The Big Story: Bengal vendetta There is near-consensus amongst political analysts that the current Bharatiya Janata Party has a hunger for winning political power that is rarely matched by other parties. Unfortunately, this hunger has, in the past few years, often led to a troubling undermining of democratic norms. A glimpse of this was seen in West Bengal over the past week as the Union government’s Central Bureau of Investigation suddenly arrested two senior ministers, one MLA and one politician – all from the Trinamool Congress – on May 17. Bitter campaign The arrest was the latest incident in months of bitter political conflict between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Trinamool Congress as West Bengal went to the polls. The campaign itself raised troubling questions about India’s democracy, with the Election Commission facing serious allegations that it was bending inordinately to the BJP’s demands. For example, the body refused demands to shorten the election or curtail campaigning even as the second Covid-19 wave was exploding in India, doing so only once Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided to stop campaigning.