The Hindu : New Delhi News : CPI(M) flayed over Nandigram issue

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Thursday, Nov 22, 2007
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CPI(M) flayed over Nandigram issue

Kunal Diwan

Speakers at a meeting demand withdrawal of police from the trouble spot

They also demanded strict punishment for the leaders and officers concerned
The meeting was organised by the Progressive Medicos and Scientists Forum

NEW DELHI: Speakers at a meeting on “Nandigram killings: What do they mean and why?” organised at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences here have condemned the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and demanded among other things withdrawal of the police from Nandigram, strict punishment for the leaders and officers concerned and scrapping of the Special Economic Zones-2005 Act.

The meeting was organised by the Progressive Medicos and Scientists Forum in association with the AIIMS Front for Social Consciousness earlier this week.

Speaking on the occasion, Mainstream Editor Sumit Chakravarty, who had visited Nandigram as member of a fact-finding mission, pointed out that the conflict in Nandigram was not between CPI (M) cadres and the Trinamool Congress or the Maoists. Instead, it was the peasant class of Nandigram, traditionally supporters of the CPI (M), that had felt led down by the CPI (M)’s earlier decision to acquire agricultural land for setting up a chemical hub.

According to Mr. Chakravarty, the Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee (BUPC) was nothing but an organisation of local peasants some of whom themselves belonged to CPI (M) cadres.

“Though the West Bengal Government had withdrawn its decision to acquire land due to an outcry by farmers, the farmers knew all along that the CPI (M) in Bengal has never brooked any intolerance to its sway on power. The statement by the Chief Minister saying that the peasants supporting BUPC had been ‘paid back in their own coin’ is deplorable,” he said. Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan expressed outrage at the manner in which the State police had attacked members of the intelligentsia and social activists who opposed the mayhem unleashed by CPI (M) in Nandigram.

Mr. Bhushan also decried the economic policies directed at setting up Special Economic Zones in various parts of the country, whereby large tracts of land and forest areas had been being given away to multi-national companies. “The Govts and courts seem to have become totally immune to all democratic means of seeking redress by the people against ill effects of these economic policies,” he said.

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