It needs stressing that the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) had launched a mass movement at the time calling for a separate Nepali-speaking state. There had been sporadic violence in the hills as GJM supporters, many of them ex servicemen, attacked government offices, destroying some of them. Efforts made by the state police to control the situation failed.

The TMC government apparently reacted in panic, according to Kolkata-based observers. Prior to the government crackdown on the GJM and its supporters, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had to leave Darjeeling town in a hurry. Following a tense, high level official meeting one evening, she requested the army to escort her car to Siliguri town from Darjeeling , following a sudden outbreak of violence and angry demonstrations.

The duration of the internet shutdown in Bengal eclipsed all records of similar restrictions on civil liberties in even Afghanistan and Jammu and Kashmir in 2017! Human rights activists in Kolkata said the cut -off period for internet facilities in Afghanistan, a country plunged into a deadly civil war costing thousands of lives for over a decade, was 20 days beginning Nov 1, 2017. And in Kashmir, there had occurred a 31- day break in internet services, from April 27 onwards, as the law and order situation deteriorated sharply.

According to open source data, the same year , Kashmir suffered yet another shutdown of internet for 15 days, beginning July 20. Ironically, most of the prolonged instances of the banning of internet in 2017 reported in the world had occurred in India. At Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh, for instance, there had occurred a 12-day ban on the internet following a communal clash.

In North Bengal, however, the TMC-led state government did not stop with the internet ban, as the separatist mass agitation launched by the GJM carried on for well over 100 days, another record. It went a step further and imposed censorship on press coverage, acting against a Nepali media organisation (ABN) operating from Darjeeling. On a complaint from the West Bengal government’s Information department, Darjeeling district authorities stopped the broadcasting of the unit’s radio programmes in Nepali and sealed its office. The allegation against the office and its staff was that they were instigating violence through their reportage.

HR activists in Kolkata say that they would highlight what they term as ‘the dismal record of the ruling TMC government in dealing with human rights violations’ during the campaign for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The issue would naturally acquire political overtones, they admitted. Incidentally, they requested anonymity as they spoke on the issue, citing the travails of Jadavpur University lecturer Ambikesh Mahapatra as the main reason for their stand.

Mahapatra, it may be recalled, had forwarded an e-mail sent to him of what appeared to be a mildly satirical political cartoon depicting the state chief minister to another recipient. For this ‘crime’, he was beaten and heckled by TMC supporters, and later arrested and kept in custody by the police for some time. Mamata alleged that he was involved in ‘a conspiracy to kill her’.

The police could not prove their charge in the court, which ordered his release. Later, the Human Rights Commission instructed the state government to pay him Rs 50,000 as compensation for his harassment. The state government has made no payments, appealing against the directive.

Interestingly, the attitude of the state government towards allegations involving human rights violations came to the fore during a recent hearing on the Mahapatra case at Calcutta High Court. The advocate general appearing for the government argued that the state was not legally bound to obey the directives of such Commissions. The presiding judge disagreed. He asked what was then the point of maintaining such a commission at all? Was it to provide for the post retirement sustenance of some favoured ex officials? There was no reply.

Ironically, both the ruling parties at the Centre and in West Bengal, have poor records in defending human rights and fighting against excesses by politicians or officials. Despite much public outcry and many liberal protests, individuals and organizations involved in the killing by armed miscreants of Muslims in the BJP-ruled states have often gone unpunished. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has never dealt with such sensitive issues either with newsmen (he hardly meets them!) or in his broadcasts to the people. There are as always the usual complaints against the alleged HR violations by the police and the army in Kashmir, although the stone-pelting protestors too have frequently attacked men in uniform.

Similarly, during the recent West Bengal panchayat polls, over 17 million voters could not vote because aggressive TMC supporters scared away their political opponents across the board in several districts. Nearly 16,000 out of some 50,000 gram panchayats were won by the TMC ‘uncontested’ as no other party could put up candidates and campaign — accounting for 34 percent of the total seats.

Even the Supreme Court during the hearing of a case expressed its ’shock’ over such a high figure of seats won without a fight. Earlier, TMC leaders down from youth leader and MP Abhishek Banerjee to others, had strongly campaigned to’ make West Bengal free from the opponents of the TMC.’

Over 60 persons, all activists and supporters of the Congress, the BJP and the Left parties, were killed during the mostly one-sided violence directed against them by armed TMC supporters. Opposition parties alleging inaction on the part of what they described as a’ politicised police force,’ accused the administration of harassing their followers by slapping trumped up allegations and employing non-bailable sections of law against them.

A further irony is that with such dismal HR protection records, both the TMC and the BJP have not stopped accusing each other of being ‘anti-democratic and autocratic‘! (IPA Service)