Though Mamata Banerjee had promised to restore the rule of law in West Bengal, her Government has done quite the opposite in the past five years. The TMC has absorbed the goons of the Left and used them to systematically dismantle the law and order machinery
One of the solemn pledges made by Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee before the 2011 Assembly poll, which brought her to power with a thumping majority, was to “restore and uphold the rule of law in the State and rescue the State administration from the clutches of the party-centric and cadre-centric exploitation model introduced by the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front Government.” But in the past five years, the CPI(M)s ‘cadre raj’ has been replaced by the TMC’s ‘goonda raj’. Ironically, most of TMC goondas are former Marxist goons who, in order to evade the police cases against them, sought protection from Banerjee’s party. They became the TMC’s storm troopers for terrorising political rivals and rigging elections. These goons, enjoying the protective umbrella of their didi have even dared to attack, ransack and burn down police thanas and kill policemen.
Under ‘Mamata raj’, although there has not been any mass killing like in Nandigram and Netai during CPI(M) rule, a dreadful fright has gripped the people of the State. Locals worry that they may be bumped off at any time by party goons for not following party dictates. Often First Information Reports are not even registered, if the goon is supported by the ruling TMC. An influential TMC Minister who was named in an murder case FIR in Bally was not charge-sheeted because of his proximity to didi. The Calcutta High Court has issued several strictures against the police’s partisan behaviour but the men in uniform have taken no notice of them.
How audacious have TMC goons become in these five years of didi raj is best illustrated by the recent arson attack on Mayureshwar police station in Birbhum district by TMC-backed goons. The latter resented the police personnel’s attempts to corner the lion’s share of amount extorted from the sand mafia, which is allowed to illegally lifting sand from the river bed.
Last winter, Alipore police station, located in the heart of south Kolkata, was attacked and ransacked by TMC goons who opposed the police’s eviction of encroachers on Government land. Policemen had to flee from the station, fearing that they would be lynched. There have also been reports of policemen in uniform being slapped, abused and severely assaulted in Kolkata and the suburbs, by Trinamool leaders (and even their relatives) when booked even for minor traffic violations. None involved in these attacks have been arrested.
The result of these attacks has been that the police are no longer held in awe because of which lawlessness has become rampant and endemic. Extortion rackets and syndicates run by numerous TMC groups are thriving. This has led to armed factional feuds and clashes in which a dozen TMC supporters have been killed in recent months. These TMC factions, in order to maintain their political influence in the party, have raised their own armed groups and arsenal, and even turned many Bengal villages into bomb manufacturing units. In fact, bomb making has almost become a cottage industry in some parts where it has become the primary source of income for unemployed rural youth. Many lives have been lost while making bombs. In the first week of this month alone, six youths were killed while handling explosive in Birbhum.
The most deplorable part of didi raj is that the police’s authority and its ability to maintain law and order have been challenged and compromised by no less a person than the Chief Minister herself. Notably, soon after being sworn into office, Banerjee had gone to a police station in Kolkata at midnight to get anti-socials from her party, detained for rowdy behaviour, released from lock-up. The message she delivered through her intervention was this: The police should avoid arresting TMC workers even if they commit crimes. And if in case, their arrest is unavoidable, the police should file such a weak charge-sheet that the court is forced to set them free.
This is what happened in the 2013 Kamduni rape case. The two TMC leaders who had been named in the FIR were acquitted, as the charge-sheet against them prepared by the police was, according to the judge, “very very weak”. The police could not muster enough courage to arrest a district TMC leader who had publicly exhorted his supporters to bomb thanas. Although a case had been filed against him, the police dared not to arrest him, as he was seen sharing public and party platforms with Chief Minister Banerjee.
State Police has been served with an unwritten instruction from party bigwigs that influential TMC leaders and supporters cannot be touched, however serious the charge against them. The best illustration of this is the killing of Corporal Abhimanyu Gaur of the Indian Air Force. The officer was leading a marching column during a Republic Day rehearsal parade in Kolkata when he was mowed down by a speeding Audi, driven by TMC leader Mohammad Sohrab’s son. The luxury car bulldozed through three road barriers, crushed the Corporal, and sped away. The driver and his brother fled to Ranchi where their father had arranged for a safe house.
Right from the beginning of the investigation, Kolkata Police bosses who were well aware of the Sohrabs’s TMC connections as well as links with the underworld, tried to play safe. As a result, neither of the Sohrab sons nor the father surrendered until 72 hours had elapsed. It was only when the Eastern Air Command in Shillong and Delhi’s Air Headquarter served an ultimatum that one of the sons surrendered. But the father and the second son are still in hiding. Although the police bosses quite possibly know their whereabouts, they are not being arrested, as there is no clearance yet from an influential TMC Minister.
What has earned West Bengal infamy under didi raj is the steep rise in crimes against women. According to the National Crime Bureau, West Bengal tops the national list for the number of rape cases. The NCB report states that during 2012-2014, West Bengal registered 1,656 rape cases for which 1,848 arrests were made. But only 57 were convicted — the lowest in the country. Even Bihar and Uttar Pradesh had better conviction rates.
In West Bengal, many high profile rape cases, like the one in Kolkata’s Park Street and in Kamduni, saw key TMC functionaries along with the police help the principal accused flee the city. Chief Minister Banerjee’s irresponsible comments have also contributed handsomely to the steep rise in crimes against women. In the aftermath of the Park Street rape case, she said, “This rape episode is a stage-managed show meant to defame my Government”. The investigating IPS officer who, despite political pressure, maintained that it was a clear case of rape, was shunted to an insignificant posting.
During didi raj, the State police have earned so much notoriety for their servility to the TMC supremo that the Election Commission has divested it of all responsibilities for maintaining law and order in the State in the coming Assembly election. State policy will not be allowed to guard polling booths or be anywhere near them before, during and after the Assembly polls, as they had, in the past, allowed TMC goons to capture booths and rig elections. The services of 80,000 central paramilitary personnel have been sought by the Election Commission for maintaining peace and order before and during election. This is unprecedented.
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