Provocative politics of hate, revenge, power and anarchy ruled supreme in rural Bengal for nearly a month as the polling process dragged on. The public life and administration in the state came to a near standstill with thousands of public transports pulled out of their normal routes, thousands of policemen, government and semi-government employees out of their routine jobs and emergency services curtailed to perform the sacred election duty.

Rival political parties, the election commission and judiciary all had played roles to degenerate the panchayat election into a totally lawless event. The rampant shooting, looting, arson, rape and abduction went on almost unchecked with little resistance from administration and state and central police forces, which were deployed in thousands to ensure orderly, fair and ‘peaceful’ elections. However, the elections were neither peaceful, nor fair. They were most violent and heavily rigged. The constitutionally empowered election commission and even higher judiciary – the high court and Supreme Court — felt cold and sterile in the face of unabated armed political atrocities and administrative callousness, indifference and incompetence.

The state election commission, which doggedly fought against the state government to establish its constitutional authority and power to conduct election as per its own will and judgement, failed to save the day for want of understanding and co-operation from an embittered administration and the ruling party honchos. Over-reacting judiciary too lost its grip over the situation as its ban on menacing ‘bike brigades’ of rival political parties had no takers. In fact, the latter continued to terrorise voters. Political goons with blessings from their influential protectors were in full control. False voting, booth jamming and booth capturing were most common.

The surprising Supreme Court directive to hold the election in five phases in the Muslim ‘Ramazan’ month had probably helped those political criminals - moving in groups and hopping from one district sub-divisions to another - prolong their atrocities on innocent electorates, often under administrative patronage. In many polling stations, booths had to be kept open until nearly mid-night to allow mostly voters from the Muslim community, performing ‘Ramazan’, to cast their ballots. It created a dangerous precedence in terms election rules, practices and procedures in the country.

The presence of huge number of riffle-trotting central reserve police force (CRPF) personnel failed to have any impact on the security of either electorates or polling agents and officials. The CRPF personnel were afraid of the mob and also of the local police. The latter managed the booths and polling stations while central forces were asked to ‘stand by.’ Under extreme provocations, some CRPF jawans, who did not understand the local language and dialects, had to even open fire in self defence. That turned the matter uglier in several occasions. They were soon at the mercy of dominant political parties and local political administration as polling stations after polling stations turned into battlefields of rival parties for territorial control.

One can’t really blame those men in uniform brought in from other states to do the election duty if they often behaved like a bunch of imbeciles in the face of violent mobs threatening policemen and screaming at each other in unknown language. Most CRPF jawans were happy to quickly bundle off their luggage and equipment and rush back to their original barracks and billets as soon as the last phase of the state Panchayat elections was over on July 25th. Many returned injured in mob attacks.

Looking back at the sequence of events concerning the controversial conduct of West Bengal Panchayat elections, selection of poll schedules and deployment of central forces leading to unprecedented chaos, death and bloodshed, one would tend to believe that the democratic right of the people to vote peacefully would have been better protected, if the state election commissioner, a retired-and-reappointed IAS officer by the previous Marxist government, avoided unnecessary confrontation, virtual war of words and bitter legal course to enforce her personal judgement of the situation against the wisdom of the state’s entire political administration.

The judicial recourse at the highest level failed to defuse the tension and douse the state’s ruling party’s political anger against the election commissioner who was branded by the ruling party, though unfairly maybe, as an agent of the CPM-Congress combine. The apex court, which might have misjudged the ground level political reality in the state, too seemed to have misread the negative impact of a long five-phase election schedule on the electorates in such a belligerent and volatile atmosphere built up over the prolonged face off between the ruling party and the state election commission.

With hindsight it may be said that the overdue state Panchayat elections should have been concluded by last March itself. It could have been surely completed in just one or two days. Ideally, in two days: one day in south Bengal and another day for the rest of the state, under a mutually agreed security arrangement between the state administration and the election commission. But, this was not to be. The bitter fight for the pole position between two strong women – the state’s chief minister and election commissioner – did not let it happen.

The result: it caused the death of dozens and decampment of thousands of innocent citizens from their rural habitats, whose peace and welfare our political leaders and bureaucracy vow to work for. And, it brought disgrace to democracy. The latest West Bengal panchayat election should put all concerned authorities and political parties to real shame. Such a situation should never be allowed to be repeated in the conduct of any democratic election, anywhere – village panchayats, state legislatures or Lok Sabha. (IPA Service)