Kolkata, May 7 (PTI) The brazen murder of Chandranath Rath, close aide to senior BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, by motorcycle-borne gunmen has sent shockwaves across West Bengal, laying bare a chilling culture of political violence and unchecked criminal audacity.
But far from being another flashpoint in the state’s blood-soaked electoral theatre, the killing stands as a grim emblem of a much deeper decay, one rooted in Bengal’s turbulent political legacy, festering institutional failures, and long-simmering socio-economic decline, experts warn.
On Wednesday night, Kolkata’s northern fringes of Madhyamgram turned into the scene of a chilling execution straight out of a Bollywood thriller.
The 41-year-old personal assistant to Adhikari and a former Indian Air Force officer, Rath, was mercilessly gunned down by unidentified men. In a hail of gunfire, two bullets tore through his heart, leaving behind a trail of shock and horror that stunned the city.
DGP Siddhnath Gupta said preliminary investigations indicated a “cold-blooded murder” carried out with precision by professional criminals.
Investigators suspect the murderers used vehicles with fake number plates and tampered chassis numbers to avoid identification, adding another layer of mystery to the killing.
“The rules of this nasty political game in West Bengal are already defined, and no dispensation wants to change it,” senior journalist Asish Ghosh said.
“Resorting to non-violent Gandhism will lead to being knocked out by the opposition fair and square. Parties, irrespective of their colour, have retained the political DNA of their predecessors, like most in BJP today were in TMC two days ago. The protection of criminals is provided by leaders,” he alleged.
Tracing the roots of political violence in Bengal, Ghosh referred to the militant tendencies among some Bengali revolutionaries during the Independence movement, the clashes during the first and second United Front governments in the late 1960s, and the rise of the Naxalite movement.
“Firearms and bombs are practically in our genes,” Ghosh said, adding that political activism in Bengal got confined within the domain of violence long ago.
In the context of Rath’s murder, Ghosh said he disagreed that the pattern of violence has changed much, despite the advent of ‘supari killers’ in the scenario.
“Though not one off, such sophisticated killings are few and far between the overwhelming number of other incidents of political violence which remain largely traditional with rampant use of firearms and crude bombs,” he said.
Maidul Islam, a professor of political science, linked criminalisation in Bengal’s politics to the state’s rapid de-industrialisation in the last few decades, stating that a section of the unabsorbed workforce in industry took to criminal activities and simultaneously got sucked into the state’s combative political milieu.
“While the other West and South Indian states moved from agrarian to a largely industry-based economy, Bengal took the opposite route. We moved from being an industrial hub towards a deindustrialised state,” he said, providing context.
The academic pointed towards the “surplus-turned-lumpen workforce” becoming dependent on politics and party/government doles, if they failed to migrate for income.
“Politics is linked to almost all economic activities in the state, like property purchase or getting contracts for building roads. Once the dependence on political affiliation becomes absolute, it then becomes a high-stakes game. Because if you lose elections, your income for the next five years is in jeopardy,” Islam said, explaining the proliferation of violence in state politics.
When party loyalism became the sole criterion for income generation — including becoming scheme beneficiary, recipient of menial jobs or work contracts or get involved in extortion rackets — and means of sustenance, criminal activities will persist, he added.
“Till such time the political economy of Bengal changes where labour absorbing industries are established — like logistics, tourism, manufacturing and agro-based industries, mining — with a balanced approach, violence won’t stop in Bengal politics,” Islam said.
Biswajit Bhattacharya, another senior journalist, pointed out that, unlike other regions where social violence was linked to equations over factors like caste division, Bengal’s arena was purely political because of the absence of those social features.
“Especially in rural areas, where incidents ranging from land grab to constructing religious structures over public spaces, events which may not be strictly political, always assumed political colours somehow,” he said.
Bhattacharya referred to the clashes during the 60s and the 70s, which took place between middle and big farmers who supported the Congress and the Left, trying to implement land reform.
“The clashes were mostly related to interests in land and social hierarchy. That’s why we see poor people in villages mostly at the receiving end of violence, because they have no choice but to belong to one political camp or another,” he explained, adding it’s that legacy which continues to plague the state’s political ecosystem even now.
Former IPS officer Nazrul Islam, who served the state during the erstwhile Left Front regime, distinguished violence proliferation during his time and the subsequent TMC regime, alleging that the dimensions changed.
“I am not saying there wasn’t violence during the Left Front era, but regimented party structure ensured they retained some control over the criminals. During the TMC regime, the party retained no control, and the administration was virtually nonexistent. The criminals did not need party protection; they became party leaders themselves,” he said.
The priority requirement, Islam said, is to seize the illegal arms and send the criminals behind bars.
“If the same set of leaders is found in all ruling parties, how will things change? From TV channels, I saw that goons who flexed muscles for the TMC till the other day now celebrating, smeared in saffron gulal,” he said, adding he still retained optimism for a change that would be organic. PTI SMY MNB
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