SHAMELESS BLOODBATH

 

 

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) is quite proud of its spic and span secular credentials. And it is willing to go to any length to nurture the mask of secularism. First, it was a bunch of predominantly Hindu protestors who were butchered in Singur in West Bengal. Just to prove that it doesn’t differentiate between religions, the party has now massacred a bunch of Muslim protestors in Nandigram, again in West Bengal.

The Tatas have acquired land for a ‘fantasy’ car project in Singur while the Salim group of Indonesia wants to acquire land for a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Nandigram. Both the Tata and the Salim group are the new ‘comrades’ of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya who wants a new industrial revolution to sweep his State. The foundations of Soviet Union’s military-industrial machine were built by Stalin upon millions of corpses and carcasses of innocent human beings. The Indian Marxists are far more benign: they are happy with just a few hundred or so deaths; so what if most of them are defenceless women. Welcome to the brave new world of fascism masquerading as democratic secularism. Barbarism and tragedy often lead to hyperbole. So, there are people in Nadigram who are saying that 14 March 2007 will remain etched in their memory as yet another Jallianwala Bagh. There was a 30-year-old woman who bent down to help a man who had been shot cold-bloodedly by the police. Lathis rained on her head, splintering her skull. Just for the heck of it, the cops also broke the lady’s arms. There were ghastly scenes of male policemen, assaulting, molesting and even allegedly raping women in a marauding frenzy. Behind these storm troopers of the Marxist regime in West Bengal came hundreds of CPI(M) party cadres to take revenge. To teach a nasty lesson to the locals of Nandigram.

The previous issue of TSI had an exclusive on-site report from Nandigram where the locals had announced that nothing short of war can make them give up their land. At the forefront of this angry, bitter and defiant protest were women. When Stalin of Soviet Union and even Mao and Deng Xiao Peng of China (The latter perhaps being the role model for Buddhadeb Bhattacharya) faced dissent or protest, their response was simple: a ruthless crackdown that would destroy defiance.

And so the Marxists declared war on their erstwhile supporters. The police acted as the battering ram while the cadres unleashed a reign of terror that would be as shameful as the carnage in Gujarat in 2002. Media persons were not allowed beyond Chandipur, 18 kilometres from Nandigram. All that the journalists could do was smell death and hear the distant staccato sound of gunshots. It is only much later that the nation got to know through fragmented reports that many more than 50 had been massacred on the very first day of this Marxist-Fascist assault. Worse, there were no female police and the men in Khaki had a field day, armed with a licence from unseen and unheard party bosses to teach the lessons of war to the protesting women. This kind of unprecedented and uncalled for savagery has rattled even the so-called allies of the CPI(M). National Secretary of CPI Atul Anjan told TSI, “No words can condemn these dastardly acts. The government must resort to dialogue instead of coercion.” A CPI(M) ally, Forward Bloc termed the incident “an outbreak of civil war.” RSP leader Kshiti Goswami who is member of Buddhadeb cabinet warned, “Nandigram episode may threaten the very survival of the Left Front government.” CPI(M)’s ally at the Centre, the Congress, joined hands with Trinamool Congress and the BJP in demanding imposition of President’s Rule in West Bengal.

Sitting in a typical street corner adda in Chandipur, Sourya Ghosh looks like the quintessential middle aged Bengali who has read a lot. Ghosh pontificates, “You know, Hitler’s followers were masters at repeating lies to create a truth out of illusion. Maybe our Marxist dadas are doing the same.” He is referring to strange police versions of the pre-planned and well executed massacre. One group of cops tells journalists that they went to Nandigram to search for ‘concealed weapons’. Another group says that they had gone to restore ‘law and order’. For the dozens dead and many more lying wounded in hospitals, the words ‘law and order’ now appear like a bizarre and sick joke.

Liberal Indians rightly protested the terror unleashed on minorities in Gujarat as a matter of enduring shame for the nation and the civilisation. Will they remain mute witnesses to these acts of barbaric brutality?

More important is how the Congress-led government in Delhi will behave and act. The party has no doubt promptly called for the dismissal of the Left Font government in West Bengal. But that is mere theatrics and posturing. The brutal reality is that the Congress is at the mercy of the Marxists. The party may think of bizarre midnight schemes to dismiss Mulayam Singh Yadav’s government in Uttar Pradesh; but will get cold feet when it comes to dealing with the Red Brigade. For the hundreds that will probably be killed in Nandigram for the Marxists to reassert their supremacy, coalition politics is a deadly killer that they cannot even comprehend. Wayward ho singur

It began with Singur, but after the deaths in the 14 March firing in Nandigram, the anti-SEZ movement might return to Singur with ferocity. For, it is here that the story will finally be told. The West Bengal government has virtually given up on Nandigram so there may not be an SEZ there. Singur is different. The land deed has been signed, the site fenced off and the Tatas are in business. This may have pushed a 62-year-old farmer, Haradhan Bag, into killing himself on 12 March. Bag lost an acre, which was fenced off as part of the land acquired by the government for the Tata plant. Bag had refused to take the money offered as compensation.

When TSI was in Singur, the government was there in all its might, the Tatas were getting things in place and the residents were divided among those who had given their land and those who refused. Mamata Banerjee’s political revival began in Singur. Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya has staked his prestige on Singur. From current indications, it might be a yeoman task to stop the Tata plant. The tide could turn in favour of the anti-SEZ farmers only if more people killed themselves.