THE last phase of the Lok Sabha election which will conclude on May 12 has brought forth certain disturbing features. First, the communal temperature has been rising with the concerted communal campaign being conducted by the BJP and the RSS, which is especially concentrated in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Indresh Kumar, the RSS leader who was interrogated for his connection with the extreme Hindutva elements accused of engineering bomb blasts a few years ago, has recently admitted in an interview that the RSS cadres were running the election campaign for the BJP in Uttar Pradesh. This campaign is fuelled by blatant anti-minority propaganda and appeals for Hindu consolidation. Despite what the corporate media is projecting as Narendra Modi’s election platform being about development and good governance, Modi is harping on issues which are at the core of the anti-Muslim outlook of the RSS. In Bihar and other places, Modi talked of the “pink revolution” promoted by the UPA government. The export of buffalo meat is portrayed as beef exports in order to raise the bogey of cow slaughter, a pet theme of the RSS. In Uttar Pradesh, Modi appeals to the gods, Lord Ram and Shiva, to bolster his political rhetoric. In West Bengal and Assam, Modi has attacked the “Bangladeshi infiltrators”. He has declared that they will have to pack up and return to Bangladesh after May 16. MASSACRE OF BENGALI MUSLIMS The repercussions of such a campaign against Bengali-speaking Muslims dubbed as infiltrators has already manifested in Assam. In a shocking attack by Bodo extremists, 31 people have been massacred, mainly women and children, who are Bengali Muslims. This occurred in the Bodo Territorial District area where polling was held on April 24. Two years ago, over a hundred people were killed in the same area in an effort at ethnic cleansing. At that time too, the BJP and the RSS had conducted a rabid communal campaign branding the victims as Bangladeshi infiltrators. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal had called a bandh in the state in August 2012 to counter the protests by Muslim organisations. The renewed campaign against the Bangladeshi infiltrators has contributed to this attack against Bengali-speaking Muslims by the Bodo extremist elements. The Assam killings are a dire warning of what can happen to communal harmony and the unity of the people if a BJP-led dispensation comes to power at the centre. WEST BENGAL: FASCISTIC ATTACK The other major development is the fascistic attempts by the Trinamool Congress to rig the elections in West Bengal in order to suppress the CPI(M) and the Left. The third round of polling held on April 30 for nine Lok Sabha seats witnessed widespread rigging in polling booths and intimidation and violence against the voters. In a naked and brazen display of terror and intimidation, over 1300 booths in these nine constituencies were taken over and voting manipulated by the TMC goons. The Bengali visual and print media had captured many such scenes. Tens of thousands of voters braved this intimidation and asserted their right to vote. Many of them were assaulted and injured for their insistence on exercising their democratic right. While these sort of methods were expected from the TMC which is increasingly desperate to retain its domination, what is surprising is the passivity and in some cases, connivance of the officials deputed by the Election Commission to ensure a free and fair poll. Disregarding all the evidence presented and the reports in the media, a Special Observer appointed for the elections declared that the polls were fair and dismissed the complaints as baseless. The inability of the Election Commission to intervene to redress the situation by ordering a re-poll in a substantial number of affected booths is shocking and regrettable. This will affect the credibility and integrity of an institution which is so vital for the parliamentary democratic system. The people of West Bengal will have to assert their rights and rebuff the goondaism and the threats of the TMC goons in the succeeding two phases of the election when a majority of the seats in the state go to the polls. The CPI(M) and the Left Front will stand with the people to wage this struggle with determination for the defence of democracy and to protect their rights. The attack on the democratic system in West Bengal is designed to suppress the Left Front as the TMC and the reactionary forces know very well that the return of a strengthened Left in these elections will unleash the popular movements and the energies of the people who are getting increasingly suffocated by the TMC’s lumpen raj. SHADOW WAR At present, the BJP and the TMC leaders are engaged in a shadow war of words. The TMC has been promoting communal politics in the state by patronising religious and communal leaders belonging to the minority community to bolster their support base. The BJP is the obverse side of this communal competitive politics. It seeks to brand Mamata Banerjee and the TMC as the appeasers of the minority community. The BJP is criticising and at the same time wooing Mamata Banerjee as seen in the approach and speeches of Narendra Modi and Rajnath Singh. The message from its former ally, the BJP to the TMC is clear: join us after the elections. This is what Narendra Modi means by saying that the people can have a rosgolla in both hands. Thus the fight against the BJP and the Hindutva forces all over the country and the struggle in West Bengal being waged by the Left and democratic forces are inextricably linked. It becomes imperative to defeat the BJP at the national level and to rebuff the venomous anti-Communist reactionary force, the TMC, in West Bengal.