Elections always tend to offer strange bed fellows. And the practice of fielding criminals in elections by political parties , ostensibly to utilise their muscle and money, is also an integral part of Indian brand of democracy.
Congress had once done the most audacious of such practice when it fielded two plane hijackers Bholanath Pandey and Devendra Pandey in the elections. These two men on December 20, 1978 hijacked an Indian Airlines Flight which was flying from Calcutta to Lucknow, and forced it land at Varanasi. Armed with toy pistols they hijacked the plane and demanded the release of Indira Gandhi who had been arrested after The Emergency and the withdrawal of all the cases against her son Sanjay Gandhi.
The Congress later awarded with party tickets for the 1980 UP assembly election; both won the election and became members of the legislative assembly of Uttar Pradesh. Bholanath served as a Congress MLA from 1980 to 1985 and 1989 to 1991 from Ballia and Devendra remained a member of the house for two terms.
So , in a sense one should not be surprised when TIPRA Motha fielded Ranjit Debbarma from 24- Ramchandraghat constituency.
Ranjit Debbarma as ATTF president was responsible for thousands of innocent Bengali villagers’ murders, kidnapping, hostage killing in captivity, arson and all sorts of brutality on people. He was responsible for hundreds of mass murders – often massacring 14 to 30 people at one go. Some places like Simna, Panchabati, Bazar Colony , Purba Gonki, Gauranga Tilla Refugee camp, Kamalnagar, Baralunga , Jarulbachhai –where entire hamlets were wiped out at the instructions of this Ranjit Debbarma by blood thirsty militants. Hundreds of people who had been kidnapped did not return –the fact that even forced the state government to reduce the time period for providing benefits to the missing person’s family.
Everywhere the ATTF modus operandi was almost same: The killer squad would swoop down on the Bengali villages/ markets at night, cordon it off and set the huts afire. As the sleepy villagers would run out they would be fired upon from automatic weapons and mowed down. Children and babies or those who tried to run but failed would be brutally hacked by daos. In many cases they would throw people alive. In one particular gruesome incident on February 10, 1997 at Rajnagar-Chandrathakur para at Khowai when the gang of Ranjit Debbarma attacked and set aflame the huts one 95 years old Anandamoyee debi could not run. She was simply picked up by the ATTF killers who throw her on the burning hut.
While thousands were kidnapped many despite payment of huge ransom could not return from his captivity. The owner of the Meghlibund Tea estate Yogabrata Chakrabarty was just an example.
It is not that militant leaders were not in the elections before. Bijoy Hrangkhawl, TIPRA Motha president or late Left Front Minister Khagendra Jamatia –they were also militants and are/were active politics and People’s representative.
But there is a difference.
Both Bijoy Hrangkhawl (TNV) and Khagendra Jamatia (ATPLO) joined the main stream politics following a peace talks with the government and were rehabilitated in proper and legal ways. Ranjit Debbarma was on the other hand picked up by Bangladesh police who handed him over to Indian authorities. The then 1st Bn TSR commandant went to Meghalaya and brought him handcuffed here. He is still facing the case and presently out of jail on bail.
Of course, despite several Supreme Court judgments there was no clear ban on criminals facing trial from contesting elections and as such political parties also keep on fielding them. But it is still open for discussion as to how an accused xenophobic mass killer like Ranjit Debbarma could be fielded to fight an election.
The signal is definitely very unsettling.
