Author: Bidyut Roy
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: August 31, 2009
URL: http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/meet-cpm-firebrand-who-prefers-spa-treatment-to-clinic-crowd/509191/
As the burning of the Vedic Village Spa and
Resort adds fresh fuel to the heated land acquisition debate in West Bengal,
guess who may find his hands singed? The state's Minister for Land and Land
Reforms, Abdur Rezzak Mollah, better known for his strong opposition to land
for industry and for his "simple" lifestyle. In the long list of
those known to have enjoyed the five-star luxuries of the resort - which was
allegedly raised on illegally acquired land - Mollah's name figures prominently.
CPM's Minister for Tourism Manabendra Mukherjee
is also reported to have been a regular visitor to Vedic Village.
Mollah says he went to the resort for "treatment".
"My Ayurveda consultant, Padyumna from Kerala, examines me in his chamber
at the spa. His other chamber is at Belle Vue (clinic), but I preferred the
Vedic spa to avoid the Belle Vue crowd."
Fingers have been pointed at CPM ministers
and party functionaries since last week's incident, when a football match
between two teams - one sponsored by the Vedic Village management and the
other by local villagers - turned violent and resulted in the attack on the
spa.
Angry that were "armtwisted" into
handing over land to the spa management, villagers burnt a 5-star resort,
and CPM's sweating firebrand minister down property worth crores during a
late-night rampage.
Charges swirled about irregular land acquisition,
and involvement of CPM leaders. Rezzak himself was accused of helping the
resort's owner, Raj Kisore Modi, get 44 acres of government land at a price
much less than the market rate.
Now come reports that Mollah and other CPM
leaders also enjoyed hospitality of the resort, which claims to "transport
guests to another world" with its vast choice of suites, studios, farmhouse
rooms, and super-luxury lakeside and earth villas. Locals living around the
resort claim to have seen many of them, including Mollah and Mukherjee, visit
regularly.
Mukherjee doesn't deny that he went there
once on "a formal invitation from the resort management", but insists:
"I am not a regular visitor."
However, it is Mollah who finds himself in
deep waters in a state that hasn't forgotten his strident line during the
Singur episode. "Bengal will turn into a graveyard and the people will
throw us out," was his repeated warning to Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya
at the time.
For the CPM too, the Vedic Village incident
threatens to blow up into a major embarrassment. Even as the party's government
reiterates its new caution on land acquisition, other local party functionaries
were direct beneficiaries of the Vedic Village project. Leaders like Rashid
Ali Mondal and Sibnath Banerjee supplied labour; others such as Parimal Mistry
and Nuruddin Gazi were reportedly engaged in land dealings and construction
material supplies.
Gazi, the former chief of the Chandpur gram
panchayat, claims farmers willingly gave land for the resort in return for
lucrative amounts. "Villagers would secretly contact us to sell their
land," says Gazi, who was incidentally defeated in the 2008 panchayat
polls due to his involvement in land controversies.
