Author: Editorial
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: November 9, 2007
CPM cadre prove hoodlums call the shots
The CPI(M) has once again demonstrated its
utter contempt for the law of the land and its total disregard for the role
of the state in enforcing that law. Indeed, reports from Nandigram in West
Bengal bear evidence to how Marxist hoodlums, armed with sophisticated weapons,
have become a law unto themselves and replaced the police and other law-enforcing
agencies. Ever since the CPI(M)-led Left Front Government decided to surreptitiously
acquire farmland to help Indonesia's Salem Group set up a Special Economic
Zone, Nandigram has been in the news. Villagers here refused to give up their
land for what was clearly a cockamamie scheme designed to enrich the Salem
Group and the CPI(M) even while impoverishing the people who would be displaced
without adequate compensation. The strong arm methods adopted by the CPI(M)'s
Laxman Seth and his goons -- a fearsome lot who routinely indulge in extortion
and worse -- as Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee chose to remain blissfully
ignorant led to the initial phase of violence early this year. In that round,
the people, who had organised themselves under the banner of 'Bhoomi Uchhed
Pratirodh Committee', won and chased out Marxist thugs. By March, Nandigram
had become a sort of 'liberated zone', with the CPI(M) losing control over
what used to be its territory of influence. West Bengal's police establishment,
which is an extension counter of the CPI(M), found its authority rapidly evaporating
in Nandigram; so much so, it became a no-go zone for policemen. Then came
the massacre of March 14 when CPI(M) hoodlums, many of them in police uniform,
unleashed terrible retribution on the hapless masses: Scores of people were
shot (of whom at least 14 died), many more were brutally assaulted, women
were raped and families rendered homeless. That incident shocked the entire
nation but left the CPI(M) leaders unmoved.
Shamed and shunned by intellectuals and fellow
travellers in Kolkata and elsewhere, Mr Bhattacharjee decided to scrap the
plans of setting up an SEZ at Nandigram, but by then enormous damage had been
caused. The Government had lost all credibility, the people had turned militant
and, if reports are to be believed, Maoists, sensing an opportunity, had moved
in and joined forces with the BUPC. What ensued was guerrilla warfare, with
Marxist cadre and villagers slugging it out, often with deadly consequences.
Senior CPI(M) leaders like Ms Brinda Karat added fuel to the raging fire by
urging party cadre to give dissenters a dose of "Dum Dum dawai",
referring to the murderous means adopted by the Marxists in the 1960s to enforce
their writ in West Bengal's industrial areas. By mid-October, the CPI(M) had
planned its bloody takeover of Nandigram and went about this task first by
sending its foot soldiers into neighbouring villages and then storming the
citadel of resistance. In the ensuing battle for territorial control -- and,
therefore, political power -- more lives have been lost, thousands have fled
their homes and, as our front page report says, the backbone of the resistance
against the CPI(M)'s rule through terror has been broken. The police have
not intervened, the district authorities have disappeared from the war zone
and the planned deployment of CRPF personnel has been kept in abeyance. The
violence perpetrated on the people of Nandigram shows, though not for the
first time, that Lenin's dictum has come true and the state has withered away
in West Bengal; it has been supplanted by the CPI(M)'s militia. Tragically,
the UPA has turned a blind eye, hoping its inaction and silence will please
the comrades at AK Gopalan Bhawan. This is a shameful comment on the state
of affairs that prevails today. Even if the Prime Minister were to have his
way with the nuclear deal, it would not change the grim reality of Marxist
criminals making a mockery of the law of the land.
