West Bengal polls: Sitalkuchi incident may end up hurting BJP’s prospects in four remaining phases of polling

It was a protest with a difference on Tuesday by Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee. If opposition leaders appeared at the dharna place to express their solidarity with Mamata Banerjee, Hindu religious leaders and Muslim clerics were also present. The woman general secretary of the Hindu Maha Sabha unambiguously extended the support and was also highly critical of the action of Sunil Arora, the outgoing chief election commissioner. She openly said that EC has been acting at the direction of the BJP leaders.

While Mamata Banerjee sat on a dharna on Tuesday near Gandhi’s statue on Mayo Road to protest against the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) decision to ban her from campaigning for 24 hours, her senior party colleagues who are usually seen with her on such occasions, were not to be seen near the dharna site.

She arrived on a wheelchair with her painting tools and stayed on till around 3 pm. During her four hour dharna, she kept herself occupied by painting.

It would seem that the outgoing CEC Sunil Arora, at the directives of his political masters, had punished her for her call to women voters to gherao the central forces if they do not allow them to vote. The CEC did not seek a clarification from the officers leading the forces. What was most shocking was no EC official visited the families of the voters killed in firing.

Arora’s action exposed the complete political bankruptcy of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. Strangely enough, the state BJP leaders were feeling unease at Mamata resorting to a dharna. Its West Bengal president Dilip Ghosh, who is known for abrasive statements said: “The Commission has taken a lot of steps against several BJP leaders in the past, but none sat on road in protest against the Commission like Mamata Banerjee. We all follow ECI’s instructions”.

He is the same person who had threatened that such killings would take place if “someone crosses his limits”.

While Modi has been using his office ruthlessly to communalise and polarise the voters and teasing Mamata with the intentions to woo women voters, his lieutenant has been criminalising the security forces, the bureaucrats and the electoral machinery.

His two senior leaders, state president Dilip Ghosh and Rahul Sinha, have issued veiled threat that Sitalkuchi is a trailer of the ‘asol paribartan’ and many such actions would take place. Shockingly, neither Modi nor Shah pulled them for making such statements.

People expected that Modi and Shah should have reached out to the families of the bereaved and stood by them in this hour of grief. But they did not do it as they nursed the feeling that identifying with the four victims who were Muslims would alienate their Hindu electoral base.

The residents of Sitalkuchi’s Jorpatki have a question for the Election Commission: why did it not send any representative to the village after the deaths of four voters in CISF firing, unlike its prompt action when a BJP politician was found dead in the same district? The Commission had ordered an investigation and sent the special police observer to Cooch Behar to conduct an inquiry and submit a report.

In their endeavour to appease their supporters, both Modi and Shah blamed Mamata, claiming that her inflammatory speech against central forces had triggered the incident. In fact, Modi at a rally had promised to ensure that CEC takes action against her.

The BJP’s desperation to win West Bengal election gets reflected in its move to neglect the primary duty of governance. India is witnessing the worst resurrection of coronavirus which is rampaging through the country, but the two makers of ‘New India’ are busy devoting their time and energy campaigning for Bengal elections.

Some experts claim that the EC faces its toughest credibility test. Significantly, while the EC has been least bothered of the communal utterances of Modi and Shah and not willing to initiate any action against them, the BJP leaders were goading EC to take more stringent action against Mamata. They even lamented that it was not as swift to take stringent action against Mamata as it should have been.

The new CEC Chandra will also have to take a stand on the allegation that the Prime Minister is an “aggravator of the culture of eve-teasing”. A complaint levelling this allegation has been filed with Amherst Street police station of Calcutta police, which has forwarded it to the Election Commission.

The complaint points out that Modi has been referring to Mamata Banerjee as “Didiiiii” or “O Didiiiii”. The complaint, filed by members of the Bangla Citizens Forum, says that Modi has mentioned the phrase in “almost all the public meetings with an intent to cause teasing and mockery to common women in society.”

The letter also underlines: “it is unfortunate to use the said word which aggravated the culture of eve teasing which is a serious penal offence as laid down under the provision of Section 294 of Indian Penal Code”.

Mamata also referred to the misogynistic manner in which Modi addresses her. She said: “The country had never seen such a Prime Minister. A Prime Minister should speak in dignified language. He should behave properly, respect women and respect the Constitution. But the way he has been behaving and talking, the way he has been taunting and mocking me is a matter of shame”.

After two days of the incident of firing, the villagers have started opening up. Some of them who had witnessed Saturday’s firing at the Amtali

Madhyamik Siksha Kendra contradicted administration’s claim that the central forces had fired to protect themselves, their weapons and the electronic voting machines from a violent mob.

CPI(ML) Liberation in a complaint to the EC sought to know: “Why the EC has accepted the CISF version without demanding evidence to back the story. Surely there must be CCTV footage, or other videographed evidence of the CISF claims.”

The party’s politburo member Kavita Krishnan sought a ban on Amit Shah, Dilip Ghosh and BJP leader Sayantan Basu's campaigning. She alleged: “BJP planned the killings with the district superintendent of police. I will probe this. I will find out the truth. Who attended the meeting, how they planned, how a woman was sent first? She was instructed to say her child had been stolen and then they opened fire, killed”.

The people in West Bengal are seething with anger at the unprovoked killing of the village people by the CISF on an election day. The true picture of what actually happened is coming out despite all efforts by central officials to remove evidences.

BJP’s game plan has got a jolt in the remaining four phases of polling in Bengal. Mamata, instead of being cornered, has been strengthened in people’s mind following April 10 killings.

(IPA Service)

Views are personal and not that of the National Herald