Politics, Democracy and what Bengal thinks today……. Dr. Ranjan Dhar, Kingston Law College LAW CRITIQUE Mon, Jun 03, 2019, at ,11:43 AM Indian Democracy and Bengal: Today, India has the largest democracy in the world and people of India may think that the concept of democracy in India was introduced after the British rule. But, if we look back to 8th Century, after the rule of King “Shashanka”, the region of Bengal underwent a phase of State Anarchy and the contemporary historians describe the situation as “Matsya Nyaya” ("fish justice" i.e. a situation where the big fish eat the small fish). At that time people of the region elected democratically a representative of their own as their own King “Gopala”. So, Bengali people can claim that the concept of democracy had been introduced to the world by Bengal and thus once a prominent leader & freedom fighter, Gopal Krishna Gokhale said appropriately "what Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow." This comment not only glorifies the intellectual power what Bengal once possessed but also speaks the truth about the revolutionary power of the people of Bengal and their significant contribution to make our motherland “Bharat” (India) free from the slavery of British rule. After independence, the democratic form of our beloved country India was being enacted on 26th January 1950 through the enactment of the Constitution of India, replacing the previous enactment the Government of India Act, 1935. Through the enforcement of the Constitution, the Dominion of India became the Republic of India. Our country achieved independence at the cost of a pain known as partition on the basis of Two-Nation Theory. The worst scar of partition was borne by two provincial States: Punjab and Bengal. India is a Union of States and has a federal system of Government having distribution of power between National or Central Government, State Government and Local Authorities (Municipality, Corporation or Panchayat). According to Article 326 of the Indian Constitution, India adopted Universal Adult Suffrage and extended the right to vote to every adult citizens of this country. The representatives of people are elected by the people in respective States through a process of General Election in which the Members of Parliament (MP) are elected, State Assembly Election and Local Body Elections. The election process in India is conducted by an autonomous constitutional body called Election Commission. The process of election is the foundation of democracy in our country and it is the only hope for the people of this country to get desired governance, which is able to fulfill the basic needs of public, which can secure the overall growth of the country and its citizens. Introduction of Communism and Bandh Culture: After independence, the part of Bengal remained with India known as State of West Bengal. In 1950, the Princely State of Koch Bihar merged with West Bengal and also in 1955, the French enclave of was included in the State. The State got its first Chief Minister as Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy, a legendary Doctor (Physician) from 1947 – 1962 and having a Congress led Govt. during this period. In 1969, the CPI (M) emerged as the largest political party in West Bengal legislative assembly but the Govt. lasts only till 16th March 1970. After Presidential Rule, in 1972, Indian National Congress came into power and the Chief Minister at that time was Siddhartha Shankar Roy till 1977. In the assembly election in 1977, the Left Front wins 243 seats and the charismatic leader Mr. Joyti Basu became the Chief Minister (CM) of the State. He remained as CM till 2000. After that, Mr. Buddhadeb Bhattacharya form Left Front became CM till 2011. The Left Government brings a number of social reformations like the enactment of the Land Reform Act, carry out “Operation Barga” in favour of sharecroppers or Bargadar. Infrastructure development, recruitment under various Government organisation and regularization of payments of the employees and labours, etc. are the social reforms introduced by the Left Govt. But, there was much social discordance created by the Left party in West Bengal. In 1979, the massacre of Marichjhapi, Kashipur, and Kumirmari took place which ends with the killing of 4128 families using State administrative machinery. On 30 April 1982, Anandamargi sanyasis were killed brutally burnt alive by the CPI (M) goons; on 17 March 1970, the brutal murder of Saibari took place and CPI (M) leaders were suspected to be involved in this murder. Infiltration of illegal Bangladeshi Muslims was organized for vote bank politics by the communist party leaders. Industries in Bengal was suffering from a strike, lockout and many labor-related problems and the problems were created by the Trade Unions sponsored by the communist party. Bandh culture was introduced in Bengal as a mode of protest, yielding nothing but workless days for the workers and employees. The industrialists were being forced to stop production and an image of anti-industry, anti-work culture of Bengal was created by the Left Front Government. Evolution of “BUDHHIGIBI” class and biased support: Towards the end of the Left Govt. a class of intellectuals called “Buddigibi” appeared in the society of Bengal constituting mostly eminent personals involved in cinema, theatre and arts & culture. These people were seen supporting the peasant’s movements took place in Singur, Nandigram, etc. along with the main opposition party Trinamool Congress. After 34 years of Left rule, an anti-establishment environment was already created during 2007 and Mamta Banerjee led Trinamool Congress gives hope to the people of Bengal and in 2011 the left rule came to an end with a humiliating defeat in all levels of the legislature. The “Buddigibi” class which was once supporting left front are now supporting the newly elected Govt. of Trinamool Congress and sometimes in a biased way. They preferred to keep silence when Bengal is burning with violation of fundamental rights and rape of democracy almost every day from the very beginning of TMC regime like arrest of Jadavpur Professor over posting a cartoon at social networking site, Park-Street rape case, Kamduni Rape case, Deganga incident, Khagragarh incident, Kaliachawk incident, Darivit students assassination, killings over political issues in West Bengal and many other such incidents. We have not seen any protest by this section of people against the money laundering cases, in which probably many elected representatives of the TMC government are involved. Freedom of speech is now a joke in West Bengal, peoples are being arrested for uttering “Jay Shree Ram” because this particular slogan is now treated as abuse as declared by the Chief Minister of West Bengal. Peoples are now getting harassed by using State Administrative Machinery for speaking against Chief Minister of the State. The so-called intellectuals do not dare to speak any word against this anarchy. This cowardly biased act of intellectuals is probably due to the fear of facing similar consequences as the common people of West Bengal is facing every day and also due to the fear of loss of various benefits extended to them by the State. The religious slogan is now being branded as a political slogan of a national party BJP. The Right to Freedom of Religion as guaranteed by Article 25 of the Constitution of India is now being violated openly and suppression of Freedom of Speech and expression as guaranteed by Article 19 (a) has no place in this State. These bunches of so-called intellectuals are not only politically biased but they have some religious preferences also. A section of people of West Bengal termed a “renowned” Bengali poet as “condom poet” who refuses to utter any word against communal violence happening at his own State due to appeasement politics, but laid an egg (poem) denigrating Hindu God in a protest against the activity of Chief Minister of other State. They don’t have the courage to stand for Taslima Nasrin when she was being expulsed from Kolkata by a group of a particular religious group. “Paribartan”- democracy or dictatorship: Riding on the success of anti-land acquisition movement in Singur and Nandigram, the “Paribartan” came in Bengal. The faces of the cities, towns, and villages were being covered with the hoardings of “Paribartan”. Once Maoists den “Jungle-Mahal” were cleansed by combing operations, the beautification and infrastructure developments of both rural and urban areas were done. But, after a few days the leaders of the Govt. of “Paribartan” found to be tainted with “Sarada” Chit-Fund Scam, recorded videos of leaders were shown to receive cash in “Narada”, many leaders were being arrested and later granted bail. Investigating agencies like CBI and ED were found to get obstruction from the State authorities while investigating the money laundering scams. Park Street, Kamduni rape cases were termed as “small incidents” and a compensation amount of Rs 30,000/- for minors and Rs. 20,000/- for adults had been declared by the State Government. So, the price of a woman body has been fixed by the State authority. Women were being raped as her husband is politically a supporter of BJP, women were hackled on the way to file nomination at Panchyet election and so many crimes against women are happening these days. The communal violence data compiled for the year 2010, when the Left Front government was in power, it has been found that 21 incidents of such violence occurred in the State in which six persons died and 82 suffered injuries. In the years 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 when 15, 23, 24 and 16 incidents of communal violence were recorded respectively. There is a spurt in communal violence activity has been observed by the Home Ministry report; in the years 2015, 2016 and 2017 such incidents were recorded as 27, 32 and 58 respectively. (Source: The Hindu) Among these, the incidents which are worth mentioning are: Kaliachak or Malda Riots, 2016, Illambazar clashes, Basirhat-Baduria clash, Hazinagar clash, Jalangi incident, Clash in West Midnapore (Kharagpur-Gola Bazar), Burdwan clash (Rasulpur area), clashes over Durga Puja immersions and Muharram processions, Communal tension over Saraswati puja celebrations in Tehatta schools, most recently riots at Diamond Harbour-Satgachia and many others. In all such incidents, the only victimized community is Hindu. These are the results of Muslim appeasement politics by the Government of “Paribartan”. “City of Joy” or City of Crime: Although Nirbhaya is not from the city of Kolkata, brutal and heinous rape and murder incident happened at Kamduni and the indifference and suppressive role of the State over the incident has shocked the whole Bengali community. West Bengal has been recording a high crime rate against women over the past several years. The NCRB report for 2016, recorded 283 incidents and 307 victims under Section 326A (acid attack) and Section 326B (attempt to carry out an acid attack) in the country. Of these, West Bengal recorded 76 incidents of such attacks and about 83 victims, accounting for 26% of all incidents and 27% of victims. When it comes to human trafficking (which is prohibited under Article 23(1) of the Constitution of India, West Bengal is not only the highest contributor to the crime but it alone accounts for 44% of all cases nationally. The overall conviction rate for the crime against women in India stands at 18.9 %. For West Bengal, the conviction rate is the lowest in the country at 3.3 %. In 2016, West Bengal ranked second with 32,513 cases of crime against women, contributing 9.6% to all such crimes in the country. (Source: The Hindu) According to the NCRB report, 2016 West Bengal occupied 2nd place in communal violence immediately after Uttar Pradesh. Women are not feeling safe in this State in spite of “Kanyashree Prakalpa”. Rape of democracy, violation of fundamental rights, refusal to lodge FIR at Police station, harassment & humiliation of victims and their families by political hooligans, “Syndicate Raj” are becoming a regular practice in this State and cities & towns are becoming a den of crime. Conclusion: The golden age of Bengali culture established by the wisdom, knowledge, and intellect of Rabindra Nath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda, Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose, Satyendra Nath Bose, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose is a forgotten past. Tughlaki raj is now prevailing over the Western part of Bengal. The people of this State are now praying for “Paritran” (freedom) from this “Paribartan” (change). The “Loksabha” election (General Election 2019) has shown some positive results towards this expectation people of this State. People have understood the situation and voted for democracy, voted for their own safeguard, voted to prove their trust on the Constitution of India, voted after a long time to walk with the Country, voted for “Paritran” from the rule of a dictator. Jay Shree Ram, Jay Bharat, Jay Hind. परित्राणाय साधूनां विनाशाय च दुष्कृताम् । धर्मसंस्थापनार्थाय सम्भवामि युगे युगे ॥