People's Democracy
(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
No.
31
August 02, 200
|
Vol. XXXIII
No.
31 August 02, 200 |
B Prasant
WITH intent to murder, dozen-odd
armed goons in the
pay of the Trinamul Congress launched a murderous attack on CPI(M)
workers and
MLA at Sonarpur in south 24 Parganas.
The local municipality has recently been captured by the
Trinamulis in
elections held across Bengal.
This is the first major assault
engineered on CPI(M)
workers, including a CPI(M) MLA in this area for a pretty long time if
memory
serves, perhaps over a decade. The people remained witnesses to the
�face of
change� that the Trinamuli chief and her fawning, admiring
media-persons are so
madly fond of uttering like a mantra.
The dastardly attack took place
late in the evening of
July 26 when a CPI(M) rally had just ended at the Chanditala locality. As the CPI(M) workers were gathering together
the campaign material, and dismantling the dais and the podium amidst
slogans,
the Trinamuli goondas struck with
deadly precision.
Using sharp and cutting weapons
as well as sharp-pointed
iron rods, and thick staves, the hooligans hit out at the CPI(M)
workers and
the MLA present. Receiving serious
injuries in the short, sharp, deadly assault were MLA Shyamal Naskar as
well as
CPI(M) workers Tapan Bhattacharya, Susanta Ghosh, Bhola Chakraborty,
and Gour
Mondal, all of whom had to be shifted to nearby medical centres and
later to
hospitals as they were bleeding heavily, mostly from head wounds.
On their way out of the fracas,
the Trinamuli hoods
ransacked the small house of Uma Aich, a former councillor of the
Sonarpur
municipality.
Elsewhere, up in Siliguri, the
Darjeeling district
unit of the Left Front announced the list of Left Front candidates for
the
upcoming elections to the Siliguri Municipal Corporation.
In the 47 seats being fought for, CPI(M) has
fielded 38 candidates, the CPI 4, the Forward Bloc 3, and the RSP 2. Twenty two of the candidates, i.e. 47 per
cent, are women. Ten are Hindi-speaking
while one candidate is a Nepali-speaking comrade. The
Left Front has nominated 28 new faces
this time around.
In the name of a bandh
called on non-issues like the presence of police in western Bengal, the
Jharkhandis of the �disham� group,
aided and abetted by local units of the Trinamulis, assaulted railway
passengers, held up train services, blocked highways and other main
arterial
roads, and forced shopkeepers to down shutters in the various towns of
Purulia
and Burdwan.
The hooligans came out with
sharp, cutting weapons
including large spears, and daggers.
People were terrorised. One of
the chased, a young student by the name of Arghya Samanta, suffered
from a
panic attack as he stumbled and fell and saw a murderous mob
approaching him
with arms at the ready.
The young man, aged 20,
tragically died from a heart
seizure. The attackers then ransacked
several haats and bazaars putting to
the torch houses of CPI(M) supporters in both districts, at several
places, and
then also ran amuck in the bordering district of Hooghly.
Condemning this mayhem, CPI(M)
state secretary Biman
Basu said that the recent events showed how the Trinamulis and their
associates
were keeping up efforts to step up violence in Bengal, especially in
areas
where they have won elections of late. At
the call of the CPI(M), street corner meetings and smaller rallies have
continued across Bengal to protest the attempt at bringing back anarchy
in the
state.
In a related development, the
Burdwan unit of the
CPI(M) has produced a video clipping that depicts the presence of one
Nazir
Sheikh, one of the killers named by Comrade Falguni in his dying
statement. Manas Bhuinya the Congress
leader had said that if it could be proved that the Pradesh Congress
leaders on
a recent tour of Mangolkote had been accompanied by any of the accused
in the
Comrade Falguni murder case, he would resign as an MLA. The Congress is
yet to
respond to this revelation.
