Bloodshed in Bengal

Violence has become a tragic fixture of state politics

Political violence in West Bengal is not new. It has been a feature of public life in the state since the 1970s, when Naxalite extremism and the security forces’ merciless response hardened sensitivities in the state. Since then, successive ruling parties — not just the Trinamool, but also the Congress and particularly the Left Front — have made political violence central to their control of the state. “Poriborton” 10 years ago, in which the Left was voted out decisively in favour of the Trinamool, was accompanied by a wave of blood-letting that lasts months if not years. In much of