Kolkata: Police and civic officials continued removing Left book stalls across West Bengal on Saturday (October 17) evening while 19 people were crushed to death at a Durga Puja pandal in North Kolkata, which was recently taken over by a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-controlled committee and residents complained that there were barely any police to manage the crowd in the stampede site. Book stalls run by Left parties have been vandalised, burnt and removed across the state during the festival. Left leaders blame BJP workers for the attacks, and accuse a section of the police of using a narrow Calcutta high court order to clear stalls statewide.A Left bookstore in West Bengal. Photo: Basundhara Dutta.Veteran Left Front leader Biman Basu said the tradition dates back more than seven decades. “In 1952, the sale of progressive Marxist books began in Kolkata with three book stalls. I was a volunteer myself at the time and sold books at the festival stalls. Later it grew enormously, because people buy many kinds of books from these stalls,” he told The Wire.Left leaders said two senior Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (CPI(ML)) workers, several Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) workers and former IT minister Debesh Das were injured in the attacks. Former MP and senior advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya said he received a death threat over the phone from a Hindutva outfit.On Saturday evening, a large police team and a delegation from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) arrived at a CPI(M) stall in Jadavpur and ordered it to be removed. Party workers showed them the stall’s permissions, but the order stood. A stall run by the Sangh Parivar, about 20 feet away, was left alone.The stampedeAround the same time, a stampede broke out at the exit gate of the Chorbagan Sarbojanin Durga Puja as visitors packed the pandal during heavy rain. The puja is run by a new committee chaired by Jorasanko BJP MLA Bijoy Ojha, after the previous committee was forced to resign this year.Residents said there were few police on duty and untrained volunteers in saffron T-shirts were left to manage the crowd. Officers who knew their areas closely had been moved to unfamiliar posts in a large transfer list just before the festival, and deployment at pujas was thinned as the force prepared for Union home minister Amit Shah’s visit.Also read: 19 Die at a Kolkata Durga Puja Stampede. Months Ago, the BJP had Taken Over the Reins of the Organising CommitteeCPI(M) state secretary Md Salim, condoling the deaths said, “Many people have complained that the police administration was nowhere to be found.”“Crores of people come out on the streets during the puja and the police struggle to handle the pressure. Leaving all that aside, in the middle of the festival season the administration is going after CPI(M) book stalls,” he alleged.‘A section of police is misreading the order’The court order at the centre of the stall dispute concerns a single CPI(M) stall in Bongaon in North 24 Parganas. On Friday, a division bench headed by the chief justice of the Calcutta high court issued a stay in the case.According to the CPI(M), the bench observed that the case should have turned on who owns the land under the stall, but had instead been decided on whether the police had failed to act. The party said the order mentions no other stall in the state. It also does not bar the CPI(M) from selling books under an umbrella anywhere else.People gathered at a Left bookstore in West Bengal. Photo: Basundhara Dutta.Shamim Ahmed, a lawyer, said the order was limited in scope. “This ruling concerns the book stall in the Bongaon area. For the rest of the state, the court will decide its next step after seeing reports from the police and from the authorities who own the land where the stalls stand,” he said.Left leaders said that after news of the Bongaon order spread on Friday, stalls were pulled down or removed in Kolkata and several districts, and families of Left supporters were attacked. Messages circulated claiming the stalls defied the court.In its message, the CPI(M) said, “A section of the police administration is misinterpreting the high court ruling to remove CPI(M) book stalls.” It told workers to ask any officer who cites the high court for a copy of the order. Workers should complain to senior officers about any removal, and send the complaint by email if police refuse to accept it.Standoff in JadavpurThe Jadavpur CPI(M) stall sits about 20 feet from the Sangh’s “Maharshi Aurobindo Akhand Bharat Pustak Kendra”. That stall is decked in saffron flags and calls for a boycott of the ideas of Marx and Lenin. An All India Students’ Association (AISA) stall stands 30 feet away, with an Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR) stall facing it.CPI(M) workers surrounded the police after they were told to remove their stall. Later, police announced that the CPI(M), AISA and APDR stalls would all be removed, and the protest grew into the night. Party workers told police they would have to drive a bulldozer over their bodies to remove the stall.The CPI(M) asked why, if a stall on the road was illegal, the Sangh Parivar stall in front of it could stay. Local residents said that if stalls had to go, all of them should go.Sudip Sengupta, an organiser at the stall, said sales were up sharply. “Last year this stall sold books worth four and a half lakh rupees over the whole festival. This year we crossed that by Saturday, with four more days to go,” he said.‘Bambadh’ hoarding and the chief minister’s announcementFor the past ten days, a large hoarding by the BJP which is hung near the entrance to the CPI(M) state headquarters in Kolkata, names the Left parties and warns of “Bambadh,” or the slaying of the Left, if they set up book stalls during the Puja. The name of the BJP leader promoting it is printed at the bottom. Police have not removed it.A hoarding placed by the BJP near the CPI(M) state headquarters in Kolkata names the Left parties and warns of “Bambadh,” or the slaying of the Left. Photo by arrangement.A Hindutva organisation also held a Chandi Path near the headquarters, saying it was making the Left hear sacred sound.Left leaders say the campaign began when chief minister Suvendu Adhikari announced that Left book stalls would not be allowed during his government’s first Sharad Utsav. “The Left spreads anti-national propaganda, so their book stalls will not be allowed during the festival,” he had said.In Shibpur, Howrah, BJP worker Barun Shaw vandalised a Left book stall. He then said on social media, “Everything that is happening is on the instructions of our chief minister Suvendu Adhikari. We will not let the Left carry out any propaganda.”BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya denied his party’s role. “Our party is not involved in the attacks on Left book stalls. But many people have become new BJP after May 4, and they may be doing this out of old anger,” he told the media.Left parties close ranksOn Friday, the state leadership of all Left Front parties, along with the CPI(ML) and the Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist) (SUCI(C)), held a press conference. They demanded that the home department arrest those responsible.Salim said the party had set up more stalls than last year. “Wherever they vandalise and attack, books are being sold there again. They want to strike at reading. The BJP is attacking people’s world of free thought,” he told The Wire. “The fight between narrow minds and liberal thought is a long one in the history of civilisation. The BJP is doing the politics of narrow minds.”Also read: North Kolkata Tragedy: Adhikari Must Act Like a Chief Minister, Not a Rabble-RouserCPI(ML) state secretary Kartick Pal told The Wire that known criminals claiming to be BJP workers broke a stall in Dhakuria. They brutally beat two senior party workers who tried to stop them, he said. A complaint was filed at Lake police station, but no one has been arrested.“At midnight they broke the CPI(ML) and CPI(M) stalls and left only the BJP stall untouched, which shows what they want,” he said. He said the party would take books to passers-by on foot instead.SUCI(C) state secretary Chandidas Bhattacharya said several of his party’s workers were injured. “Books are the weapon of people’s thinking. Because a fascist government is striking there, all the Left parties are coming together to campaign. That is a new beginning,” he said.Books on the pavementIn Kolkata and districts such as Malda and Paschim Medinipur, decorators were stopped from building Left stalls. Left parties have instead spread books on cloth by the roadside. According to the National Book Agency, 73 stalls in Paschim Medinipur alone sold books worth Rs 21 lakh on Friday. Left leaders say the number of stalls is about 10% higher than last year.Translated from Bangla by Aparna Bhattacharya.