Bengal deaths need more than a probe

The curious thing about West Bengal’s fireworks factories may well be that they weren’t firework factories at all

In the past three days, three factories that ostensibly manufacture firecrackers in West Bengal have caught fire, leading to the deaths of at least five people. The government has said that these are illegal units that made fireworks but the string of incidents has sparked allegations that these fly-by-night operations are instead building crude bombs that have unfortunately become a part of the state’s political landscape.

On Sunday, a girl and two women in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district were killed in a fire at a house where firecrackers allegedly manufactured in illegal factories were stored(HT File)

On Sunday, a girl and two women in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district were killed in a fire at a house where firecrackers allegedly manufactured in illegal factories were stored, police said. The same day, an explosion was reported at the house of a Trinamool Congress (TMC) worker in Birbhum district although no one was injured. And on Tuesday, two people were killed when a godown, allegedly storing fireworks caught fire. Were these just units that were illegally manufacturing (or storing) fireworks in a state that is not known to be a hub of firecrackers? Or were they making crude bombs, the weapon of choice for miscreants trying to settle scores in political and financial disputes? It is for the government and the police to get to the bottom of this mystery.

The use of crude bombs has a long political history in the state, linked to the proliferation of parallel administrative structures nurtured by three decades of Left rule, and further fostered by the TMC. While the government has announced a crackdown and arrested 37 people, it will need to go beyond and cut off political patronage of these units to ensure no more lives are lost. The curious thing about West Bengal’s fireworks factories may well be that they weren’t firework factories at all.