People's Democracy

Maoists On The Path Of Violence At Nandigram

B Prasant

OF late, over the past three months in particular, Maoist elements coming over from Jharkhand and Orissa have incited and initiated violence at Nandigram. Trained in armed assaults and equipped with guns of various calibres, the Maoists have gone to the length, in the very recent past, of digging trenches and setting up large bunkers at various places of the two Nandigram blocks and in some surrounding areas. They have also called upon the villagers to evacuate the area as ‘a war is about to start.’ This was stated by Shyamal Chakraborty, Central Committee member of the CPI (M) at the Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan while speaking to the media persons.

INCHOATE VIOLENCE

Earlier, the Maoist would confine their activities in Bengal to the hill and forest tracts of western Purulia, west Bankura, and west Midnapore. The affording of opportunity by the Trinamul Congress for the Maoists to be made welcome at Nandigram has added a new dimension to Maoist politics of terror and murder. At Nandigram, places like Sonachura are virtually run by the Maoists. The Maoist cadres set the base for anti-people violence on which the Trinamul Congress and the Naxalites carry out their evil misdeeds.

The Maoists are also in the process of setting up means and methods to link up Nandigram (with its proximity to the wide mouth of the Ganges at the confluence of the Hooghly and Ganges rivers) with the coastal strip of Orissa to facilitate bringing in armed Maoists cadres from the neighbouring state as they already do from Jharkhand through overland routes.

SLOGANS UNJUSTIFIED

The slogans raised by the Maoists to ‘justify’ their presence could be easily dismissed, said Shyamal Chakraborty. The Maoists would call their killing spree a ‘patriotic struggle’ to ‘save the motherland,’ as if India has been run over by a foreign power. They also label their nefarious anti-people moves, a fight against SEZ. The fact remains that no plans are in place for setting any industrial cluster far from any SEZs at Nandigram.

They also speak of importing the ‘Chinese model’ of revolution. Revolution can hardly be imported, and this was said by none other than Mao himself, the self-proclaimed ‘Maoists’ may not be aware. What the ‘Maoists’ conveniently forget is that Mao himself spoke at length on the essential need for development of and unity amongst the poor, something these self-proclaimed revolutionaries are keen to avoid as they go about killing and maiming the rural poor and indulging in loot and arson of the houses of CPI(M) supporters.