People's Democracy

Nandigram: Continuing

Rampage Meets Strong Protests

B Prasant

A SERIES of marches across large parts of Nandigram lodged a strong protest of the mass of the people against the terror and mayhem continued with impunity yet in the area at the behest of the Trinamul Congress, Naxalites, and the SUCI.  More than fifteen thousand people took part in the marches that were organised by the CPI(M). 

The marchers covered such Gram Panchayats as Samsabad, Gokulnagar, Nandigram, Tengua, and Haripur.  The forces of reaction and of sectarianism continued to harass the people of Nandigram with extortions and rampaging.  The series of marches that took place on April 16 represented the anger of the people who are in deep suffering because of the anarchy loosed upon Nandigram. 

In places like Hazarakata, the Trinamul Congress and its lackeys have collected more than 1.5 lakh of rupees through extortion and threat.  More than 60 houses have up till now been looted.  Attacks are organised against all those who would not come forward to support the reign of terror in some areas of Nandigram.

The family of the Pradhans were recently the subject of an armed attack.  The family members fled to the Tekhali relief camp. A physically-challenged member of the family, Baren could not run away quickly enough and he was caught and mercilessly beaten up by Trinamul Congress goons.  Baren’s wife later came in the dark of the night and rescued her husband who by then bled heavily.

People evicted from their villages for the ‘crime’ of not joining the violent anti-development forays of the Trinamul Congress-Naxalite-SUCI at Nandigram, continue to languish at relief camps.  On April 13, the Trinamul Congress hooligans kidnapped six CPI(M) workers two of whom are yet missing at the time of writing this.

A team of women leaders recently visited the relief camps. The AIDWA leadership was led by Shyamali Gupta, Rekha Goswami, and Banani Biswas. They were rendered speechless at the plight of the women and children in particular. They spoke to around 400 women and their children in the camp at length. 

The AIDWA leaders assured the ousted kisan families that the mass of the people of Bengal would come forward to put a stop to all attempts at creation of anarchy, disorder, and lawlessness, at Nandigram and elsewhere in the state. They distributed clothing and dry food among the evicted people at the Tekhali relief camp.

LARGE PROCESSION TAKEN OUT

Subsequently, a very large procession was taken out by the affected kisans and their family members from the Tekhali relief camp to Sher Khan Chowk. The marchers shouted slogans against the attempts at anarchy and mayhem by the right-ultra left combination and expressed determination to put an end to the terror prevailing in parts of Nandigram.

During the morning of the same day, a large and armed gang of Trinamul Congress and Naxalite goons descended on Kanchannagar near the Samsabad Gram Panchayat locality at Nandigram and kidnapped at gun point four CPI(M) workers – Chintamoni, Natu, Banamali, and Radhakanta.  Two other CPI(M) supporters Gurupada and Praveen were abducted from Southkhali. All were taken to the Trinamul Congress stronghold of Garchakraberia.  Later, the police could intervene and rescue four of the abducted men.

A very recent visit by the members of the Bengal women’s commission to the relief camps unearthed the extreme discomfort in which families of kisans have to spend their days and nights. Bharati Mutsuddi, a member of the commission and an MLA, spoke to us and said that the women and children in particular are having a very rough time. 

TERROR AND TRAUMA

The people of the relief camp are also terrorised and traumatised as bombs are lobbed at the relief camps like the large one at Tekhali and when one young girl ventured out to her village to look after some ailing cattle, she was abducted and molested by goons owing allegiance to the Trinamul Congress. She was treated at the nearest hospital for injuries as well as trauma.

As already reported, Nazma Khatun of Nandigram had to die a helpless and painful death because the sliced up roads and destroyed bridges prevented people from taking her to a hospital in good time when she was in a life-threatening condition.

A recent development has been a falling out amongst the looters. Several Trinamul Congress workers were injured in internecine fights over the money looted from the houses from CPI (M) workers.

DEVELOPMENTAL WORK STALLED

Elsewhere the range of developmental work and work in the service sector has virtually come to a standstill at the affected locales of Nandigram.  Among the essential projects is a water supply scheme of the state government’s PHE department.  The Rs 40-lakh project would have reached out potable water to five villages. The basic machinery for the water supply project is stalled outside of Nandigram because the roads have been cut up. 

Several housing projects for the rural poor are similarly stopped in their tracks.  Old age pension funds cannot be distributed as the work of the local Gram Panchayats is forcibly stopped at the behest of the Trinamul Congress, the Naxalites, and the SUCI. Road work is stopped, as are projects to excavate ponds and large water bodies in anticipation of the coming rainy season.  Affected areas of Nandigram have started to assume more and more the look of an isolated area of desolation.

TRINAMUL ASSEMBLAGE – A FAILURE

The Trinamul Congress continues to lose ground over the Nandigram issue.  Recently, the Trinamul Congress chief organised a ‘rally of Nandigram kisans’ in downtown Kolkata, in the same spot where she had gone on (to quote her henchmen) a ‘record-breaking fast.’  The assemblage was as much a failure as her ‘fast’ had been.  What was especially clumsy was the almost obscene way, a very large amount of sumptuously cooked food was put on display and used to entice ‘Nandigram kisans’ to join the show, as TV cameras rolled and panned across the trestle table where the items were heaped up.

In a speech of sorts, the Trinamul Congress chieftain lamented the poor presence and said that the paucity of people would dissuade her from climbing onto the dais. Her disinclination was promptly put to use by the Naxalites who were hanging around the area. They promptly railroaded no less than 25 of their ‘leaders’ onto the platform one after another, and the droning speeches they delivered interspersed with unprintable swear words against the literati of Bengal for deserting their ranks, soon saw the  remaining dozen-odd ‘kisans’ (some of whom looked suspiciously familiar as torch-bearers of violence and mayhem at Nandigram under the banner of the Trinamul Congress and the Naxalites) chose to sneak away, melting into the descending dark of the evening.