Alarming political violence in West Bengal, says Chidambaram

Expressing concern over heightened levels of violence against political workers in West Bengal, Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram said the number of killings was “alarming” and pointed to a “virtual collapse of law and order” in parts of the State.

In his letter of December 30, 2010 to West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, a copy of which was released on Friday, the Home Minister said that he had used the word ‘harmad' (hired killers) in an earlier letter as it was extensively used in the media, but would use any other word to describe armed cadres that Mr. Bhattacharjee would care to suggest.

Mr. Bhattacharjee had taken strong exception to the use of the “nasty” word in Mr. Chidambaram's letter last week.

Mr. Chidambaram agreed with Mr. Bhattacharjee that it was “not a happy situation” considering the level of violence in the State. He had on Thursday sent two letters to Mr. Bhattacharjee, in reply to the Chief Minister's December 28 communication. Both letters were faxed as well as sent by speed post.

“While you have put the number of Communist Party of India (Marxist) cadres killed and injured at 69 and 723 respectively, according to our information they are 65 and 773 respectively. The figures are not very different. In fact, there is broad agreement on the numbers killed and injured. If our numbers are broadly correct in the case of CPI(M) cadres killed and injured, there is no reason to doubt our numbers regarding Trinamool Congress and Congress cadres killed and injured.

“These numbers have been gathered in [a uniform] manner and from the same sources. Taken together, the numbers are alarming and that is why I said that they point to a virtual collapse of law and order in parts of West Bengal,” Mr. Chidambaram said in the letter.

Deployment of forces

Agreeing with the Chief Minister's view that the CPI (Maoist) had a significant presence in three districts of West Bengal and that the challenge was containing them both administratively and politically, he pointed out that it was towards this end that the Centre provided substantial support by deploying Central forces upon request.

“The question that remains unanswered in your letter is: if armed cadres continue to take upon themselves the duties of maintaining law and order, what is the role of the security forces, especially of the Central paramilitary forces that have been deployed at the request of the State government,” he said.

In the second letter, Mr. Chidambaram clarified his use of the word ‘harmad' to describe the armed cadres. “I do not think that the word is per se offensive but, should you suggest another word or phrase to describe the armed cadres referred to in my letter, I shall be happy to use that word or phrase,” he said.

“Both of us should focus on the substance of my letter and not be distracted by extraneous matters,” Mr. Chidambaram said. He also invited Mr. Bhattacharjee to the capital for a frank discussion on this extremely sensitive issue, to agree upon the way forward, indicating his availability from January 3 to January 7, 2011.