Amid Violence, Hamlet Joins Electoral Politics in Bengal

Shaikh Azizur Rahman Hamlet Mandi, former leader of the Maoist group “People’s Committee against Police Atrocities” in Kanko village, West Midnapore district of West Bengal.

Hamlet Mandi, 27, a farmer from Kanko village in the abysmally poor West Midnapore district in the eastern state of West Bengal, was consumed by the neglect and the poverty engulfing the people of his region. A Maoist insurgency was gaining strength in the area and attracting many of India’s disenfranchised rural poor. Mr. Mandi was torn between suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune and taking up arms against a sea of troubles.

In 2008, Mr. Mandi overcame his Shakespearean dilemma and joined the Maoist rebels. Under the banner of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), around 15,000 to 20,000 Maoist rebels and their several hundred thousand supporters have a presence in 22 of India’s 28 states. The Maoist rebels, comprising mostly young men and women, are most active across 11 central and eastern Indian statesâ€"a vast region known as the “red corridor.”

In 2008, the C.P.I. (Maoist) leaders helped form a group known as People’s Committees Against Police Atrocities (P.C.P.A.) in West Bengal. Mr. Mandi emerged as a feared leader of P.C.P.A.

“I would often go to the villages with armed comrades and pick up villagers who had resisted the Maoists or not followed any of our orders on a specific issue,”  Mr. Mandi said. The villagers would be tried in Gana Adalats or People’s Courts.

“After senior leaders pronounced punishments, many villagers were caned or ordered to pay hefty fines,” Mr. Mandi recalled.  “Some villagers who were identified by our senior leaders as serious offenders were even executed,” he added.

Mr. Mandi was arrested and jailed by the West Bengal police in December 2011 for eight months before being released on bail in 2012. He still has five cases of arson pending, including two accusing him of causing murder.

In 2009 and 2010, P.C.P.A. militants targeted the members and supporters of Communist Party of India (Marxist), which was ruling West Bengal and forced many others to flee the region.

“More than 250 of our party leaders, workers, and supporters were killed by the Maoists in 2009 and 2010,” said Dahareshwar Sen, a district secretariat member of Communist Party of India (Marxist) in West Midnapore. “Several hundreds were forced to flee Jangalmahal to save their lives from the Maoists.”

As the state went to polls in 2011, the Maoists formed an unofficial alliance with the Trinamool Congress Party, which was trying to expand its support base across West Bengal. After the Trinamool Congress ousted the Communist government in 2011, the Maoists surrendered to the Bengal police and joined the Trinamool Congress. Mr. Mandi was part of the wave of Maoists giving up arms and joining the Trinamool Congress, which has left the P.C.P.A. virtually defunct.

Parivartan Sharma/Reuters West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee speaking to reporters in New Delhi on March 19, 2012.

In 2011, the Trinamool Congress, led by Mamata Banerjee, ousted the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which had ruled the state for almost 30 years.

The West Midnapore district and the adjoining districts of Bankura and Purulia are underdeveloped, forested areas and known in West Bengal as Jangalmahal. Ms. Banerjee began her tenure as the chief minister by announcing several development projects for the Jangalmahal region.

These possibilities of bringing progress to his area, and the fear of being killed as an armed combatant, made Mr. Mandi rethink his role as an armed Maoist. He reached out to Ms. Banerjee’s party.

“When I sent out a signal that I would surrender, the government hinted that it would forgive and help me and my comrades return to the mainstream,” Mr. Mandi said. He bid a farewell to arms along with several other Maoist fighters and embraced Ms. Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress.

“The government offered the job of a junior constable, but I preferred staying in my village and working here,” said Mr. Mandi. A little later, the Trinamool Congress leadership offered him a place in the party.

“I joined the party and I was fielded as a candidate in the Panchayat elections,” Mr. Mandi said while sitting outside  the Trinamool Congress office in a small house in his village, where he was surrounded by a group of supporters.

The transition has not been without its troubles. Seven persons have been killed in electoral violence in the village-level, Panchayat elections in West Bengal in the past week in clashes between the ruling Trinamool Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist).  Mr. Mandi was certain that his party would win, and that he would be the winning candidate to head the village administration.

“I am very happy that I have been able to leave behind my violent life,” he said. “ I am excited about the chance to work among the villagers.”

The levels of Maoist violence in West Bengal have decreased considerably since Ms. Banerjee took over as the chief minister.

“After our party formed the government, it began addressing the grievances of the region’s people who had been neglected and oppressed for long years,” said Churamoni Mahato, a state legislator and the party’s leader in West Midnapore.

Associated Press Villagers arriving in a modified motorcycle to cast their votes in the local administrative body elections in Birbhum district of West Bengal on Monday.

“Our government began working hard for poor and the Maoists had a change of heart,” he said  “There has not been a single killing by the Maoists in the area since our government came to power in 2011.”

Mr. Mandi’s mentor and another party leader, Biswajit Sen, argues that facilitating the entry of the former Maoist fighters into electoral politics helps bring peace and rehabilitate the former fighters.

“The former Maoists are trying to reform themselves,” Mr. Sen said. “I hope our government will withdraw the criminal cases pending against the reformed Maoists.”

Rajat Kujur,  a political scientist who is a visiting fellow at the  Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies in New Delhi, has studied the Maoists for more than 15 years. Mr. Kujur approves of the Trinamool government’s strategy of enlisting former Maoists as political workers.

“The Maoists thrive on the gap between the ruler and the ruled,” said Mr. Kujur. “If some former Maoists get involved in the process of decision-making, it could inspire other Maoist fighters to join mainstream politics.”

Some security analysts, however, view the trend with a certain cynicism.

“The T.M.C. formed an unprincipled alliance with the Maoists before the 2011 West Bengal elections,” said Ajai Sahni, executive director of the Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi, who specializes in counter-insurgency. “That resulted in a dramatic escalation of violence in the state through 2009-2010.”

It is significant that substantial numbers of those who were part of the violent agitations through this period under the banner of the People’s Committees Against Police Atrocities  ended up in the Trinamool  Congress after the assembly elections.

“Giving tickets to such elements in the ongoing Panchayat elections, consequently, is not a surprising departure from the past trends,” he said.

According to official estimates, political parties in West Bengal have nominated at least 24 former Maoists as their candidates in the Panchayat elections. While most are running on Trinamool Congress tickets, several are nominees of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Indian National Congress, the two major opposition parties in the state.

Many other former Maoists are running for office as independent candidates.

“But they try to keep their Maoist past a secret,” said a high school teacher in West Midnapore. “Those who are contesting on T.M.C. tickets are protected by police as their party is ruling the state. But the former Maoists who are contesting as independent candidates face the risk of being prosecuted for their past,” added the  teacher, who refused to be identified for the fear of retribution from  Trinamool Congress supporters and the police.

A week from now, Mr. Mandi will know about his electoral fortunes, when the results of the Panchayat elections are known. A poll jointly conducted by the television network ABP Ananda and the market research firm AC Nielsen earlier this month suggested that  the ruling Trinamool Congress Party could win a majority of the seats in the Panchayat elections. Some results have already come in, with the party winning nine out of the 10 seats in Kharbandhi area of West Midnapore. Most of the winners are former Maoists.

While West Bengal waits for the elections results, the former Maoists are already celebrating the safety of their new lives under the patronage of the Trinamool Congress party.

Shaikh Azizur Rahman Former Communist Party of India (Maoist) guerilla Robi Soren with his wife and children at his home in Kharbandhi village in West Midnapore district, West Bengal. After he surrendered to the police, the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress party made him a core committee member of the local party unit. 

“I often worried what would happen to my wife and children if I got killed in an encounter with the police.  I saw several comrades being killed in encounters,” said Robi Soren, 31, who had become a Maoist rebel in 2008.

Mr. Soren now works for the Trinamool Congress unit in Kharbandhi village in West Midnapore.

“When I was a Maoist, police used to chase me and I saw them as my enemy,” Mr. Soren said. “After I became a Trinamool member, police provide security for me, whenever I need it.”

Shaikh Azizur Rahman is a freelance journalist based in Kolkata. His work has appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, South China Morning Post, The National, among other publications.