically Dalit lower caste people. They were bundled off to the Dandakaranya area and made to clear forests and settle there in a totally alien land.

At that time, the CPM, as an opposition party, opposed sending the refugees to far-off underdeveloped Dandakaranya instead of keeping them in West Bengal. Many senior CPM leaders, including Jyoti Bose, advocated keeping the refugees in West Bengal. Ram Chatterjee, who later was to become a Minister of the Left Front Government, visited Dandakaranya camps and reassured the refugees that there would be a provision for everyone in West Bengal if the Left front government came to power. Ram Chatterjee said, “The 5 crore Bengalis by raising their 10 crore hands are welcoming you back.” But the CPM changed color after coming to power. They said that it is not possible to accommodate so many refugees in West Bengal.

The government attitude turned so hostile they even said that if the refugees start settling somewhere by themselves then also the government will not accept it. There were many reasons for the CPM losing interest in the Dandakaranya refugees. One of the most important reasons was that the CPM realized by then that if large numbers of refugees migrated to West Bengal, they would lose the special electoral advantages gained in Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra — the three states (then) that spanned Dandakaranya. The refugees sent a memorandum from Dandakaranya to then Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Radhika Banerjee in the Left government. Despite repeated requests to the CPM government to do something for them, as no action was taken, they decided to return to the state on their own.

In March 1978, at least one and a half lakh refugees left Dandakaranya in batches for West Bengal. As soon as they got off the train at Hasanabad station, the state police took them to the train and sent them back to Dandakaranya. But many of the desperate refugees escaped and could not be returned by the police. A large section of them along with thousands of children and women arrived at Morichjhapi on 18 April 1978. Marichjhanpi is an island set in the mangrove forests of the Sundarbans in West Bengal, India.

Incidentally, most of these refugees belonged to the Dalit community. But why did the refugees not want to stay in Dandakaranya? Because the refugees from East Pakistan at that time could not adapt to the environment of the Dandakaranya with their lifestyle habits of living in the Bengal plains for so many years. And it was very difficult to survive there on the land that was given to them.

S.K. Gupta, chairman of the Delhi Development Authority in 1964-65, noted that in Pharasgaon region, “6% of the plots were basically unfit for agriculture, 32% were poor and sub-marginal, 53% could be of medium quality if their moisture retention capacity could be improved, and only 9% were of good quality”. There was no electricity. To get proper drinking water was very difficult. Health services were almost non-existent. There they lived in concentration camp like conditions. Similar looking huts or tarpaulin tents were put up to be crammed with refugees. The boundaries were surrounded by barbed wires and guarded. The places were named Permanent Liability Camps.

That is why the refugees were so eager to return to Bengal. As the CPM had supported them for so many years, they felt the new government will definitely make good arrangements for them. But that did not happen and those that settled at Marichjhanpi built their own settlement by their own efforts through cooperatives. They did not get any government help whatsoever. They set up schools and health centers on their own initiative. They set up necessary shops to meet their needs. They dug tube wells for fresh water. They were quickly developing Morchijhapi as a thriving center of the fish industry. They were building their own alternative with the help of the common people of the Sundarbans.

The government could not accept this ’arrogance’ - that helpless refugees could become so adamant that they could even build an alternative for themselves without any government assistance. The government could not tolerate this. The government decided to demolish the settlement quickly, before it became an example for others. On 26 January 1979 they encircled the island and imposed an economic blockade.

Thirty police launches surrounded the island. There was only one means of communication with the outside world, the waterway. The island began to be attacked from time to time by police launches. Using tear gas, sinking boats of residents, setting fire to their houses, destroying fish embankments and tubewells, continued together with the economic blockade. And when someone broke the blockade and tried to swim to the other side, they were being shot dead.

In one such incident, the refugee residents were trying to collect some food from a neighbouring island by boat. The day was 31 January 1979. Police fired at them. 36 people lost their lives on the spot. As the boat was blocked, the refugees were stranded. Many people died due to lack of food, water and medicine. Not that the media didn’t know all this. But the CPM set a precedent long before the current BJP government on the question of monitoring the media.

When the reports of Marichjhapi started appearing in the media, Jyoti Basu, then chief minister of Bengal, shamelessly, termed it as a ’CIA conspiracy’ against the newly elected communist government of Bengal and exhorted the media to support the government in the ’national interest’.

Does the phrase “national interest” sound familiar? The Modi government’s use of this phrase to cover its own infamy and thus restoring to unquestioning loyalty, in fact, started long ago. The final attack was carried out by the police from 14 to 16 May 1979. Police burnt more than 6000 houses. Massive looting, murder-rape and arson attacks continued against the refugees for three days.

Those that survived were forcibly taken to Kolkata and sent back to Dandakaranya. There are differing opinions on how many people were killed in the process. According to some 5 to 6 thousand and according to some 7 thousand. There is no exact calculation anywhere, but an idea can be made.
The earliest writings on this incident was by A. Biswas who wrote, in 1982, that ‘...out of the 14,388 families who fled the Dandakaranya camps and came to West Bengal, 10,260 families returned to their previous places . . . and the remaining 4,128 families perished in transit, died of starvation, exhaustion, and many were killed in Kashipur, Kumirmari, and Marichjhapi by police firings”. [A. Biswas, 1982, “Why Dandakaranya a Failure, Why Mass Exodus, Where Solution?” The Oppressed Indian 4(4):18-20.] According to Wikipedia the clash between armed residents and the police resulted in about 10,000 (mentioned in blood island book) deaths; although the exact number is unknown, researchers believe that several collateral deaths took place from violent clashes, alleged police brutality, and disease.

But why did the CPM commit such a terrible massacre? The official reason given was that the refugees were destroying the environment of the region. In the statement of the CPI(M) government, ‘Marichjhapi is a part of the Sundarbans government reserve forest’ and therefore Dalit refugees were ‘violating the Forest Acts and thereby disturbing the existing and potential forest wealth and also creating ecological imbalance’.

That Morichjhampi was a protected island was a pure lie. Even a child can understand that this was a lame excuse to carry out such a massacre. The very fact that poor dalit refugees could build their own destiny independently of the government and administration scared the ruling establishment, including the CPM.

The ruling class looks upon the idea of an alternative cooperative without government assistance as extremely dangerous. As, if people were to successfully build cooperatives and flourish where would the need for governance and corporate loot come in. This initiative, that too by the poorest of the poor, had to be crushed; ironically it was the CPM who shouldered the responsibiity, under the banner of "Left Alternative".

As rulers themselves, they did not hesitate to go beyond all bounds of barbarism. In addition, there was much money to be made as shown by Shantanu Chakraborty, professor of history at Calcutta University.

"This was precisely the time when the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) was sponsoring the creation of the Project Tiger in Sundarban areas of Bengal. A lot of areas were preserved for tiger projects - as a result of which the Left did not want these settlers to come and settle down there," he says. The professor continues: "We still don’t know how much funding came from the World Wildlife Foundation for Project Tiger. We don’t know whether part of the money went in the hands of local politicians and bureaucrats of the contemporary period. But you do have such examples from Africa. In Africa, the WWF has been accused during the 1980s-1990s of clearing out areas and trying to create animal conservation and protection parks in nearby areas with support from local governments. It has been alleged that a lot of money changed hands. But we do not know if something like that happened in Marichjhapi as well - that would explain the government’s action against refugees." [12]

In an interview to Kolkata Television in a documentary on Markhjhanpi, Amiyo Kumar Samanta, a retired superintendent of police and a key figure in the 1979 operation, admitted that the plan was to push the refugees to the wall, by enforcing an economic blockade and cutting off food supplies.” [13] And thereafter “the CPIM led government mounted an assault on the island lasting three days and three nights. With the job done, the boats turned back and Marichjhanpi sank into the shadows, a ghost island. All that remained were fragments of violence-torched houses, corpses heaped on the land, some thrown in the water. Coming so early in the long life of the Marxist government, Marichjhanpi was a warning of the terrible violence the rulers were capable of wreaking, in times of peace, on a defenseless people.” [14]

After such a massacre those who survived tried to fight for some justice in the High Court. Shakya Sen, their lawyer submitted a 30-page document to the Calcutta High Court, documenting the extent of devastation and killings that took place. But in July 1979 during the final hearing of the case, the court dismissed the case. [15]

Massacres And Missing People at behest of CPM Goonda force

On 30 April 1982 the CPIM did their second big massacre after coming to power. Ananda Margis, a religious sect, 17 members of them including a nun had been burnt alive in broad daylight by the CPIM goons at Calcutta’s Bijan Setu. The National Human Rights Commission took over the investigation of this incident after fourteen long years. But as the State Government did not cooperate with them the investigation did not progress. [16] Till today no one has been arrested for this incident. Not even a single culprit had been booked. [17]

Then again in 1990 the trigger happy police of the CPIM opened fire on a movement against tram fare increase. According to Ranabir Samaddar, “In 1990, the 13-party combination of small radical parties had begun agitating over the rise in tram and bus fares. For about a month the agitation had continued on a non-eventful, slow pace. Minor agitation squads were out on the streets. The Congress (I) was trying to hasten the pace. In the Taratola area of the city of Calcutta the police had opened fire resulting in the death of one person. On the Howrah Bridge, women agitators belonging to the Congress (I) had been manhandled by the police. There had been some sporadic attempts to put buses on fire. Then suddenly the Congress (I) declared a general strike in Calcutta. The Congress leader Mamata Banerjee was beaten up severely on the day of the strike. The incident drew severe condemnation from all quarters of the population. The 13-party combination of the small Left and Naxalite parties also declared a general strike throughout the state.” [18]

Another specific feature of CPM rule was the disappearances of people with no record whatsoever. Many persons have gone missing from the police files from the time of CPIM rule in WB. Many of these were people who raised their voice against the ruling party and its corruption. One of them was Manisha Mukherjee. She was Calcutta University’s deputy controller of examinations. From December 1994 she has been missing. After 10 years of her disappearance on 6 July 2004 The Telegraph published an article about her disappearance named ’Tales of Gore, Truth Untold’. There they wrote, ’Calcutta University’s deputy controller of examinations Manisha Mukherjee disappeared from her house in December 1994. Her mother, Chinu Devi, initially gave the police a lot of information about the possible places where she could be hiding, apparently to save herself from "some university people" who wanted to kill her, as she knew about a lot of corrupt deals all over eastern India. Amidst talk of political "fixing", Manisha remained untraced. But the case file, the thickest with the Calcutta Police, hasn’t been opened for a while.’ [19]

In the list of such missing people, there was another person, a jute mill worker, named Bhikari Paswan. In this case he was picked up by a police team led by Harmanprit Singh, then Additional Superintendent of Police in Hoogly on 30th October 1993. After that he disappeared and there is no trace of him till date. This case was handed over to the CBI; they too failed. He was a leading voice of the workers of Victoria Jute Mill in Telinipara, in the Hoogly district of West Bengal. Due to unpaid wages, Provident Fund and bonus dues workers were agitating there. They were very angry against the Trade Union’s compromising attitude. Many workers were arrested and one of them was Bhikari Paswan. Police denied that they ever arrested him but the Association of Protection of Democratic Rights investigated the case. They found, ’in the light of the facts which have come to light during the investigations, it can be concluded that Bhikari Paswan was indeed picked up by the police party from his residence on the night of 30/31 October 1993 at about 12.30 a.m. His whereabouts since then are not known.’ [20]

In an article in mainstream, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was quoted as saying that in a reply to an Assembly question, stated that between 1977 (when they came to power) and 1996, 28,000 political murders were committed.

D. Bandopadhya using these very same figures of Buddhadeb Bhattacharya calculated the murders between 1997 and 2009, to be an annual average of 2,284 coming to a total of 27,408 in this latter half of CPM rule. Thus between 1977 and 2009 the total number of murders was 28,000 + 27,408 = 55,408. It means a yearly average of 1787, a monthly average of 149 and a daily average of five. In other words, in every four hours and 50 minutes one person was being killed for political reasons in West Bengal. What an achievement!” [21] And these are based on the official figures the ground reality would be far worse.

Democracy CPM-style 

Now let us take a look at the 2003 Panchayat election of WB as an example. From a news report of The Indian Express, of 8 May 2003, we got to know what was the practical status of other Left Front partners during the rule of CPIM. Let us read the report first, “a senior minister of the Left Front, Amar Chowdhury, was attacked and chased away by CPIM cadres brandishing firearms during an election meeting at North 24 Parganas late yesterday evening. Chowdhury, an RSP leader and Public Works Department (PWD) Minister in the Left Front Cabinet, was whisked away to safety by supporters when armed CPIM cadres chased him. He ran for about a kilometre before getting shelter in the house of a party supporter. He escaped unhurt but at least seven RSP supporters were assaulted by the CPIM mob. The RSP meeting at Jelekhali village under Sandeshkhali police station had to be called off as tension gripped the area. The Sunderbans have been a traditional stronghold of the RSP. But it is also a region where the CPIM and the RSP have bitter fights over control. In the run up to the panchayat polls this year, at least 15 murders have taken place in clashes between the two sides and had forced a section of RSP leaders to talk of a poll boycott.” [22]

In the case of the 2003 Panchayat election in WB, one tenth of elected representatives were won without any contest. They won even before the election took place. Naturally they were all from the ruling party CPIM. [23]
A similar kind of violence also happened during the 2008 Panchayat poll too. During the Panchayat election of 2008 in Basanti village of South 24 Pargana district the CPIM had killed their front partner RSP’s 5 supporters. The Left Front Minister (RSP) Kshiti Goswami said, ’Democracy is being throttled. If they can do this to their allies what will happen to the rest of the people? Is this a poll or a farce’? What was the level of terror the CPIM created in WB during their rule one could guess from this. [24]

Rape, murder and Molestation of Women

The late 80s witnessed a horrific incidence at Bantala, near Calcutta. There CPIM goons attacked, raped and murdered brutally Anita Dewan and brutally injured another two women, one of them from the central government. Anita Dewan was a senior officer of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
A senior lady officer of the UNICEF and another senior officer of the Government of India detected a case of huge embezzlement of UN funds by some CPI-M organisation within the South 24-Parganas district. When they were returning with a lot of incriminating evidence, their vehicle was waylaid at Bantala by CPI-M goons. The vehicle was set on fire to destroy all documentary evidence. The driver, who tried to protect the two lady officers, was killed. Then the lady officers were raped and one of them murdered and her body without any cloth left on the open paddy field. When the then Chief Minister, Jyoti Basu, was informed of the incident, he quipped to the waiting mediamen: “Such incidents do happen, don’t they?”

“Then came the incident of Suchapur murders, where 11 Muslim agricultural workers were killed in a gruesome manner because they demanded minimum wage rates fixed by the government from the CPI-M jotedars (landlords). Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee in a statement laid on the table of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly made the following disclosure for the year 2009 only:

Rape : 2516
Outraging Modesty: 3013
Torture of Brides : 17, 571
(Source: Dainik Statesman, Kolkata, July 16, 2010)

But why only West Bengal, justification of rape and male chauvinism will be found everywhere in the CPIM’s body language. Let us take a look at a cover story of Outlook magazine, ’Cover story: The Female Principle ’98: Rogues’ Gallery’, published on 19 January 1998. After revelation of the Kozhikode call girl racket, then Kerala Chief Minister and obviously CPIM leader E. K. Nayanar reacted, ‘As long as there are women, there will be sex scandals’. But he didn’t stop there. About the incidence of increasing crimes against women, increasing rape and molestation in Kerala state, he argued, ’In the US, rape is like drinking a cup of coffee’. So why are people questioning him. He was a ‘communist’-branded coffee loving CM of Kerala. But what if his party wants to project Susheela Gopalan a woman as CM of Kerala? Clear answer there: ’If you want to run after women, you are free to do so. I will not’. [25]

After 2000, the violence against women in WB increased rapidly. “From being one of the safest states for women in 2000, Bengal sank into being one of the most dangerous. Prior to 2000, Bengal ranked 22nd among India’s states in terms of crimes against women; by 2004-05, it was placed in the 2nd position after UP.” [26] The maximum number of tortures of women happened between 2000 and 2011 in WB. According to Bandana Chatterjee, “There was an unmistakable rise in crimes against women from 2000 onwards as we have just mentioned, but past 2005 the rise became alarming, to say the least. Crimes against women generally include rape, molestation, dowry deaths, eve teasing, cruelty and torture by husbands and his relatives, and kidnapping of girls and women. In 2000 the cases of such crimes in West Bengal was recorded to be 7043, but by 2005 the figure nearly doubled to 12,706. The state had the distinction of occupying the second highest place in the country. This trend continued till 2011.” [27] During that time rape had increased exponentially in WB. “With regard to rape cases in the state a similar pattern is evident. In 2000, the figure was, according to SCRB, 814 but by 2004 it rose to 1475 and in 2005 it was 1673. By 2004-05 West Bengal was reported to have the second highest number of rape cases in the country.” [28] Even the record of West Bengal State Crime-Record Bureau’s data shows such increase of violence against women. “By 2010 in West Bengal, 26,125 cases of crimes against women were registered. Its position was second just after Andhra Pradesh (27,244). By 2011, this figure rose to 29,133, with 2363 rape cases, the highest in the country. Besides, there were 4168 cases of kidnapping and 19,865 cases of cruelty by husband. Thus according to the NCRB, by 2010-11 the state was in the top rank in terms of crimes against women for eight successive years. From 2004-10, it had the second highest incidence of rape and by 2010, had the highest. Between 2009 and ’10, rape cases increased in the rest of India by 15%; in West Bengal it was by 34%. It had also the highest number of cases of domestic violence and trafficking.” [29] And in case of domestic violence WB was ahead of every other state. “In the entire range of crimes against women the crime most reported from the state is domestic violence, i.e., torture by husband or in-laws. This is supported and substantiated by NCRB data. Even before 2000, the percentage of domestic violence in the state was much higher than the national average. According to NCRB, in 2001 there were 3859 cases of domestic violence; by 2004-05 the figure rose to 6936 and in 2007 it was 9990. In 2008, Bengal was second on the list of cruelty and domestic violence. Of the 81,344 cases reported in 2008, about 3,663 were from Bengal. By 2010 17,796 cases of domestic violence were registered.” [30]

Local CPM officials also interfere and dictate the personal lives of the people. So, for example in a village named Jagannathpur (It is 50 km west of Kolkata) a 28-year-old woman named Purnima Biswas belonged to a family which very much benefitted by Operation Barga. She was gang raped in May 2005. The rapists were locally powerful. Police hesitated to take any complaint against them. The family went to the local CPIM leader for help, but the local CPIM official refused to help her. The local CPIM party leader declared that the woman was characterless. He claimed that previously he saw that woman in an obscene position with one local guy. He ordered her to marry that guy. But that woman refused, knowing the character of that guy whom he mentioned.

Look at another incident, which took place 100 km north of Kolkata at Nadia. In this case too there was also a woman whose name was Malati Topdar. When the report was published her age was 37. She was in love with a neighbour of hers. After knowing that, the CPIM village Panchayat member, Sujoy Biswas, asked her to come to their party office. She was told to divorce her husband, Shantanu Topdar. This order was given to her by that CPIM leader in that party office. She was ordered to go back to her parents’ home leaving her 6 years old daughter. She was given only 72 hours’ time to implement the order. [31]

The list can go on and on of CPM interference in peoples’ personal lives without anyone daring to question the official. Like BJP’s Gujrat no one wants to dare to become a witness against powerful CPIM leaders. In 2009 the Sessions court at Ranaghat in Nadia convicted four persons. Why? Because an incident happened in February 2003, where some goons attacked a marriage party : they killed the bus driver and raped six women passengers there. Due to lack of witnesses the Court let off 17 others including two local CPIM leaders Subal Bagchi and Saidul Islam. On 1st April 2009, a report had been published in Indian Express with ’Four Get Life Term for Rape, Loot and Murder’ as the headline. The report stated, ’Bagchi was then a member of the CPIM zonal committee from Ranaghat and Islam was the pradhan of Kamalpur gram panchayat. A large number of witnesses had turned hostile in the case affecting the prosecution. Ninety per cent of the witnesses out of the 158 turned hostile, said Dilip Chatterjee, the counsel of the state government.’ [32]

Question of Migrants, Muslims, Dalits and Other Nationalities 

In some aspects the CM of the CPIM led WB Government was the predecessor of Amit Shah and Yogi Adityanath. During 2003 the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)-led central government passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2003. According to that Act, all refugees who have migrated to India after 1971 have been declared illegal. On this issue the then CM of WB, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, said, ‘...on the question of dealing with illegal infiltrators from Bangladesh, our state government is in agreement with the government of India that whenever such infiltration is detected, the foreign nationals should be pushed back forthwith’. [33] One could easily relate this with the approach of the BJP leaders during the 2019 anti NRC, anti CAA movement. But the CPIM led state government did not stop there. Against such Act and approach of the Central and State Government, Matua leaders of West Bengal started a hunger strike - “On December 15, 2004, a hunger strike was called by Matua Mahasangh at Thakurbari, the headquarters of the MM in Thakurnagar, a refugee settlement in the district North 24 Parganas about 50 kilometres north of Calcutta. They demanded that the 2003 citizenship Act must be immediately repealed and all refugees migrating from Bangladesh must be given unconditional citizenship.

Twenty-one Matuas led by Ganapati Biswas, the former general secretary of the MM, and refugee leader Sukriti Ranjan Biswas, sat for the fast unto death programme. Hundreds of devotees visited on a regular basis their revered Thakurbari where the heirs of their preceptors — Harichand and Guruchand Thakur —now live. On the 5th day of the strike, the police along with the local Sub-Divisional and Block Development Officer intervened to dismantle the crowd assembled at the venue of protest. The Matuas surged forward in huge numbers, recalled Ganapati Biswas, in order to resist the police which was encroaching into their sacrosanct space — the Thakurbari and the temple premises. The women, Ganapati babu categorically mentioned, played a significant role in guarding the venue. The massive presence of the Matuas finally compelled the police to leave in order to avoid unwanted tussle.” [34]
The Matuas are the largest dalit community of West Bengal, most of whom were pushed out of Bangladesh. Their leaders consider the Matuas as brahmins and there is little influence of Ambedkar on them. Given the historical background of division of Bengal and that they were hounded out of Bangladesh, they have more anti-islamic than anti-brahmin sentiments.
A Rohit Vemula like incident happened in WB during left rule. The victim’s name was Chuni Kotal. “Another eye-opening case of structural violence unleashed on Dalits by the brahminical establishment in higher academic spaces was the tragic story of Chuni Kotal, a Lodha girl who chose to commit suicide after being abused continuously by the upper-caste faculty of a state university.” [35] In 1992, Chuni Kotal’s death by suicide created a political uproar in West Bengal. Magsaysay award winner Mahasweta Devi had made public Kotal’s life story in an article for the Economic and Political Weekly journal. Outrageous and shocking in equal measure, the casteism that plagued every corner of Kotal’s life was not very different from many others in the marginalised communities of India.

Similarly on the issue of the demand of a separate Gorkhaland, although the CPIM officially always claim that their stand is in favour of nationality right movements, they declared the Gorkhaland movement as anti-national! Long before Modi’s BJP, the CPIM propagated this trend that anyone opposing them will be tagged as anti-national. In a publication named Information Document (1987) II. Gorkhaland Agitation: Facts and Issues, published by the Government of West Bengal, it was stated that they “unanimously holds that the Gorkhaland movement, led by Gorkha National Liberation Front is divisive, anti-people, anti-national and anti-state.” [36]

The Sachar committee presented their report in 2006 about the condition of the Muslims living in WB. According to that report, ‘the rhetoric of secularism, the state of Muslims in West Bengal was among the worst in the country’. [37] And long before the BJP led Modi government, the ‘communist’ CM of WB Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee spoke about Madrassas in 2007 as being ‘dens of terrorism’. [38] According to Sachar Committee Report, “For a 25.2 per cent Muslim population, the Left Front government over 33 years had provided a mere 2.1 per cent of government jobs. Even Gujarat was better.

Conclusion

So, we find that the CPM govt rule in WB has been reactionary in all spheres: whether it is on the NEP, casteism, patriarchy, communalism and their actions have bordered on the extreme fascists. CPM sympathetic intellectuals are silent on these atrocities and give the impression that such neo-fascists can be an effective force in countering the fascism of the BJP/RSS. It is wishful thinking. Many a liberal seek to whitewash this harsh reality. The CPM’s Harmad vahini was little different from any other state terror force. No wonder they are now hated by the people of WB, though a small section of the Badralokh/Brahminical middle classes may still support them. Ironically this same class of people support the RSS.

Post Script: Meanwhile as we go to the press there are even more examples of collaboration between the CPM and BJP in the forthcoming Panchayat elections. On June 17th Dhupuri Times released a video showing CPM, Congess and BJP jointly filing nomination papers for the local panchayat polls in Dhupuri, Siliguri district of North Bengal. The posters have come up at the panchayat election of 130 Pathar Pratima assembly booth no. 40. The candidate, Bandana Majumder. Is the independent candidate supported by the bjp, left parties and congress. Then again the 23June issue of the Anand Bazar Patrika reported that in West Midnapur the BJP< CPM< TMC jointly put up a independent candidate against the SUCI candidate. Local activists from Bankura reported that in the local panchayat election the BJP has not put up any candidate and is supporting the CPM one. In fact the BJP’s main leader Subhendu Adhikari (who had defected from the TMC), major local cadre force are all from the CPM.