Calcutta Notebook
I C

They run a parallel economy—the crime syndicates. They run locally or across the state. And in some cases they tie-up with inter-state gangs with greater reach to resources and market as well. It was not the case in the fifties or say, in the sixties when criminals were utilised by political parties and vested interests in a limited way to achieve limited objectives. Even in the early sixties crude bombs, pipe guns and the like were major assault weapons in the hands of most petty criminals. It’s no more. Sophisticated arms and technology have changed the crime scenario completely. With every passing day crime syndicates are being increasingly integrated into the market, on occasions giving notorious criminals a kind of legitimacy that they should not get.

Illegal coal-mining is the life-line for hundreds of small-scale iron foundries and sponge-iron units that pollute and destroy environment and traditional livelihood of thousands of indigenous people, particularly in Bengal’s Jhargram region. Tribal inhabitants of Jhargram are suffering enormously from sponge-iron pollution and any dissent is being silenced with the help of police and muscle power while legalising illegal industrial activities. The brick-kiln owners of Bengal are allegedly murmuring about non-availability of ‘cheap coal’ from the coal Mafia of Asansol-Rajiganj-Jharia belt because of a recent crack-down by the administration. They say it is one reason prices of bricks are so high today. Small builders are interested in ‘back alley’ cement merchants who are actually local toughs. They get cement cheap from these people because these notorious ‘cement traders’ have developed a well managed network of cement pilferage while selling it under popular brand names well below the prevailing market rates. They even maintain workshops and godowns for the purpose, hopefully with the full knowledge of police and the persons in power. Road-side diesel vendors get their stuff from oil tankers plying on highways and all this illegal business being a part of the market, breeds criminals. They don’t bother about the law of the land because the law enforcing agencies are themselves part of it. Their diktats are laws. And any opposition from any quarters further strengthens the possibility of criminalisation of politics. Nor do they bother about tax authorities because operators of parallel economy are beyond the reach of any tax authority. Politicians irrespective of their colour know it and they ignore it. The reason is simple : they also get the share of the booty. As for the police the less said the better. The entire police establishment will go bankrupt without illegal activities by criminals and their market patrons. All the stake-holders in parallel economy are happy while civic society feels insecure because of growing criminal activities.

And the crime syndicate-trading community-politician nexus is flourishing like anything much to the dismay of ordinary people who hoped for a better administration in the changed regime in West Bengal. Bengal is a new destination for inter-state gangsters. It doesn’t matter who rules the state. After all the apparatus of bureaucracy and police remains unchanged. Criminals quickly change colour with the change in power euqation. And in today’s Bengal crime syndicates that operate locally or regionally have already switched their allegiance to the powers that be.

Criminalisation of politics is so pervasive these days that no political party, left and right alike, is in a position to offer a clear and crime-free administration. If they so wish the police can control 90 percent of criminal activities within hours. No, they don’t. They maintain a symbiotic relationship with the criminals. The usual practice of police is to depend on criminals to tackle criminals. For the criminals the routine is very simple : police custody–jail custody–bail. And in 99 percent cases conviction doesn’t take place. Law in this land is a unique animal that doesn’t bite. When it bites it bites honest citizens. With agonising unemployment and degradation of age-old moral values, criminal activities are on the rise. As political parties depend more on muscle power than on masses to survive in the parliamentary rat race, criminals are in high demand. In Bengal the decline of industry and agriculture seems to be directly proportional to the rise of real-estate boom. And the realtors are the prime movers of crime graph in the state. Looting of the exchequer by corrupt politicians and contractors is an old phenomenon. And contractors always need the help of police, bureaucrats and musclemen to carry on their business.

As election at every level involves huge monetary stakes goons are being utilised by political parties to capture the contested turf. So even school committee elections cannot be bomb-free.

In the yester years Congress initiated the muscle-power culture in politics to win generally assembly elections. Some state Congress stalwarts were also godfathers of local dons. Then the CPM-led left somewhat legalised and expanded the culture of crime with the sole objective of monopolising every aspect of economic and social life. Parties in power have long been backing rapists, dacoits, thieves, murderers and their tribe, for short term political and economic gains while allowing the situation to drift towards chaos as it is today. Ordinary people who are mere voters are actually paying the price in their daily life.

Not that the left was innocent in the sixties. People have short memory. The first United Front Government in Bengal was a dismal failure but left parties even in those days utilised the services of criminals to raise funds and dominate areas. And criminals in turn demanded their pound of flesh in no time and got it with the tacit approval of the persons in authority. How the so-called left parties like SUCI, RSP and Forward Bloc, not to speak of CPM, the big brother, willingly—or unwillingly—became safe houses for some notorious wagon-breakers may now be treated as a footnote in the tragic history of Bengal. Party deputed lawyers used to fight their cases in courts.

Frontier
Vol. 45, No. 36, Mar 17-23, 2013

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