The cryptic comment Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee made after four people were killed and seven injured in firing by Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel at Sitalkuchi in Cooch Behar during polling on 10 April was simply “shame on democracy”.
The ruling Trinamool has demanded Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s resignation and the BJP in turn accused Mamata Banerjee of instigating violence.
It seems as if primarily the Election Commission of India (ECI) and both the Trinamool and the BJP are responsible for the farce that is being enacted in Bengal now in the name of eight-phase Assembly polls. The Election Commission (EC) cannot escape the major share of blame for its contribution to the mayhem through its numerous acts of omission and commission.
The EC purposefully messed up the whole process from the beginning by announcing an eight-phase poll schedule in an unprecedented manner holding elections to different parts of the same districts in different phases, instead of in one phase. This has seemingly been done enable the PM – the BJP’s mascot – to campaign in parts of the same districts where polling is in progress in adjacent areas virtually violating the EC norms of stopping election campaign 48 hours before polling yet being technically correct. It’s anybody’s guess how voters going to exercise their franchise can be influenced by campaigns taking place in areas close to their homes. The EC’s role as an independent body has become suspect and the non-BJP parties charge that the poll schedule has been chalked out to give advantage to the BJP appears to be valid.
The very fact that polling could be stretched to eight phases in neighbouring West Bengal itself speaks poorly of the EC. All those who have contested elections or have been involved in that process directly would be able to vouch that the Central forces do not, ever, bring in any impartiality. Usually, the officers handling the constituencies or zones are handpicked or very properly briefed by the party in power at the Center. This is especially visible when the elections are to state assemblies and the government in Delhi has a longer-term, beyond that particular election. On the other hand Central forces, wherever deployed during the general election to Parliament, can be noticed to be roaming around listlessly and without an obvious mandate.
Whatever spin the political parties try to give to this particular incident, there is no denying the fact that the provocative speeches by top leaders of both the BJP and the Trinamool during electioneering have made tempers of their followers rise to boiling point. The Prime Minister keeps taunting Mamata Banerjee in rally after rally and the latter appropriately responds charging up their respective cadres. This seems to have been the pattern for the first four phases of the polling.
The tragedy that happened in Cooch Behar seems to be the result of the cynical game being played by political parties desperate to hang on to power or wrest power. Unfortunately, the EC seems to be too eager to dance to the tune of the dispensation in Delhi. It is not acting when it is needed most and overacting when it suits the plans of the ruling party at the Centre. The poll panel that earned international accolade for conducting free and fair poll for years since its inception now appears to be a shadow of its old stature.
When institutions of such stature fall not only democracy, but society at large gets hurt.