Dear Friends,
The Brinda Karat article is just a rehash of the essential ugly Stalinist
argument that if the real flesh and blood people refuse to remain herded
beneath the Party banner then they must be branded and treated as the "enemies
of the people". [And the "enemies of the people", it goes without saying, are
only fit to be exterminated, if required, just not in tens and hundreds but
maybe even in millions, albeit in the name of (some notional) "people".]
Pol Pot is the most glaring latest example.
If people have gathered under the TMC or BJP (or even other sections of the
Left itself) flag - never mind that they actually didn't, even if to protect
their lives and livelihoods under direct attack from a State, in active
collusion with the Party (waving red flags), shamelessly hell-bent to subserve
the interests of corporate capital in the name of (neoliberal) "economic
development" , then any sort of brutalities unleashed on them is absolutely
kosher.
But the days have changed. The golden era is gone.
Fairy tales of CIA conspiracy now no longer sell, at least as easily it used
to. (This is of course not to suggest that the CIA is not a criminal
organisation very much like the (erstwhile) KGB, Mossad, MI5, RAW or ISI -
operating on a far larger scale.)
And if at all there were/are such conspiracies, the West Bengal government
should have had by now gone in for a full-scale judicial, or at least any other
public, enquiry to bring the truths out to light and expose these conspiracies.
In fact, even the other Left Front partners included a demand for public
enquiry in their charter of demands in the crucial LF meet on March 19. They
had also demanded that the State violence must be condemned. The demands went
unheeded.
As far as the demand for the judicial enquiry is concerned, the CPIM is playing
a shameless cat and mouse game.
The fact of the matter is that the State government has as yet never approached
the Chief Justice of the High Court or the Supreme Court to appoint a judge or
judges to conduct a judicial enquiry. And, moreover, CBI, or for that matter
police, enquiry does not preclude judicial enquiry. We can very well see that
in case of Babri demolition a CBI enquiry and court cases - including periodic
interventions from the higher courts, are on and so is the judicial enquiry.
Largely similar is the case with Godhra violence and post-Godhra carnage.
Forget about judicial enquiry for a moment. Why it is to be Brinda Karat? Why
can't the West Bengal Chief Minister, who also happens to be the Home Minister,
come out with a statement and at least a promise for a White Paper?
Is there any answer?
It must also be pointed out that only now it has been "categorically" declared
that there'd be no SEZ, chemical hub, in Nandigram. In January, the so-called
"assurance" of the Chief Minster, which followed the preliminary notice for
land acquisition by the Haldia Development Authority - and the existence of
which had earlier been attempted to be denied by no less than Sitaram Yechury
himself, was that there'd be no hub if people didn't want it. So there was
nothing "categorical" about it.
Moreover, Lakshman Seth, the CPIM MP from adjoining Haldia and the HDA
Chairman, was very much on the prowl to recapture Nandigram and expropriate the
lands on behalf of the State and the Salim group of companies.
And Nandigram didn't happen in a vacuum. The example of Singur was very much
before them. On interrogation regarding land acquisition in Singur, the
Industries Minister Nirupam Sen had retorted: "Where is the provision for
consent in the Land Acquisition Act?"
It is also suggested that one may refer to the latest EPW, March 24, editorials
- which are still not available on the net. Maybe by tomorrow or day after.
Sukla
"T. Jayaraman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED] com> wrote:
Dear Friends, Pls. find attached an article by
Brinda Karat from today's Hindu (30th March). I hope
you find it useful.
With regards,
Jayaraman
http://www.thehindu.com/2007/03/30/stories/2007033002001000.htm
------------ --------- --------- ---
Behind the events at Nandigram
Brinda Karat
There is a larger political game plan being played out in West Bengal. The
real agenda of the "resistance" is not protecting the interests of farmers and
the rural poor or saving the land. THE CHIEF Minister of West Bengal Buddhadeb
Bhattacharjee and the CPI(M) have expressed their deep distress and regret at
the police firings and violence in Nandigram on March 14 and solidarity with
the families of the victims and those injured. The case before the Calcutta
High Court is posted for hearing in three weeks. Surprisingly the very NGOs
that had rushed to the court for its intervention are now saying a judicial
probe should be ordered. This is what the State government would have liked to
do but could not because of the court orders on their petition. Well wishers of
the CPI(M) have advised introspection as to why a Nandigram occurred under a
Left Front government headed by the party. They should be assured of
that process, which is an intrinsic part of the party's functioning at all
levels. Appropriate lessons are drawn from the collective experience of
critically analysing the party's work and policies with a view to addressing
and removing weaknesses, lapses, and gaps whenever and wherever they exist.
There is a larger political game plan being played out in West Bengal. The
first question is what is the "Nandigram resistance," hyped up to be a "great
popular peaceful upsurge," about? The Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee (BUPC),
a platform consisting of political parties from the BJP, the Congress, and the
SUCI to various naxal outfits and NGOs, led by the Trinamool Congress was set
up in Nandigram with the stated aim of preventing land acquisition. The Chief
Minister made a categorical commitment in January that there would be no
chemical hub and therefore no land acquisition without the consent of the
people. Normally when there is a struggle on a specific demand, in this
case against land being taken over, if the demand is accepted it is claimed as
a victory and the agitation is called off. In the huge farmers struggle in
Rajasthan where the CPI(M) played an important role, police firing and violence
under the BJP government between 2004 and 2006 took the lives of 17 farmers
including one woman. In the first phase after the BJP government was forced to
agree to the demands concerning water sharing, the agitation was called off.
Later when the Government reneged on its promise the agitation resumed. In
Nandigram it is because the interests of farmers and the rural poor or the
issue of saving the land is not the real agenda of the "resistance" that the
opposition boycotted the scores of meetings called by the district
administration and ignored the Chief Minister's statement. The second claim
that the "resistance" is peaceful and democratic is far from the truth. Less
known, their stories and tragedies ignored by the national media, around
3,000 men, women, and children of around 12 villages of Nandigram have been
forcibly driven out of their homes and have been living in camps outside the
area since January 3 because they are known members or sympathisers of the
CPI(M). Who are these people? Like the victims of the police action, they too
are agricultural workers, marginal peasants, artisans, almost all of them from
the Scheduled Castes. Shockingly and sickeningly, the numerous reports of
historians, human rights activists, and commentators have not mentioned their
trauma at all, not even as a footnote, but on the contrary have almost
celebrated their plight as "peoples anger" against the CPI(M). Houses of CPI(M)
members or sympathisers were identified in an organised way and attacked. In
one day on January 3 34 homes were burnt, 41 houses were broken into and
household goods smashed, 47 houses were looted. Sobita Sumanta is one of the
many displaced women who have come to meet the various authorities
in Kolkata. Her husband Shankar Samanta was an elected gram panchayat member.
He was burnt alive on January 7 by a group of armed people because he opposed
their false campaign. Kanika Mandal is also among the displaced. On January 3,
her husband and two young sons were forced to flee from their home in
Sonachura. She and her younger daughter Sunita, a Class 9 student, continued to
live in the village under constant threat. On February 10 at around noon mother
and daughter were working in the fields when Sunita returned early to the
house. When Kanika came home she found her daughter killed. The medical report
confirmed rape. Kakoli Giri was driven out of her village of Kalcharanpur along
with her husband and children. On March 3 she went back to check on her
belongings. She was surrounded by a group of men who gangraped her. Her son
found her lying unconscious and somehow brought her back to the camp. The
medical report has confirmed rape. Earlier a policeman was lynched
and his body thrown into the river. In spite of the evidence, there are no
arrests in these cases because neither the police nor the State Women's
Commission can enter the area. It has been barricaded, roads, bridges and
culverts have been broken up, and the criminals have found shelter in the
"peaceful resistance." In the five affected gram panchayats, all political
activity against the BUPC is literally banned with the force of arms. An
illustration is what happened to families who defied the warning of the BUPC
and attended a rally organised by the CPI(M) in a neighbouring area on January
29. The following day, 14 of such families were driven out and are now in the
camps. There is a close coordination between the Trinamool Congress and the
group of NGOs functioning under different platforms, but united in the BUPC.
They have provided a cover of impartiality to the reactionary political forces
operating. In fact, it is they who have more or less taken over the public
face of the anti-CPI(M) campaign. An example is the one-sided highly
exaggerated reports circulated by them, in particular their account of the
violence against children. None of them mentions the fact, confirmed by
tape-recorded conversations played on Bengali TV channels, of the utterly
cynical plans to use not only women but children as shields on March 14. But
wild allegations are made against the police and CPI(M) men that they "abducted
children, killed them, school uniforms were found in bushes ... children were
torn apart by their two legs." Even ordinary citizens hearing such a report,
leave alone such internationally recognised individuals, would have considered
it their bounden duty to file complaints of "children being torn apart." Yet
not a single missing child report has been filed with the police. The reports
also mention "mass rapes and gang rapes of women." All complaints of rape must
be investigated; if true, exemplary punishment must be meted out to
those guilty. But to exaggerate and concoct reports undermines the hard
struggle by women's organisations to give extra weightage to the statements of
women victims where medical evidence is not available. If women are used as
tools in a politically motivated campaign as in Nandigram it undermines the
credibility of the demand. West Bengal remembers the unfortunate case of
Champala Sardar who was used by the Trinamool Congress in a fabricated case of
rape against CPI(M) men at the time of the 1993 panchayat elections. She was
cruelly paraded by Trinamool Congress leaders as a symbol of CPI(M)
criminality. The case was found to be false and all the men were acquitted.
Champala herself was abandoned soon after the elections were over. The strategy
of the Trinamool Congress-led campaign is to continuously provoke incidents of
violence in the name of saving the interests of farmers, the openly stated goal
being the panchayat elections scheduled for May 2008. On March 17, the
Maoists wrote a letter to Mamta Banerjee extending support to her struggle,
which stated "We were in Singur, we are in Nandigram and we will stay." This
should not be dismissed as political rhetoric. Already there are reports that
the sea route through the Bay of Bengal is being used by the Maoists to come
into Nandigram. The geographical location is crucial for the spread of the
Maoists "liberated" belt to the east, in which West Bengal is the barrier. The
lack of any administration or police in the area facilitates such a move. The
implications of the campaign against the CPI(M) are not limited to West Bengal.
Nationally, the CPI(M) role in defence of the working classes and the rural
poor is crucial, putting forward a set of alternative policies, to the
consternation of the neo-liberalisers. Its role in mobilising secular forces
against the BJP is a hindrance in the hoped for comeback trail of the communal
forces. Nor is it coincidental that senior U.S. officials held
a meeting with a leader involved in the mobilisations of the minority community
in Nandigram. The categorical position of the CPI(M) against the strategic
partnership with the U.S. is reason enough for support to anti-CPI(M)
platforms. A widespread campaign is necessary to explain the context of the
Nandigram developments and to meet the highly motivated campaign against the
CPI(M) and the government it heads in West Bengal. (Brinda Karat, M.P., is a
member of the Polit Bureau of the CPI[M]) © Copyright 2000 - 2006 The Hindu
---------------------------------
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