Bengal CM vs Maoists

When it was in power, the Left Front in West Bengal faced myriad problems in trying to control the violence in the Jangalmahal area, in the process being even charged by the Centre that a “ harmad bahini ” was active in the region which was squarely responsible for the resultant violence and tension.

On December 24 last year, the Union Home Minister wrote to the then Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, urging him “strongly to ensure that all armed cadres, either under the name of harmad bahini , or any other name, are immediately disarmed and demobilised”.

More importantly, the letter stated: “There is evidence that Harmad camps are mostly located in CPI(M) party offices and houses of local CPI(M) cadres. There are credible reports that the Harmad are intimidating, and sometimes attacking, members and sympathisers of Opposition parties,” concluding that “this is completely unacceptable in a democratic system”.

The important thing to note is that there is no mention of Maoists in this epistle from the Home Ministry. Clearly, there was a close correspondence between the Centre's stand on this point and that of Ms Mamata Banerjee, whose basic plank was that the Jangalmahal violence was being planned and perpetrated by CPI(M) armed cadres, in the process taking the help of the Central forces sent to the area to quell the disturbance. Just a day earlier, the Trinamul leader had openly declared: “Paramilitary units are being placed under the State police in Bengal and are being used to kill our men in Jangalmahal. Give the marching orders to the Central forces”, she had thundered.

Mamata's hardline

Today, the situation has changed completely, with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee telling the “jangal mafia” and “supari killers” that the Central forces will not leave the area till those responsible for the violence give up their arms and come to the negotiating table. It will be noted that in her recent October 15 announcement, giving the Maoists seven days to disarm and talk peace, Ms Banerjee has carefully avoided the appellation “Maoist”. In fact, on September 25, after the shooting of a Trinamul man in West Midnapore, she declared categorically: “These people are not Maoists. They are the mafia of Jangalmahal. Maoists believe in an ideology, but these people are simply looting the people of Jangalmahal”.

Although this line is close to the “harmad” theory (which was not a figment of the imagination while the Left Front was in power), the fact remains that the Maoists are today ruling the roost in Jangalmahal and are now challenging the new Chief Minister to deliver on her earlier commitment on the withdrawal of Central forces from the region.

Fate of talks

On September 3, the Maoists sent word through the State-appointed interlocutors that they were “ready for talks”; ten days later they dropped the condition for prior release of prisoners but persisted with their stand on withdrawal of Central forces from Jangalmahal. The Chief Minister is clearly taking a hard line, the resumption of joint operations, albeit on a low key, being an integral part of her amended approach. A slew of development projects have also been announced, just as the Left front Government had done earlier.

The question is: will Ms Banerjee succeed where the Left Front had failed? The Maoists talk of the people's support; so does Mamata Banerjee. The outcome of the duel will answer to a large extent the question on everyone's mind, namely, can Ms Banerjee govern West Bengal as felicitously as she can get together an audience of 50,000 people at short notice?

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