Apolitical bar and a 'cultural' Jai Shri Ram : Bengal Politics in a nutshell

It was a hot summer noon with the mid sun sucking everything that a human has to offer. Along with one of his close colleague turned friends Kalieodscope seeks refuge to one of the local not so famous bars. These are the bars where real people meet chat and perhaps discuss the whereabouts of the rest of the world. These are the bars which doesn't stop you from smoking while you enjoy your drink because it's ultimately your lungs and your decision, remember the famous my body my choice move. these are the bars where you get to see people across spectrum some engineer, some medical representatives and also some of the truck drivers and local political goons. These are the bars that can suspend the bars between classes, political identities and what not. Truly postmodern experience crystallized in the form of alcohol consumption located nearby. They are not going to give you fantastic foods or so called ambience. However these are the places where one can find out real feel for a sample of the entire cosmos which is happening around you and things which are making people affected.

So when they entered the bar all of the tables were occupied some by engineers one of whom was afraid of getting married but was sufficiently pressurized by his family, couple of medical representatives who like Kaleidoscope was looking for a refuge from the scorching sun, one of the local businessmen, a couple of local political workers exhausted with installing party flags in neighbouring areas in order to mark the territory of one of the political parties facing stiff challenge from the others, and also an auto driver who thought it was enough for him to earn for the day and grab a beer.
The thing that was striking in the bar was a couple of codes of conducts pasted on its wall. Kindly refer to the photograph Kaleidoscope managed to take.

Yes you got it right the bar was asking its customers not to discuss political issues and not to use slangs. It was quite clear that these two domains frequent in that space. Kaleidoscope's friend's fun full response to this is that it's a sanskari bar. However, when the couple of local political workers entered the bar they looked at one of the tables where one of the customers were previously known to them, chanted "Jai Shri Ram". Yes you got it right not Rum but Ram.
immediately the entire scenario of the Bengal as well as India's political terrain surfaced. People do not consider Jai Sri Ram as a political slogan and there is hardly anything that anyone can do about. Entire political landscaping BJP is capitalising on is by using the cultural baggages which is apparently not political at all. Starting from their campaigning strategy which uses social media that requires huge amount of money to their sloganeering that uses so called what Kaleidoscope had said cultural misrecognition. There is hardly anything that can be done at this point of time to convince people that these cultural misrecognitions are misrecognitions and not so called innocent cultural expressions anymore.

Kaleidoscope knows as many others that the the cultural ideological sloganeering and poitics is winning unhindered in most part of his country and its alarming.

The eight pillars of BJP’s rise in West Bengal in 2019

Contents

The eight pillars of BJP’s rise in West Bengal 1

1. Identity –Organisation interface. 2

2.Primordial identity beyond political identity: 3

3. Governance issues and absence of participation: 4

4. People’s disgust with Corruption: 4

5. Governmentality of fear. 5

6. BJP’s Organisation, Temples and money: 5

7. BJP as a new saviour. 6

8. Internal sabotage within TMC: 6


Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has shown a radical surge in Parliamentary election 2019 in West Bengal. While many find this rise as unexpected and shocking, this article with the help ethnographic research in Rural Bengal since 2008 shows the possible reasons for such a rise. It appears that in recent past excepting 2016 when CPIM and Congress had alliance, BJP’s vote share is rising rapidly in the state. If one compares the 2016 Assembly election it is an astronomical figure in favour of BJP (Figure 1). I have been doing fireworks in different places in West Bengal since 2006. Based on such field experiences and available scholarly works in this article I explore some of the major reasons that has escalated BJP's rise in West Bengal, a state which was relatively immune towards Hindutva sentiments until now.

Figure 1 Vote percentage share of different political parties in West Bengal since 2006 (Source: indiavotes.com and news paper reports)

1. Identity –Organisation interface

While, the three decades of left rule was successful to install an interesting form of public transaction through ‘party society’ that undermined every other competing channel, it changed drastically in post left Bengal. There has been a surge of state sponsored festivals (both secular and religious) that permanently altered the political landscape of West Bengal once and for all. West Bengal is one of the soft targets for identity polarisation given the partition history and repeated riots and state's failure since independence to 1970s when Left Front took up the office. In my fieldwork sessions since 2006, I have been to places where Riot like situation was created during the Left’s tenure because of a) misunderstanding between the communities (e.g. a cow's leg was found in some temple, but it was carried by a bunch of jackles not by the Muslims), b) purposive attempt (to polarise) and, c) a mix of the two. These were managed effectively by the party society. Usually, a school teacher, or a govt employee would have informed the local party cadres to mitigate the tension even before it was formed. Whenever an inter-caste or inter-religious marriage took place, or for that matter any familial crisis arose, it took little time to become partisan. Booth Committee – Branch Committee – Local Committee has been champions of quick and easy fixing of a wide range of conflicts which could potentially spread and instigate further violence and counter violence. Such a mechanism of public transaction was completely wiped out by the TMC since 2011. After their landslide victory first, they assumed control over several Left Front’s party offices and then as an obvious political mechanism they sidelined the ‘party line’ of control. As an alternative to the organisation based system TMC depended on a handful of locally powerful elites. In several villages these elites are often the persons who had to give away land during the Land Reform movement and had considered the left to be their class enemy. This section had money and assumed control over a significant section of the rural youth. TMC used this mechanism and exercised control through a new form of party machinery which was unknown to the people of West Bengal. Over time, the individual dependent organisation structure started to show crippling chain of command, role confusion, area confusion and ultimately dreadful factions. When the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee depended on a significant number of film and like personalities instead of her dedicated party workers for giving tickets to the Parliamentary Elections in 2014, TMC’s inability to manage faction was clear.

As Political Society and Party Society got weathered away (as theorised by Partha Chatterjee 2004 and Dwaipayan Bhattacharyya 2009, 2016), TMC tended to depend more on the ‘cultural’ and ‘representational’ issues which Suman Nath theorised as ‘Cultural Misrecognition’. Nath (2018: 99) in Economic and Political Weekly shows that TMC “Instead of bypassing or substituting existing channels of public transactions, the TMC is inviting existing channels of public transactions to take place but within the templates provided by them.” Hence, while TMC undermined and dismantled the party society invited traditional Identity based mobilisations ranging from Shalishi Sabha to the rise of Religious festivals and religiousity. Although, with most of the TMC state level leaders’ association with Durgotsav, it is not surprising to see such an inclination towards identity-festival-TMC nexus after they assumed political control in the State Assembly.

As the party began to focus more on the festivals (one instance is the allocation of funds to the Ministry of Information and Culture from Rs. 61 Crores in 2010-2011 to Rs. 300 Crores in 206-2017), politico-identity issues began to surface from 2013 onwards. If one sees the number of riot like violence of the state it shows a steep rise from 2012 onwards (see figure 2). 

Figure 2 Number of riot like conflicts in West Bengal, Source State data provided to the Parliament

2012-2013 onwards two major policy linked events happened, a) provision of a monthly allowance to the Imams and Muezzins which was considered as an instance of Muslim appeasement by the state and b) Not allowing Durgotsav procession to go during the Muharram to avoid communal clashes. Moreover, organising Durgapuja Carnival has often been seen as a balancing act from the TMC. Ram Navami rallies started to spread rapidly since 2015-2016 and became aggressive over the years. AAMRA Ek Sachetan Prayas Forum, an organisation doing serious conflict studies in West Bengal had documented and Published several reports on the detailed nature of such conflicts and how these are connected to a) religious festivals including Ram Navami, Muharram and Durgotsav, and b) hoax faceboook posts in different parts of the state.

Once, the identity faultline was opened up, BJP capitalised on it by consolidating the Majority vote including that of erstwhile Left Cadres.

2.Primordial identity beyond political identity:

From the extent of vote share it appears that the reduction in Left vote from 23% to 6% and rise in BJP from 18% to 40% is self explanatory, but it would be a gross generalisation if one makes such a streamline conclusion that Left people simply voted for the BJP. In my ethnographic works, especially in places where active identity mobilisation has taken place since 2013, I have seen the proliferation of Rashtriya Swayamshebak Sangha (RSS) led organisations like Bajrang Dal, Durga Shakti, and Hindu Samhati which has a cross party appeal. In a couple of articles published in 2019 at International Journal of Conflict and Violence (IJCV) and at the Journal of Indian Anthropological Society Suman Nath and Subhoprotim Roy Chowdhury write on the ways in which these organisations are pulling people from across the political spectrum in the name of “saving the Hindus”! There are workers belonging to TMC, Left and Congress who did not hesitate to say that party comes next to the Identity/Community. Such a divide has been percolating and tearing apart the public sphere through a variety of mechanisms that range from circulation of videos and texts via social media to tangible experiences of riots. If one observes the geographical dimension of the riots it appears that once there is a communal tension at one place, its adjacent places are affected within months. Among several instances we can imagine the recent conflicts in Naihati-hajinagar-Chandannagar and Baduria-Basirhat. While in the first instance a mix of population is notable (Nath and Roy Choudhury in IJCV article) which includes people from other north Indian states in the second instance significant minority presence is noted. As one of the TMC worker in Basirhat says “Nusrat has got votes because of her identity only, who knows her to be a party worker?... earlier it was the Didi factor, she could make anyone win, but now its Hindu-Muslim factor!”

While the popular film actress Nusrat won the Basirhat seat allegedly because of her identity, TMC lost with its veteran Dinesh Trivedi to Arjun Singh of BJP who recently left TMC. It has something to do with consolidation of Hindu votes in the region. Similarly, Assembly by-poll at places like Bhatpara is won over by BJP defeating experienced TMC leader, Sarada Scam accused Madan Mitra because of Identity polarisation.

3. Governance issues and absence of participation:

The discursive sphere of West Bengal since 2018 had one issue in common: the disgust of the people who could not volte in the Panchayat election. Three District Panchayats in West Bengal are won over by TMC uncontested. Additionally as the Election Commission of India data shows about 34% of all the seats from different tiers are won over by the TMC uncontested. Panchayat election has been one of the bloodiest elections that the state has witnessed in recent times. West Bengal has always witnessed high poll percentage, especially in Panchayat elections. In fact in a Bengali book entitled Shreni’r Drishtite Gram Panchayat, (Panchayat, seen through the Class) written by CPIM leader Dr. Surya kanta Mishra voting percentage is shown as one of the achievements of politically conscious vibrant public sphere. Indeed, as written by Raghabendra Chattopadhyay, Bhaskar Chakrabarti and Suman Nath in 2010 in Commonwealth Journal of Local Governance, even though there is a falling percentage of attendance to the annual Gram Sabha meetings over the years, Gram Sabha continues to occupy an important position in the Rural West Bengal. With DFID sponsored Strengthening Rural Decentralisation, during the last phase of the Left ruled West Bengal has seen special emphasis on the Gram Sabha led Annual Action Plan preparation. With the advent of TMC’s rule and onslaught of World Bank sponsored Institutional Strengthening of Gram Panchayat Programme (ISGPP) there is a parallel shrinking of space for participation in decentralised governance. Consequently, even though a number of schemes have actually catered the needs of the rural poor along with the improvement of rural connectivity and livelihoods support base, people got alienated from the Gram Panchayat. It is important to note that Gram Panchayats are not only an institution of governance, but it is an institution that entangled itself with the social fabric of rural West Bengal. For instance, a Pradhan (chef of a Gram Panchayat) is not only the office bearer but also a guardian of the region. He is called up to resolve family issues and often given a lot of respect in different ritualistic performances.  

While, on the one hand the party society was dismantled, sphere for people’s participation in democratic functioning of Gram Panchayat was also reduced significantly. In a 2017 article published in Critical Asian Studies, Subhasish Ray and Mohan J Dutta show how in Junglemahal (the forested western part of the state) Gram Panchayat decisions are being implemented bypassing the elected wing of the Panchayat. They argued that this form of “hyper development” has alienated people from the development initiatives. Clearly, People’s inability to vote and stopping people from filing nomination in 2018 election have backfired.

4. People’s disgust with Corruption:

In a 2017 Economic and Political Weekly article entitled “Everyday Politics and Corruption in West Bengal” Suman Nath showed how the corruption charges against TMC especially that of Sarada Scam and Narada bribery could not give any electoral dividend to the opposition. He further argued that people are quite habituated to become involved in the corrupt transactions in their everyday life. Starting with empanelment to employment generation schemes to getting houses, everywhere party demands money and people are usually willing to pay a certain amount if that speeds up the process. Such an everydayness of corruption made the corruption charges virtually insignificant. This scenario, however, has changed over the last few years. Allegedly, a large number of people bribed to get employment at variety of positions. News reports of such incidents made headlines every other day. While corruption charges are not new in West Bengal, last few years have seen complete open discussion of such bribery and corruptions in the public sphere. It was well known informally who were asking money for what. The chain of command was open and sometimes there were conflicts regarding the percentage share of the money among the party cadres of different layers. When, BJP came with an alternative form of corruption free governance system, it got immediate appeal to people at large.

5. Governmentality of fear

CPIM led Left parties had a powerful trade union among the government employees. For clerks and officials it was Coordination Committee and for other people occupying relatively higher echelons had a variety of associations. Transfer to distant places happened to be the most feared punishment to anyone getting involved in anything which party doesn’t approve. There were competing associations belonging to non-left parties, but they were weak and hardly had any command over how does the government function or make the decisions. Since 2011 these associations were dismantled through a variety of mechanisms and slowly administrative wing took over the welfare issues of the workers. While, it helped bringing back the much needed “work culture” of the offices, a large sections of the employees disheartened to see the rights to protest and participate in strikes were dealt with stringent action. A government employee for last few years is supposed to come not only on the day a strike is called but also the day before and the day after. Additionally, there are grievances related to significant difference in Dearness Allowance and delay in implementation of the Pay Commission benefits. It is said that based on the calculation of postal ballot which is issued mostly to the government employees who were involved in election, BJP wins about 39 out of 42 sits in West Bengal.  

In my ethnographic works in different government offices it is found that there is an ambiance of fear among the employees everywhere primarily because of two reasons. First, the stringent action taken against those failed to appear on the days strikes are called. Second, public image of the government employee has been affected by statements made against such employees by several political leaders. In consequence, there is an ambiance of fear of becoming subjected to public and media trial which is anything but a biased and often with heinous consequences. Government employees are not isolated from the society, rather they are important nodes to the web of society. Their disgust had dreadful consequences to TMC’s vote share and perhaps gave confidence to the BJP.

6. BJP’s Organisation, Temples and money:

It might sound unreal to people who know the political landscape of West Bengal if I say BJP has its organisation strength in West Bengal. However, throughout my fieldwork in different districts of West Bengal I have encountered BJP’s organisation in a variety of names. It includes pro-Hindu new organisations like Hindu Samhati, Durga Shakti and Bajrang Dal long with several existing temple, sacred grove based local organisations which get funding from Viswa Hindu Parishad and RSS. Apart from these, several places like North and South 24 Parganas, Hoogly, Bankura, Paschim Medinipur, Purba Medinipur, Paschim Bardhaman BJP in the name of BJP has earned popularity. There were already existing workers who earned confidence with regular visits by central leaderships and state level leaderships. There happens to be a silent movement “Meri booth sabse Majboot” (my booth is the strongest) among the BJP players. In several rural places in addition to identity polarisation and statement like “Hindus are in danger” they also popularised the notions that people need jobs and self reliance. They also campaigned based on the Panchayat level corruption and lack of democratic practices at the Panchayat. I remember before the election in several places there were saffron flags along with BJP flag hoisted in the paddy fields – something symbolically state the extent of political percolation in rural sphere.

With the rise of BJP’s popularity and cadre base, TMC local leaders in many places panicked. They panicked primarily because of the relatively chaotic organisation and confusing chain of command within their party network. Additionally, allegedly there was a huge fund flow along the line of establishing political control. During poll two BJP workers were arrested carrying one crore of rupees in a railway station which is symptomatic to the nature of illegal money flow during the election.

7. BJP as a new saviour

I have encountered several Left Front supporters and cadres in rural West Bengal who took help from the BJP cadres to come back to their villages and to fight against the alleged false cases registered against them by TMC. These are localised and extremely significant findings to actually show the reasons behind the left’s support to BJP. Additionally, a simple calculation of enemy’s enemy is a friend has been playing a background score. In this situation in addition to the identity issue and Hindu vote accumulation, Left’s vote consolidation under BJP’s banner is nothing but natural and instinctive.

8. Internal sabotage within TMC:

TMC has a practice of nominating people with little known political career behind them. These are the popular faces from the silver screen who managed to win in 2014 election but many of them failed to do so in 2019. As already discussed it was a master stroke of TMC supreme to deal with the internal and factional conflicts within the party where it became inevitable that nominating one would make the other angry. Instead, someone fresh, someone having enough “symbolic capital” earned from other field (like film and television, theatre, etc.) got the nomination. This strategy made internal alienation of the workers and leaders who toiled to curve out political space from the Left and now compete with the BJP. Consequently, before the parliamentary election several TMC leaders held open disagreement with TMC’s chain of command. Sabyasachi Dutta exemplifies one of those leaders who held significant difference in terms of TMC’s decisions. It is highly likely that there were internal agreements with the opposition forces in many places in exchange of money and/or promise of ministership etc.

There are several other individual and microscopic reasons for such an astonishing rise of BJP in West Bengal. Those require thorough studies. To conclude that the entire Left vote has changed its camp and got accumulated to BJP would always entail oversimplification to a much complex and detailed story. Each of the districts will reveal a different story of the rise of BJP, however, it is needless to mention whatever issues they have taken up the major axis of BJP’s rise is on identity mobilisation. A dimension which has been fuelled since 2011 and BJP being champion of it excelled and steered the benefit in their favour.

About the author:

Suman Nath, PhD, teaches anthropology in Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam Government College, New Town, Kolkata. He is doing research on development governance and politics in West Bengal since 2006. He regularly publishes scholarly and popular articles in journals like EPW and news papers like Anandabazar Patrika. His book People-Party-Policy Interplay in India is due to release from Routledge, New York this year.

Managing Elections in India - Institutions, Helplessness, and the tale of a Presiding Officer

How does the institution called the great Election Commission of India makes it's machineries depend on the local politics? And what happens afterwards? By virtue of being a group a gazetted officer of "not so important" institution of public machinery I have been opted in for booth level election work since 2011. I do not mind it and nor I went to Courts or attempted to "manage" my name to be stroke off from the list of Presiding Officers ever. I knew I would learn and more importantly experience something unique about the grassroots politics, election procedure and democracy at large. In each of the duties in Patashpur, Nandigram and in Dumdum I have gathered something new and unique. With an exception to Nandigram, the rest two cases I have seen a helpless situation of the Polling party which the local political players capitalise on. I have written in details of the Patashpur and Nandigram in my forthcoming book entitled "People-Party-Policy in India". The generalised experience and how does a government employee generally behaves inside of the Polling booth under "pressure" has been written in a movie review "Newton".

Therefore, here I would only focus on my experiences in Dumdum constituency to show a) how gruesome the experiences can be, b) how the gruesomeness can be translated into the electoral benefit of the locally powerful goons and c) what happens when they fail to make electoral gains out of infrastructure deficit because of the strong resistance from the Presiding Officer?

The fear factor theory

Election duty happens to be the most feared and stressful duties that the government extract from their cadres. The fear factor is induced from the very training days. From the first training onwards, in each of the three places I got trained the fear factor is disseminated from the trainers, discussed among the trainees and percolated from the veterans to the novices. Trainers, themselves are often not allotted booth level duties and hence what they know is only some bookish and theoretical understanding of what can be done and how these are done. While, there are many success stories of polling team but as we know successful poll operation attracts people but fear factor has more realistic impact and instinctive responses.

Hence, in each of the training programmes you are made aware about the new addition to the already existing Everest size paper works and details of how to submit these papers and in what ways. They will clearly state "you will have the authority of a Magistrate but you know you are not a Magistrate, you people know how to tackle things and manage the poll peacefully." These sort of messages have multiple meanings and usual understanding of the people is a) we are helpless, we have to save our life first, b) we have to let them(political parties) do what they want to do, c) we can protest and stop it from happening if we are given adequate and ready to fight central force.

Infrastructure deficit and crippling chain of command

While the fear factor is more theoretically percolated than experienced, poor to non-existing infrastructure is regularly experienced. In most of the cases, the infrastructure deficit is 'managed' by the polling team from the local resources. Who are these local resources providers? Yes, locally influencial political leaders and their notorious cadres. While, the team carries bundles of papers, Electronic Voting Machines, Paper trailing machines (VVPAT) and some personal belongings in over crowded buses, it's not possible for them to carry buckets, tables chairs, or a 1000liter water tank and a toilet!  

A Presiding Officer is supposed to report about every discomforts to the sector officer. A sector officer is usually a mid level cadre of some public office who is given these additional duties during the poll.  They are equally helpless and often inefficient as well. Inefficient because, the kind of management skill these sort of service requires is not readily available to everyone.

Infrastructure of my booth in 2019 

I was given a club high plinth with a concrete roof, a large and completely open space where yearly Durgotsav of the club takes place. It didn't have a toilet or a water source. It was mid May with a temperature rising above 42 degrees celcius and 80 percent of humidity. The real feel was near 50 degree celcius. Another polling party was tagged with me who were supposed to conduct their poll in about a 8 feet by 6 feet club room packed with a few immovable furntures.

While both the polling party was already exhausted after a day of steaming inside the temporary structure of stuffy distribution centre crowded by a few thousands of polling personnel it was simply not possible for them bear anything any more. I called up the sector officer and he said he cannot anything about it. It's been decided by the district level officers and that he has repeatedly told them not to hold election in these centres. Then he said you kindly arrange things locally.
The handbook of presiding officers has clearly stated a polling party should not take any local hospitality as it might bring a conflict of interest. When I quoted he simply said "handbook has so many things to say brother" the phone was then disconnected. The next person to call was the central control room. After a few attempts they picked up the call and told me you have to do it there only as it's decided.

Local influencial masculinity steps in

I disconnected my phone only to see a bunch of boys belongings to the age group of 30s and 40s. One of them wearing a uttorio (a traditional long piece of cloth one keeps on his neck) clearly denoting their political identities. A person in white T-Shirt came and asked "this is the place where polling takes place, you tell me what you need, we will arrange."
Me- but you know we are supposed to get it from the commission.

White T shirt- take it from us. Which office do you belong to, where do you stay? (With an unmistaken authoritative tone).

Me- right now I am representing Election Commission of India here, I am a presiding officer and you are not supposed to know anything more than that.

White T shirt - visibly disappointed with my response replied ok. Tell us what is needed.

Me - tables chairs and cleaning staff and table fans, light a water source and a toilet!

White T shirt - yes central force also demanded that a bio toilet and water tank is on its way. White T shirt left.

One of my team mates while appreciating the way I gave direct reply to the white T shirt also worried about it's consequences. I told the central force not to allow anyone inside the booth without identity proof and the passes that I will issue on the next day. Meanwhile, the white T shirt came and told they have arranged for a couple of empty apartments nearby where we can stay the night and then come back in the next morning to start the election procedure with an assurance of every possible hospitality. I outright rejected the proposition and Central force followed. Meanwhile the bio toilet came - a stuffy, smelly small toilet for 14 people to pee, and to shit. I found myself completely dehydrated and discovered at about 12:30  in the night that the last time I peed was at my home at around 8:00am. Amazing, what a human body can do I thought.
We could finish the paperwork by 1:30 am and spend the night fighting with mosquitoes, heat and smelly toilet which was parked nearby. When we continued to fight, we watched Central forces people continue to guarding the booth on rotation. Unlike us they carried their mosquito nets. The senior most to the team held a fatherly gesture asking us to get some sleep before the big day. At around 2:00am a couple of boys came (one of them I doubt would be about 15 years old) to install a CCTV camera to the booth. What an intrusion to our already devastated night time privacy!

On poll day an interesting dimension was brought forth by the White T shirt "can we keep the mock poll (mock poll is an essential step of showing the machines functioning properly before th actual post starts) data and I will give you names and papers for that. It will speed up the process.
I took some time to digest that I was actually being told that. I won't do that was my conclusive reply. 

White T shirt - we are doing so many things, can't you do this little help to speed up the process.

Me- no, if politics is a profession you need to work hard and I am not going to bend any rule even an inch. 

White T shirt left and the polling agents came I could start the poll on time.

The story under the influencial masculinity

Local ruling party's representative of my neighbour booth told me on the previous nifht that he will bring all other polling representatives and they will sit together, talk and enjoy the largest festival of the democracy. I was sceptical but then I saw that was actually happening. Both the booths had representatives from TMC, CPIM, and BJP and it was possible because of a few people from the ruling TMC who ensured that the other parties do represent at the booth. This might be a subtle political strategy for the peri-urban sector, but what that TMC representative told me is important. Previous night at around 10:30 he told me in an informal conversation that we don't like these party difference to percolated into our local relations. We have tried to ensure that. Earlier CPIM used to call us to represent our party inside the booth, even they used to sponsor our foods and refreshments, now we do that. Referring to the white T shirt as (I have referred to earlier) he said it's people like him that attempts to destroy our social fabric. He is the husband to the local counsellor and has earned a bad name by intimidating people and doing illegal transactions. It's people like him we are being scolded by our wives that why should we continue doing party politics.

That might be an outcome of their faction I thought, but the informal atmosphere made me feel some genuine and honest feeling in those words. It was a very hot night and I had hundreds of paperwork pending that compelled me to put my ethnographic self at rest! Yes it's sad, but I had to.

'Requests'

As the white T shirt could not make us surrender to his offer of hospitality and then subtle threats "we are offering so many things and can't you do this little much for us?" During poll I started getting some peaceful requests like a) kindly allow those not bringing their identity cards; b) let us caste a few votes for our friends who couldn't make it; c) those old uncles and aunts who wanted us to vote for them and the like. I peacefully rejected them simply saying "I won't do that", "why earn a bad name of the locality for a few votes" and once a little harsh "stop this unhealthy competition among the booths you people are earning more bad names than votes." The atmosphere remained friendly till the poll was over. However, I got phone calls repeatedly asking if everything was peaceful as there were reports of voilence from other booths nearby. By the end of the poll each of polling agents and my team became friendly enough to share some family details, possible career choices of their sons and daughters, likes dislikes and other details. Unless they are saturated with hatred filled from outside two humans in any given day won't fight with each other - I thought.

Masculinity comes back

Around 6:30 the white t shirt along with one of his followers came riding a bike shouting in some booths because of the presiding officers polling is still continuing and there are instances of violence. A few of my friends were doing their duties nearby and one of them being very close to me was not picking up the phone and I was tensed.

I ask him where did it happen? (Never imagined he was that angry on me)

He didn't reply but repeated the sentence about violence and fault of the presiding officer. I repeated my question.

He came to me with all his aggression and shouted "did I repeat the question about your residence and service identity when you refused to give me that"

I said "oh, really! A.    N.    D?

He shouted "this is bad presiding officer guys, don't let him go before you are satisfied with the paperwork. If he makes any mistake lock him up! He over do things."

A person sitting outside the booth belonging to the same political party asked him to leave.

I laughed sarcastically and told the agents hey guys you check with form 17C the one I am supposed to give to you and wanted to say something to the white t shirt but he left as the central force was there and they came near and looked at me.

As an obvious effect my party was a bit tensed. We are in an unknown territory and one of the local goons was angry on us, more particularly on me. Just to encourage and finish the pending tasks swiftly, I said, don't worry if he touches me his political career will be finished! He will be arrested.

Underlying the masculinity

My agents and the other agents from the neighbouring booth repeatedly said that they felt bad for the incident and that it should not have happened. In fact the one representing the same party in my booth was visibly disappointed and said "i never thought something like this will be said to you". I smiled and said most of the unthinkables are actually done by the humans.

As we left the place several people including  the agents from different parties waved their good byes and best wishes. We knew the last part of the struggle awaiting us at the Receiving Centre where completely exhausted people from all corners will quarrel among themselves to deposit hundreds of documents and machines.

A few questions before I end it inconclusive

While it is true that there are places where a serious shortage of public buildings is noted, but does that warrant the Election Commission to push their officers towards a complete disaster without preparation?

While it compels each of the teams to compromise the rules framed by the institution itself, doesn't it question the very integrity of the institution itself to it's public image?

While, we heard much about the polarised public sphere of West Bengal along the party line, (and more recently along the identity line as well) the place we have experienced election indicates the value of social fabric and also the nature of practice at grassroots. I have seen completely opposite picture in many places in West Bengal, but this too exists and no exception.

The polling booth one on the high plinth used for durgapuja and another one on the righthand small warehouse like structure.

A few voters came as early as 5:30am

The bio toilet (blue structure), and water reserver.

Just another statue? Or a clash of civilisations!

One thing might prompt everyone's mind? Why Vidyasagar college? Why the bust of Vidyasagar and not anyone else. While Vidyasagar could be just a pure victim of chance, the choice of the geographical location of the ralley which instigated violence is not a chance factor. It went through college Street- the place itself represents the pulse of enlightened city of Kolkata and to a large extent the heart line of West Bengal. College street with universities, colleges, schools and the largest market of second hand books represents the heart line of debatable term 'cultural' capital that Bengalis often proudly attached with the city. Hence, if one has to launch an attack on the culture-civilisation of Bengal, it has to be the college street.

Taking a modernist stand and with a hint of objectivities, Kalieodscope can conclude it was indeed planned route to affect, tear apart and strip the cultural attributes of the city, and mindscape of Bengal.

No one, in today's late capital world can predict the response of such an attack. It range from sudden unplanned reaction of Counterpublics to absolutely nothing. Breaking down one of the most worshipped iconic figures of Bengal would probably have little impact on the last phase of the Ongoing general election. A section of students if convinced can give a second thought before casting their votes, but, this will remain a Hallmark of event for BJP's conspicuous presence in Bengal.

For a historian or an anthropolgist writing on West Bengal, five years from now would perhaps begin by referring to the vandalism that Vidyasagar college, college street, Kolkata, Bengal and perhaps the world witnessed yesterday. It's symbolic. When you think of the simulation of the event with social media cleavage you relive the moment of the fight between ghosts of long discarded past and an uncertain present vis a vis precarious future.

The world cannot be the same, nor the past.