Nandigram may trigger storm in Parliament today,Indian Politics, News Analysis, India News Online

When Parliament meets today, Nov. 19, after the prolonged week-end recess, Nandigram may trigger a storm with the opposition BJP pressing for an adjournment motion in the Lok Sabha to enable the House to debate the violence in Nandigram and the Left determined not to allow the matter to be raised on the ground that it is a state subject.

The BJP-led NDA contends that the CPI(M) “recapture” of a cluster of villages in South Bengal amounted to a civil war that should be discussed in Parliament as the Gujarat riots had been several times. Top BJP and NDA leaders decided on this course at a meeting at the residence of L.K. Advani even as the four Left parties said that they will not allow what they called a state law and order matter to be raised in Parliament.

“Nandigram can be discussed in the West Bengal Assembly but not in Parliament,” CPI leader Gurudas Das Gupta said at a joint press conference with his party colleague D Raja and the CPI(M)’s Sitaram Yechury, Basudeb Acharia and Rupchand Pal.

To the Congress discomfiture, the Left intends to block the BJP’s Nandigram onslaught by raking up the Tehelka expose on the post-Godhra riots, which according to them was “state patronage to a communal carnage”.

The NDA said Nandigram was not a state issue exclusively as it pertains to acquisition of land for a Special Economic Zone (SEZ), which is a central subject.

“Nandigram has witnessed severe crimes against women and children and the Lok Sabha has a mandate to discuss issues like this, which amounts to a civil war,” BJP’s deputy leader in the Lok Sabha V.K. Malhotra said.

Asked whether the demand for discussion on the issue was justified, he shot back: “Why can’t Nandigram be discussed when Gujarat has been discussed several times?”

Malhotra criticised West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee for saying that CPI(M) cadres had “won over” a territory in the country. “It is laughable.”

CRPF moves into Nandigram

Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel have finally moved into Nandigram, but too late to prevent ‘recapture’ of the area allegedly by CPI(M) cadres. A report sent by CRPF Director General S.I.S. Ahmed said that CRPF personnel were allowed into the area only after its recapture by the CPI(M) cadres had been completed.

“The private armies, comprised of CPI(M) cadres, have al- ready captured the area. It was only after that the CRPF personnel were allowed in. Now there is not much that the CRPF can do, except maintain status quo and protect the private armies,” Ahmed said, according to Union Home Ministry sources.

The CRPF boss decided to visit West Bengal and meet Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee following reports that the state administration was not helping in the deployment of his personnel.

“The state government is supposed to provide the personnel a place to stay that is closest to the trouble spot. Here, they have been put up in Tamluk, which is more than 60 km away,” a Home Ministry official said.

“This means that all the personnel cannot be deployed at the same time,” he added.

There were allegations of hostility by local people, especially CPM cadres. “The personnel were not allowed to move in till the CPM took control of the area using human shields,” the official said.

“Once that is done, the duty of CRPF is to maintain peace and law and order. It is not for them to take a stand and judge who should be in and who should be out. Now they will have to maintain the situation the way it is.”

Six companies - each with 80 personnel - led by CRPF inspector-general S. Goswami and his deputy Alok Raj moved into the war zone and began with flag marches at Reyapara and Haripur.

Ahmed said: “I discussed the deployment of personnel and the situation in Nandigram with Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.”

In Nandigram, DIG Raj said: “Our priority is to rebuild the confidence of people.”

Among the six companies, one from Maharashtra comprises only women.

“The CPI(M) cadres have done their job fast”, a CRPF official said. Some 20 cadres, who had been blocking the entry of people to Nandigram town, fled seeing the CRPF trucks approaching.

At Writers’ Building, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee thanked External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee for the CRPF’s arrival.

Allies angry

The CPI(M)’s ‘recapture’ of Nandigram at gunpoint may have outraged its allies and exposed cracks in the ruling Left Front as never before, but the RSP, Forward Bloc and the CPI are today divided on leaving the government to protest against the Big Brother’s “autocracy”.

Apparently aware of the allies’ dilemma, Front chairman and state CPM secretary Biman Bose was in no hurry to call a meeting to apply the balm. “I’m not considering any emergency Front meeting.

All the partners are busy with their own conferences,’’ PWD minister Kshiti Goswami has threatened to quit the cabinet and stopped going to his office. But he admitted a difference of opinion within his party, the RSP, on a pullout.

CPI and the Forward Bloc leaders felt Goswami’s threat was not serious. “It’s a pressure tactic. The front will not split,” said a CPI veteran.

The CPI is considered the “weak link” in the ginger group, also comprising the RSP and the Bloc, since it is close to the CPM at the national level. “We can’t afford to isolate the CPM for our national compulsions,” a CPI leader said.

High Court rap for state government

In a major setback for the West Bengal Government, the Calcutta High Court has ruled that the police firing in Nandigram on March 14 was wholly unconstitutional and could not be justified under any provision of the law. The police and CPI(M) cadres fired indiscriminately at villagers protesting against the state government’s move to acquire their land to set up a special economic zone (SEZ) in Nandigram. Fourteen people were killed and 162 injured in the incident. Thirty-three women filed complaints of rapes.

The High Court directed the CBI to continue the probe into the March 14 incident and to submit a report within a month.

A division bench headed by Chief Justice S.S. Nijjar also directed the state government to pay compensation to those killed, injured or raped on that day in Nandigram. The bench said that the Government should pay at least to Rs. 5 lakh to the next of kin pf those killed, Rs. 2 lakh for those raped, and Rs. 1 lakh for the injured.

While the state government has not reacted to the High Court directive, CPI(M) state secretary Biman Bose said that the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government should appeal in the Supreme Court against the High Court order to ensure the rights of the state. Addressing a party rally in Kolkata, he alleged that the rights of the states are being encroached upon sometimes by the Centre and in the present context by the judiciary.

Biman Bose ridiculed a section of the city’s intellectuals who are protesting against the alleged oppression in Nandigram. He said that they did not sympathise with the plight of those living in relief camps for the past eleven months.

NHRC seeks report from state Government

The National Human Rights Commission has directed the West Bengal Chief Secretary to submit a factual report on the conditions prevailing in Nandigram and surrounding areas within 10 days. It has also requested the Home Secretary to take steps to restore peace in the area, protect life, dignity and property and submit an action taken report within two weeks. The commission’s move came on a petition filed by civil rights activist Sanjay Parikh that the disturbed conditions in and around Nandigram required urgent intervention to protect human rights of the people there.

Chief Minister justifies use of force

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has publicly defended the bloody ‘recapture’ of Nandigram by CPI(M) cadres saying that the Bhoomi Uchchhed Pratirodh Committee had been “paid back in their own coin”.

He said he did not send police to avoid a repeat of the March 14 mayhem, when 14 villagers died. But he added that had the Centre not delayed despatching the Central Reserve Police Force, “we may have been able to avoid” the latest flare-up.

“Our men had been out of their homes for months and were desperate to return, so they used their might. The BUPC had been attacking our men for months. That’s why the retaliation took place,” Bhattacharjee told the media.

Asked if the almost week-long bloodshed by the party’s private army was a blot on Brand Buddha, the chief minister pointed to incoming investment proposals.

“My brand is intact. It cannot roll back,” he said.

Bhattacharjee, however, parried for a moment when asked if he hadn’t found anything wrong with the CPI(M)’s “retaliation”.

“Legally or morally?” he asked.

“Both,” he was told.

“I have only one answer,” the Chief Minister replied. “I wanted to avoid such an incident.... But there were attacks from the other side and so they were paid back in the same coin.”

Bhattacharjee then blamed the Centre. He said he had wanted to avoid a mayhem by deploying the CRPF and Eastern Frontier Rifles in the first week of November.

He stuck to his claim of Maoist presence in Nandigram and said the rebels had been training villagers.

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Tuesday, Nov. 13, called on Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi to discuss the Nandigram developments. He also apprised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of the situation in Nandigram.

Earlier on Nov. 13, the state Government submitted a report to the Governor on the violence and the steps taken for restoring normalcy in Nandigram.

Governor G.K. Gandhi called on veteran CPI(M) leader Joyti Basu at his residence on Nov. 12 and requested him to resume efforts to restore peace, people’s confidence and security in the Nandigram area.

Left Front partners blame CPI(M), but will not quit government

The CPI, the All India Forward Bloc and the Revolutionary Socialist Party, three constituents of the ruling Left Front, have blamed the CPI(M) for the developments in Nandigram, but stopped short of pulling out of the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government. At a meeting in Kolkata on Nov. 11, leaders of the three parties said that they are totally opposed to the use of violence to find a solution to the Nandigram situation. They said they are not a party to the recapturing of Nandigram by CPI(M) cadres.

In a related development, the RSP has postponed a decision on quitting the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee till Nov. 29. However, RSP leader and PWD Minister K. Goswamy has said that he will not attend office till Nov. 29. But other RSP Ministers would be attending to their work in the normal way.

CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, talking to newspersons in New Delhi on Nov. 12 accused the Trinamul led alliance of taking the help of Maoist cadres to establish its hold over the Nandigram area. He said since October-November, Maoists have built bunkers in Nandigram area, set up training camps and started expanding. Karat said the Trinamul Congress and its allies had tried unsuccessfully to dislodge the Left Front democratically in successive elections in the past and were taking the help of Maoists in the Nandigram area to dislodge the Left Front’s elected representatives.

Strike call hits life in Kolkata

Normal life was affected in Kolkata on Nov. 12 on account of a strike called by the Congress, the BJP and the Socialist Unity Centre of India in protest against the Nandigram incidents. The Trinamul Congress also launched a non-cooperation stir on the issue. The BJP and the SUCI, however, withdrew the strike call for Tuesday, Nov. 13.

Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has said that she would lead a march from Singur to Nandigram on Dec. 2 to demand the immediate dismissal of the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government. She said the people of Nandigram have been temporarily displaced by what she called the killer brigade of the CPI(M). She said that her party would organise 1,000 rallies in a week to mark its protest against the Nandigram incidents.

Advani shocked at Nandigram incidents

An NDA team led by BJP leader L.K. Advani, which visited Nandigram on Nov. 13, says that almost all the victims in the latest round of violence in Nandigram were Muslims. Observers say that this is bound to prove embarrassing not only for the Left, but also the UPA Government when the issue comes up in Parliament. The BJP-led NDA is likely to attack the minority friendly claims of the Left and the UPA.

Advani later said that his visit to Nandigram was a shocking experience as he and the NDA team came across incidents of brutality. He said village after village is lying deserted as the residents have fled in the face of the onslaught by the CPI(M) cadres. Advani said apart from the CPI(M) and Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, the Centre is also responsible for the mayhem in Nandigram.

During his Kolkata visit, Advani also met Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi. He said later that the Governor’s comments on the Nandigram developments are fully justified.

Peace rally taken out on Nov. 14

Artists, academics, writers and singers, celebrated in their individual fields, gathered in Kolkata on Nov. 14 to participate in a rally demanding preservation peace and order in the state following the Nandigram incidents. Observers say that it was a procession Kolkata had never seen before. There was no slogan shouting. Thousands of people joined hands to march in the rally called by Left-leaning intellectuals to protest against the CPI(M) violent recapture of Nandigram.

The biggest surprise was the presence of Mrinal Sen, a staunch supporter of Left policies at the rally.

Another rally was taken out by citizens of Kolkata, including prominent individuals, on Nov. 15 calling for peace in Nandigram. Mrinal Sen addressed the rally apart from others.

Activists of various organisations organised a rally in the national capital, New Delhi, on Nov. 12 to protest against the killing of innocent people in Nandigram. They burnt an effigy of West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

Congress attacks CPI(M) on sponsoring Nandigram massacre

The Congress has lashed out at the CPI(M) for what it called sponsoring the massacres in Nandigram. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunshi said: “I express deep shock over the ongoing violence of the CPI(M)-led State-sponsored massacre in Nandigram. However, I say that it is not the collective game plan of the Left Front but only of the CPI(M) while the sensible advice of the CPI, Forward Bloc, RSP have been ignored.”

The Congress was milder in its attack on the State Government while expressing “gravest concern” over the Nandigram killings. Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi said: “The Congress deplores, with all the strength at its command, the cult of violence which has been spawned in and around Nandigram. We deplore the political culture that empowers party cadres over the law enforcement machinery or the rights of the common man.”

Singhvi criticised the “events at Nandigram” without naming even once the CPI(M) or the Left Front throughout the Press briefing of the Congress. Even the official Press release did not mention the CPI(M) Government.

When asked specifically why the Congress was shying away from pinning the blame on the Left Government, Singhvi replied diplomatically: “Sarkar ka koi rang nahin hota (the Government has no colour). I don’t want to get into politics.”

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