Why the Mamata Banerjee government can suddenly see, hear or speak no ‘evil’
There has been violence and blood-spilling over the filing of nomination papers for panchayat polls.
Good that the Trinamool Congress government is taking long strides to celebrate the birth anniversary of the Mahatma.
Excellent that Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee has finally managed to compartmentalise her personal and political likes and dislikes, and agreed to be part of a meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair to discuss Gandhi Jayanti celebrations, all for the Father of the Nation. But what leaves one at a loss for words is that the state government and the ruling Trinamool Congress have already started practising the Gandhian principle of see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil.
The most glaring example of this was when chief secretary Malay De refused to even entertain any question on the recent attack on journalists in the state, leave aside actually giving answers. The chief secretary had been holding an unscheduled press conference, talking of ahimsa and how the government would celebrate Gandhi and his philosophy in schools and colleges.
Incidentally, this happened to be the same day 17 journalists, reporters and photographers were assaulted, a woman reporter was abducted and held in a slum for four hours and her mobile phone smashed to pieces, for capturing the incidents of pre-panchayat poll violence.
If the chief secretary refrained from answering, naturally because he won’t hear or speak “evil”, the chief minister, in the case of another incident where a photo journalist was stripped, frisked and his camera destroyed, went as far as to say that she had never heard anything on that, though it happened very close to where she lives.
“This is the propaganda of a specific media house. There is no information of attack on any journalist. I stay at Alipurduar,” she stressed. Had she heard about the incident, she would have acted. So now there is no cause for action, because the CM has not heard about the attack.
She has seen little more. When violence and blood-spilling over the filing of nomination papers reached its peak, with eight deaths reported and the ruling party’s henchmen coming down on one and all, sparing no one – women being punched and kicked, dragged by their hair, septuagenerian former Left MP Basudeb Acharyya and another CPIM leader Ram Chandra Dome thrashed and injured, the chief minister was “seeing no evil”.
Naturally, she felt no need to react or to speak. Eventually, when she did react, with the Opposition bringing things to the notice of the Governor and the court, she dismissed the trail of violence over eight to nine days as “some stray incidents in some seven out of 58,000 booths” going to polls.
“Apart from that no incident happened,” Mamata said, completely choosing to go blind to the widespread disturbances. As for the attacks on the veteran leaders, she has sent her emissary to the hospital with bouquets, as balm for brickbats.
As for the accusations of eroding democracy by restraining the Opposition candidates from contesting polls, the CM rubbished them, saying had that been the case, two lakh candidates wouldn’t have been in the electoral fray for 48,650 seats.
A big question hangs on as to who are these candidates and to which party they belong – the BJP has fielded candidates from 57 per cent of West Bengal gram panchayat seats, and the Left from 40 per cent.
According to an officer of the state election commission, there is no bar on the number of people filing nominations from one single party. The ruling Trinamool Congress has pitted a number of candidates, who would either stay on as Independent or withdraw as dummies later.
In the meanwhile, see, hear and speak no evil.