A history of violence: Making sense of political rage in Kerala and West Bengal

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

Rabindranath Tagore's iconic lines from Gitanjali come to mind looking at the irony of the latest bout of political violence that has erupted in West Bengal.

As many as 16 people were killed in violence within five days after the result of Assembly elections, in which names of Tagore, Swami Vivekananda and Ramakrishna Paramahansa were invoked, as both the TMC and the BJP vied with each other to claim the legacy of Bengal's icons.

When Mamata Banerjee took oath for the third time as West Bengal Chief Minister, she said tackling Covid was her first priority and checking the clashes second. Governor Jagdeep Dhankar, in the presence of Mamata, said this should be "first priority".

The opposition parties in the state — the BJP, the Congress and the CPI-M — were on the same page, lashing out at Mamata over the post-poll violence. Ironically, none of them have a clean record on the issue.

Every state in India is vulnerable to political violence, but nowhere it is as intense and relentless as in West Bengal and Kerala.

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In Bengal, violence seems to be woven into the fibre of its politics, with West Bengal being scarred by it right from the days when the Congress and Left ruled the state. Violence also marked the 2011 Assembly polls, in which Mamata Banerjee trounced the Left and ended its 34-year-long unbroken rule.

The phenomenon has continued to haunt the state as seen by the ghastly visuals coming after the latest Trinamool victory.

The days-long clashes broke out soon after results of one of most acrimonious elections in the state were announced. For the 'bhadralok' of Bengal, the killings were a sombre reality check as Bengal was the only state which could not come out of this cycle even amid the pandemic.

Kerala, another state with a history of political violence, was relatively calm this time, while Tamil Nadu, where sporadic violence used to mar the polls, was by and large peaceful.

Political analyst Rasheed Kidwai says that political violence in Bengal points to the "lack of acceptance of the mandate at the grassroots".

"In states like Bihar, UP, MP, Rajasthan and many others, once an election concludes, the bitterness of rivals subside, at least to the point of accepting the cardinal principle of democracy — that the group having 51 has won over the one having 49, and so try your luck next time," says Kidwai.

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This time, Kidwai speculates, political violence in Bengal is more about "power politics" than "political ideology".

"The message to the defeated group in the respective areas is to shut up. All cases of violence are not purely political in nature. Personal scores are settled, property disputes play a part in the garb of political rivalry," he says.

With the BJP increasing its Assembly seats to 77 in 2021 from a mere three in 2016 and Lok Sabha tally from just two in 2014 to 18 in 2019, the polity in West Bengal has already undergone a tectonic shift. Consequently, the bitterness between the TMC and the challenger knocking at the doors of power is at an all-time high.

In Kerala, violence is limited mainly to the region around Kannur. But unlike Bengal, the BJP is on a decline ever since its best show of 16% votes in the 2016 Assembly polls. This time, the party got 11.3% votes and lost its lone seat in the state.

The saffron party claims that since 2001 around 150 of its workers have been killed in the state by Left cadres. Official statistics, however, show almost an equal number of political workers from CPI-M have been killed in political violence in this period.

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Mercifully, Kerala was relatively peaceful during the polls.

While in Kerala, Kannur is the epicentre of political violence, the entire West Bengal is prone to political killings. And the state has 30% Muslim population, which by and large does not vote for the BJP.

As Bengal witnessed another cycle of blood-letting in 2021, the BJP went big with the issue. But an incensed Banerjee said violence and clashes were taking place in areas where BJP candidates emerged victorious in the Assembly polls, a contention which was also backed by the Shiv Sena.

While claims and counter-claims in Bengal muddy the political waters, a return to long-lasting peace will take much effort. BJP's IT Cell head Amit Malviya's tweet was an indicator of the times to come. "The BJP now has 18 MPs and 77 MLAs in West Bengal. We will respond in adequate measure within the constitutional framework," he said.