Bhubaneswar: The incidences of violence reported during the first phase of the three-tier panchayat elections in Odisha yesterday was something unheard of in at least last two decades of the electoral history of the State. Wednesday’s incidents point to two things – failure of police in maintaining law and order and involvement of high stakes of the ruling and opposition parties.
The enormity of these incidents marks a dangerous precedent, scarring the fate of democracy in the foreseeable future. Especially for Odisha, which is considered to be peaceful, as compared to the Hindi heartland states infamous for booth capturing and election-related violence, Wednesday’s broad daylight poll violence poses a question – whether democracy is under threat?
While 70 per cent polling was recorded on the first day of the polls with an electorate of 67.51 lakh, voting was disrupted due to violence in 3 booths in Dhenkanal, 7 in Jajpur, and 5 in Puri. Besides, many booths recorded a dismal performance of below 10 per cent polling. The low polling percentage in several booths reflected a handicap on the part of administration, police and State Election Commission, collectively in managing the affairs.
There was a time, when India witnessed a horde of such incidents, especially in States like undivided Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh, where election-related violence was commonplace. Then came the reign of TN Seshan, a tough bureaucrat, who brought in a renaissance in Elections in India, as the Chief Election Commissioner.
The reforms introduced by Seshan became a benchmark as these were instrumental in instilling peace, law and order as well as conduct of free and fair elections in India. Post Seshan-era, elections in India have been by and large peaceful. However, the pictures which emerged from several booths on February 16 across Odisha, were a grim reminder of the ruckus during elections that was prevalent during the mid-1990s. Again, such cases were not known to Odisha, but a regular affair in the aforementioned States.
In Alanda panchayat under Krushnaprasad block at least 40 persons of Tichhini village were attacked by lathi wielding men of a rival group when polling was in progress in one of the booths. The entire saga was recorded on mobile cameras, reflecting a collapse of law and order. In the same district, in Badala gram panchayat under Kanas block, four journalists of two local television channels were attacked and their cameras and other telecast equipment were broken.
According to a victim (scribe), “We were trying to shoot absolute anarchy on the premises of the booths, with political party workers intruding and hindering the polling process, following which we were attacked by the mob.” Police being a mute spectator to the whole episode, in case the men in uniform were at all, present, the victims added.
In a separate incident, a voter picked up the ballot box from booth no.9 in Kashijharia village of Chapamanik gram panchayat under Brahmagiri block and threw it over the campus wall from where his alleged associates picked the ballot box and fled from the spot.
Similar scenes of violence were witnessed in some booths in Dhenkanal district. In Nihalprasad village under Gondia block in the district, a presiding officer of a booth was attacked by miscreants who later ran away with the ballot box. The presiding officer who had sustained injuries on his head was shifted to the Government Hospital at Gondia.
Besides, in Jajpur district, supporters of a Sarpanch candidate in Rudrapur gram panchayat were found forcibly capturing the ballot box and dropping ballots after stamping on the election symbol of their candidate. According to the police, a total of 22 persons have been arrested for their alleged involvement in poll-related violence in Jajpur district and attack on journalists in Puri district. While 14 have been arrested in Jajpur, 8 have been arrested in Puri.
In a face-saving exercise, the SEC called an all-party meeting, followed by a discussion with senior echelons of State bureaucracy and police. It remains to be seen, what steps are taken by the SEC to ensure free, fair, and non-violent panchayat polls, further. Whatsoever fire-fighting means the State machinery adopts, the scars on democracy inflicted by rioters on Wednesday are going to haunt people of Odisha, for a long time.
