View: Violence needs to stop in Bengal now

Almost as horrific as the internecine violence that led up to, and climaxed on, panchayat poll day in West Bengal on Saturday is the way the state has normalised this tandav. Don't be fooled by the wall-to-wall coverage of the violence across the Kolkata media spectrum. Such 'violence porn' seems to do exactly the opposite of what such graphic images set out to do in theory: shock and shame. Instead, the portrayals desensitise viewers and readers - voters and citizens - from what in 2023 India must be unacceptable.

The narrative of political violence also finds more traction in the form of 'contests' - not just between the on-ground goon-armies of Trinamool Congress, BJP, Congress and the Left, but also between Centre and state, central forces and state police, the Election Commission and state government. There is also an ongoing, symbiotic 'battle of victimisation,' the state blaming Centre and BJP forces for aggravating matters to show the state administration in a bad light while the Opposition lays all the blame at the door of the state government and its units. This passing the pillow won't do. The real victims are the 18 left dead and numerous households attacked on election day, the ballot boxes and voting booths ransacked. The general terror, palpable outside the bubble of metropolitan Kolkata, was felt leading up to Saturday and on V-Day.

It must be understood that the cadre violence on display is both a show of power - literally 'threat perception' - as well as a conduit for complaints and finger-pointing. The final voter turnout of 80.9% hardly indicates voter courage in such a constant state of boil. It suggests coercion or 'yeh saab idhar chalta hain,' or both. Bengal needs to be protected. Democracy can follow. And the buck stops with the state administration.