BEST of times, WORST of times

For 32 years, the CPM has replaced the rule of law by partisan rule in West Bengal, specialising in crimes like torching people alive, committing rape or threatening rape for the sake of vote fraud. Hence, the party has to raise gangs of organised criminals
Sunanda Sanyal Kolkata

One could say with Charles Dickens, it's the best of times, and it is the worst of times, in West Bengal. Bengalis are probably coming to their senses, having realised that revolution is far off, but democratic accommodations can be reached, if we try hard for it. We, perhaps, needed loot, arson, murder and rape that have been the general practice, particularly since 1977, when the Left Front government took over.

Not that the Congress government before it, headed by Siddhartha Shankar Ray, was any better. Over a hundred young Naxalites were killed by the Congress and the CPM (called Congsal) together at Baranagar and Kashipur, close to Kolkata, and the dead bodies were tarred over and thrown into the Ganga. But Ray could at least claim that the Naxalites were killers themselves, and his government merely met "an action" of theirs with "an equal and opposite reaction". There may, or may not, be an end to all that, now that the Left Front looks like being removed from power in 2011, when the assembly election is slated. It depends on how the aam janata of West Bengal behaves.

The worst first! To begin with, Marichjhanpi in Sunderbans: 30,000 refugees originally from East Bengal, but now from the arid lands of Dandakaranya, attempted to settle at Marichjhanpi in 1978, in response to the assurance given by the then chief minister, Jyoti Basu. On January 25, 1975, Basu addressed a public meeting at Bhilai, where he called upon the refugee leaders from Dandak, including Satish Mondal, Rangalal Goldar, Raiharan Baroi and Kali Bose and assured them: "If we come to power, we'll meet your demand for resettlement in West Bengal." Later, two ministers, Ram Chatterjee of Marxist Forward Bloc, and Kiranmoy Nanda of West Bengal Socialist Party, told them, "Our eight crore people, with 16 crore hands outstretched, are going to welcome you to the state."

But when the refugees finally started arriving in 1978, with the Left Front government in place, Jyoti Basu complained of population explosion, conspiracy in certain quarters in bringing them back, and the Left Front government's inability to rehabilitate "even one of them".

Jyoti Basu's police and cadres together set hundreds of hutments on fire, raped their women, and blockaded the boats carrying drinking water and food. The bodies of those who fell to the policemen's bullets were strewn all over the tiger project nearby. The tigers made a feast of the human flesh. Saibal Gupta, ICS, who was to look after the welfare of the refugees at Dandakaranya, was convinced that the government failed to look at it from a humane point of view. Raiharan Baroi, general secretary of Udvastu Unnayanshil Samity, complained to Shri Prasannabhai Mehta, leader, 'Enquiry Committee Regarding Police Firing and Other Inhuman Torture on Homeless, Helpless Refugees at Netaji Nagar (Marichjhanpi)', listed the following: