The days of the West Bengal CPI (M) are numbered, writes Chandrasekhar Bhattacharjee
In the last Lok Sabha elections the communists were left with just
24 seats – down from their previous tally of 61. In West Bengal – once the Red Citadel – the CPI (M)’s share of MPs dropped vertically, from 27 to nine. It lagged behind the Trinamool Congress and Congress in over 200 of the 294 assembly segments. Indeed the outlook is so bleak that in the 13th West Bengal Legislative Assembly polls in 2011, even the CPI (M)’s friends expect the once impregnable fortress to collapse as the Berlin Wall did in 1989!
Yes, the party seems pretty nearly over. The CPI (M) is tottering everywhere – far beyond the Bengal-Bihar-Orissa borders: a fact that went uncommented till the 15th LS polls. And now we need no comment. It’s staring us right in our faces. In Khejuri (East Midnapore district) – ever since the people’s revolt started on June 8 – unauthorised arms are being recovered almost every day.
The CPI (M) had once called Khejuri – till the mid twentieth century a stronghold of the Gandhians – Bengal’s Leningrad. Former Union minister and freedom fighter Abha Maiti hailed from this block. But post the 1990s the place came to be referred as the communists’ ‘Liberated Zone’, leaving space for no other political party. Indeed, even LF allies were not allowed to function there.
During the Nandigram agitation it was from Khejuri that the CPI (M)’s armed militia randomly sprayed bullets at innocent agitators. The infamous Janani brick kiln, the bunker of the CPI (M)’s armed militia and hired killers, still exists. The CBI arrested ten armed CPI (M) cadres from there three days after the Nandigram massacre on March 14, 2007 – coincidentally Karl Marx’s 124th death anniversary.
The Superintendent of Police, East Midnapore district, Pallab Kanti Ghosh, had told TSI on June 15 that five revolvers, 12 pieces of improvised rifles, 21 rifles, six country-made pipe-guns, 1,566 rounds of cartridges and 99 desi bombs had been seized from Khejuri. But villagers, who consider Ghosh to be a protector of CPI (M) toughies, say this is just the tip of the iceberg and that the illegal arms and ammunition in the party’s possession are far in excess of what has officially been accounted for.
The courtyard of the palatial party office at Kalagechhia in Khejuri block, which was ransacked by angry mobs, is littered with burnt papers, official documents and party flags. The half-burnt BPL cards and identity cards of the NREGA beneficiaries, which should have been kept in the panchayat’s offices, were strewn all around. The scene at the CPI (M) zonal committee office at Kunjapur was no different, except that it was under lock and key. The Kamardah party office had been razed to the ground. According to the West Bengal CPI (M)’s own admission, 60 party offices are currently controlled by the opposition Trinamool Congress. Its own men, say these reports, have resigned.
In the last Lok Sabha elections the communists were left with just
24 seats – down from their previous tally of 61. In West Bengal – once the Red Citadel – the CPI (M)’s share of MPs dropped vertically, from 27 to nine. It lagged behind the Trinamool Congress and Congress in over 200 of the 294 assembly segments. Indeed the outlook is so bleak that in the 13th West Bengal Legislative Assembly polls in 2011, even the CPI (M)’s friends expect the once impregnable fortress to collapse as the Berlin Wall did in 1989!Yes, the party seems pretty nearly over. The CPI (M) is tottering everywhere – far beyond the Bengal-Bihar-Orissa borders: a fact that went uncommented till the 15th LS polls. And now we need no comment. It’s staring us right in our faces. In Khejuri (East Midnapore district) – ever since the people’s revolt started on June 8 – unauthorised arms are being recovered almost every day.
The CPI (M) had once called Khejuri – till the mid twentieth century a stronghold of the Gandhians – Bengal’s Leningrad. Former Union minister and freedom fighter Abha Maiti hailed from this block. But post the 1990s the place came to be referred as the communists’ ‘Liberated Zone’, leaving space for no other political party. Indeed, even LF allies were not allowed to function there.
During the Nandigram agitation it was from Khejuri that the CPI (M)’s armed militia randomly sprayed bullets at innocent agitators. The infamous Janani brick kiln, the bunker of the CPI (M)’s armed militia and hired killers, still exists. The CBI arrested ten armed CPI (M) cadres from there three days after the Nandigram massacre on March 14, 2007 – coincidentally Karl Marx’s 124th death anniversary.
The Superintendent of Police, East Midnapore district, Pallab Kanti Ghosh, had told TSI on June 15 that five revolvers, 12 pieces of improvised rifles, 21 rifles, six country-made pipe-guns, 1,566 rounds of cartridges and 99 desi bombs had been seized from Khejuri. But villagers, who consider Ghosh to be a protector of CPI (M) toughies, say this is just the tip of the iceberg and that the illegal arms and ammunition in the party’s possession are far in excess of what has officially been accounted for.
The courtyard of the palatial party office at Kalagechhia in Khejuri block, which was ransacked by angry mobs, is littered with burnt papers, official documents and party flags. The half-burnt BPL cards and identity cards of the NREGA beneficiaries, which should have been kept in the panchayat’s offices, were strewn all around. The scene at the CPI (M) zonal committee office at Kunjapur was no different, except that it was under lock and key. The Kamardah party office had been razed to the ground. According to the West Bengal CPI (M)’s own admission, 60 party offices are currently controlled by the opposition Trinamool Congress. Its own men, say these reports, have resigned.
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