Don't oppose the EC

West Bengal is not as peaceful as its government claims

It seems that the confrontation between the West Bengal government and the Election Commission of the state over the conducting of the coming panchayat elections may ease, with the former signalling that it is not spoiling for a fight and will remain within the four corners of the law. However, it is worthwhile to go into the issues that have been thrown up, since several other Assembly elections are round the corner and similar controversies need to be avoided. It is worth reiterating that the institution of the Election Commission has worked in the country in a way in which few others have, and public opinion is sure to go against any political entity that is seen to oppose it. A key element of the successful holding of elections that has brought about dramatic changes in government in the country is that elections are staggered over several days so that the official machinery is able to deal with demands being made on it. This has allowed security forces, strengthened with reinforcements brought in from outside, to be adequately deployed where elections are held on a given date. Along with all this, the Election Commission has hugely beefed up its own system of observers, who have kept a watchful eye on overall campaigning as well as the use of money and other inducements for voters.

In this context, it is short-sighted on the part of the West Bengal government to take advantage of conflicting legal provisions in the state and assert that the panchayat elections will be held on the days it deems fit and that it alone can take a call on whether security forces have to be brought in from outside. This has put the state government in direct conflict with the state's Election Commission, which feels the panchayat elections ought to be staggered over three days and central forces are necessary. The state government first wanted the elections to be held on a single day and then came round to a two-day schedule. The West Bengal government's argument that the state is peaceful enough to not require what the Election Commission desires is cynical misdirection. One grass-roots Trinamool Congress leader has just been arrested for arson; and a municipal councillor who had been evading arrest over the killing of a policeman was arrested outside the state.

The coming panchayat elections are important for the ruling party, which wants to show that it still holds sway over voters in the countryside. This imperative and the ongoing, often violent, battle at the grass-roots level as the Trinamool Congress tries to wrest local suzerainty from the Left makes the coming panchayat elections fraught with the risk of violence. It is ironic that having come to power through elections held over several phases, as is being suggested by the state Election Commission, the state's ruling dispensation is arguing for a different model in which the popular will can be subverted by violence.