West Bengal Panchayat Elections CPM’s

Social Fascist Terror At Its Peak

Bengal Turned ‘Chambal’

How CPM ‘Captured’ Rural Bengal ?

A New Zamindari System

The Winds of Change

Need For A New Polarisation

Bengal Turned ‘Chambal’

30th May 1998. The day will be remembered as a ‘Day of horror’ by hundreds of villagers of Chotakalahazra, Kathalberia, Karandihi, Atharabanki, Dhuri and Daharini villages — all in the Basaati area of South 24 Parganas district. Death came on the back of horses, in Ambassadors and in Matador vans. Hundreds of them descended on the villages in the early morning with their faces covered by black cloth and with rifles, revolvers, choppers in their hands. One by one they surrounded the villages firing in the air. Before the panicky villagers could understand what happened, the marauders began to burn houses without discrimination, looted the belongings of the already impoverished peasants and then went back for the time being.

In the evening they returned. This time they came as ambassadors of death. They selected some persons, cut the throats of two and chopped off the limbs of some others, then threw four of them into the fire of the burning houses and the rest were left to their fate. Four villagers were killed in the carnage and some were admitted to hospital in a critical condition with their hands and legs chopped off. The worst-affected village was Chota kala hazra where almost all the 150 houses were burnt and four of the villagers were killed. Two of the injured died late, increasing the toll to six.

Why were these murderers killing, looting and burning poor villagers with complete freedom in this ‘bastion of red’, and that too just one day after the panchayat elections — which has been termed as the ‘decentralisation of power’ to the rural poor within this constitutional framework by the self-proclaimed ‘guardians of poor’ in the state of West Bengal ? They are none other than the CPM cadres, hooligans and criminals of the area led by the CPM Zilla Parishad member Manoranjan Diasi and Gram Pradhan’ i.e. panchayat head of nearby Phoolmalancha area in which of 400 villagers lost every thing in the gruesome event. Later the RSP leadership accused the South 24 Parganas District Committee of the CPM for masterminding the pre-planned attack and harbouring anti-socials and criminals. Basanti area was known as a RSP strong-hold for a long time. Now the CPM is bent on penetrating into the area, breaking the RSP base and establishing their foot hold there. This is the single reason behind the attack.

Before and after the panchayat election hundreds if not thousands of such attacks took place in rural West Bengal only some of which were flashed in the media. At least 70 supporters of the Trinamul Congress (TMC), 14 of the BJP, 5 from the RSP, 5 from the Forward Bloc and some others from the SUCI, CPI and Congress were killed by the CPM in just 2-3 weeks time.

If such is the fate of the RSP, anybody can imagine what would be happening to the supporters of other parties. And this is nothing new. Soon after consolidating their base in the rural areas during their first tenure i.e. the 1977-82 period, they went on attacking anybody who dared to challenge their authority in the villages. First they targeted their attack against the revolutionary forces i.e. Naxalites still pursuing the path of arousing people in armed struggles against the oppressors. Brutal attacks and killings took place in the Sundarban area of North and South 24 Parganas and in Nadia, Hoogly and Dinajpore districts where the MCC, PU and 2nd CC were active. Police forces were also employed to ruthlessly suppress the revolutionary threat to their rule.

Later the scope of their social fascist attacks engulfed even the so-called Naxalite groups who abjured violence openly (like SNS), who had totally confined themselves to legal forms of work and had taken to the parliamentary path. Even groups like VM who changed their whole ideological and political line to befriend the CPM and had openly announced their goal to build up a confederation of the CPI, CPM and CPI (ML) (i.e. VMgroup), were not spared. In Karanda village of Burdwan district when people joined the VM group, after getting frustrated with CPM politics, as in Basanti the CPM burnt down the whole village and killed 5 innocent villagers in one incident just for showing the courage to defy the CPM dictat.

Next came the turn of the mainstream parliamentary parties — Congress, BJP to SUCI, RSP, Forward Bloc etc. For example, Jaynagar and Kultali are the last two strongholds of the SUCI situated near the Sundarbans in South 24 Parganas district. After all their earlier pockets were lost, the SUCI clung to these last two pockets for a long time, always sending MLAs to the assembly from these two constituencies. The CPM began by attacking areas in their surrounding strongholds. First they selected Kultali. Repeated attacks took place during the last few years. The SUCI also fought back for some time. Then the intensity of attacks increased. In one ghastly incident 5 SUCI supporters were killed and thrown into the rivers after packing pieces of their bodies in jute bags. Slowly the balance of power changed in the area. Anti-socials and some influential persons changed their loyalty to the CPM. The CPM then took control of the area and built up its election machinery. As a result, in the panchayat election this time the SUCI lost both the panchayat samiti seats of Kultali to the CPM. Now, the next target will be to wrest control of Jaynagar.

Such things have been happening in rural Bengal for the last 20 years. During every election, before and after its completion, people have to face naked terror wherever they dare to oppose the CPM or even if they simply vote against CPM candidates. In thousands of village panchayat seats nobody dared to even file their nomination against the CPM enabling the CPM to win them ‘uncontested’. This was the first time that the CPM faced some challenge in the panchayat elections. People are desperately seeking an alternative to the social-fascist rule of the CPM, and the TMC-BJP combine came forward to fish in troubled waters. Mamata called it a ‘semi-final’ or ‘dress rehearsal’ to evict Left Front rule in the next assembly elections.

Seeing the swing in votes in favour of Mamata’s newly-formed TMC (combined with the BJP) in the last parliamentary elections, the CPM leadership really panicked. For the first time, they faced some real challenge to their grip in rural Bengal. They realise that once they lose their grip on rural Bengal, they will be nowhere in parliamentary politics. Not only will they lose their job (or zamindari) in Bengal, they will also lose their importance in national politics. In Calcutta, and in the surrounding industrial belt, the CPM has tasted defeat many times since 1984, sometimes a total rout, notwithstanding its social-fascist attacks and strong election machinery to manipulate the voting system in the city areas. So it was natural that the CPM would try and maintain its position in the panchayats by hook or by crook. They employed all ‘tactics’ at their disposal to win more seats. Hence the social fascist terror reached its peak during the last panchayat elections. For the first time, West Bengal witnessed naked terror on such a widescale and never before has the CPM leadership been so desperate.

Now we shall see how the CPM consolidated its rural base in West Bengal and how the situation is changing now thereby creating the opportunity for alternate forces to emerge and consolidate their bases.

How CPM ‘Captured’ Rural Bengal ?

Just after coming to power in 1977, the CPM began to consolidate its forces in the rural areas of Bengal where almost no force was active at that time. After the setback in the peasants’ revolutionary upsurge in the wake of Naxalbari, in the 72-77 period, no political forces’ presence was felt in the vast countryside. The changes in ’77 ushered in by the end of Emergency rule; the defeat of fascist Indira and release of political prisoners (mainly Naxalites) created big expectations among the people for a positive change in the situation. Suddenly the situation turned in favour of revolutionary politics. People’s enthusiasm for the newly elected Left Front government was high. Due to political confusion and organisational division, the revolutionaries could not grasp the opportunities, while the CPM went ahead with quick strides, to spread its tentacles in the countryside.

In its effort to capture the vast countryside (in some districts like 24 Parganas, Hoogly, Howrah, Nadia, Burdwan etc., it had a strong presence since the 60s while it had only a nominal presence in districts like Midnapore, Purulia, Bankura and in all north Bengal districts except Darzeeling) the CPM chiefly used two weapons — Operation Barga and the Panchayat System. These two steps taken together helped it consolidate its base in the old areas and spread its organisation to the new areas. In fact, the CPM masterminded and utilised these government reforms more than any other front constituents. For example, in Midnapore district where the CPI had its strong presence before 1977, the CPM practically defeated its old rival in spreading and capturing power throughout the district. The CPI was no match for it in power politics.

Now, let us see how both these steps helped reduce class contradictions to some extent in the countryside, thus creating a fertile ground for the development and consolidation of revisionist politics.

The system of ‘operation Barga’ i.e., recording the names of bargadars (i.e. share-croppers) created some illusions in the minds of lakhs of Bargadars. With the hope of getting their names recorded in government registers so that they cannot be evicted from the land they were cultivating as share-croppers, the poor peasants had to flock to the CPM party offices. While helping them record their names, the CPM local leaders used to extract assurances from them that they would rally for the CPM whenever necessary and vote for them in the elections. Those peasants who were not ready to follow the CPM dictat without question were not recorded as share-croppers. At many places they were given some exemplary punishments. Sometimes, some poor peasants, small plot of land was recorded in another’s name, just to punish them for not obeying the leaders, while some big landowners’ lands were excluded from operation Barga as they had already recorded their names in the CPM party office as their activists or patrons. Those who were known sympathisers or activists of other parties were marked out and isolated from the very beginning. These were the initial forms of social fascism. The CPM divided the rural society not on a class basis but on a party basis. This was their first step to capture rural Bengal.

The first Panchayat election was held in 1978. The CPM utilised the panchayat election cunningly to politically consolidate the influence it created through operation Barga. The panchayat brought certain changes in the rural power structure. For the first time, the poor and middle class people contested and won the elections in large numbers, while most of the old feudal rich, mainly belonging to the Congress party, were defeated overwhelmingly. So, the poor and middle peasant representatives mainly constituted the panchayats. The CPM advocated panchayat raj, as an alternative to revolutionary change, by diverting the poor and middle peasants into the power structures of the establishment, and thereby acted to usurp the effects of the Naxalbari struggle. In fact the CPM achieved two goals with this one step. On the one hand it killed or confused the people’s aspiration for political power (the aspiration created by thousands of martyrs in the revolutionary movement), on the other hand it gave a new lease of life to the age-old rotten system and practically strengthened it with some fresh air. But the poor people, within a short time could understand that once again they had been cheated. By absorbing a small section of poor and middle peasants within the old system itself, the panchayat became another noose in the hands of the ruling CPM to slowly tighten its control over entire rural West Bengal.

Another change brought by the panchayat was to create a new privileged wealthy class. Crores of rupees were spent through the panchayat in different central government schemes like ‘food for work’, IRDP, NREP, etc. The imperialists were behind the supply of this money through the World Bank to build up some infrastructure by developing roads, canals, irrigation and the supply of water and power etc., so that the peasants could utilise high-yielding variety seeds, chemical fertilisers and pesticides supplied by them (i.e. their TNCs), thus enabling them to penetrate and control the agricultural sector also and side by side earn immense profit by the sale of the above-mentioned inputs. This was part of the same ‘Green revolution’ Indira Gandhi had introduced in Indian agriculture. The CPM made best use of the imperialist-sponsored scheme.

The CPM used this World Bank money fully to strengthen its party machinery. On the one hand, their grip on the rural people further tightened, with control in their hands to distribute work, loans, etc., to the poor and middle peasants during their times of distress; on the other hand a small privileged section, close to the party leadership, emerged quickly by embezzling the ‘development’ money. They were engaged as extractors and also got access to different business loans and government services (including teachers) which were totally controlled by the CPM machinery. All these different modes of earning, besides agriculture, helped the new privileged section flourish quickly. One section of the old landlord class also changed colours and became ‘red’ to get their share of power. Altogether, this privileged section, close to the ruling party leadership, enjoyed political-social-economic power in the countryside of Bengal. They are the social base of social-fascism that dominates over the vast rural population. In fact, through such efficient utilisation of World Bank loans in a third world country as well as the panchayat system (which was also formulated by Nehru, guided by Americans to contain communist revolution in Asia), West Bengal has become a model to the whole Indian ruling classes in respect of spreading and exercising their authority over the vast rural population who are the over-whelming majority of the Indian people. Rajiv Gandhi once asked the Congress chief minister to learn from Bengal’s experience of panchayat raj.

A New Zamindari System

As the panchayat system took deep root in the soil of Gram Bangla and the tentacles of so-called ‘Green Revolution’ spread to the vast countryside, the vested interests of the new privileged sections got more strengthened and the party machinery grew more and more reactionary and aggressive. It is like a new zamindari system based on the party. The party offices are the court-yards of the new zamindars. The party’s local committee secretary and panchayat pradhans (chief) are the new zamindars. They control everything and keep a watch on everybody. Party cadres and panchayat members are their eyes and ears. They serve both as their intelligence network and their arm-twisting machinery. If anyone becomes disobedient, does something independently or tries to organise people clandestinely, immediately a report will go to the party office and decisions will be taken according to the situation. The party bosses will fix the extent of ‘punishment’ according to the level of disobedience.

First they will warn and threaten the person or persons concerned. Then they will be socially boycotted — people will be forced to isolate them. Anyone who tries to cooperate with them will be threatened. If the dissent is not killed with this initial dose of poison, the doses would be increased step by step. Crops would be looted from the fields and fish from the ponds; granaries burnt; false cases would be foisted; houses looted and burnt down; hands and legs chopped off; they would be blinded. If all these failed, then one or a few would be killed after branding them as witches or anti-socials. If the opponents are strong in number (suppose a whole village dares to defy the party dictates), or, if most of the families are sympathetic to the rebels, then the poor people from adjacent five or six villages would be gathered in one place after some false and mischievous propaganda against the village or persons concerned. There they will be forced to drink liquor and sent on the village with a ‘burn all, kill all’ operation. Now, as the social base of the CPM among the poor people has eroded to a great extent, the party leaders more and more depend on anti-socials and criminals. So their barbarity has reached the level of medieval times, comparable to that of the Ranabir Sena in Bihar. One finds hardly any difference between Laxmanpur-bathe and Basanti, except for the number of those killed. Even girls and women are often being raped. People are burnt alive or their limbs cut off.

While mobilising its party machinery against its rivals, the CPM also uses the state machinery simultaneously in its own party interest. Only those are promoted in the police force or bureaucracy who obey the party without question. So complaining to the police or administration yields no result. Police stations even refuse to take FIRs against CPM activists in most of the cases. Generally after their attack on somebody the CPM leaders themselves inform the police and get the injured person arrested and implicated in false cases. Many police officers in West Bengal have actually become party cadres in uniforms during these last 20 years.

Over and above this political domination, there is social and economic domination as well. The CPM takes control of all social institutions by any means — be it a village club, school, fair, cooperative society or any other institution. Later on it will utilise these institutions also for imposing its monopoly control over society. The government offices act according to the whims of party offices. If any common person wants to get his work done, he must have a recommendation letter from the local party leader (it is like a character certificate). Whether he wants to get a birth certificate for his child or wants to admit his child to the school or somebody to the hospital or apply for any service (be it government or private sector, recruitments are strictly controlled by ruling party unions) or business loans — a party leader’s letter is a must. So for all work, he has to go to the leader’s house or party office and wait in queue to curry favour. Moreover, there are government loans, doles, relief materials (during drought or flood) and works distributed through the panchayat - to avail any of these he must be in the good books of the leaders. He has to please the leaders at every step. There is naked party domination in every respect. Everywhere one’s identity will be checked - which party do you support, for which party do you vote for. If you are not CPM then you will not get a job or any work, you will not get a loan. In a word you will lose the right to live. In West Bengal, everywhere one has to face this naked party domination, but in rural area it is the worst.

In the cities they cannot exercise such ruthless control. They cannot threaten people here at their sweet will or terrorise them with naked attacks. The people in cities are more organised and incidents of attack get wide coverage in the media. So in the cities CPM terror is more refined, their behaviour more polished, their domination more subtle. The dose of social terror is more limited here in comparison to the rural areas. The CPM has pursued this dual policy in West Bengal for the last 20 years: on the one hand keep an apparent democratic atmosphere in the cities (even at the risk of losing elections here), and on the other, strengthen their grip on the countryside through all sorts of naked terror. Hence the villages are the real face of Left Front rule, whereas the cities are its mask.

As all the opposition parties, including the ‘main stream’ Naxalites, operate mainly from the cities, they also fail to understand the real nature of social-fascism in West Bengal. Some ML groups even gave critical support to the CPM over the Congress for restoring democracy in Bengal. If one compares the CPM with the Congress, BJP or Shiv Sena type parties whose naked hooliganism is widely publicised in the media throughout the country and condemned by all and sundry, the CPM may appear more democratic than these fascist parties. Some get duped by this appearance.

Ruling class leaders like Mamata Benerjee also think Calcutta is West Bengal and dreams of capturing the whole of West Bengal after winning some seats in the city. So she had declared this panchayat election as the ‘semifinal’ in her ‘battle’ to evict LF rule from Bengal. But it is not so easy to get the upper hand in rural Bengal just by one’s image or some gimmicks. The CPM does not even spare their partners in the Left Front in their bid to wrest control of or perpetuate its authority over the vast countryside. It has built up a well-trained machinery which include both party and government wings to thwart any challenge to its authority. Hence the need of a well-organised, well-planned and politically committed force arises to counter social fascism which Mamata cannot provide. Only real communist revolutionaries can take up the challenge with proper conviction. And rural Bengal is awaiting them.

The Winds of Change

Reactionaries lift a stone only to drop it on their own toes. Such is the case of the CPM. The more it wanted to tighten its grip over village society, the more it got alienated from the masses, and more people’s dissatisfaction grew against it. Slowly a new polarisation took place in rural Bengal — on one side stood the CPM leaders, panchayat babus and their hirelings (the so-called cadres) moving on motor cycles and Marutis and Ambassadors, and on the other side stand the vast population of poor, landless and middle peasants. Even those wealthy peasants who are not complying to CPM dictates have developed deep contradictions with it. In many places the whole village is against CPM domination, most of the population is fed up of CPM’s atrocities. But who will bell the cat ? Who will start the rebellion ? And from which quarter will they get the necessary support ?

Naturally, the village youth have to take up the courageous task. So far Mamata seeks to capitalise on this sentiment, through her anti-CPM crusade, as the Naxalites could not as yet attract these youth due to a lack of resistance by Naxalites to CPM atrocities. The media too highlighted Mamata as the only alternative to the Left Front. They thought that the panchayat elections has brought them the opportunity to teach a lesson to the CPM. So somewhat spontaneously they organised themselves in many villages and even put up some resistance to CPM attacks, though Mamata and her associates were nowhere on the scene. So for the first time the CPM faced some resistance in the rural areas. For the first time attacks were not one-sided in the villages. For the first time the CPM also lost some of its cadres in the battle for rural supremacy. And its main target of attack was naturally the new generation who were attracted to, and joined the TMC or BJP. Finally in the election battle the CPM managed to retain its control with some losses here and there. The spontaneous rebellion could not defeat the well-knit election machinery of the CPM. But the rebellion is not dead. It is brewing under the surface. In fact, the unprecedented violence and counter-violence before and after the panchayat elections has definitely intensified the contradictions. And its resolution is far away. Until and unless the communist revolutionaries take up the responsibility of leading them, who else can show them the correct path to struggle?

Need For A New Polarisation

Now that the rebellion against the party’s domination is becoming more and more widespread, the CPM is also becoming more and more desperate and panicky thinking that it may lose its grip over rural Bengal and ultimately lose power in West Bengal. Hence the stage is set for more violence and a blood-bath in the coming days. This dog-fight between the ruling class parties would only divide the people more on party lines.

In fact, the CPM has divided village society on a party-basis long ago. Hence the contradiction in rural society has sharpened between pro-and anti-CPM forces. Even the poor and landless peasants are also being divided on party lines. The BJP-TMC challenge is coming mainly from the middle and upper middle class youth who are influenced by the media and political developments in the cities. As the BJP or Mamata has no class approach to organise the most downtrodden and bring them to the forefront in rural politics. The CPM could easily organise the backward sections — i.e. the BC, scheduled caste and tribal people against the so-called re-assertion of upper caste control over the panchayats through the BJP-TMC combine. So in their attack against the BJP-TMC, they still could mobilise a section of the rural poor and hence fratricidal battles are taking place between friendly classes. Thus the polarisation caused by the economic-social-political domination of the newly privileged classes led by the CPM has been somewhat blunted in the process and confusion prevails as to who are the friends of the people and who are their enemies.

West Bengal has a long history of class struggle in the country-side. From Tebhaga to Naxalbari, several struggles have taken place against the feudal classes. Thousands of acres of land were occupied and feudal authority decayed to a large extent. Now some new forms of semi-feudal economic exploitation (through the so-called green revolution) and new forms of political domination (through the panchayats) has emerged confusing somewhat the dividing line between the real friends and real enemies. This division can be sharpened not by the election battle but by class struggle on class issues. Then only will the real enemies be identified and get isolated, while the real class friends (from poor-landless to middle and a section of rich peasants) can be united. Then only a real struggle can take place and people can be reorganised from a party-basis to a class-basis. Then only will the glorious heritage of the peasant movement again take root on the fertile soil of West Bengal. But the task is not so easy. Are the communist revolutionaries of West Bengal prepared to take up the challenge ?

— P.K. Chaterjee