03-20-2007, 09:05 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>No cue from 'Q' </b>
The Pioneer Edit Desk
CBI must be fair to Nandigram
A cachet of arms is found, some 400 people are still reported missing, tales of fear and horror pour out, CPI(M) thugs are rounded up and interrogated - the initial CBI findings in Nandigram are telling. As always, the groundwork of India's premier investigative agency appears to be detailed and rigorous. It reveals that the CPI(M) and the Left Front government were clearly lying when they claimed that their cadre had been driven away from the villages of Nandigram and that a "reign of terror" had been unleashed by their political opponents. Obviously the <b>CPI(M) workers were still entrenched and had collected weapons - including some with Chinese markings - and were readying to move in after the 4,000-strong West Bengal Police invading army had smashed the popular resistance to the party</b>. Even so, despite the circumstantial and more substantive evidence, the CBI's findings are far from a done deal. Given the level of politicisation of the agency, it is feared that the report it submits to the Calcutta High Court - which directed it to investigate the violence in Nandigram in the first place - <b>will be written in Delhi, and influenced or otherwise "managed" by the Union Home Ministry and the Congress-led UPA Government. Given the CBI's recent history with politically high-profile cases - the most glaring example being the Ottavio Quattrocchi affair, where the agency did not challenge court verdicts against the Italian fugitive, passed up the chance of an appeal, and delayed pursuing extradition from Argentina by, initially, claiming it couldn't find a Spanish translator - there is ample room for caution</b>. After the Nandigram episode, the CBI has a chance to redeem itself and make amends for the Quattrocchi scandal. It is for the director and senior officials to stand up for the truth, rather than let their political masters dictate the report.
Unfortunately, there is already disquiet in informed circles in Delhi as to the nature of the report. There is talk of a deal between the CPI(M) and the Congress. The Communists will continue to maintain their strategic silence - give or take a few perfunctory sounds - on the Bofors cover-up if Congress Ministers bail out the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Government with an innocuous CBI report on Nandigram. If indeed this were to be so, it would be tragic and amount to a double betrayal of the beleaguered people of Nandigram, who are victims, to quote Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi, of a "civil war" situation. Ultimately, the onus of justice lies with Mr Dasmunsi's political seniors. Does the Congress want the reality about Nandigram, and about the barbaric manner in which the CPI(M) has tackled dissent in West Bengal for the past quarter century, to come out? Or, would it rather forget its own battles in the past, prefer the comforts of a power-sharing arrangement in Delhi and come to an arrangement? The issue goes beyond propriety and CBI autonomy. <b>It is a test, really, for the Congress's political antennae and commitment to genuine democratic spaces, which are being prised open in Bengal in a wrenching, violent process. Does the Congress want to be part of the change? The CBI report will let West Bengal, and India, know</b>.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Corrupt Queen and Babus are again going for a deal over dead and missing innocent Indian citizen.
Mera Bharat Mahan, and people who worship these croocks are one step ahead.
The Pioneer Edit Desk
CBI must be fair to Nandigram
A cachet of arms is found, some 400 people are still reported missing, tales of fear and horror pour out, CPI(M) thugs are rounded up and interrogated - the initial CBI findings in Nandigram are telling. As always, the groundwork of India's premier investigative agency appears to be detailed and rigorous. It reveals that the CPI(M) and the Left Front government were clearly lying when they claimed that their cadre had been driven away from the villages of Nandigram and that a "reign of terror" had been unleashed by their political opponents. Obviously the <b>CPI(M) workers were still entrenched and had collected weapons - including some with Chinese markings - and were readying to move in after the 4,000-strong West Bengal Police invading army had smashed the popular resistance to the party</b>. Even so, despite the circumstantial and more substantive evidence, the CBI's findings are far from a done deal. Given the level of politicisation of the agency, it is feared that the report it submits to the Calcutta High Court - which directed it to investigate the violence in Nandigram in the first place - <b>will be written in Delhi, and influenced or otherwise "managed" by the Union Home Ministry and the Congress-led UPA Government. Given the CBI's recent history with politically high-profile cases - the most glaring example being the Ottavio Quattrocchi affair, where the agency did not challenge court verdicts against the Italian fugitive, passed up the chance of an appeal, and delayed pursuing extradition from Argentina by, initially, claiming it couldn't find a Spanish translator - there is ample room for caution</b>. After the Nandigram episode, the CBI has a chance to redeem itself and make amends for the Quattrocchi scandal. It is for the director and senior officials to stand up for the truth, rather than let their political masters dictate the report.
Unfortunately, there is already disquiet in informed circles in Delhi as to the nature of the report. There is talk of a deal between the CPI(M) and the Congress. The Communists will continue to maintain their strategic silence - give or take a few perfunctory sounds - on the Bofors cover-up if Congress Ministers bail out the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Government with an innocuous CBI report on Nandigram. If indeed this were to be so, it would be tragic and amount to a double betrayal of the beleaguered people of Nandigram, who are victims, to quote Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi, of a "civil war" situation. Ultimately, the onus of justice lies with Mr Dasmunsi's political seniors. Does the Congress want the reality about Nandigram, and about the barbaric manner in which the CPI(M) has tackled dissent in West Bengal for the past quarter century, to come out? Or, would it rather forget its own battles in the past, prefer the comforts of a power-sharing arrangement in Delhi and come to an arrangement? The issue goes beyond propriety and CBI autonomy. <b>It is a test, really, for the Congress's political antennae and commitment to genuine democratic spaces, which are being prised open in Bengal in a wrenching, violent process. Does the Congress want to be part of the change? The CBI report will let West Bengal, and India, know</b>.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Corrupt Queen and Babus are again going for a deal over dead and missing innocent Indian citizen.
Mera Bharat Mahan, and people who worship these croocks are one step ahead.