Blood sport of communists

 

 

Sounds of gunshots, explosion could be heard from far. The mud tracks and the broken patches of the roads were completely deserted. Since November 5, this unknown tiny hamlet, Nandigram, has transformed into a battle zone. The lanes, by-lanes, the paddy fields of this village have turned blood red. Nandigram is the latest killing field in West Bengal, the Mecca of Indian Communists, and the graveyard of hopes.

Trouble began when the local villagers resisted the government’s move to take over land under SEZ to set up a chemical hub. Since then, the areas in and around Nandigram, Satengabari, Sonachura, Kapasbari, Sher Khan Chawk, Tekhali Bazar, Muratpur, Kamalpur, Brindavan Chawk, Gokulnagar and Aksabari have been witnessing violent clashes between CPI(M) cadres and the members of Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee (BUPC). The fight is to capture and re-capture lands. Earlier, the reds were driven out of the areas by the armed BUPC members. This time, apparently with the aid of the state machinery, the Communists, armed to the teeth, struck back with vengeance. As they invaded, the frenzied cadres left men and children dead, and women raped on the way.

Gunshots became louder, as the car passed Chandipur and raced towards Nandigram. There was no sign of police or any armed security personnel. Reports reached the TSI team that “Sonachura and Satengabari” have already been recaptured by the CPI(M). There were further reports that in certain areas, the villagers were on the run. They were being driven out of their homes by the communists. While the hapless villagers were on the run, the Trinamul leader, Sisir Adhikari, who stood with the TSI team constantly received calls on his mobile phone of the ongoing battle in and around Nandigram. It was learnt that a CPI(M) functionary, Asok Guria was controlling the entire operation from a safer location. As the battle raged on, the fleeing villagers took shelter in the Nandigram school, adjacent to the local police station and under the constant vigil of the BUPC members. “We just could not sleep last night. Throughout the night there were sounds of gunshots and explosion,” Reba Pal, who had taken shelter in the school said. “With the first light of the day, we picked up our belongings and fled,” tears trickled down her cheeks. Later she came to know that the red cadres had burnt her hut. Beside her sat Keka Pal, clinging to her belongings and her nine-year-old daughter, Monalisa. And Gita had no knowledge of her husband. She just ran and ran to save herself from red mob. While some of these villagers managed to escape, others were caught and taken prisoners. “After capturing the lion’s chunk of Nandigram, the CPI(M) took out a victory rally. The captured women and children were kept in front of the rally,” an SUCI supporter, Bhawani Prasad, said. The reds kept the prisoners in the front, mainly to face the opponents bullets and clear any landmine. It was claimed that the frenzied CPI(M) mob had burnt nearly 200 houses of the BUPC members in Nandigram.

If the Gujarat chief minister, Narendra Modi, continues to stand accused of using the state machinery during the 2002 communal carnage in his state, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee-ruled West Bengal seems to be toeing a similar line to silence opposition. “Buddhadeb is like Narendra Modi,” historian, Sumit Sarkar seethed in Kolkata. This left-leaning historian has today joined the voices against the chief minister, in protest of the atrocities unleashed by his red brigade.

On November 7, taking advantage of the Trinamul Congress’ state wide bandh call, the CPI(M) cadres took control of all the roads leading to Nandigram. And once again, the police stood as mute spectators. It took hours to reach the Nandigram school, as the militant CPI(M) activists waving the red flags kept blocking and quizzing the TSI team. All the vehicles were being thoroughly searched and in Chandir Bazar near Magrajpur, the communists did not even spare an ambulance. So what if Karl Marx had said that “religion is the opium of the masses,” these Bengal Marxists merrily extorted donations for the approaching Kali puja in their respective areas, from all the vehicles plying on the stretches.

Sources later revealed that the CPI(M) cadres had managed to acquire weapons like AK-46, 9mm pistols and SLRs. BUPC members alleged that the arms were being procured from Bihar and Jharkhand. It was claimed that some of the trainee police personnel were also moving around with the CPI(M) mob. The BUPC leaders alleged that most of these cadres were “imported” from outside Nandigram, which include Bongaon, Barasat, and Kishangang. If the state machinery was backing the reds, some retired army personnel were providing strategic inputs for the warfare to the BUPC members. And if the red brigade were acquiring arms from across the state, the BUPC activists were snatching rifles from the policemen on duty. So far there had been no proper figure of the dead and injured. The figure could be anything, from 15 to 50, no one knows, exactly. Some disclosed that the CPI(M) cadres were burning the bodies of their dead comrades on the spot, mainly to destroy evidence. The BUPC members refuted the state government’s claims that the upsurge against the CPI(M) in the area was being led by the Maoists.

How did the latest round of violence start? Before the armed CPI(M) mob ventured in, the electricity connections were cut off and the entire area plunged into darkness. And in the darkness of that November 4 night, the armed men moved in. Not silently. The air rent with bloodcurdling screams of the invaders and the victims.

In Kolkata, the intellectuals, actors, social activists, who once swore by the Left, rose to target the Marxist administration. The Trinamul supremo, Mamata Banerjee, mounted a vicious attack on the Left regime.

The red terror, however, was not confined to the villagers of Nandigram, who had after three decades of the Left rule had dared to defy the Marxists. On November 8, as the Left leaning social activist and leader of the Narmada Bachao Andolon, Medha Patkar, tried to reach trouble-prone Nandigram, she and her supporters were punched and roughed up by the CPI(M) goons. An unapologetic CPI(M) high command refused to react. Instead, the CPI(M) general secretary, Prakash Karat, after the two-day Politburo meeting in Delhi said: “ Trinamul Congress workers are hand-in-glove with the armed Maoist groups to pursue mischievous plans to keep Nandigram on the boil.” This is like George Bush stating that "there are weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq". As Bengal burnt under the CPI(M) rule, Karat declared in Delhi: “Maoists are the biggest threat to national security.”

However, as Karat held the Maoists responsible for the mayhem, the local and the national dailies came out with screaming headlines – “CPM cadres kill 3 rape 2 in Nandigram.” On November 9, the BUPC members admitted two women from Satengabari and Sonachura to Tamluk hospital, who were reportedly repeatedly raped by the CPI(M) men. Earlier the West Bengal governor, Gopal Krishna Gandhi, had described the “recapture” of Nandigram by the CPI(M) functionaries as “unlawful.” As the state administration played the fiddle while Nandigram burnt, the governor on November 13, met the former chief minister and veteran CPI(M) leader, Jyoti Basu. Stepping out of Basu’s Salt Lake residence, the governor remarked: “ I appealed to Jyoti Basu to resume efforts for peace, confidence and security in West Bengal, as he played a great role in restoring confidence earlier.” It can be mentioned here the exercise to liberate Nandigram and bring under its control had started early this month. So far, the events go on to show that the entire operation was well planned in advance and had the clearance of the party’s high command. If Modi stands accused of asking the police to step back, while minorities were being butchered in his state, the Marxist government also apparently asked the security men to look the other way. For days, the CPI(M) “killer squads” kept the area out of bounds for the media. Though the official death toll is said to be four, locals claim that while fleeing they spotted scores of dead bodies littered on the paddy fields. However, before the media or the central forces could reach the spot, the red squads were reportedly burning the bodies.

After nearly a week of mayhem, the CRPF finally managed to enter Nandigram on November 13 and started conducting raids. And after the CPI(M) cadres managed to wrest the strongholds of the BUPC in the areas, the central forces set up camps in the interior areas. At the time of writing this report, the news came in that “as the red flags flutter all over, Nandigram limps back to normal.”

For the CPI(M), this was another victory written in blood after the Marichjhapi massacre in the mid-seventies, when the CPI(M) killer squads went on a rampage killing Bangladeshi refugees. In January 1979, thousands of refugees staying in a Dandakaranya (a government forest reserve) at Marichjhapi in West Bengal were cordoned off by the Left Front government. A few months later, when many had died of starvation, the government set the police and a hired gang of thugs on the people and nearly 200 men were massacared, an RSP leader recalled.

Marichjhapi, which could be branded as the first state sponsored terrorism has faded from the memory of Bengal and Bengalis. At that juncture, the CPI(M) killer squad allegedly planned the genocide to wipe out evidence of the refugees (lured by the CPI-M to live in Bengal) eating their own excreta on this muddy island. For the news had attracted global attention and the Union government was about to intervene.

From Marichjhapi to Nandigram, its been a long march for the CPI(M). And everytime, the reds looked for victory be it in the islands of the Sunderbans (Dandakaranya), Singur, Nandigram or the assembly elections, violence and terror had been its hammer and sickle.

TSI had recently compared Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee with China’s visionary leader, Deng Xiaoping. However, with Nandigram, suddenly, the image of Deng is being taken over by that of Adolf Hitler, who once said : “It is not truth that matters, but victory.”