05-16-2008, 08:19 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Marxist thuggery </b>
The Pioneer Edit Desk
CPM's murderous campaign in Bengal
The situation in West Bengal continues to worsen by the day with the CPI(M)'s lumpen cadre on the rampage, targeting anybody who dares to stand up to Marxist thuggery. The ongoing panchayat elections in the State have been reduced to a farce and the results can be predicted even without counting the votes. Desperate to retain its stranglehold over rural Bengal, where people have begun to rebel against the CPI(M)-led Left Front Government's policy of grabbing prime agricultural land in the name of setting up industrial units, apart from its abysmal failure to check increasing impoverishment of the masses, the Marxists have dropped all pretences of practising democratic politics and taken recourse to what they do best: Bludgeoning people into submission. The shameful manner in which Opposition candidates have been disallowed the right to contest the panchayat elections through coercion and worse and potential anti-CPI(M) voters have been chased out of their homes in numerous places bears witness to the reign of terror that has been unleashed by those who wax eloquent on the need for free and fair elections from their perch at Alimuddin Street in Kolkata and AK Gopalan Bhavan in New Delhi. The level to which the Marxists, who never tire of pontificating on political morality and finding fault with others, can stoop to achieve their goal is demonstrated by the contemptible attempt to frame an upright officer of the CRPF for refusing to follow the instructions of a certain CPI(M) member of Parliament whose claim to fame is no different from that of a dreaded criminal. Having subverted every agency of the state, including the State Election Commission, it is not surprising that the CPI(M) has faced no obstacles in its murderous campaign to seize control over panchayats and thus exercise absolute power over the masses.
This is not about politics as it is understood in democratic societies; it is about supplanting political pluralism with single party dominance. Since this cannot be achieved through free and fair elections, the CPI(M) has opted for the only alternative: Relentless and terrifying violence. The victims of the rapacious Marxists's lust for power are not necessarily activists and supporters of the Trinamool Congress -- the other Congress has reconciled itself to the role of a collaborator in the hope of crumbs being thrown its way -- but, as the latest incidents of violence show, also those of the CPI(M)'s allies in the Left Front. The RSP has reason to feel angry and bitter that its members and leaders should be maimed and murdered by Marxist cadre. But it lacks the courage to walk out of an alliance that has clearly been reduced to no more than what CPI(M) leader Biman Bose has described as a "political necessity". Yet, if the lesser partners of the CPI(M) were to walk out of the Left Front, the Marxists would have had to struggle to retain the edge over their electoral foes -- the fraction of votes that ensures the perpetuation of CPI(M) rule in West Bengal is contributed by the RSP, the Forward Bloc and the CPI. For all their threats to walk out of the Left Front, the CPI(M)'s 'allies' continue to meekly submit themselves to humiliation and more. It is not 'ideology' that keeps them together, but the temptation of loaves and fishes of office. Meanwhile, West Bengal continues to pay a terrible price
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The Pioneer Edit Desk
CPM's murderous campaign in Bengal
The situation in West Bengal continues to worsen by the day with the CPI(M)'s lumpen cadre on the rampage, targeting anybody who dares to stand up to Marxist thuggery. The ongoing panchayat elections in the State have been reduced to a farce and the results can be predicted even without counting the votes. Desperate to retain its stranglehold over rural Bengal, where people have begun to rebel against the CPI(M)-led Left Front Government's policy of grabbing prime agricultural land in the name of setting up industrial units, apart from its abysmal failure to check increasing impoverishment of the masses, the Marxists have dropped all pretences of practising democratic politics and taken recourse to what they do best: Bludgeoning people into submission. The shameful manner in which Opposition candidates have been disallowed the right to contest the panchayat elections through coercion and worse and potential anti-CPI(M) voters have been chased out of their homes in numerous places bears witness to the reign of terror that has been unleashed by those who wax eloquent on the need for free and fair elections from their perch at Alimuddin Street in Kolkata and AK Gopalan Bhavan in New Delhi. The level to which the Marxists, who never tire of pontificating on political morality and finding fault with others, can stoop to achieve their goal is demonstrated by the contemptible attempt to frame an upright officer of the CRPF for refusing to follow the instructions of a certain CPI(M) member of Parliament whose claim to fame is no different from that of a dreaded criminal. Having subverted every agency of the state, including the State Election Commission, it is not surprising that the CPI(M) has faced no obstacles in its murderous campaign to seize control over panchayats and thus exercise absolute power over the masses.
This is not about politics as it is understood in democratic societies; it is about supplanting political pluralism with single party dominance. Since this cannot be achieved through free and fair elections, the CPI(M) has opted for the only alternative: Relentless and terrifying violence. The victims of the rapacious Marxists's lust for power are not necessarily activists and supporters of the Trinamool Congress -- the other Congress has reconciled itself to the role of a collaborator in the hope of crumbs being thrown its way -- but, as the latest incidents of violence show, also those of the CPI(M)'s allies in the Left Front. The RSP has reason to feel angry and bitter that its members and leaders should be maimed and murdered by Marxist cadre. But it lacks the courage to walk out of an alliance that has clearly been reduced to no more than what CPI(M) leader Biman Bose has described as a "political necessity". Yet, if the lesser partners of the CPI(M) were to walk out of the Left Front, the Marxists would have had to struggle to retain the edge over their electoral foes -- the fraction of votes that ensures the perpetuation of CPI(M) rule in West Bengal is contributed by the RSP, the Forward Bloc and the CPI. For all their threats to walk out of the Left Front, the CPI(M)'s 'allies' continue to meekly submit themselves to humiliation and more. It is not 'ideology' that keeps them together, but the temptation of loaves and fishes of office. Meanwhile, West Bengal continues to pay a terrible price
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