(The following article is from the June 1-15, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

Special to PV

     The western media has been lavish in its praise for the pro-imperialist Congress Party victors in the recent elections for India's Lok Sabha (parliament). But not a word is said about the bloody right-wing offensive against the left and secular parties, which campaigned as the Third Front coalition.

     This attack has been most intense in West Bengal, where the Trinamul Congress party (TMC) made big gains. In recent years, frustrated by repeated losses in this state of 80 million people, the TMC (formed by Mamata Bannerjee after her expulsion from the Indian National Congress in 1997) and other opposition forces have turned to violence against the Left Front, which has governed since 1977. Dozens of Communist Party of India (Marxist) members and other Left Front activists have been murdered by supporters of the TMC, Congress Party, and Maoists.

     This mayhem accelerated during the election campaign. Between March 7 and May 13, 26 CPI(M) members were killed, hundreds of Left Front activists were attacked, and many homes burnt down. In another incident, three electoral officers were killed by Maoists in a landmine blast.

     The Bengal CPI(M) leadership says the TMC's goal is to terrorise Communist supporters and drive them out from selected areas. The TMC is deliberately provoking police intervention, hoping to destabilize the elected state government and cripple its ability to implement pro-people policies. This tactic recalls the violent period of the early 1970s, when reactionaries used bombs and bullets to block the Left from coming to power in Bengal.

     The People's Voice correspondent in India, B. Prasant, has detailed many examples of the latest wave of attacks:

     In Murshidabad constituency, Congress supporters killed CPI(M) activist Mantaj Sheikh, and unleashed terror in the Raninagar area, killing police officer Gopal Mandal.

     In Uluberia constituency, Trinamul activists attacked Chitnan village, looting and setting fire to 43 houses, and torturing women and children. In Kaliaganj, Malda, thirty houses of CPI(M) workers were set on fire.

     In Birbhum constituency, Trinamul goons attacked Dhiren Bagdi, an elected CPI(M) representative. The criminals injured at least 15 other CPI(M) workers, and set fire to a party camp office, vehicles and red flags. In other areas of Birbhum, attacks took place in the guise of victory processions.

     Trinamul attacks in other parts of Bengal ranged from physical assaults, to digging up roads and setting fire to police vehicles. In many places CPI(M) offices were targetted.

     In response, Prasant reports, "all across the state, we have received news that protest marches are organised by the CPI(M) and the Left Front. Such processions have taken place throughout the day of 18 and 19 May in nearly all districts of Bengal. The processions attract a few hundred people each at the moment, but the swing is evident that in the days to come resistance will be offered when further attacks are organised by the Trinamuli goons. In the meanwhile, attacks continue to rain down on CPI(M) Left Front workers."

     The first victim of the post-election assaults in Bengal was Arabinda Mondal, a 39-year-old Forward Bloc party member who was one of the architects of the Left Front victory in rural elections last year. Mondal ran a cell phone repair shop where supporters gathered in the evenings. The shop was attacked while he was alone at mid-day. After a severe beating, Mondal's head was smashed in with a brick, and he died with clothing stuffed into his mouth.

     Even children are not spared, reports Prasant: "At Bada Kaimari village at Sitalkuchi in Coochbehar up north in the state, the Trinamuli goons perpetrated a heinous crime on a small child of five. In the name of victory festival, they tied a long string of crackers around the body of Kochi, a son of local CPI(M) supporter Shahid-ur Mian. Then they set the crackers afire, causing the panic-struck young boy to run around, madly screaming, as the goons whooped it up with derisive laughter. The boy had later to be hospitalised for burn wounds and trauma."

     At Kaliachak's Nomopada, home to poor people belonging to the scheduled castes, Trinamuli hoods shot at the homes of CPI(M) workers and supporters while indulging in similar victory marches. Huts were wrecked, some set on fire, and the people driven away to take shelter in neighbouring villages. At Englishbazar, on Maldah, the haystack of a poor CPI(M) worker, Sudhakar Das, was torched. Display boards of the CPI(M)'s Ganashakti newspaper were smashed throughout the district and elsewhere in Bengal.

     In Hooghly, Trinamuli members looted and demolished the roadside stalls of CPI(M) workers Khshudiram Majhi and Susanta Majhi. A total of 25 CPI(M) supporters were injured in this attack, which forced women and children to shelter for the night in terror amongst nearby rice paddies.

     And the list goes on and on: "at Murarai in Birbhum, eighteen CPI(M) workers received injuries as a result of a sudden armed Trinamuli assault... the vehicle and house of Manik Sheikh was completely demolished by attackers waving the Trinamuli colours... at Ranaghat's Phulia crossing, Trinamuli hoods assaulted with sharp weapons CPI(M) worker Rabindranath Biswas and his 80-year old mother. Both lie in serious condition at the Ranaghat Alunia hospital... A doctor at Barasat was attacked and injured for his affiliation with the CPI(M)... Khamarpara local committee leaders of the CPI(M), Maidul, Rahaman, and Hamid were assaulted with sharp weapons and hospitalised. At Panihati in the same district, four shops were wrecked... At Sandeshkhali, the house of AIDWA (All-India Democratic Women's Association) leader Pritikana Das was wrecked. More than 100 CPI(M) workers had to leave their residences and take shelter elsewhere out of the district..."

     Trinamuli attacks reached into Kolkata, the capital of Bengal: "Northern parts of the city have been made special targets of the Trinamuli attacks, from Pathuriaghata Street in `old Kolkata,' to the more recent Beliaghata bustee, and the Narkeldanga locality, attacks are being mounted on CPI(M) workers and sympathisers in a systematic manner. Ganashakti boards have been pulled down, ripped apart, and set fire with impunity. The attacks continue in the suburbs. At Maheshtala, a township in south 24 Parganas, variety goods stalls of three CPI(M) supporters were wrecked completely, and the remains set on fire, pauperising the three small traders completely.

     "Another feature in Basarat is the extortion of money from CPI(M) workers and their relatives, the amounts ranging from 5,000 rupees up to a lakh or two (100,000-200,000). Any negation meets with severe beating and worse, come night time. Staying in Barasat, the Trinamulis looted houses of a dozen-odd CPI(M) workers and made off with all their life savings, wrecking their huts as well."

     Prasant also notes that "The corporate media has assumed its new anti-Communist role. They print photos of CPI(M) workers grieving, and caption them as having been beaten up by CPI(M), and the shameless charade goes on and on."

     The CPI(M) leadership and their Left Front partners are mobilizing to beat back this fascist attack, which is coupled with right-wing demands for the central government to use Article 356 of the Indian Constitution to order new state elections. India has a history of such interference by the centre, usually with the purpose of ousting progressive state governments.

     At the same time, the Left parties have begun a serious examination of their setbacks. At a packed news conference on May 21, Bengal Left Front chair Biman Basu condemned the attacks, and called for peace to prevail. He reported that the Left candidates won 18.5 million votes in Bengal, or 43.30% of the total, while the Trinamul Congress and its allies won 19.1 million votes, or 45.67%. This close outcome gave the Trinamuli coalition 26 seats, to 15 for the CPI(M) and its partners.

     Biman said there was no reason to advance the state assembly polls scheduled for 2011. He added that the Left Front had not asked for any such advancing of election dates in 1977, calling this claim a "big lie" drummed out by the corporate media.

     The results come a year after Bengal's May 2008 local elections, which the Left Front won despite a decline in its votes. At the time, Biman Basu pointed to weaknesses in the political work of the Communists and the Left among the rural populace, and instances of "egoistic behaviour," which contradict the high expectations placed on the Left parties. He also noted gaps in implementation of rural development programmes, and the difficulties of carrying out rural development projects in a class-divided society where key powers remain with the central government. The Left Front's historic land reforms in Bengal have benefitted the rural population, but there are limits to such gains. In recent years, the Left Front has advanced industrialisation projects to generate employment, a strategy which has created some dislocations which have been opportunistically seized by the Trinamul Congress to stir up discontent.

     Meanwhile, in a preliminary statement, the CPI(M) PolitBureau said, "The Left parties had allied with certain non-Congress, non-BJP parties in various States. This was required so that a secular electoral alternative emerged. However, these alliances forged in some States on the eve of the elections were not seen by the people as a credible and viable alternative at the national level."

     In the PolitBureau's assessment, the Congress gained from the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, the Forest Tribal Act and other social welfare measures pushed through under Left pressure. The Congress also got more support from minorities and secular-minded people who wanted to prevent a comeback by the reactionary BJP.

     The PolitBureau said both national and State-specific factors were responsible for the reverses in the states of Bengal and Kerala, where the Left parties lost 25 seats, keeping just 16 of their 2004 total. The CPI(M) national vote share dropped to 5.52%, only marginally less than the 5.66% it won in 2004. In Tripura, the third state governed by the Left, the CPI(M) won both seats.