Mamata Banerjee forgets West Bengal leads in political murders, ahead of UP, Gujarat, MP, Bihar

Kolkata: “Not justifying Birbhum killings, but such incidents are more frequent in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar,” said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the wake of the dastardly murder of eight in one of the worst instances of political killings in the country. Though a rather lame and cruel apology by way of comparison, Banerjee was way off the mark even in terms of the facts of the comparison with Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar as West Bengal leads all India states when it comes to political killings according to official police records. As per crime statistics maintained by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), West Bengal accounts for the maximum number of people killed under political murders. In 2019–the year for which latest data is available with NCRB–12 people were killed as part of political murders. Incidentally, the data for West Bengal was rolled over from 2018 as the state did not furnish the exact number of people murdered as part of political and ideological rivalries for 2019. According to experts and observers, the numbers are most likely to be way higher when actual data is furnished by the state, but that is if at all the state revises it. For the period between 2010 and 2019, West Bengal carries the ignominious distinction of topping the charts for political killings in 2010, 2011, 2013, 2018 and 2019. It was a close second in 2014 and a close third in 2012. In the period considered, her states of choice to deflect attention away from Birbhum–Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar–were not the frontrunners, but below West Bengal.