Eyebrows raised as CPI(M) maintains safe stand on recent hawker eviction drive in Bengal

Kolkata, June 29 (IANS) CPI(M)’s safe stand of being virtually silent, on the recent hawker eviction drive undertaken earlier this week jointly by police and the municipal authorities in different pockets of West Bengal, has raised several questions in the political circles.

Barring issuing some statements by some leaders, there had not been many instances of on-ground resistance or even protests against this eviction drive, which now had been kept on hold for a month as announced by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

The only exception was CPI(M) councillor from Rampurhat Municipality in Birbhum district, Sanjib Mallick, who stood in front of an approaching bulldozer brought during the joint operation to demolish illegal hawking structures in the area.

Now the question that has surfaced is, whether this safe stand is prompted by the realisation of the CPI(M) leadership of the party's weaknesses in carrying out an aggressive on-ground resistance to such eviction drives, or is it because of some other tactical reasons that prompted this virtual silence.

Political observers feel that the silence was probably prompted by the disinclination of the party leadership to resurrect the memories of a similar hawker eviction drive undertaken in 1996 by previous CPI(M)-led Left Front regime in Bengal under the banner of ‘Operation Sunshine’.

For years, the CPI(M) and the previous Left Front government, always claiming to be the “party and government of proletariats”, had to face criticisms on two grounds.

The intellectual section ridiculed the banner of hawker eviction drive in 1996, since “Operation Sunshine’ globally relates to the scientific expedition conducted by the United States Navy in the summer of 1958, where a crew of just over 100 sailors piloted USA’s first nuclear submarine under the North Pole.

Secondly, serious questions were raised on how genuine was the CPI(M) and the Left Front government’s claims of protecting the interests of the downtrodden and subaltern sections of the society.

Now any active and on-ground resistance to the recent hawker eviction drive of the current Trinamool Congress regime had all the possibilities of resurrection of the same old and uncomfortable questions and that is why probably, the CPI(M) leadership maintained a safe stand on the issue, feel observers.

There could be yet another reason behind this virtual silence. Illegal encroachment of public spaces especially the pavements, footpaths and roadsides has long been an issue that has bothered the educated, urban and middle-class voters in the metros and urban pockets in the state.

At the same time, despite successive election disasters and massive erosion in their vote banks, the CPI(M) influences a section of these educated, urban and middle-class voters, who continue to be the party supporters.

So, feel observers, a thought might have worked among the CPI(M) leadership that any aggressive and on-ground resistance to the eviction drive might offend these continuing dedicated voters as well.