In Bengal, governments come and go; political parties rise and fall. What remains constant — a shameful stain on Bengal’s countenance — is the ogre of mob violence. Its latest victim, after the change of government in the state, has been Abhishek Banerjee, the Trinamool Congress’s general-secretary and a three-term parliamentarian. On Saturday, while visiting the family of a party worker killed in post-poll violence,
Mr Banerjee was subjected to a brutal assault. The jury is out on whether the ‘public’ anger was spontaneous or orchestrated. Mamata Banerjee and the TMC have alleged that the assault was the handiwork of the Bharatiya Janata Party. On Sunday, another TMC leader, Kalyan Banerjee, was allegedly attacked in Hooghly. The BJP, expectedly, has denied the charges, pointing fingers at the people’s disgust with the TMC regime. Arrests have been made in the Sonarpur violence: the law-keepers must be allowed to reveal the true identity and the allegiance of the culprits. Gaps in Mr Banerjee’s security protocols need to be investigated too. The reverberations of
Mr Banerjee’s manhandling have been felt in New Delhi too, with several Opposition leaders condemning the incident.
Mr Banerjee’s humiliation may come as a moment of schadenfreude for the TMC’s opponents and the cynics. After all, during its stint in power, the TMC, which had inherited the terror tactics of the Left Front, had, first, let loose a similar reign of oppression on the supporters of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and, later, on those of the BJP. But this vicious cycle has to stop at some point. Disaffection cannot be allowed to take the form of lumpenism. One of the state BJP’s stalwarts, Samik Bhattacharya, had earlier spoken of the BJP jettisoning the TMC’s rogue ways. In fact, after the elections, there were some reports of local BJP leaders protecting the TMC’s offices. Now, as the ruling party, the BJP must resist the temptation of its ‘Trinamoolisation’. The rule of law must be brought down heavily to curb mischief-mongers irrespective of their political affiliation. That would further cement public appreciation for the BJP. But will it trod the righteous path? There is an additional point germane to this discussion. A lot of banter takes place while dissecting the elements of ‘Bengali exceptionalism’, which is associated with a kind of enlightened conduct. Why does the spectre of mob violence — peculiar to Bengal — not find a place in such hoary oratory?