KOLKATA: West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has submitted a report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in which he has squarely blamed the Naxalites for inciting farmers not merely in Nandigram, but also in Singur, against relinquishing their land for industrialisation.
While the CPM and West Bengal government have always blamed the Naxals for the violence in Nandigram, this is perhaps the first time they have alleged their involvement in Singur as well. The note, which was submitted on Thursday, also talks about the alliance between Trinamool-backed BUPC and the Naxals.
"It may be noted that Left wing extremists (LWE) have stepped up their propaganda pertaining to the espousal of the causes of farmers by raising the issue of displacement of farmers from their own land for industrial and infrastructural projects. A frontal organisation of LWE activists named the Gana Pratirodh Manch carried out propaganda against the acquisition of land in Singur and have also generally opposed land acquisition for large projects throughout the state," says the report.
The note goes on to add that Maoist activities have spread rapidly to areas in and around Nandigram. "It has been confirmed that some CPI (Maoist) activists started arms training in Nandigram to build up a base there, and in this effort, they have also received necessary support from the Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee."
The chief minister's comments assume significance, especially in the backdrop of the ongoing CBI investigations in Nandigram. Bhattacharjee, on the sidelines of his meeting with the Prime minister, had also hinted that CBI had leaked information indiscriminately to the media about its report on the killings of the March 14 incident and that the state government would take up the matter with the Centre immediately.
Explaining the extent of Maoist menace in the state, Bhattacharjee said, "the major security threat being faced by the state in the past few years have been linked to left wing extremist activities largely in the districts of Purulia, West Midnapore and Bankura.
After the merger of the MCC and the People's War Group, the LWE activists in the state have become more active. All districts bordering West Bengal, who share a common boundary with Orissa and Jharkhand are worst affected by Maoist insurgent activities.
Laying down the details of Maoists in the state, chief minister stated that compared to other affected states, West Bengal has witnessed less of violent activities from the LWE groups. In 2005, there were 13 incidents of LWE violence in which 10 CPM activists and one policeman were killed. In 2006, there were 27 incidents in which 9 CPM activists were killed.
The report also says that LWE activists have been targeting prominent CPM leaders and some important civilians in the state. There are also suggestions of close linkages between Maoists and KLO/KPP groups of North Bengal, whose nexus with ULFA has already been established.
Economics Times
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Naxalites incited Nandigram and Singur flare-up, Buddha tells P
Thursday, December 20, 2007
CBI files rape cases against CPM activists in Nandigram
NEW DELHI: The CBI has shattered the CPM's pretense of political morality by holding its activists responsible for rape and murder in Nandigram. The CBI has filed cases against CPM men for the alleged rape of a mother and her two daughters. The case concerns atrocities against women in Gokul Nagar village of Nandigram.
According to the FIR, the CPM activists forcibly entered the house of the woman on March 14. The activists allegedly raped the three victims over two days and laid siege to their house. The activists then demanded money from the victims for lifting the siege. The activists left only after the mother paid Rs 1,000. This case is also mentioned in the status report filed by the CBI before the Calcutta High Court. The other three cases have been registered against police officials and unknown persons for looting. One case relates to the failure of a policeman to register case even after a victim alleged rape by CPM goons on March 15.
The other two cases have been registered against unnamed persons who went on a looting spree on the day of police firing. These four cases were earlier registered by the West Bengal police but were later transferred to the CBI. The investigating agency has registered the cases again and will continue the investigations. All the four cases were registered by the CBI on December 15.
Till now the CBI has registered seven cases related to the Nandigram firing and ensuing violence. The accused in these cases include police officials, CPM activists and unknown persons. The CBI has told the Calcutta High Court in its status report that CPM workers dressed as policemen had fired at protesters, that witnesses were being threatened by CPM activists and that the authenticity of the medical reports handed over to the investigating agency was questionable.
The agency also alleged that a witness was beaten up for giving a statement to the agency sleuths. The agency has also questioned the police claim that only 57 rounds were fired and told the court that indications were that more rounds were fired. The CBI had submitted the status report on the investigations into the Nandigram police firing and violence in a sealed cover to the Calcutta High Court and had sought four months time for submitting the final report.
The court had granted the CBI two months time to submit the final report on the March 14 Nandigram police firing.
20 Dec, 2007, 0154 hrs IST,
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Body with bullet holes dug out- Wife of BUPC supporter says shirt belonged to her husband
Nandigram, Dec. 12: A body with two bullet holes was to- day dug out of the suspected grave that had been found in Parulbari village.
A woman, Shyamali Pramanick, saw the decomposed remains and said it was that of her husband's.
Haren, aged around 37, was a Bhoomi Uchchhed Pra- tirodh Committee supporter. His family said he went missing on November 7 while returning home from the Nandigram block hospital, where his father was being treated for a heart ailment.
| Shyamali Pramanick, who identified the body that was dug out as her husband's, looks at the grave. (Jahangir Badsa) |
Shyamali and her sister-in-law Sephali identified Haren by his blue striped shirt and a talisman around the waist.
"We had received a missing diary about Haren Pramanick. Now we will treat it as a murder case," said East Midnapore superintendent of police S.S. Panda.
CBI superintendents Sujit Pandey and R.R. Sahay also visited the spot to probe whether the exhumed body had anything to do with the March 14 police firing.
Maheshpur, adjoining Parulbari, and its neighbouring villages had witnessed heavy gun battles between CPM and Pratirodh Committee supporters from October 28 to the first week of November.
Hundreds thronged Parulbari this morning as news that the body would be dug out spread. They were covering their nose to ward off the stench as the body was being pulled out.
After about half an hour of digging, the spades hit something hard and a human skull with tufts of hair could be seen. Further digging revealed a rotting and torn gunny bag, through which a pair of navy blue trousers stuck out. The dead man had his hands tied behind his back.
"One bullet had pierced the abdomen and the other the shoulders," a police officer said.
As soon as the body was exhumed, committee conveners Sheikh Sufiyan and Abdus Samad claimed that it was Pramanick's. They called Shyamali and Sephali to identify it.
"I could not recognise the face. But when the dirt was removed from the shirt, I recog-nised it. A close look and I could make out it was him," Shyamali said, clutching her nine-year-old son Toton and crying .
"We also identified the ghunshi (talisman) my brother wore," said Sephali.
"My father (Bhushan, 65) lost his will to live after hearing about his only son's death. He passed away on November 30. We performed his shraadh today before coming here."
Parulbari is about 2km from Kamalpur, where the Pramanicks live.
The CRPF today found a used 9mm bullet and a spent .315 cartridge from the area. Twenty-three used .315 cartridges were found yesterday.
CM statement
Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will make a statement on the role of the CRPF in Nandigram in the Assembly tomorrow.
CPM leaders had been accusing the force of harassing villagers from the time it arrived in Nandigram.
The CPM state secretariat met this evening to finalise the contents of the statement. The chief minister and the home secretary had earlier lauded the role of the CRPF.
A group of party MPs led by Basudev Acharya will visit Nandigram tomorrow.
Dissidents in CPI(M) helping find more graves in Nandigram
NEW DELHI: After the recovery of several human bones and seven graves in Nandigram, the men in uniform are now being helped by CPI(M) dissidents to uncover more graves. Explosives, live bombs and weapons have also been seized in the past few days.
"We have so far uncovered seven graves, but there is a strong possibility there could be many more. What we have found could be the tip of the iceberg," said a senior official involved in the operations in Nandigram.
The officer added that since the paramilitary force was new to the area and did not know the terrain, it was relying on CPI(M) dissidents to locate new graves and recover weapons.
"We have no option but to rely on the inputs given by them. This is not our job but we are doing it considering the extent of the problem," said the officer, adding that they have prepared a list of people who have gone missing after the violence.
"The list was prepared on the basis of complaints made by people. We gave the list to local police since it is not our job to find missing people," he added.
The paramilitary force has also recovered 44kg of IEDs.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
New grave found in Nandigram
Nandigram: After the discovery of graves at Bidyapit village at Khejuri and Talpati canal, another grave was found on
 |
| Policemen inspecting human remains recovered from a grave on December 5. It is suspected that the grave contained burnt bodies of five people killed during the recent violence in Nandigram |
"We found a new grave at Parulbari village near Maheshpur today. The police and CRPF have cordoned off the area," superintendent of police, Midnapore (east), Satyeswar Panda said.
"This is a freshly dug grave. We cannot dig it unless we get court orders," Panda said.
On December 5, CRPF had found five graves from Bidyapith village in the CPI(M) stronghold of Khejuri from where charred human bones and skulls were dug out the next day. The remains were sent to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory for examination.
The CBI had recovered more bones from another grave at Talpati canal at Bhangabera in Nandigram around the same time.
Mumbai Mirror
Monday, December 10, 2007
Open-letter-to-The-Hindu: Credibility at stake
Credibility at stake
We are writing this open letter to the editorial board of "The Hindu" to express our dismay at your coverage of recent events at Nandigram.
Most of us are regular readers of your paper. We have appreciated your balanced coverage of topics such as the Narmada Dam, Gujarat or the Agrarian Crisis. At least in our eyes, your principled reportage of these issues (and numerous others) has lent your newspaper an unusual
degree of credibility. We believe that your paper's articles carry enormous weight in moulding public opinion and policy.
It is therefore a cause of collective concern when this credibility gets damaged. We are particularly disturbed by the editorial titled "The Challenge of Nandigram" (12th Nov. 2007) which displayed a marked slant. Even granting merit to the editorial's contention that the
state government had to take steps to restore governance in the area, it seems beyond dispute that the methods adopted to do so were inherently incompatible with the rule of law in a democracy.
We cannot comprehend how a full length editorial could completely fail to take note of the unchecked violence by the CPM cadres, the curbs that were placed on independent reporting, the attacks on reputed activists like Medha Patkar, all of which seem to have been facilitated – or at least condoned - by the state. None of these well documented events have any place in a society governed by law, and should have occasioned strong comment.
We failed to see any critical editorial acknowledgement of these events, even after the chief minister had practically admitted having operated outside the law through remarks such as being "paid back in their own coin".
This stands in marked contrast to the way the governor has been singled out for supposedly impolitic remarks. This selective silence opens the Hindu to the charge of being partisan in
its outlook.
We also notice that, unlike many other issues of similar gravity, there has been a marked absence of centrepage articles on this topic.
One would have expected The Hindu to flesh out the differing points of view on this issue as well as the dimensions of the human tragedy.
By choosing not to do so, The Hindu abdicates its responsibility to its readers for fair and balanced reporting.
We would hate to see The Hindu be identified as a newspaper purveying party propaganda. It is important that the integrity of the newspaper be above all question. An erosion of The Hindu's credibility would be an immeasurable loss for journalism and for society.
Your Sincerely,
Academics from Harish-Chandra Research Institute Allahabad, Indian
Institute of Technology Bombay/Kanpur/Madras, Institute of
Mathematical Sciences Chennai, Jawaharlal Nehru University Delhi, Tata
Institute of Fundamental Research Mumbai.
(A complete list of signatories is given below.)
CC:
1. N. Ram, Editor-in-chief
2. N. Ravi, Editor
3. K. Narayanan, Readers' Editor
4. N Murali, Managing Director
5. Board of Directors
List of Signatories:
1. Prof. M Suresh Babu, IITM
2. Prof. Rahul Basu, IMSc
3. Prof. Enakshi Bhattacharya, IITM
4. Prof. Milind Brahme, IITM
5. Prof. Dhiman Chatterjee, IITM
6. Prof. Supratik Chakraborty, IITB
7. Prof. Om Damani, IITB
8. Prof. Rukmini Dey, HRI
9. Prof. Avinash Dhar, TIFR
10. Prof. Raj Gandhi, HRI
11. Prof. Debashis Ghoshal, JNU
12. Prof. Rajesh Gopakumar, HRI
13. Prof. Purushottam Kulkarni, IITB
14. Prof. P B Sunil Kumar, IITM
15. Prof. Arul Lakshminarayan, IITM
16. Prof. Shiraz Minwalla, TIFR
17. Prof. Sunil Mukhi, TIFR
18. Prof. Ram Puniyani, retired, IITB
19. Prof. Sudhir Chella Rajan, IITM
20. Prof. Mahendra Verma, IITK
21. Prof. Spenta Wadia, TIFR
Contacts:
1. Prof. Om Damani, ompdamani@..., 9323003401
2. Prof. Rajesh Gopakumar, gopakumr@... , 532-2567732
3. Prof. Shiraz Minwalla, shiraz.minwalla @...
---------------------------
CNS
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Outsiders in khaki in Nandigram firing confirmed
NANDIGRAM: CBI investigators probing the Nandigram firing on March 14 have identified at least 27 outsiders in khaki who moved with the police force to break the barricade that the Trinamul Congress-led Bhumi Uchchhed Pratirodh Committee supporters had put up in the villages.
Investigators got the lead from the video footage of the carnage recorded by none other than the police and cross-checked it with on-the-spot interrogation of more than 50 villagers and two police officers present on the day of the firing.
CBI officers then summoned villagers, owing allegiance to both the parties — CPM and BUPC, and questioned them with video footage on display. The process helped them to spot the men in khaki — a little different from police uniform difficult to differentiate from a distance. These men, according to CBI, were heavily armed and moving with the police. The footage showed that these men, unlike the police, had no shoes.
It was evident from the footage that while the police posted on Bhangabera Bridge was busy asking villagers to make way for the police, these "cops" sneaked into the crowd with batons and started chasing them. According to the CBI, this was enough provocation for the crowd to turn violent. Angry villagers then started pelting stones at the police.
In the melee, these men chased some of the BUPC supporters with fire arms. Locals reportedly identified them as CPM workers. CBI officers have recorded their version and verified their presence in the procession from the footage. Their statements corroborated the video recording of the incident by and large. Investigators have reasons to believe that these outsiders on khaki sparked the violence.
Four CBI teams on Saturday visited Sonachura, Adhikaripara and Gokulnagar villages in Nandigram. A team met Sushil Das Adhikari whose brother Salil Das Adhikari sustained bullet injuries on March 14. Sushil was also with the procession. Both brothers were present at the Gokulnagar's Malpara where BUPC supporters had assembled.
The CBI team is now looking for men in khaki. It has interrogated a few local CPM activists who reportedly refused to identify them. They claimed that some CPM supporters of Sonachura and Bhangabera villages were present with the police as they were forced to join and guide them. But they denied the charge that these men were carrying firearms and chased away BUPC supporters.
CBI officers on Saturday recovered more charred bones and fire arms — a .303 rifle and an improvised gun from the Talpati Canal. They said the charred bones along with those found at the five graves at Khejuri might have a connection with the March 14 carnage.
That explains why the team has also collected a detail list of the missing persons since March 14. While the CBI did its bit, a CID team under IG (I) D P Tarenia visited the dreaded spot at Bamanchak village on Saturday from where the charred remains were recovered only the other day. Family members of Bacchan Garudas, Srimanta Das and Sunil Bar killed in a blast on October 27 at Sherkhanchawk, claimed that the bones were those of their relatives and asked the police to hand them over.
Within a day after the state government ordered the CID inquiry into the mystery graves, the police rounded up 15 people including a CPM local committee member on charges of rioting and attempt to murder.
Friday, December 7, 2007
Nandigram issue raked in Punjab
Chandigarh: Several representatives owing allegiance to various apolitical organisations are touring Punjab to highlight the plight and repression of West Bengal Government against the residents of Nandigram.
Addressing a joint press conference here today, the representatives said that they would be holding meetings at various places of Punjab, including Patiala, Sangrur, Mansa and Moga till December 11 to "expose" the alleged pro-liberal, pro-imperialist and anti-people nature of the CPI(M) government in West Bengal.
Terming the West Bengal Government's propaganda against them as "incorrect", they sought support from all sections of people of Punjab, including radical organisations like Dal Khalsa. They said that the alliance of Trinamool with the Maoists is "obnoxious" as Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee (BUPC) comprised of several political forces including parts of the CPI(M).
"The government has named people as Maoists who are actually either Trinamool leaders or ordinary villagers or students who came to help people in Nandigram," they said. The representatives included Deboleena (Matangini Mahila Samiti,West Bengal), Gauranga Mondal (Bhumi Uchhed Pratorodh Committee, Nandigram), Jharna Giri (Matangini Mahila Samiti, Nandigram), Krishna Mondal (Matangini Mahila Samiti), Raja Sarkhel (Peoples Democratic Front of India) and Darshan Pal (Peoples Democratic Front of India).
Source : PTI
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Nandigram is a failure: Buddha
cm regrets 'paid back in same coin' remark
Statesman News Service
NEW DELHI, Dec. 4: Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today admitted that Nandigram was an "administrative and political failure" and regretted his remarks that those opposing land acquisition there had been "paid back in the same coin". "We have to ensure that Nandigram does not repeat itself. We have learnt lessons from Nandigram that we have to take people into confidence... We have failed in Nandigram. It was an administrative and political failure," he told a Press conference here. Asked about his remarks after the recapture of Nandigram that those opposed to the CPI-M and land acquisition had been "paid back in the same coin", he said: "I should not have said that. Now I want peace for all.". To a question whether the process of industrialisation in the state had suffered due to the Nandigram situation, Mr Bhattacharjee said: "Nandigram or no Nandigram, the process of industrialisation in West Bengal cannot be stopped."
He said no corporate house, business group or foreign company had said they would withdraw from the state. "In fact, major foreign companies from Japan, the USA, Singapore and Dubai have sent proposals" to invest in the state. On the chemical hub which was supposed to have come up at Nandigram, Mr Bhattacharjee said it was now being set up at Nayachar, which did not have any habitation nor was the land arable.
The chief minister said the situation in the troubled Nandigram blocks was "fast returning to normal" and most of those who had been evicted had already returned. A total of Rs one crore had so far been spent by the Left Front government for their rehabilitation, including reconstruction and repair of damaged houses, roads, bridges as also supply of clothings, utensils and fertiliser mini-kits for the farmers to sow the rabi crop, he said. (The home secretary said in Kolkata the state government was ready to implement a High Court order to pay Rs 5 lakhs as compensation to the relatives of those killed in police firing, though the government would move the Supreme Court against the order. The home secretary said a state police officer had been showcaused following CRPF complaints that the state police were releasing those who were being arrested by the CRPF). The chief minister said a senior official had been sent to the area to prepare a report on what kind of development projects could be implemented in the Nandigram area. "As soon as we get this report, I will announce the projects." Asked when he would visit Nandigram, the chief minister said he would not do so now as his first task was to restore normalcy and the farmers were also busy cultivating the rabi crop. "Let the situation get back to normal."
On Governor
To questions on his relations with Governor Mr Gopal Krishna Gandhi who spoke out against the CPI-M led government on the issue, he said the Governor was a "very nice man" and he has had very cordial relations with him. "There has been no problem (with him) at all. We not only discuss administrative and political issues but literature also. We also exchange books... he is a nice man," he said, and denied reports of any no move to seek a change of Governor.
On Maoists
On Maoist presence in Nandigram, he said the bunkers and trenches dug up in the area, the mine and other arms found clearly indicated their presence in the affected area. He maintained that the Maoists had come from outside the state, including from Jharkhand. "The CRPF is doing a good job in unearthing the arms and ammunition piled up by them."
On Intellectuals
Regarding the 14 May police firing on protesters in the area and the alienation of intellectuals from the Left, he said "no one can accept (police firing) ... intellectuals are very sensitive. My duty is to explain to all of them the actual situation. Many of them have now been convinced."
On differences among the Left Front partners over the Nandigram episode, he admitted difference of opinion on some issues but asserted that the Front was "different" from the UPA or any other coalition cobbled before elections. "The Left Front has had a long history of struggle". Asked about comparisons between him and former Chinese leader Deng Xiao Ping, Mr Bhattacharjee said he was a "great visionary and I am a small fry. The people will judge what I am doing."
On Hill Council
As Lok Sabha deferred consideration of two Bills relating to the Gorkha Hill Council today and the government expressing readiness to refer these to a Parliamentary Standing Committee, Mr Bhattacharjee said major Opposition parties in Parliament, including BJP, were not opposed to the measure. He met Leader of Opposition Mr LK Advani last night and spoke to his Orissa and Bihar counterparts to elicit their support for the legislation. Regarding his meeting with Mr Advani, he told reporters that the senior BJP leader told him though he had no problem with the contents of the Bills, his party opposed the manner in which the UPA government wanted to push them forward. The chief minister told Mr Advani that he was well aware of the Gorkha issue as he had held the home ministry for long and sought his and the BJP's support for passage of the legislation. He also spoke on phone to Orissa chief minister Mr Navin Patnaik and his Bihar counterpart Mr Nitish Kumar on the matter. Mr Patnaik, who also heads the ruling BJD, apparently assured him of support while Mr Kumar said he would discuss the issue with his party president.
On Taslima
He said he discussed the Taslima Nasreen issue with external affairs minister Mr Pranab Mukherjee and it was up to the Centre to decide on the matter. Mr Bhattacharjee said he would not comment when asked whether the visa of the controversial Bangladeshi writer, who was shifted from Kolkata following violence in the city over her stay there, be extended.
"I have spoken to Pranabda. Now, it is up to the Centre to take a decision on the matter," he said. Referring to the anti-Taslima violence, he said some forces were trying to divide Bengal communally.
On Projects
Mr Bhattacharjee said he briefed the Prime Minister about the largest private steel plant of the country, to be established by the Jindal group, in the Salboni area. He said the Prime Minister had accepted his invitation to lay the foundation stone of the project in January end. On other industrial projects, he said while two more steel plants were coming up at Purulia and Bardhaman, a biotech park was being established by IIT, Kharagpur, in collaboration with the University of Berkeley. He also briefed the Prime Minister on the progress of the establishment of a deep-sea port in the state. Shipping and Surface Transport Minister Mr TR Baalu would soon visit Kolkata to discuss the project.
Conspicuous graves found in Nandigram
A villager claimed that the graveyards belong to men of their village, Gokulnagar. Reportedly the villagers died while making bombs on the 27th of October.
The mutilated and half-burnt bodies were found buried in a trench in a field at Bidyapith Village in the CPI(M) stronghold of Khejuri.
''We had a tip off that five bodies were buried at the spot. We along with a team of CRPF and CBI went there and found the bodies, but cannot dig them out without a magistrate's order,'' Midnapore (East) Superintendent of Police S S Panda said.
He said the bodies found in the trench in a field covered with bushes, were half-burnt and mutilated.
''We are waiting for the magistrate's order and once it comes we will exhume the bodies and send them for post mortem,'' Panda said.
The SP was not sure about the identity of the bodies.
''Five people died while making bombs on October 27. These might be the bodies of them or it might be the bodies of those persons killed in disturbances on November 6,'' Panda said.
''We can say everything once the post mortem report comes in,'' he added.
A large team of the police and CRPF have cordoned off the area. (With PTI inputs)
NDTV
Interim report by womens’ team on Nandigram November violence
Source: Sanhati
Interim Report of an Independent Citizens' Team from Kolkata on the Current State of Affairs in Nandigram
30 November 2007
As a result of an initiative instituted by women's groups, women's organizations and individuals, an eleven member women's team of concerned citizens from Kolkata comprising teachers, social activists, researchers and students visited Nandigram, on November 24, 2007. Concerned about the repeated disruption of peace in the region, the members decided to visit the affected areas and talk to the local people, with the objectives of showing solidarity with the survivors of violence, documenting people's needs in the
current circumstances, and drawing up recommendations based on our understanding of the situation.
The people who constituted this team were Kavita Panjabi, Anuradha Kapoor, Rajashri Dasgupta, Saswati Ghosh, Shyamoli Das, Swapna Banerjee, Trina Nileena Banerjee, Shuktara Lal, Sushmita Sinha, Shubhasree Bhattacharya and Sourinee Mirdha.
On arrival in Nandigram at the Relief Camp at Brij Mohan Tiwari Shiksha Niketan, the team split into two groups. One talked to the people in the Relief Camp, the other to a woman who had been sexually assaulted, and the injured in Nandigram Hospital. One group then proceeded to the villages of Sonachura and Garchakraberia, also stopping at the Bhangaberia Bridge where the CRPF is stationed; the other half of the team went to the village of Daudpur.
This interim report comprises the general findings and recommendations of all the members of the team that visited Nandigram on the 24th of November. The specific testimonies and individual stories will be included in the final report.
PRIMARY FINDINGS:
1) Overall there is a reign of terror; the people are marked by deep fear, disillusionment and depression. Since January, Nandigram has been marked by the violence of the State in tandem with the ruling CPI(M), and the retaliatory attacks by the BUPC . The massive attack of the state on the BUPC procession in March 14th, 2007, clearly violated all democratic norms and involved armed police, para-military forces, as well as armed party cadres, including rampant shooting and widespread sexual abuse of women. Subsequently, in numerous villages post March 14, there were reports that many CPI(M) supporters were forced to flee to relief camps in Khejuri and that their homes were ransacked and looted by BUPC supporters. There has been continued violence since on both sides. However, the build up in the area of the CPI(M) militia, the Harmad Bahini, the brutal firing by CPI(M) cadres on November 6, 2007 of BUPC members in Satengabari, Ranichak, Bhangabera and Sonachura, and the torching of nine villages including Simulkunda and Satengabari, followed by the attack on November 10, 2007 at Maheshpur village in Nandigram, when armed CPI(M) cadres fired bullets indiscriminately at a peace rally organised by BUPC with the police taking no steps to intervene, all demonstrate the scale and might of the violence exercised by the ruling CPI(M), with the full support of the State.
2) The people of Nandigram are now living in terror of the CPI(M) which has now taken over most of the Nandigram villages and is out to extract vengeance on the BUPC and its supporters. Criminals who have killed, sexually assaulted and injured people continue to threaten the population of the villages. Many who had tried to return to their villages but had to come back to the Relief Camp spoke of bombs and firing that they heard even on the 23rd night when they had tried to return to their homes. And the night-time threats, especially against women, also continue. Across all the villages, people testified to the complete loss of political freedom – they are being forced to pledge their allegiance to one particular party or the other, and they talked angrily about their right to decide which party they wanted to support. The people in the camp, as well as the majority in the villages, have lost all confidence in the government, administration and police.
3) At the Relief Camp at Brij Mohan Tiwari Shiksha Niketan in Nandigram town, villagers testified to rampant firing, brutal killing and large-scale threats by the cadres of the CPI(M), the ruling party, across the villages of Gokulnagar, Kalicharanpur, Adhikaripara, Simulkunda and Satengabari. About 20-25,000 people have left their homes according to people in the camps. Of them, 3000 to 3500 people had been living in this camp approximately 1500 of whom were still there on 24th November. The People's Health doctors working in the Relief Camp said they had not received any complaints of sexual or physical assault, but mainly children's health related complaints, like cough, fever, diarrhoea. However, many people in the camps carried scars of deep bullet injuries on their faces, stomachs and legs and women told us about a woman who had been gang raped in Satengabari by 6-7 men, who is now in Tamluk hospital. Both her daughters, one about 17, one younger, were abducted. They are still missing. Further, hundreds of women who had fled Kalicharanpur, Adhikaripara, Simulkunda and Satengabari in fear of sexual assault were still in the Nandigram camp. They testified that not only had their homes been looted and burnt down, in villages like Satengabari they had also been severely threatened by CPI(M) cadres, who came around saying "We'll come back at night – light your lamps and wait for us with open doors. Send your men away, we'll come back to you at night." "How can we stay in a place under such threats?" the women asked. Women of these villages are still living in fear of being sexually abused, and young girls have been sent to relatives' homes elsewhere. The fear and insecurity of the villagers – especially the women at the Nandigram camp – has been so high that they have refused to go back to their villages till the CRPF is posted there to ensure their safety and protect them from the violent vengeance of the Harmad Bahini comprising CPI(M) cadres.
4) Extensive physical abuse and sexual abuse of women, ranging from rape and forcing of rods into women's vaginas, to rampant sexual harassment, as well as abduction of girls has been reported since March this year, but not much has been done to provide relief to the women, or to initiate investigation against and punish the perpetrators. Such violence against women continues, accompanied by terrifying threats, and there is no evidence of any steps having been taken to curb either.
5) Some of the people who had participated in the unarmed march to Maheshpur on 10th November were arrested and locked up for three days in the school building. The women were subjected to repeated sexual harassment by male CPI(M) cadres who claimed the women were Maoists.
6) In villages such as Garchakraberia, where the CRPF has already been posted, normal life and activity seem to have returned; however, there is simmering tension and fear under the facade of peace. At night, when CRPF personnel go off vigil, assailants begin their attacks again; so people have been forced to flee their homes at night and take shelter elsewhere from fear of reprisal. Villagers claim this is a forced calm and are terrified of what may happen when the CRPF is withdrawn.
7) Some residents of Sonachura also expressed their anger and frustration at the BUPC leadership for keeping their own women safe at home, while forcing other women in the villages to join the BUPC marches and threatening to beat and burn down the homes of all who refused. Many people in Sonachura were also scared of admitting to the violence they have faced from the CPI(M), claiming that they had been threatened into silence.
The situation in Daudpur is still very tense and the administration should take immediate measures to address this. There is resentment and anger brewing among the villagers. People openly accuse each other of violence while questioning the authority and corruption of particular CPI(M) leaders. Some villagers also claimed that the BUPC forced people to volunteer to stand as night guards against the armed attacks from CPI(M)'s Harmad Bahini after 28 October.
9) Villagers testified that the police are playing a partisan role. BUPC members returning to their villages were being arrested, some on false charges. Others are being levied exorbitant "fines" to "compensate for the damages done to the CPI(M) families in the last 11 months." Complaints about the atrocities of the CPI(M) followers were either not registered, or the accused were released after being arrested, without any of the legal procedures being followed.
10) The senior police officer at the Relief Camp refused to comment on most of our questions. He i) hinted at pressure from some political parties ii) implied that work was being made "difficult" due to "interference" iii) said peace is returning to the villages, but the situation is "still difficult".
11) While language is proving to be a barrier for the CRPF in dealing with the volatile situation here, there are apparent efforts to restore peace, including red-flag processions etc. But the atmosphere outside the temporary 'protection' of the Relief Camp is of extreme terror. In spite of all apparent efforts and assurance on the part of the authorities, this terror is persistent.
12) There is a tremendous breakdown of trust. The villages of Nandigram are zones of pregnant silence today – they are zones of seething fear, terror, suspicion and threat. Common people are suffering and living in fear and their tragedy is heightened because of the partisan role played by the police
RECOMMENDATIONS:
1. Non-partisan, just and effective action on the part of the State is the most basic and critical factor for restoring peace in Nandigram. The government must strengthen administrative structures and ensure impartial and immediate action on the part of the administration to instill confidence in the people and normalize the situation in Nandigram. Conditions must be created for people to renew their daily social and economic activities without fear and apprehension of reprisal.
2. The violence in Nandigram must be stopped. i) All arms in the possession of the entire population of all the villages of Nandigram must be confiscated. ii) The area must be rid of all outside cadres. iii) All criminals, irrespective of political affiliation must be arrested immediately and tried; and iv) effective vigilance should be set in place against all those indulging in retaliatory and revengeful acts that will derail the peace process.
3. We demand responsible action now from all the political parties too. They must stop exploiting the situation, abstain from violence, and play a constructive role in bringing peace back to Nandigram. .
4. Rape and sexual assault have clearly become dominant weapons of war in the crossfire between vested political interests in Nandigram. i) Urgent measures must be taken by the administration and the police to stop this immediately. ii) Perpetrators have been resorting to sexual assault on women to intimidate, humiliate and subjugate the opposition, while the opposition has been using incidents of rape to discredit the perpetrators, not to seek justice for the women affected. We demand a complete and immediate stop to such practices and to all threats of sexual violence too.
5. The administration should also ensure that all rape cases are registered, thoroughly investigated, and followed up. Cases where women have been brutally assaulted should also receive the attention they merit and should not be brushed aside merely because the case was not one of rape. Sexual assault is a serious offence and must be dealt with as such. All victims of sexual assault must be provided immediate medical treatment and their privacy respected and dignity upheld.
6. Both men, and large numbers of women, especially those subject to sexual assault and/or rape, are now severely traumatized and have sunk into visibly deep depression or shock. The government should set up a counselling cell in Nandigram or authorize an NGO to do so for the purpose of trauma alleviation.
7. Those who are suffering from the latest violence, as well as those who have been injured earlier in the year, cannot afford the medication required. Many cannot work as they could earlier. On both counts, their livelihood is adversely affected. Compensation to the injured and raped, and to the families of the dead should be made available on an urgent footing. Women and children have been the worst sufferers of the violence; attention should be paid to their special needs, and efforts made to restore their dignity and confidence in the process of rehabilitation. The SDO/BDO should ensure that the grant promised to repair houses must be distributed without any partisan preference. The presence of the CRPF can ensure only a temporary and forced calm. This is no solution to the reign of terror. The state must set in place peacemaking efforts, and involve all political parties and people's organisations in the region to renew the democratic process and enable citizens to reclaim the lost democratic space for a lasting and just peace in the area. People's political rights must be ensured. Democracy does not mean the rule of the majority, but ensuring the rights and respect of the minority and those holding opposing political opinions and beliefs too. Concerted efforts have to be made, across all political differences, to control the spate of vengeance, and rebuild the confidence of the people of Nandigram who are living with violence as well as the fear of violence on a day to day basis.
Nandigram police firing victims to receive compensation
Kolkata, Dec 4 - The West Bengal government Tuesday accepted Calcutta High Court's order for payment of Rs.500,000 as compensation to the next kin of those who died in the Mar 14 violence in Nandigram.'The state government has agreed to accept the high court's order for payment of Rs.500,000 as compensation to the next kin of those who died in the March 14 Nandigram violence,' Home Secretary Prasad Ranjan Roy told reporters.'Though the amount is yet to be sanctioned, it is under process,' he said.
The state government had earlier decided to pay Rs.200,000.At least 14 villagers were killed in police firing when the villagers of Nandigram area, in East Midnapore district, resisted the entry of cops.Roy denied reports that orders for the police firing came from the state secretariat. The home secretary said the situation was peaceful in Nandigram and most of the people displaced in last month's violence had returned to their homes.
'There are only around 100 people who are homeless in the district,' he said.To a question about the involvement of Maoists in the violence, he said a team of Intelligence Bureau officials was in the district to nab the rebels.Regarding complaints of police releasing criminals caught by Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Roy said the state government had received a specific case in this regard but declined to elaborate.A division bench of the high court comprising Chief Justice S.S. Nijjar and Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghosh on Nov 16 described the police firing in Nandigram as 'illegal and unconstitutional'.
It ordered the state government to pay Rs.500,000 to the family members of those who were killed in the firing, Rs.200,000 to those who were raped and to sanction Rs.100,000 for each of the injured.The court had initiated suo moto public interest litigation (PIL) and asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe the police firing and submit a report within a week.
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/152976.html
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
A documentary on Nandigram, made after the November genocide
After the November genocide in Nandigram : Protests and a day's experience in the relief camp organised by Bhoomi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee.
Monday, December 3, 2007
Message to those opposing CPM
Statesman News Service
KOLKATA, Dec. 3: Those who dare to protest against the ruling party are Maoists, even if they belong to the immediate family of their own partymen. This seems to be the new mantra of the CPI-M. A group of CPI-M cadres in Jadavpur, the constituency of chief minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, allegedly restrained the wife of a social activist from collecting her and her husband's new voter identity card yesterday, branding her and the family as Maoists.
When informed that the woman's late father was party's former Bankura district committee secretary and her brother was the present secretary of the Katwa zonal committee, the CPI-M cadres, instead of relenting, even dubbed them as Maoists and threatened her and her landlady with dire consequences if the family stayed on in their present residence for more than 24 hours.
Her only fault was that her husband, Mr Manik Mandal, had been voicing his protest against the CPI-M's alleged atrocities in Singur and Nandigram for the past few months. The family resides at 13A, Subhas palli in Jadavpur.
Mr Mandal today lodged a complaint with South 24 Parganas district police also met the additional superintendent (south industrial), Mr DP Singh, and sought their help.
According to Mr Mandal, his wife Dipti, the proprietor of an advertising agency, went to Netaji Nagar Camp around 1 p.m. yesterday to collect her new voter identity card along with her husband's as their previous ones were lost while shifting of residence. When her turn came, some CPI-M local committee members allegedly refused to allow her to collect the voter identity cards after branding her and her family as Maoists. When she returned home, a group of 20 local CPI-M cadres allegedly came to her and the landlady and gave an ultimatum of 24 hours to leave the locality. All this while, Mr Mandal was not at home. Later in the evening, Mrs Mandal was summoned to the local CPI-M office when she informed the CPI-M leaders about her family's connections with the party.
"But they even dubbed them as Maoists and again threatened my wife. I had no option but to inform the matter to the police," Mr Mandal said.
"My only fault is that I have raised my voice for the people of Singur and Nandigram. The CPI-M cadres would not allow us to live in the locality or have a voter identity card, in spite of having all valid documents," Mr Mandal alleged.
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=6&theme=&usrsess=1&id=179062
Aha! A Ranjit and a Maoist to boot
OUR LEGAL REPORTER
Calcutta, Dec. 3: Ranjit Pal, the Maoist who allegedly ran arms training camps in Nan- digram, is already in custody. Or is he?
The government is not sure if the Ranjit Pal who was arrested from a hideout in Bankura's Barikul on September 28 is their most wanted man.
The man held on charges of attacking a police camp in Bankura in December 2006 pleaded for bail in Calcutta High Court today.
It was turned down because, among other reasons, the government wanted to probe if there was more than one Ranjit Pal in the CPI (Maoist)
ranks.
Acting public prosecutor A. Goswami told the division bench of Justices A.K. Talukdar and Tapan Mukherjee that investigations were on to identify the Ranjit Pal whose name had cropped up in connection
with Nandigram.
The chief minister had said in Writers' Buildings on November 12 that a hunt was on for a Jharkhand-based Maoist leader named Ranjit Pal, who gave guerrilla training to Bhoomi Uchchhed Pratirodh Committee supporters.
However, when the chief minister mentioned the name, one Ranjit Pal was already in police net. It is not clear whether the chief minister knew that when he spoke of a Ranjit Pal from Jharkhand.
The Ranjit Pal in custody is the son of Bishnupada Pal and a resident of Barikul.The other one, if he is indeed another man, was also born in Bankura. Now 24, he joined the rebels in the late 1990s and rose fast because of his leadership skills. This Ranjit heads a panel that looks after
the Maoists' Bengal operations.
He is wanted by the CBI in connection with the murder of Jamshedpur MP Sunil Mahto in March.
The Ranjit Pal in custody was allegedly part of a squad that attacked the police camp at Majeria near Bankura's border with West Midnapore.
"Around 10.30pm on Dec- ember 12 last year, around 50 guerrillas raided the camp. When the police made a counter attack, they fled into a nearby jungle," the acting public prosecutor said.
"One of Ranjit's associates, Bangsidhar Singh Sardar, was arrested in February. After questioning him, the police raided a hideout in Barikul and picked up Ranjit."
He has been lodged in the Midnapore Central Jail since.
Ranjit's lawyer, Rituparna De, said her client was innocent and in no way connected with Naxalite activities. "He has been falsely implicated."
She added that her client was ready to help the police investigate the case if he was released on bail
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Claim of Nandigram rapes on camera
Statesman News Service
KOLKATA, Nov. 30: In what could come as a major setback to the ruling Left Front, a witness revealed at the final hearing of the Citizens' Commission of Enquiry today that he possessed digital images ~ both moving and still ~ of rape and molestation victims of the 14 March
carnage in Nandigram.
The photographs and video recordings were taken while conducting health camps all over Nandigram from 18 March onwards.
The photographs and video recordings will be submitted as evidence before the Commission, which will submit its report in December. The Citizens' Commission of Enquiry was set up by the Citizens' Council of West Bengal for ascertaining facts and circumstances relating to the acquisition of land at Singur and Nandigram. The Commission has already conducted five sittings in Nandigram and Singur and recorded the evidence of about one hundred witnesses, including some police officers. The Commission is conducting an enquiry into the death of a
large number of people and molestation of women between 1 June 2006 and 31 May 2007. The enquiry findings will be published for public information in December.
The final sitting of the Commission was held today at the Centenary Hall of the Mahabodhi Society. Witnesses such as littérateur Mahashweta Devi, former Vice-Chancellor of Visva-Bharati University, Prof. Amlan Dutta, Prof Miratun Naha, and Mr Bibhuti Bhushab Nandy, former DIG Indo-Tibetan Border Police and ex-additional secretary, Research and Analysis Wing, appeared before the Commission today.
Appearing before the Commission chairman, Mr Justice (Retd) Abani Mohan Sinha, and members Mr Justice (Retd) Ranendra Narayan Ray and Mr Justice (Retd) Malay Sengupta, Prof. Amlan Dutta said that two statements regarding the current situation in Nandigram ~ "peace has been restored" and villages have been "recaptured" ~ are contradictory. "It will be very difficult to restore peace in the area," he said.
Mahashweta Devi said that in view of the happenings in Singur and Nandigram, the Left Front government should be on its way out in the state.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Marxists train guns on filmmaker Aparna Sen
http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=128144
Nandigram: Waiting to explode
11/29/2007 9:00:15 AM
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| Abandoned homes in a village in West Bengal's Nandigram are mute witness to the violence and simmering anger |
In Nandigram, there is dead stillness as not a soul passes there anymore - an eerie contrast to the burning only three weeks ago.
But while it may look as though this fire has been put out, all is not as it seems. Behind the lull there may be a storm brewing as two rival camps are secretly consolidating their bases.
"We will resist with the people…everyone remembers what kind of atrocities CPI(M) carried out in Nandigram. They cannot rebuild their party like this. The CPI(M) will learn their lessons. The Bhoomi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee was there, is there and it will be there," Trinamool Congree MLA Sisir Adhikary tells TIMES NOW.
BUPC leader Samir Patitunda claims the organisation has gathered mass support and is reorganising itself.
Highly placed sources have told TIMES NOW that both sides are piling up arms and ammunition, particularly in the communally sensitive areas which include Sonachura, Garhchakraberia, Satengabari and Hajrakata.
Sources also tell TIMES NOW that a slew of new Maoist youth are consolidating to lead an insurgency into Nandigram - youth who have been trained by Maoist leaders camping in Nandigram for the last six to seven months.
Maoist red flags might have replaced BUPC flags, but the truth is that villagers there may not have completely changed their loyalities yet - and that is why CPI(M) cadres at the local level, as TIMES NOW sources say, are seeing red. It is a volcanic situation in Nandigram as the CPI(M) struggles to get villagers to side with them.
"People of this area cannot write or read Hindi, that's why we still believe that Maoists are still hiding here in these villages. The trained people and weapons are still here. We have informed the police, but we are not protected. We are being terrorised," villagers told TIMES NOW.
Others meanwhile claimed they were being threatening with Maoists, and being pressurised into registering with the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress.
Many villages are still bearing the burnt of the violence and by the look of things it does not seem as if the end is anywhere near.
(By Sambit Pal)
Between Left And Right
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It is hard to decide which is more unappetising--Buddhadeb Bhattacharya declaring that the CPI(M) had paid protestors back in their own coin at Nandigram, or the BJP and Congress condemning the violence there, ignoring their own culpability for similar behaviour in Chhattisgarh and Gujarat.  | ||||
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It is hard to decide which is more unappetising--the spectacle of Buddhadeb Bhattacharya declaring that the CPI(M) had paid protestors back in their own coin at Nandigram, or the BJP and Congress condemning the violence there, ignoring their own culpability for similar behaviour in Chhattisgarh and Gujarat. The use of vigilante groups or armed cadre, supported and sanctioned by a pliant bureaucracy, to physically defeat an opposing group--whether defined in religious or political terms--rather than relying on legal means and political discussions, is evidently the latest fashion in governance. It is time, we are told, to forget the old expectation that it is the police which is meant to maintain law and order and not gangs of party members, or that Chief Ministers will rise above their individual parties to represent the people of the state as a whole (the logic behind the first-past-the-post system where the elected member equally represents those who voted against her or him), or even that, there is a Constitution which all elected officials are sworn to uphold.
Let us take the bare facts of Nandigram, as scripted by the Chief Minister of West Bengal himself--villagers protesting against land acquisition formed the Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee (BUPC) and drove out supporters of the CPI(M) who were in favour of the proposed chemical hub. In November 2007, these CPI(M) cadre 'reclaimed' their villages, and this time, it is the BUPC members who were driven out, their houses burnt and women raped. In essence, this is not very different from the Salwa Judum being run jointly by the Congress MLA of Dantewara, Mahendra Karma, and the BJP government of Chhattisgarh, where armed vigilantes, some of them given official positions as special police officers, burn villages, kill people, and rape women with impunity, on the grounds that they are wresting these areas back from the Naxalites. In both cases, the local administration has ceased to exercise its own judgement--officials take orders from the goons of the party in power. In Dantewada district, a letter from the Chief Secretary carries less weight than the orders of a lumpen Salwa Judum camp leader.
In both cases, the presence of Maoists is used to imply that anything goes, that once an area is declared 'Naxal-affected', all the normal protections of the rule of law and fundamental rights cease to apply. Government presence in these areas then depends solely on the power of the gun, and the relative superiority of its police and vigilantes over the 'other side', including unarmed civilians.
Yet, the differences between Nandigram and Dantewada are as striking as the similarities, and they lie not in the hubris of the ruling party, which is much the same, but in the responses of the media and civil society. Even though the scale of Salwa Judum terror is far greater than Nandigram, it has gone almost entirely unreported.
According to the figures provided in a PIL before the Supreme Court, at least 540 persons have been killed by the Salwa Judum and security forces from June 2005 till the present, including 33 children (some as young as two and five), and 45 women. This is a small fraction of the killings by the Salwa Judum, most of which have gone unrecorded, and does not include the approximately 550 civilians and police personnel that the Naxalites have killed in escalating retaliatory action for Salwa Judum. At least 2,825 houses have been burnt by the Salwa Judum and at least 99 women have been raped. Approximately one lakh people, or one-eighth of the district's population has been displaced--half of them are in government controlled camps to which they were forcibly evacuated, and the other half are refugees in neighbouring states.
A petition--one of hundreds--submitted along with the PIL, after describing the killing and torture inflicted by Salwa Judum, asks despairingly, "Why is this happening in our country, why is this happening in Chhattisgarh? Why has the Chhattisgarh administration been running this? Has our Chief Minister been elected only for this?" And yet, not once have the atrocities committed by the Salwa Judum figured on the front pages of any national newspaper; not once has any team of parliamentarians gone to talk to the affected people; and not once have NHRC members visited.
When two lakh people rallied in Jagdalpur on November 5th this year to protest against the Salwa Judum and land acquisition by the Tatas and Essar for steel plants, there was not even a whisper in the national press; it is hard to imagine that a rally of even 10,000 would have gone unreported had it been in favour of Salwa Judum or industrial acquisition.
In part, this silence is explained by the natural anti-leftism of the media, and its warped notion of 'balance'. As Michael Tomasky pointed out in the American context, but which could as well apply to the Indian media when dealing with the BJP: 'they now bend over backward to demonstrate that they can be 'tough' on liberals and 'fair' to conservatives'. But the media is not everything.
The difference also needs to be further explained in terms of the lack of the appropriate kind of organisations to feed the media. Nandigram and the Gujarat genocide of 2002 both became front page news, in part because they were located next to major cities with concentrations of journalists (Ahmedabad and Calcutta), in part because of the presence of middle class local activists, in part because the issue was taken up by opposing parliamentary parties. Chhattisgarh, by contrast, lacks a tribal middle class or a density of civil/political society organisations; many national newspapers do not have correspondents there since it is a new state; in an unprecedented show of unity, both the Congress and the BJP are jointly prosecuting the counterinsurgency.
Above all, Chhattisgarh, unlike Bengal, also has a Public Security Act, which is even worse than POTA in terms of its censorship, and which has been used to arrest and intimidate people who have protested, like the General Secretary of the PUCL, Binayak Sen.
But, finally, the real difference lies in the principles of the Left and Right, between a state ruled for many years by the Left as in Bengal and one ruled by the BJP as in Gujarat. Whereas the citizens of Gujarat let no hint of remorse taint their restful nights, even after having witnessed the murder and maiming of their fellow citizens, the people of Bengal are an anguished lot, anguished at the betrayal of the principles they voted for.
Decades of CPI (M) rule may not have done much for Bengal's human development indicators but it has expanded the constituency of those who believe in democracy and equality; it has entrenched a conscience in its supporters. The strongest critics of the CPI (M) come from within. Decades of BJP rule, on the other hand, may have created Gujarat Shining, but has destroyed the very possibility of humanity. As for Chhattisgarh, let us all go back to pretending that it doesn't exist; at the rate that villages are being emptied and people killed, there will soon be nothing and nobody left to destroy.
Nandini Sundar is Professor of Sociology, Delhi University
Congress fumes over charge of legislator's Maoist links
From correspondents in Chhattisgarh, India, 11:31 PM IST
Chhattisgarh's main opposition Congress party stalled the assembly proceedings for an hour Tuesday after a government official allegedly described a party legislator as Maoist spokesperson.
As the house assembled, the Congress members led by former home minister and senior party legislator Nandkumar Patel sought an explanation from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government about a letter sent by Dantewada District Collector K.R. Pisda this month to
the state government, seeking withdrawal of y-category security for Congress MLA Kawasi Lakhma, describing him as a sympathiser and spokesman of Maoist militants.
Lakhma, a Congress legislator from Dantewada's Konta assembly segment, said in the house that the official was targeting him as he (Lakhma) had exposed corruption in the district.
'People in my constituency and even my family members have fallen prey to the Maoist violence. How many relatives of the district collector were killed by the rebels?' he asked amid slogan shouting by Congress members who demanded action against the collector.
Speaker Prem Prakash Pandey adjourned the house for an hour. Home Minister Ramvichar Netam later told the house: 'The state government has asked an additional chief secretary-ranked official to probe the matter and also sought an explanation from the Dantewada collector.'
