04-30-2007, 07:38 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Bleeding wound</b>
The Pioneer Edit Desk
CPM militia assault Nandigram
Those who tend to scoff at the ongoing violence at Nandigram because it is far away from Lutyen's Delhi or whitewash the criminality of Marxist cadre who are to primarily blame for the continuing bloodletting in that corner of West Bengal, shall one day be confronted with a crisis of gargantuan proportion and far-reaching ramifications. For, what is happening at Nandigram is not merely about the police failing in its task to maintain law and order or the ruling political party of a State flexing its muscles: It is an example of a Government playing a complicit role in promoting violence for narrow political considerations and, unless checked without any further delay, it will become a running sore and spread rapidly across West Bengal, sucking the State into a vortex of violence not dissimilar to that which was witnessed during the bloody decades of the '60s and '70s. Ever since the midnight violence of January 7 when Marxist cadre clashed with villagers reluctant to part with their land for a Special Economic Zone, Nandigram has remained on the boil. In an ironic twist to the CPI(M)'s politics of imposing its diktat with the help of party hoodlums, <b>the Marxists were first confronted with cadre turning renegade rather than handing over their land, and then turning on their former comrades with a viciousness that could not but have taken the party leaders by surprise</b>. In West Bengal, renegades are not known to have struck back; but they did in Nandigram. Of course, they have paid a terrible price for it. On March 14, Marxist cadre, backed by policemen eager to demonstrate their political loyalty, descended on Nandigram and killed at least 14 men and women; many are still missing since that rapacious assault. It is unlikely their whereabouts will ever be established in what is often described as the CPI(M)'s 'Red Fort'.
After that 'Black Wednesday', we have heard Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee declaring that land will not be acquired at Nandigram and that a similar "administrative lapse" will not be repeated. Obviously, neither Mr Bhattacharjee nor his party believes in undoing the mistakes that have left Nandigram bleeding so profusely. On the contrary, to regain lost territory, the party has unleashed the fury of Marxist militia on the hapless villagers of Nandigram, setting a dangerous trend that signals terrible times ahead. A foretaste of what awaits those who stand up to Marxist thuggery was available on Sunday when armed party cadre riding motorcycles, in a replay of the depredations of the Hell's Angels in the US, tried to hoist the CPI(M)'s banner on 'enemy' land. They were rebuffed and are believed to have lost three of their men. But this is unlikely to dampen the Marxists' appetite for violence. We can be sure that more such attempts will be made to takeover Nandigram from the renegades. What adds a particularly sinister dimension to the saga of killings and counter-killings is the reported presence of ultra-Left extremists who are using the fields of Nandigram to re-launch the 'revolution' - launched from Naxalbari in the 1969 - that failed, but not before it had devoured West Bengal's best and the brightest. Tragically, a large number of innocent people, who just want to get on with their lives as tillers of small plots of land, find themselves caught in the crossfire. The Centre can no longer stand mute witness. It must act, and act now, by invoking Article 355.
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The Pioneer Edit Desk
CPM militia assault Nandigram
Those who tend to scoff at the ongoing violence at Nandigram because it is far away from Lutyen's Delhi or whitewash the criminality of Marxist cadre who are to primarily blame for the continuing bloodletting in that corner of West Bengal, shall one day be confronted with a crisis of gargantuan proportion and far-reaching ramifications. For, what is happening at Nandigram is not merely about the police failing in its task to maintain law and order or the ruling political party of a State flexing its muscles: It is an example of a Government playing a complicit role in promoting violence for narrow political considerations and, unless checked without any further delay, it will become a running sore and spread rapidly across West Bengal, sucking the State into a vortex of violence not dissimilar to that which was witnessed during the bloody decades of the '60s and '70s. Ever since the midnight violence of January 7 when Marxist cadre clashed with villagers reluctant to part with their land for a Special Economic Zone, Nandigram has remained on the boil. In an ironic twist to the CPI(M)'s politics of imposing its diktat with the help of party hoodlums, <b>the Marxists were first confronted with cadre turning renegade rather than handing over their land, and then turning on their former comrades with a viciousness that could not but have taken the party leaders by surprise</b>. In West Bengal, renegades are not known to have struck back; but they did in Nandigram. Of course, they have paid a terrible price for it. On March 14, Marxist cadre, backed by policemen eager to demonstrate their political loyalty, descended on Nandigram and killed at least 14 men and women; many are still missing since that rapacious assault. It is unlikely their whereabouts will ever be established in what is often described as the CPI(M)'s 'Red Fort'.
After that 'Black Wednesday', we have heard Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee declaring that land will not be acquired at Nandigram and that a similar "administrative lapse" will not be repeated. Obviously, neither Mr Bhattacharjee nor his party believes in undoing the mistakes that have left Nandigram bleeding so profusely. On the contrary, to regain lost territory, the party has unleashed the fury of Marxist militia on the hapless villagers of Nandigram, setting a dangerous trend that signals terrible times ahead. A foretaste of what awaits those who stand up to Marxist thuggery was available on Sunday when armed party cadre riding motorcycles, in a replay of the depredations of the Hell's Angels in the US, tried to hoist the CPI(M)'s banner on 'enemy' land. They were rebuffed and are believed to have lost three of their men. But this is unlikely to dampen the Marxists' appetite for violence. We can be sure that more such attempts will be made to takeover Nandigram from the renegades. What adds a particularly sinister dimension to the saga of killings and counter-killings is the reported presence of ultra-Left extremists who are using the fields of Nandigram to re-launch the 'revolution' - launched from Naxalbari in the 1969 - that failed, but not before it had devoured West Bengal's best and the brightest. Tragically, a large number of innocent people, who just want to get on with their lives as tillers of small plots of land, find themselves caught in the crossfire. The Centre can no longer stand mute witness. It must act, and act now, by invoking Article 355.
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