Nandigram violence: Difference between revisions

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	The ] decided to discuss Nandigram with urgency, suspending the regular question hour sessions, on 21<sup>st</sup> November 2007 after two days of complete suspension of the proceedings owing to the heated debates between CPI(M) and opposition party members in both the houses. CPI(M) was alienated in the issue by all the other ruling UPA allies considering the fierce nation wide sentiments against the ]		The ] decided to discuss Nandigram with urgency, suspending the regular question hour sessions, on 21<sup>st</sup> November 2007 after two days of complete suspension of the proceedings owing to the heated debates between CPI(M) and opposition party members in both the houses. CPI(M) was alienated in the issue by all the other ruling UPA allies considering the fierce nation wide sentiments against the ]
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			The Marxists' armed supporters have been blamed for violence in Nandigram and the Communists are being isolated politically as a result of these acts. The Communist Party of India has also been dubbed the "]". The Communist Marxist regime of the state has been accused of spreading ] and ] as a ploy to whitewash their role in the violence

	==External links==		==External links==

Revision as of 12:43, 9 January 2008

The Nandigram SEZ controversy started when a rumor was spread that the government of West Bengal decided that the Salim Group of Indonesia would set up a chemical hub under the SEZ policy at Nandigram, a rural area in the district of Purba Medinipur. The villagers took over the administration of the area and all the roads to the villages were cut off.A front-page story in the Kolkata newspaper, The Telegraph, on 4 January 2007 was headlined, "False alarm sparks clash." According to the newspaper that village council meeting at which the alleged land seizure was to be announced was actually a meeting to declare Nandigram a "clean village," that is, a village in which all the households had access to toilet facilities. The administration was directed to break the Bhumi Ucched Protirodh Committee's (BUPC) resistance at Nandigram and a massive operation with at least 3,000 policemen along with cadre of the Marxist ruling party was launched on March 14, 2007. However, prior information of the impending action had leaked out to the BUPC who amassed a crowd of roughly 2,000 villagers at the entry points into Nandigram with women and children forming the front ranks. In the resulting mayhem, at least 14 people were killed.

Background

The Salim Group was founded by Sudono Salim closely associated with Indonesian ex-president Suharto.

The chemical hub would require the acquisition of over 14,000 acres (57 km²) of land. The special economic zone would be spread over 29 mouzas (villages) of which 27 are in Nandigram.Probodh Panda, a CPI MP from the district has said that most of the land to be acquired is multi crop and would affect over 40,000 people.Expectedly, the prospect of losing land and thereby livelihood raised concerns among the predominantly agricultural populace. The villagers, which included supporters of the party in power, CPI(M), joined hands with other opposition supporters, organized a resistance movement under the banner of the newly formed Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee or BUPC (literally, Committee for the Resistance to Eviction from Land).

Partners in the ruling Left Front and even sections of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) party including the Minister for Land and Land Reform, have expressed reservations on the project.

In defence of the project, the state government states that it was won by competing with 9 other Indian states. Being in the vicinity of Haldia Petrochemicals & IOC refinery, which, the CPI(M) claimed, had earlier led to 100,000 jobs being created through downstream projects, the party argued that this is the best place to build a hub from the point of view of supply-chain integration.

The Salim Group sought around 35,000 acres (140 km²) of land for a series of ambitious projects. Apart from the special economic zone (which is a 50:50 joint venture with the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation) it has been assigned the construction of the 100 km long 100 m wide Eastern Link Expressway and construction of a four-lane road bridge over the Haldi River, from Haldia to Nandigram, has also been planned. The proposed bridge would provide a link between Haldia and the proposed chemicals SEZ in Nandigram. The Barasat-Raichak expressway and the Raichak-Kukrahati bridge, will connect Haldia to National Highway 34.

The decision to award of the expressway to the Salim group has however courted controversy since the preliminary work for the same, including a feasibility studywas contracted out earlier to the renowned JICA. The Agency was kept in the dark about the change in plan until it was announced publicly by the chief minister.

The land acquisition notice was put up on January 3, 2007 by the Haldia Development Authority whose chairman is the local CPI(M) MP. Although the chief minister later verbally dissociated himself from the notice, it was never annulled by another government notification. According the the CPI(M) newspaper, People's Democracy, 18 November 2007, the West Bengal chief minister pointed out that the chemical hub was not to be placed in Nandigram, but at a desolate sandhead at the mouth of the River Ganges called Nayachar. The resulting mobilisation against the proposed hub saw violent takeover by villagers opposed to the project and fearful of loss of owned land. Villagers dug up roads, cut off communication cables and declared Nandigram as a liberated zone from government interference, fearful of land acquisition by the government.

The events of March 14 2007

The administration was directed to break the BUPC's resistance at Nandigram and a massive operation with at least 3,000 policemen was launched on March 14, 2007. A group of armed and trained CPI(M) cadres wore police uniforms and joined the forces. However, prior information of the impending action had leaked out to the BUPC who amassed a crowd of roughly 2,000 villagers at the entry points into Nandigram with women and children forming the front ranks. In the police firing, at least 14 people were killed.

Immediately following the March 14 killings, voluntary teams of doctors visited the Nandigram health centre, the district hospital at Tamluk and later, the SSKM hospital and compiled a comprehensive report

Few journalists were able to access the area, with their access being restricted by 'checkposts' manned by Communist Party of India (Marxist) party cadres; two belonging to a news channel were briefly abducted.

The scale of the action left the state stunned. Trinamool Congress estimates put the toll at 50. The PWD Minister of the Government of West Bengal, Mr. Kshiti Goswami of the RSP, a Left Front constituent, said 50 bodies were taken to hospital, but it was impossible to ascertain how many were actually dead. In response to this, The Communist Party of India (Marxist) party has also stated that 2,500 CPM members and supporters and their families were driven out of the area and displaced into relief camps as a result of unrest. It has accused the Jami Raksha Committee - a coalition of activists from various parties who oppose land acquisition - of armed attacks on relief camps which led to three deaths as well as a series of murders and a gangrape.

Fresh violence erupted in Nandigram on 29 April caused the West Bengal Human Rights Commission to step in.. A team of intellectuals and theatre personalities from Calcutta was attacked by CPM cadre on their return trip after disbursing relief material collected from the people in various parts of the state.

The deaths in Nandigram have led to a great deal of controversy on the left in India. The federal police say they have recovered many bullets of a type not used by police but in widespread use in the underworld.

Reactions

Gopal Krishna Gandhi, the present governor of West Bengal and grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, criticised the state government over its handling of the Nandigram incident, speaking of his "cold horror" in a press statement. His statement was taken suo moto cognisance of by the Kolkata High Court following which an enquiry by the CBI has been ordered. However, there have even been accusations of the CBI's failure to ensure a thorough investigation.

Ramsey Clark, former Attorney General of the United States, described the events in Nandigram as "barbaric and unacceptable". In his statement he compared the CPI(M) led left front government of West Bengal with that of the US administration led by President George Bush . He visited the area along with the leaders of SUCI and called upon all well meaning people to stand up against imperialism in Nandigram and else where .

Dr. Ashok Mitra, long time Finance Minister of the Government of West Bengal critised the goverment and his party stating that till death he will remain guilty to his conscience if he keeps mum on the happenings in Nandigram. He states that the CPI(M) leadership is blind of hubris and the party has turned into a wide open field of flatterers and court jesters dominated by ‘anti-socials’ .

An editorial in the The Indian Express said that the party machinery has become the "sword arm of an industrialisation policy that involves settling complicated property rights issues."

Renowned novelist Sunil Gangopadhyay, a friend of the Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya also felt that the industry is necessary but state violence was barbaric. Social activist Medha Patkar had visited Nandigram on 7 December 2006 to protest against land acquisition. Other renowned persons who joined protests against the project and the genocide carried out on 14 March 2007 to implement it include Magsaysay and Jnanpeeth Award-winning author Mahasweta Devi, Booker Prize-winner Arundhati Roy, film director and actress Aparna Sen, theatre personalities Shaonli Mitra and Bibhas Chakraborty, painter Suvaprasanna, songwriter and singer Kabir Suman and many others.

The CPI(M) has currently adopted the public position that land acquisition will not be made without the consent of the people of Nandigram. The proposed SEZ has ostensibly been shelved following the March 14 police action. The local, district and State administration have however maintained that the Chemical Hub will take place at Nandigram itself. The PWD Minister of the Government of West Bengal, Mr. Kshiti Goswami has also come out against the CPI (M) stating that the CPI (M) is determined to set up the chemical hub at Nandigram, despite all the protests.

The latest drubbing that the Buddhadeb Bhattacharya government's March 14 action received was from the High Court at Kolkata, when, on 16.11.2007, a two judge bench consisting of the The Hon’ble Chief Justice S. S. Nijjar, and the Hon’ble Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose,declared that "The action of the police department to open fire at Nandigram on 14.03.2007 was wholly unconstitutional and cannot be justified under any provision of the law" and further that "The action of the police cannot be protected or justified on the ground of sovereign immunity." and also that "The action of the police cannot be justified even under the provisions of Criminal Procedure Code; The Police Act, 1861 for The Police Regulations, 1943". The Hon'ble judges also ordered that "we direct the State of West Bengal to pay to the victims of the deceased as a result of the indiscriminating police firing on 14th of March, 2007 immediate compensation in the sum of Rs.5 (five) lakhs each" and further that "We further direct the State Government to pay immediate compensation to the persons who were injured and whose particulars have been given the pleadings sum of Rs. not less than 1 (one) lakh each" and also "We further direct the State Government to pay compensation to the victims of rape who have been duly identified in the pleadings a sum of Rs.2 (two) lakhs each".

Location shift

After the bloodshed at Nandigram, and the stiff resistance from opposition parties such as Trinamool Congress and SUCI and Left Front partners such as RSP and CPI over land acquisition, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on 3 September expressed the government's preference for the sparsely populated island of Nayachar, 30 kilometres from Haldia, to set up the much talked-about chemical hub..

November 2007 violence

A fresh round of violence came up in November 2007 as the villagers who were thrown out of Nandigram by the BUPC returned back home. The BUPC had effectively continued to maintain Nandigram as a "liberated zone" even after the SEZ was cancelled. The return of the villagers was marred by violence unleashed by the ruling party cadres over the resisting BUPC cadre in Nandigram. The media termed this return as a "recapture" by the CPI(M). Evidence points to the operation being conducted entirely by the party keeping the state administration inactive. The party eulogized the operation with its state chairman describing it as `a new dawn' and the chief minister as `paying them back in their own coin'. The last comment was directed presumably primarily at the Maoist activists who, the CPI(M) claims, were active at Nandigram. The government has however officially contradicted the claim. The present situation has been described as one of "Red Terror". Nationwide protests have resulted from the new offensive. On November 12, 2007, the National Human Rights Commission has issued a notice to the West Bengal Government directing it to submit a factual report on the conditions prevailing in Nandigram.

The Parliament of India decided to discuss Nandigram with urgency, suspending the regular question hour sessions, on 21 November 2007 after two days of complete suspension of the proceedings owing to the heated debates between CPI(M) and opposition party members in both the houses. CPI(M) was alienated in the issue by all the other ruling UPA allies considering the fierce nation wide sentiments against the massacre

The Marxists' armed supporters have been blamed for violence in Nandigram and the Communists are being isolated politically as a result of these acts. The Communist Party of India has also been dubbed the "Red Brigade". The Communist Marxist regime of the state has been accused of spreading revisionism and propaganda as a ploy to whitewash their role in the violence

External links

References

For more information on the Salim Group please see Sudono Salim
Asia Week
Far Easter Economic Review October 1998
The Telegraph, 4 January 2007
The Telegraph, 4 January 2007
The Statesman, 15 November 2006
The Statesman, 7 January 2007 Nandigram forms anti-landgrab front
Tehelka.com, August 26 2006
The Statesman
CPI (M) org
One India 16 June 2006
The Hindu Business Line, 1 August 2006
The Telegraph, 03 August 2006 Double-deal bridge ache
JICA
JICA For more information on JICA visit the JICA website
The Indian Express, 09 September 2006
The Hindu January 10, 2007
[http://www.hindu.com/2007/02/08/stories/2007020806021200.htm The Hindu February 08, 2007]
The Telegraph
"Red-hand Buddha: 14 killed in Nandigram re-entry bid". The Telegraph. 15 March 2007. Retrieved 2007-03-15. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
Medical Team Report from Nandigram with names, locations, and injuries - April 5.
The Times of India 15 March 2007 Nandigram: Mediapersons roughed up by CPM activists
Tara TV
Nandigram turns Blood Red
Zee News
Sify
"Nandigram and the deformations of the Indian left". International Socialism. 2 July 2007. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
BBC
The Statesman
The Statesman
Ramsey Clark on Nandigram
Ramsey Clark's visit to Nandigram
Dr. Ashok Mitra (Former Left Front Finance Minister) on Nandigram
Indian Express
Daily India
India eNews.com 7 December 2006
The Statesman
WB PWD Minister against CPI(M)
| title = Nandigram Chemical hub shifted
NDTV November 14, 2007
Sify.com November 13, 2007
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Red_terror_continues_Nandigrams_bylanes/articleshow/2541772.cms The Times of India November 15, 2007]
National Human Rights Commission
| title = Lok Sabha to discuss Nandigram today