The gruesome murder of a family in Murshidabad has certainly shaken sensitivities around the nation, 35-year-old Bandhu Prakash Pal who was a school teacher and RSS worker, his 8 months pregnant wife Beauty Pal, 28 were stabbed and bludgeoned with sharp-edged weapons while and their 6-year-old son Angan Pal was strangled to death with a towel.
This shocking incident on the eve of Vijayadashmi has surely brought back the dire law and order conditions in the spotlight in the Mamata Banerjee ruled state.
West Bengal has been facing the worst law and order situation in India under the rule of Mamata Banerjee. Incidents of crimes which have been peaking at an alarming rate coupled with the strong arm political suppression by the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal have created a fearful situation for the people of the state.
The 2019 general election in West Bengal had also witnessed the fallout of this violence under the patronage of TMC led West Bengal government.
In a report by the Public Policy Research Center (PPRC), the deteriorating situation in West Bengal is further highlighted.
Citing the statics provided by National Crime Records Bureau the report pointed out that the state has the worst crime record in the country, including against women.
“The number of incidents almost doubled by 2017 when 58 incidents of violence were recorded, in which nine people lost their lives and 230 were injured. West Bengal stands fifth highest in the country, when it comes to crimes against children,” the report stated while referring to data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
Mamata’s term also saw a barrage of policies favouring the illegal immigrants in West Bengal. Mamata’s opposition of the NRC also points towards the same. NRC which aims at identifying illegal migrants, a majority of which are Muslim migrants from the neighbouring nations of Bangladesh and Myanmar, has been facing stiff resistance from the TMC as many believe that Mamata views these Illegal migrants as potential vote banks.
Several instances of these illegal migrants getting formal identification from the state government have also surfaced.
West Bengal has also been seeing a sharp rise in cases of human trafficking; most of the cases involve Minor boys, girls and also transgenders. West Bengal topped the list of the states that saw maximum human trafficking in 2016, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
According to the data by NCRB, in 2016 a total of 3,597 cases were registered in the state with a majority of the victims being females (595 males and 3569 females). However, even after thousands of cases, the charge sheet was only filed in 1,186 with a conviction rate of just 9.8%. However, a total of 2793 victims were rescued. West Bengal recorded a total of 44% of the total cases of human trafficking in the country.
Nonetheless, Hindus have been the major victims of Mamata’s politics.
Under Mamata’s administration, many restrictions were being placed on celebrations of Hindu festivals, which is evident from steps taken by Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal against celebrations of Durga Puja and Ram Navmi.
Earlier she was called out for her bigotry when under her orders several individuals were detained for chanting ‘Jai Shree Ram’.
A video had also surfaced which showed Mamata Banerjee stopping her convoy and confronting a few individuals who were chanting Jai Shree Ram as she was moving from one political event in Kharagpur to another.
Bengal Police playing at the whims of TMC government had detained three individuals in Ghatal where the whole sequence of events unfolded. Appeasement of Minority communities and journalists has further tilted the scales against Hindus.
As the next West Bengal assembly elections near in, BJP has been certainly emerging as the favoured alternative to Mamata’s strong-arm rule.
It is true that Mamata Banerjee now fears the increasing hold of BJP over the state of West Bengal.
She had for a long time established a “Hitler rule” which is soon to end with BJP gaining strong grounds.
She does not care about the ethics and the morals that should be upheld during the elections. She has censored art and culture in the state and curtailed the fundamental rights of the individuals.
Mamata Banerjee is scared of the fact that Bengal is gradually slipping away from her hold and by hook or by crook she wants this phenomenon to stop.
The saffron party has given clear strategy and groundwork has been successful in making huge political inroads in the state, with its vote percentage jumping from a mere 17% in 2014 to more than 40% in 2019 general election.
A jump in the total seats won by the BJP in West Bengal, from 2 in 2014 general election to 18 in the 2019 general election also followed this spike in vote percentage.
BJP had also invited families of around 50 BJP workers who had lost their lives to TMC led political violence in the West Bengal to the swearing-in ceremony of Narendra Modi as he commences his second term in the office as a gesture of respect.
Nonetheless, it’s not just the BJP or RSS workers who are being killed; it is the people of West Bengal who have been paying the price for opposing a tyrannical regime.
However, with the elections nearing in, violence in the state has also been rising and only the people of West Bengal can put an end to the tyrannical rule of TMC.
In this scenario, intervention from other political forces like the BJP in the centre is certainly the need of the hour to channelize problems faced by the citizens to a decisive electoral shift in the state which has been under violence first under decades of communist rule and now TMC’s radical administration.
Loss of more families like of Bandhu Prakash Pal is certainly not what the people of West Bengal want and it remains for PM Modi led BJP, which is the only credible opposition in the state, to take on the baton and make sure TMC meets its fate in the upcoming state assembly elections.