ELECTION:-- WEST BENGAL STYLE

SARASIJ MAJUMDER

• West Bengal has  developed , and introduced an  election process, which can be called "Scientifically Engineered Rigging in Election"
• Booths are captured, party cadres impersonate genuine voters, polling agents, and opposition voters are beaten up, and driven out of the BOOTH.
• Voters are threatened not to vote for the opposition; women fear rape.
• The all the ballots are stamped on mass scale in favour of the ruling candidate, and put in Ballot Box. POLLING, AND  PRESIDING OFFICERS keep quiet, police protects  the large scale rigging process .
• CM, and some leaders from Ruling Party have announced before that opposition will have to face consequences later—a veiled threat.

A CENTURYAGO,  GOPAL KRISHNA GOKHALE HAD SAID: "What Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow." In those days of Bengal Renaissance, Bengal led the way in literature, science, education, social reforms and patriotism.

Alas,  those concepts have long, long been  banished by Marxist Culture from West Bengal.

If today there is anything the rest of India can learn from West Bengal is how to RIG elections,  develop and feed a CADRE system by TOLABAJI, SUPPORTED BY DONATION IN LOCAL CLUBS.. Rigging elections - from panchayat to Parliament – IS A COMBINATION OF  ARTS, SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING. A knowledge, and understanding  of social realities, economics and plain human psychology are essential.

THIS RIGGING DOCTRINE WAS DEVELOPED BY LATE MR. BASU, AND HIS ESTEEMED COMRADES.

Bengal has finessed the phenomenon called "scientific rigging". Rigging is not new. Congress under Siddhartha Shankar Ray used rigging to win the 1972 assembly election in West Bengal. CPM was the VICTIM.

 I WITNESSED IT MYSELF AS I WAS THEN STAYED IN DUM,DUM, CALCUTTA, AND WAS PRESENT IN A BOOTH AS AN OBSERVER CUM POLLING AGENT ON BEHALF OF AN INDEPENDENT CANDIDATE.

Later, the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front learned from the past, and perfected the art of winning elections by MASS SCALE RIGGING. The philosophy was simple: THE END JUSTIFIES THE MEANS. AND IF IT MEANT TO USE BULLETS TO WIN BALLOTS, SO BE IT.

The Left Front ruled West Bengal from 1977 to 2011. In its 30-year-plus rule the Left infiltrated every aspect of Bengali society. And that made it easier for the communists to manipulate elections like an well oiled machine.

Right from nomination  to the actual voting, every step was monitored by the apparatchik. Slightly creaky in the beginning, by the time of the 10th assembly polls in 1887 the CPI (M)'s election machinery was an extremely efficient, well-oiled one.

Blood flows cheap.

Ruthless Violence, and the threat of it, remains an important element in West Bengal's political laboratory.

Fundamentals of Rigging

Let's start at the very beginning-- the electoral rolls. Names of opposition supporters are deleted from the VOTERS LIST. Bogus names are added.

Opposition candidates who want to contest are  told not to. First politely, then it becomes blunt and physical. Mobs spread across the country side to keep opposition candidates away from filing nominations.

There's a touch of symbolism also. Wives of opposition candidates are sent pieces of white cloth (white being a symbol of widowhood among Bengali Hindus) so that they prevent their husbands from standing in elections.

And of course the threat of rape hangs heavy. Stand as an opposition candidate and face the consequences.

Just after it came to power in 1977 the Left Front, and especially the CPI (M), hastened the process of unionisation of the police force, teachers and state government employees.

All these people play an important role in the election process either as enforcers of law or as booth officers. It makes sense to have BRAINWASHED people in and around polling booths.

Then comes fielding people with the same name as that of the main opposition candidate. This was in the pre-EVM era where the ballot paper did not carry the candidates' pictures. A subtle way to confuse the voter.

Cadres day out

In the run up to polling day, thousands of cadres spread out to various constituencies reminding voters of the pitfalls of voting for the opposition. Usually the arm-twisting is gentle but the hint that things may turn disastrous, is always there.

A variation of this tactic is to tell voters not to turn up at all, their votes would be taken care of. Why stand in queue under the blazing sun when "the Party" can take care of minor issues such as choosing an MLA or MP? After all aren't Marxists a party of the people?

But then there are stubborn voters who prefer to exercise their right to franchise. When they reach the polling booth they find a long queue, usually made of bogus voters. These bogus voters help in wasting time of the polling officers arguing with them.

Voting enclosures are placed near windows so that voters can be "helped" from outside to choose the right candidate or to find out who has voted against the party.

A more innovative method has evolved in the EVM era to detect opposition voters. The opposition key on the EVM machine is smeared with something strong such as Ittar. Party cadres smell the fingers of voters to find out if they've voted for the opposition.

Coy, and Decoy

And then there is the use of bombs -- first to scare away voters and also to divert the attention of the security forces.

There is always an air of utmost fear hanging around elections in West Bengal. And this is largely because of the prevalence of terror. Polling agents of rivals are beaten up as well as known opposition voters.

This violence has become more overt and rampant in the Trinamool Congress regime.

TMC copied the entire process adding more  ruthlessness and violence .

It continues even after election.

The worrying thing is the institutionalization of violence, especially in the past 10 years.

Surely this is not what Gopal Krishna Gokhale meant?