The Election Season's Favorite Trick: Using Old Wounds Against Opponents The recent developments in Nandigram, a by election battleground in West Bengal, have exposed a familiar tactic in Indian politics: using past grievances to bludgeon opponents into submission.
Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress nominee, Sanchita Pradhan Dey, withdrew from the fray on Friday, followed within an hour by the police arrest of the Congress candidate, Milan Pradhan, over allegations dating back to 2007.
The sequence of events is telling: the withdrawal of Pradhan Dey was swiftly followed by the police action against Pradhan. This classic move has been employed with alarming regularity in Indian elections.