Our 11-point memorandum was as follows:

1)The administration should be impartial and not show any favours towards the Congress;

2)Steps should be taken to rehabilitate those who had fled from their homes in the step;

3)All political parties should be allowed to hold rallies and meetings and polling agents should not be barred from election booths;

4)The voters should be allowed to exercise their franchise freely and steps should betaken to ensure that ballot papers are not snatched from polling officers at gunpoint;

5)Elections workers should not be arrested till the polling process is completed;

6)All political detenus held without trial should be released for them to participate in the elections. All fabricated cases should be withdrawn;

7)At least 30 constituencies, where the Left is strong, have been targetted by the Congress antisocials. The supporters of the Left should be allowed to move around freely in these areas;

8)The CRPF has to be withdrawn and the police should be told to work within certain parameters. Prohibitory orders should also be withdrawn;

1. 9)The ``defence forces’’ made up of antisocials and Naxalites at a monthly ``wage’’ of Rs 105 should be disbanded immediately;

2. 10) All those government employees who have been retrenched should be given back their jobs immediately and;

3. 11) Deterrent action should be taken against those officers who have launched a smear campaign against the anti-Congress parties.

But the Prime Minister did not pay any heed to this memorandum.

After going through the intelligence reports from Delhi, the Congress was convinced that it had no chance whatsoever in Bengal despite the tactics it had adopted. But its leaders could not accept this and thus was born one of the worst plots to defeat a legitimate demand of the people. We got wind of the conspiracy but we had zeroed in on 34 constituencies which were known as strongholds of the CPI(M) and its allies.Our candidate, Prasanta Sur, was shot at during campaigning in his constituency of Tollygunge. The target missed but one of our supporters were killed in the shootout. In Sonarpur, our candidate, Gangadhar Naskar, was also attacked but he escaped with injuries.The CITU state secretary and MP, Mohd Ismail, was attacked with bombs and another trade union leader, Haridas Malakar, was abducted and was fortunately rescued later.Binoy Konar and Dilip Dubey continued to stay in jail and could not take part in the election process.

The story in Baranagar, my constituency, was the same. Thirty four partymen had been killed, more than 150 supporters had been injured and scores were in jails with more to follow.At least 1,000 families had been uprooted. Of the 1.14 lakh voters in the constituency, we could not reach around half of the electorate.

Twelve CPI(M) supporters were dragged out and killed by the Congress-police combine only six days before the elections. Of these, the bodies of seven were buried secretly under the Baghjola canal. Fifty men were untraced.Even sick women were not spared from the atrocities.

After repeated requests, the chief election commissioner, Mr Sen Barma, deigned to visit some of the trouble spots. On one of his visits, he was accosted by a group of Congressmen, armed to the teeth. Straddling a railway track at the Miabagan area of Beliaghata, they warned him to go any further. The police requested the election offical to return; they even said that if he wished to go in, then they would not be held responsible for any physical harm to him. Our candidate in the constituency, Mr Krishnapada Ghosh, asked how the Election Commission expected the Leftist supporters to work in this atmosphere when even the chief election commissioner was not being allowed to move around freely. Such incidents occurred elsewhere too but Mr Sen Barma, in his wisdom, gave a clean chit to the administration and said that the situation was conducive to peaceful polling. This gave the Congress even greater reason to indulge in its wanton acts in destroying the democratic process and subvert the law for election gains. The atrocities continued with renewed vigour.This was a war against the electorate.The press was behind the Congress even as our party offices in the state were being razed to the ground and our men attacked.The police role was the worst; not only did they stand mute witness to the gory tale of horror, they actually joined in the violence and actively helped the Congress workers.

I met the Governor a few days before the elections and asked him whether the state would witness a free and fair elections. The indifferent Governor replied equally indifferently that he would ensure that.Let alone the Governor, even the Prime Minister was kept informed of every case of atrocity but matters became grave as the elections approached. Congress hoodlums selectively went to the houses of our supporters and warned them not to vote for the Left candidates. There were more than 600 CPI(M) men killed during the run-up to the elections, houses were torched and our election offices attacked. But thepeople were given to understand that everything was ``normal’’.

We were aware that despite such atrocities, we would be able to increase our vote bank if free elections were allowed. But we were wary of that and had this sinking feeling that the Congress would be up to some mischief on polling day itself.That we were right about our apprehensions became crystal clear later on.March 11,1972 will go down in the history of our democracy as a very black day indeed.Nine of our party supporters were killed by Congressmen on election day itself. This stinging slap on the face of democracy was dealt by no less a person than the union minister in charge of the state,Mr S.S.Ray, himself. It is a fact that we had been unable to gauge the extent to which the Congress would go in its efforts to grab power at any cost. We had expected that the people would at least be allowed to vote and that the administration would take at least a seemingly impartial stand. But S.S.Ray and his men were not even thinking on those lines; in one act of power-hungry desperation, the Congress exposed itself as it had never ever before. This was all-out war and the adversary was the basic fundamental tenets of democracy. The people had finally been shown the true colours of the Congress and the CPI whose "combined operation’’ left nothing for the imagination. But there was a well-planned strategy. There was nothing sudden about what happened to democracy in West Bengal on that day.

The first step in this plan was to create an atmosphere of terror and prevent any type of potential opposition to such activities. The second stage was set for polling day itself. The Army was sent out in areas with Leftist influence and the spate of killings and political murders was unabated. Congressmen patrolled the streets in government jeeps and there was open flaunting of the fact that the administration was fully behind the Congress-CPI nexus. Paradoxically, in some places, known Congress voters were disallowed from voting since the mood had turned against the party. Things had reached such a pass.

Ballot boxes were broken open after polling and papers marked in favour of the Left candidates were either thrown away or made invalid by multiple stampings. In many polling booths, ballot papers lay strewn on the floors as mute testimony to the vandalism that had been acted out in the name of voting.

There were numerous occasions in which ballots papers, previously marked in favour of the Congress candidates, were taken in boxes to counting centres and the valid papers substituted with them.

They played havoc in my centre of Baranagar. Our polling agents were driven away from more than 100 booths of the total 135. Ballot boxes were snatched away from the presiding officers and votes were cast in favour of the CPI candidate; they were not in one and twos but in hundreds. When I reached my constituency, I saw that polling had been complete before it was even 11 am.Around 11.30 am, I wrote to the returning officer and said that free elections could not have been possible in such a situation.There was total pandemonium and the police actually helped in the process of our rivals stamping in favour of their candidate in front of the polling officers themselves. I demanded that the elections in Baranagar be postponed immediately. I made all my complaints in writing since I could not reach any officer holding any responsible position over the phone. I then went to the party office. There I was told of the widespread rigging throughout the state. By the afternoon, we were told that 32,000 voters at Manicktala, 25,000 at Entally and 50,000 at Tollygunge had not been allowed to vote.By the evening, the farce that had been conducted in the name of elections in West Bengal was public knowledge.

Our party state secretary, Pramode Dasgupta, sent an urgent message to the Election Commissioner in Delhi regarding the news in the 18 seats about which we had been informed by the early evening.By 8 pm, it was apparent that the Congress and the CPI had totally rigged the elections in more than 30 Assembly constituencies.For the next 48 hours, the news was only of repeat value; it was the same story everywhere. Out of the 280 seats, no elections had actually been held at all in 51 constituencies while another 200 had seen unmatched rigging.

After this, we were convinced that the same drama would be enacted during the counting too; we were right on target.On March 13, when the results started coming out, it was obvious that the Congress and its allies were not taking even half a chance. Almost all dishonest means were employed; ballot boxes without valid seals were opened, valid vote papers torn and even those from other constituencies were brought in to complete the crime. Some returning officers refused to be cowed down; but finally, the muzzle of the gun had its say.In some cases, bundles of ballot papers stamped in favour of the Left candidates were enclosed with those of the Congress and CPI candidates and passed off as the truth.In other cases, when it was seen that after the first round of counting, the Left candidates were ahead, the counting process was adjourned immediately, the returning officers hounded out and announcements were made after a while that the Congress candidates were winning at the end of the second round! Where Left candidates had won after counting had been over, the final version was quite different…Such was what happened in that eventful farce of an election under the proxy regime of S.S. Ray.

On the evening of March 13, we decided that there was simply no point in sending our election agents to the counting stations.Our allies also took the same decision.

I must mention one letter in this context. This letter, addressed to me from a resident of Sealdah, said, ‘Though I work for the Congress, I am writing this because I respect you. It remains a fact that we were paid handsomely for our activities. But we did not have the slightest notion that this would turn out to be so unfortunate for you. They forced me to drink and even used hundreds of hoodlums.We had been ordered not to allow any CPI(M) supporter to vote.And also that at least 70 per cent of the voting should be in place by the previous night itself. We were told that there was no need to be afraid since the CRPF would be with us. They would side with us in case of any problems.’’

On March 18, our front decided to boycott the Assembly altogether. A joint statement went out which was signed by me for the CPI(M), Makhan Pal and Jatin Chakraborty (RSP), Ashoke Ghosh (Forward Bloc), Sudin Kumar (RCPI), Nihar Mukherjee (SUCI), Jyoti Bhattacharya (Workers Party), Suhrid Mullick Choudhury (Forward Bloc-Marxist) and Nirmalendu Mukherjee ( Biplabi Bangla Congress). It said, ``We have already made public our stand regarding this elections. This has been a farce of an election.We have concrete proof of the nexus among the police, administration and the Congress.

"Not stopping at constituting an Assembly through such devious methods, the rulers are now bent on attacking the student community and labourers and driving them away from their places of work and homes.There is an overt move to suppress any signs of protest.

"Under such circumstances, we have no alternative but to boycott this Assembly.We appeal to the people to realise the gravity of the situation and rise in protest.’’

The CPI(M) also made a public statement on similar lines. It said in parts, "The people of West Bengal are now faced with a more severe test.We had expected that at least the basic norms of electoral politics would be followed. But the Congress, in its desperation to convert a certain defeat into a forced victory has now destroyed democracy altogether.

"…But the enemies of the people realise that such terror cannot be perpetuated and that even if that means the ultimate sacrifice, the people will rise against such tactics.There is another major attempt to foment trouble within the minority community.A disinformation campaign is also on.It is being said that we were behind the murder of Hemanta Bose.There is every likelihood of such campaigns being given a boost.All these are but steps to give this state a Fascist regime.

"…Friends, you have to now translate your silent hatred into angry protests. You will have to reorganise your forces. Do not surrender to these enemies but keep cool and fortify yourselves with cold logic. We know this is a tough job.However extreme the danger may be, please remember that our party is with the people of West Bengal. In fact, the CPI(M) is being made the major target though attacks are being made on all true Left parties. But we are of a different mettle.Nobody has been able to or ever will be move us away from our avowed goal. We demand the annulment of these elections, an end to the Fascist attacks on the people and appeal for the unity of the people against our enemies.’’

There was another interesting aspect to these elections; the anti-Congress bourgeoise press throughout the country remained totally indifferent to the farce that had been enacted. Only the Economic Times headlined a report saying, "Hooligans captured the booths’’ though the concerned reporter was transferred after his report was published. But history did not forgive these betrayers. And the people of this land and its politics had to pay a price too. Indira Gandhi’s subsequent authoritarian attitude was fuelled by her success in Bengal; in fact, the much-hated Emergency was to be imposed on the country only three years later. But have the people actually taken a lesson from that act of history?

I met Jaiprakash Narain in Calcutta a few days after the elections. He had a lot of friends and relatives in Calcutta. He was highly agitated after the news of the farcical elections were broken to him.He met us on his own initiative. I had a personal rapport with him. He suggested that we form a commission to go into the rigging. We said that it would be a good idea and that we would supply all the evidence to nail the Congress and its allies. Siddhartha Shankar Ray thundered that he would not allow such a commission to be set up. I told Jaiprakash Narain that this was only to be expected and that he should go ahead with the commission. But he failed since the state government did not allow it to function.

Village after village was starving.Hunger deaths were routine.Land reforms had gone for a six.Prices were soaring and there were no concrete steps being taken by the state government which could not say anything against the policies of the Centre which was headed by a government of its own party.Even the bourgeoisie press, which had played a shameful role in supporting the Congress during the elections, could not keep quiet any longer. Photographs of dead bodies lying on pavements hit the front pages; reports of strange diseases - the product of people eating anything and everything that came their way-also surfaced. Begging bowls were out on the streets of Calcutta as never before. The state government continued to remain indifferent to our petitions and pleas.

In a letter to the state chief minister on October 10,1973, Pramode Dasgupta explained the reasons for the food crisis and said that there had never been such a precedent and that the government indifference was to be blamed fully for this catastrophic turn of matters. He said, "The curtailed ration quota will have to be restored.; regular distribution of foodstuff through the MRSP in the rural areas would have to be ensured; at least 20 per cent of the village population would have to be brought under the GRA; and commodities like mustard oil, kerosene, coal, sugar, cloth and daal would have to be sold at prices exisitng in 1969.’’

The deputy leader of the CPI(M) in Parliament, Samar Mukherjee, met the Prime Minister in Delhi but there was no noticeable changes in the Government’s policies and the people continued to suffer and grovel under the ordeal.

In one of his first policy decisions, chief minister Ray dissolved all the elected municipalities, including the Calcutta Corporation, and the terror regime was more than institutionalised.Thousands of CPI(M) workers were driven away from their homes.It was as if an Emergency had been declared. Tactics were changed but the endgame was the same; we suffered and continued to suffer.We could not even exercise our basic rights as an opposition party.The help of the RAW was taken to put us on hold.The Congress rulers had by then realised that the Naxalites were no longer proving to be a successful and efficient weapon to finish us off; so they fell victims of the terror too. Though we were not the best of friends, even then we protested against the attacks on the Naxalites. The entire administration was arraigned against the Naxalites and us.

One police officer _if memory serves, he was the superintendent of Bardhaman _had singlehandedly engineered the murder of 250 Leftists. Not one of these killings were probed and in fact, this officer was conferred a medal on the chief minister’s recommendations at a function in Delhi.It was getting increasingly difficult to even hold meetings. I was going for a meeting to Malda. Congress hoodlums stopped us midway and the police categorically said that they would not and could not do anything to stop "them.’’ However, that particular meeting did finally pass off without a hitch but there was a tangible sense of suspense and potential threat around us. This was but routine.

We sent a documented complaint to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Geneva to protest this total disregard for the working classes.Till the December of 1972 since they took over earlier in the year, the Congress and its band of goons had burnt down or forcibly taken over 360 trade union offices; this pertained to only the districts of Calcutta, Nadia and Bardhaman. The extensive tea gardens of North Bengal and the industrial belts of Howrah and Hooghly were kept out of the purview of the count. In the three years which saw the ouster of the second United Front Government in March 1970 to March 1973, more than 785 trade union leaders and workers of the people’s movement had been killed. The Committee on Freedom of Association of the ILO met and discussed our complaint with the Indian Government. The organisation expressed its grave concern over the situation in Bengal. The Committee, in its report published on February 19,1973, said,``The Committee feels that the attacks on the trade unionists and workers have not only been limited to just that; there has been an attempt to hit at the movement itself.From the complaints, it is apparent that while the government has been aware of the attacks on the trade unions affiliated to the CITU, it has not taken proper steps to avoid them."

During those days of when democracy was being sacrificed at the altar of violence and power, yet another farcical event took place; the Congress held an ``anti-Fascist rally’’ in Patna! Obviously, when attackers turn defenders, there has to be some motive. Here, the Congress’ chief intention was to oppose and build up some sort of a movement against the rising influence of Jaiprakash Narain.

We were soon to witness the historic nationwide railway strike. More than 20 lakh railway workers began an indefinite strike on May 8,1974 to protest the Government’s attitude and ignored all the warnings of the authorities.The NCCRS called the strike to demand industry status for the railways, legitimate DA and bonus, an end to the system of engaging casual workers and a maximum eight-hour time frame of work.The Government could have avoided this strike since it had senses the mood of the railway workers and had been cautioned many a times by MPs both in the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha who had advised that discussions should be held forthwith.Only six months earlier, a ``strike ballot’’ had shown that unless the grievances were met, then 93 per cent of the workers were willing to go on strike.But the Government was for a confrontation; the strike thus became inevitable. Almost 6,000 striking were held before the nation’s wheels on the train tracks came to a grinding halt. A no-confidence motion was brought against the Mrs Gandhi government. The general strike called in support of the railway workers throughout the nation on May 15 was a grand success. But the Congress did not take all this as a signal but increased the pressure on the people. There were firings in many places while sackings and suspensions continued. More than 50,000 railway workers were arrested, 20,000 sacked while at least another 40,000 were rendered homeless.But even then, the unity of the strikers remained. While the demands were not met after 20 days of the strike, treachery again came to the rescue of the Congress and the agitation was withdrawn. The deputy leader of the CPI(M) in the Lok Sabha, Samar Mukherjee, said in a statement that there was ``ample scope to continue with the strike’’ and that the Government would have been forced to come to the negotiating table had it gone on.

The railway strike had not only been unprecedented in the annals of trade union activity in terms of its duration but it also proved once again that if the people stood united, then the powers of the government and the ruling classes usually came to a naught and made them more desperate.

The strike, even though it did not bear fruit as far as the acceptance of demands were concerned, left a deep impression on the nation’s psyche and provided us with fresh inspiration.This was reflected in the momentum which was spontaneously gathered by Jai Prakash Narain’s movement in Bihar and other places.