<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>CPM gags media - hand, foot, mouth </b>
Pioneer.com
Udayan Namboodiri | New Delhi
On Wednesday, as Communist police went on the rampage in Nandigram, a farmer decided to do the unthinkable. He hid in his mud hut a cameraman of the Bengali news channel, Tara News. Till late Wednesday, nobody in Kolkata had any idea whether Gouranga Deb Hazra was dead or alive.
With CPI(M) cadre and their uniformed auxiliaries forming a ring around the village, preventing outsiders from going in and insiders coming out, all telecommunications cut off and Gouranga's own mobile obviously lost, Debajyoti Chakraborty, Tara TV's News Head, was praying for a miracle.
This, some would say, is pure dramatisation. But the harried villagers of Nandigram and Khejuri, who know their only hope is support from the free world, have forged a hopeless alliance with sections of the media that still dare to report.
As evening moved into night, Gouranga's well wishers were hoping he's still alive.
Meanwhile, Tara News' competitors, far from expressing concern at a fellow professional's disappearance, shamefully parroted the Communist establishment's line that there was no massacre -- "The police fired in self-defence".
Gouranga, along with Tara News' correspondent, Bholanath Bijoli, had prior information that a huge police force would be entering Nandigram to back-up CPI(M) MP Lakkhan Seth's attack squad which is at the forefront of the land-grab movement. Over the past week, a huge assemblage of land-grabbers had been noticed on the Khejuri side of the Talpati canal. The villagers, who had rallied under the banner of Krishi Jami Bachi Bachao Committee had sent desperate appeals to the media. Bholanath and Gouranga were the only electronic media people to sneak into the village ahead of the police action.
The Bengali paper, Dainik Statesman, also got their man in but he was caught. The <b>PTI's Medinipur correspondent was also unlucky. "They were beaten up by the Marxists and the police. What is going on in West Bengal now is worse than the dark days of the Emergency", said Manash Ghosh, the paper's editor</b>.
<b>Thanks to the brave Tara News team, TV viewers in Bengal were getting a blow-by-blow account this morning of the firing and associated carnage. There was no question of getting pictures</b>, however. Their OB van could not make the three-and-a-half hour drive to Nandigram from Kolkata -- it was stopped at a place called Nandakumar.
"Our team was giving us the news over their mobile phones. They had separated and were constantly phoning in the descriptions of what they saw. But suddenly, while Gauranga was giving his story, the phone was snatched from him. The last we heard him say was 'I can't see Bholanath'. Then we lost touch with," their boss in Kolkata said.
In the rush of things that followed, Bholanath suddenly appeared from nowhere. Tara News ran the message constantly on the screen hoping public support would help them retrieve Gouranga. He was badly bruised, obviously given a sound thrashing. The villagers had managed to sneak him out. But Gouranga is still somewhere and his colleagues have got vague hints from sources they can't disclose that he is alive, but badly hurt. "We have heard that he is being given shelter in some hut. Meanwhile, we are expecting another wave of police-cadre attack tonight", said Chakraborty.
In CPI(M) country, the media is a divided house. One, huge section acts as the establishment's loudspeaker - mechanically reflecting whatever Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and his cohorts dictate. The other group, which is fast reducing to a minority, still dares to question. And for that they pay heavily. Dainik Statesman, and its English parent, the 132-year-old The Statesman, are often prevented from distribution. On one occasion The Statesman's editor, Ravindra Kumar, was attacked inside his chamber by Marxist thugs. As for obstinate TV channels, there exists the same violent -- non-violent mix of options. Says Chakraborty: "Cable operators are forced to cut us off. This morning it happened again. As for violence, our man in Singur had to spend a month in hospital last October".
"Only a couple of newspapers and channels give you the balanced picture here. The rest are all sold to the Communists", said Jnanpith Award winning author and journalist Mahashweta Devi. Asked why Bengal's famed intellectuals never raise a voice against their rulers' tyranny, she said: "the Bengali intellectual died a long time ago". Sunanda Sanyal, another reputed columnist, said: "while a few media houses are still true to the tenets of their profession, most are spreading disinformation"Â
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<!--QuoteBegin-rajesh_g+Mar 15 2007, 06:16 AM-->QUOTE(rajesh_g @ Mar 15 2007, 06:16 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin--><!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Not necessarily. Manmohon Singh hinted recently how foreign investors can come to India when he said that 90 % of Indian economy is outside the organized sector and thus out of reach of labor laws. So they might find some way to exempt new manufacturing units from the restrictive labor laws instead of changing the laws themselves.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I was speaking from a rhetorical point of view. Here you have commies, the protector of aam-aadmi and here you have congies who have come to power because of their feelings for aam-aadmi. Commies can slaughter a few and the incident will probably be forgotten. But come election time labor law reforms will hit the union-support. In terms of bargain, commies have a plus and congies have a big minus methinks. I doubt if any labor reforms will come in until next LS elections.
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I still think Congress got something from the deal from CPIM. What exactly they obtained would become clear in the coming days.
The plight of the non-CPIM left front partners is amusing. They are making lot of noise but they will not do the one thing that will rock CPIM. They will not give up the ministerial positions. Bunches of hypocrites!
Mamta had started her another round of drama.
Media is silent and I don't trust CBI. Looks like Govt. purpose is to delay justice and kill key farmers.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->I still think Congress got something from the deal from CPIM. What exactly they obtained would become clear in the coming days.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
No third front. Queen can stay in power for another 2 years.
<!--QuoteBegin-Mudy+Mar 15 2007, 10:52 PM-->QUOTE(Mudy @ Mar 15 2007, 10:52 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Mamta had started her another round of drama.
Media is silent and I don't trust CBI. Looks like Govt. purpose is to delay justice and kill key farmers.
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Mamata is not a thinker. She thinks that all she has to do is to play the woman card - CPIM is attacking her personally - and CPIM will collapse. CPIM and the left front will not collapse because they have cadre power, support from Congress under the table, and a booming economy. Lots of people have benefitted from the reintroduction of capitalism by Buddhadev. Then there is the muslim question. Nandigram has definitely aroused muslim ire in West Bengal. So the issue has a communal overtone. So I doubt if the left front will loose too many votes on this issue. Anyway, the next election will take place 4.5 years from now. Nandigram will be a distant memory by then. CPIM has made a hard political calculation and decided that it is better to act now than let it fester.
Mamata has to align herself with either Congress or BJP. She has to have a coherent strategy in place. I doubt if she will put in place any coherent strategy. I have lost all faith in Mamata.
Mamta is good for street fight, even in that area rural women can do much better. She is suffering from false ego and over hype ambition. She is very short sighted; she failed to use her position when she was Railway minister, what she did was resigning on some trivial issue. She canât sit and have a cup of tea with anyone.
She will fade away and may be remember as nuisance.
She had done nothing to build up cadre. Before any election she peak her tantrums.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Advani to lead NDA team to Nandigram </b>
Pioneer.com
Agencies | Kolkata
A team of NDA leaders led by BJP veteran LK Advani will visit Nandigram on March 17 to make an assessment of the situation there.
State BJP general secretary Rahul Sinha said he had informed Advani of the prevailing situation who is about to visit the village with other leaders following the action of the police on March 14.
The State unit of the BJP has called a 24-hour strike in West Bengal tomorrow on the issue, while the opposition Trinamool Congress, Congress and Socialist Unity Centre have also called a 12-hour strike tomorrow.
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I strongly suspect that Mamtadi is propped up by CPM to weeken Congress in West Bengal. Mamtadi's strength is in organizing huge rallies in Kolkotta. It is highly likely that majority of those attended the rallies were CPM cadres. By making such hot tempered lady the head of opposition, the able leaders of Congress become powerless and that ensures 30 and more years of rule in West Bengal.
Posted online: Friday, March 16, 2007 at 0000 hrs Print Email
Whoâs the most elitist: Those who stay in India and want stagnant Bharat to be preserved
That Mamata Banerjeeâs figures for those killed/injured in Nandigram violence are almost certainly a theatrical overestimate does absolutely nothing to reduce the dimensions of the tragedy. Eleven â Wednesdayâs official figure â people dying in one afternoonâs political violence over an economic project raises questions. But what kind of questions? Not the kinds being asked by those hyperventilating about the first battle of a ârevolutionâ in Nandigram or those busy searching the thesaurus for the next grand epithet to be hurled at Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. Look, first, at the local facts. Nandigram protesters had sought to cut off the area from the rest of Bengal. Their modus operandi didnât change even after the stateâs announcement that land wouldnât be acquired. Metropolitan anarchists apart, everyone should find this utterly unacceptable. Indeed, the Bengal administration can be faulted for waiting since early January, when this de facto secession was first attempted, to act. Early intervention would have certainly resulted in quicker and far less tragic resolution.
Now consider the fact about incentives. Just like in Singur, there is a difference in response between those who have clear land titles and those who are legally unrecognised long-standing land users. The first set looks at attractive monetary compensation. The second set risks getting nothing. Political actors have fed on the second groupâs understandable agitation. There is a case here, and elsewhere in India, for devising compensation for genuine users without clear titles. History has produced uneven rural property rights. In Bengal, for example, most such tillers were settled by the CPM, with the promise that the party will make up for the absence of de jure rights. Good politics demands that land acquisition recognises these informal cases; while good administration, that this doesnât open the doors to fraud and favouritism. This isnât easy (something the Centreâs unwisely ambitious one-size-fits-all national rehab policy should recognise). But it has to be done. Another local fact is the CPM itself. The party is being paid back in the coin it has used to summarily settle many political transactions. Thereâs nothing commendable about Nandigramâs political agitationists. But there has been scarcely anything attractive about the CPMâs political machine either. This machine has taken over institutions and won elections. But it cannot and must not be the sword arm of an industrialisation policy that involves settling complicated
property rights issues. Bhattacharjeeâs really tough job is that â to shut down the machine while taking executive decisions.
The rest of India has the advantage of not hosting such political machines. And therefore it is crucial to recognise that in some respects Nandigram-like violence is unique to Bengal. But, of course, many outside Bengal are even more keen, post-Nandigram, to give industrialisation, whether via SEZs or otherwise, a bad name. One question for them. Do they want India to grow fast? If India chooses to go back to low growth, the industry-farm land issue will be worked out over many decades. If India chooses to grow fast, we will have to confront the issue and solve the problems. One of them is creating land markets. Government control has destroyed land markets, both in urban and rural India. The colonial Land Acquisition Act is no answer. But no land acquisition is an unforgivably wrong answer. SEZs, whether they export or not, are essential for accelerating Indiaâs development. As greenfield projects they can quickly create urban infrastructure, bypassing byzantine rules. Indiaâs rate of urbanisation actually slowed down in the 1990s, as compared to the 1950s and 1960s, and the rate is lower than many developing countriesâ. Those living in India but passionately asking for Bharat to be preserved are the most elitist of all. They donât know or donât care that 60 per cent of agricultural land is dry and therefore not prosperity-inducing â Nandigramâs land, incidentally, has a salinity problem, a fact that made acquisition attractive for many legal title holders â that a majority of holdings are small and unviable, that unskilled or semi-skilled industrial employment is the only secure prospect for millions in rural India, that if the political cost of investment rises, investors will go away. Bhattacharjee has said how he had to fight other states to get the project for Nandigram. If policymakers panic after Nandigram, India will have to fight other countries. Even Indian capital, in todayâs world, neednât be stuck with investing in India. Does anyone benefit from that, thatâs the real question after Nandigram.
In light of the massive toll inflicted by police firing in Nandigram â 12 are reported killed and over 50 injured â chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya's offer to withdraw the notification for land acquisition and shift the SEZ project elsewhere looks more like a ruse meant to distract villagers who had barricaded the area.
Such deception, together with the knee-jerk reactions of police in firing on villagers, cannot win trust for any industrialisation programme.
Neither can the situation be salvaged by blaming âoutsidersâ nor "Maoists" for the violence, as the CPM has done. At its root is the Left's own incoherence on liberalisation.
For the last two decades it had propagated the myth that West Bengal's land reforms have turned it into a bucolic paradise, and industrialists or foreign investors are irrelevant to its economic progress. Then it did a sudden U-turn.
The chief minister decreed that people needed to move from farms to factories on a large scale to eliminate poverty; land reform was summarily shown the back door.
What the CPM hasn't realised is that it isn't an either/or choice. Land reforms are all very well, but they can work only up to a certain point.
What happens when land is distributed widely, but holdings get increasingly fragmented due to an explosion in population? Unless industry comes up to absorb excess agricultural labour, living standards will decline.
Let alone industry, even agricultural policy can't be reduced simply to land reform â roads, literacy and rural electrification are all deficient in Left-ruled Bengal.
A one-point agenda of land reforms is like a man with an excessively developed torso, but weak knees and flabby muscles everywhere else â he is likely to keel over and fall.
Neither does it help when the Left pushes reform policies in West Bengal and opposes them everywhere else.
Instead of using brute force to paper over its contradictions it should be prepared to openly make the case for industry, capital and foreign investors, and discuss plans for fair rehabilitation of those whose lands are acquired for industry.
When capital was the villain, industrial gheraos were organised by politicising the police â the latter would stand by and watch as unions took the law into their own hands.
Now the wheel has come full circle â the same police are providing cover for CPM cadre as they terrorise Nandigram's villagers.
Unfortunately economic illiteracy is not a monopoly of the Left alone; it is shared by populist politicians across the ideological spectrum.
Industry and agriculture aren't necessarily opposed but can complement each other. But since politicians prey on division, they are likely to take a schismatic view.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Invoke 355, rush Central forces: Advani </b>
Pioneer.com
Rajeev Ranjan Roy | New Delhi
NDA team to visit killing fields on Saturday
The brutalities committed by the West Bengal police and the CPI(M) cadre on the farmers in Nandigram hit the two Houses of Parliament on Thursday, with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) launching a full-scale assault on the Left and the Centre alike.
Former deputy Prime Minister and Leader of Opposition LK Advani on Thursday sought the immediate invocation of Article 355 in 'strife-torn' West Bengal, deployment of paramilitary forces at Nandigram, and dispatch of an all-party delegation there to reassure the local people.
The BJP threatened to disrupt the proceedings of Parliament if the Centre ignored its demands.
<b>Justifying his demand for an all-party delegation to Nandigram, Advani said that Congress president Sonia Gandhi led a similar delegation to Gujarat and later Devi Lal also led such a delegation to Jammu & Kashmir.</b> Rajya Sabha chairman Bhairon Singh Shekhawat is believed to be pursuing the matter with the Centre.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>CPM captures Nandigram </b>
Pioneer.com
Saugar Sengupta | Tamluk/Kolkata
Violence simmers; HC orders CBI probe; bandh today
A day after Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's police 'enforced' the state's authority over Nandigram block in West Bengal's East Midnapore district, brutally crushing popular resistance against Marxist thuggery by killing at least 14 men and women, armed CPI(M) cadre have captured the "liberated" villages, most noticeably Sonachura and Garchakraberia.
Marxist cadre have laid siege to Nandigram and its adjacent areas. Newspersons and all "outsiders" are not being allowed to enter the troubled zone. Anybody who raises the suspicion of the cadre is being strip-searched.Â
Trinamool Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee, who was stopped on her way to the killing fields and gheraoed by CPI(M) cadre on Wednesday night, managed to sneak into Nanigram on Thursday morning and visited the injured at the local hospital. She also visited the worst affected areas of Adhikari Para, Phuliari Para and Keani More.
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Firstly, the secular commies image is being tarnished. This could eventually make the commies untouchable to all psec parties. As some muslim leader already suggested, muslims are safer in Gujarat than in WB.
Secondly, the people being thrashed by the commies are the same bangladeshi muslim intruders who were legitimised by the commies in the 80s and 90s. The commies provided them with land taken away from zamindars and got a captive vote bank. Why else would there be a 50% muslim population in WB. If there had been that high a muslim population in Nandigram, it would have gone to West pakistan. So let the hand that provided, take it away too.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The duplicity of the media is coming to the fore again in the Nandigram issue. The commentary of usual suspects is along expected (party) lines. The Hindu virtually justified the massacre, offering the fig-leaf that police were attacked with "guns" and "bombs". (How come no policeman was killed, then?) The Indian Express is playing clever, projecting the issue as between pro-devlopment and anti-development. A glance through editorials of major newspapers shows not even crocodile tears shed for those killed. These were same people frothing at their mouths over a much smaller issue in Baroda, where also the underlying cause was essentially economic: urban renewal.
They all don't want to ask the tough question: if other states, especially Gujarat, can successfully take to the SEZ model, why can't WB? Land reform is touted as the great Communist god's gift to Bengalis; then how come people are resisting their 'benefactor' over that very land issue?
The answer is two-fold: one, 30 years of communist politics has vulgarized public discourse in that state. Communists have spread for years a vicious rhetoric about private enterprise being axiomatically evil and exploitative. No wonder than that the citizens of Nandigram place faith in that rhetoric even if CPIM is willing to discard it for self-serving purposes. Second, communist rule always has been autocratic and authoritarian, decisions take top-down with little regard for popular sentiment. Other state governments, like Gujarat, are much more democratic, and have been able to build public consensus and win people's confidence for development initiatives through dialogue and persuasion.
Show me a media pundit who brings these issues out. All we see is mealy-mouthed "on-one-and-htis-but-on-the-other-hand-that" nonsense. Nobody wants to know why did the police have to gun down a dozen people in Nandigram, and who in the administration is to blame for the denouvement
Why does our media have to be so politicized, lacking in basic humanity?<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Andhra CPM under fire over Nandigram
Omer Farooq | HyderabadÂ
<b>The tragic development in Nandigram village of West Bengal had its reverberations in far off Andhra Pradesh where the CPI(M) was making determined efforts for quite some time to win the confidence and support of Muslims. The killing of 14 persons in the indiscriminate police firing has also left the TDP, the new found ally of the CPI(M), highly embarrassed. TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu expressed his dismay and shock over the incident. </b>Â Â
He told the media that such reprehensible incidents were taking place because of the wrong policies of the Government on the issue of Special Economic Zones. He warned the Congress Government in Andhra Pradesh against following in the footsteps of West Bengal Government by forcibly taking over thousands of acres of land from the farmers and handing it over to big industrialists and rich individuals.
Referring to his visit to Nadargul village of Ranga Reddy district, where the land of the poor farmers was being forcibly taken over, Naidu said that instead of being ashamed of this scam, the Congress had issued him a legal notice.
<b>Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, which was facing an onslaught by the CPI(M) in its fortress in Hyderabad for the past many months, has gone on offensive over the issue of Nandigram. "The firing by the police on unarmed protesters and the massacre of Muslims and other people has exposed the anti-Muslim face of the Communist Government of West Bengal," said MIM floor leader in the State Assembly Akbaruddin Owaisi. </b>
He alleged that the entire operation was carried out by the police and the CPI(M) cadre at the behest of the CPI(M) leadership to forcibly snatch away the land of the poor farmers.
He demanded that the CPI(M) led Government in West Bengal should be dismissed forthwith. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
From who else, world Socialist press - KING of Pinkos are calling
<!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo--> http://www.wsws.org/articles/2007/mar200...-m16.shtml
<b>West Bengal Stalinist regime perpetrates peasant massacre </b>
Let the propaganda begin! <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Nandigram: Women used as human shields
<b>After the clashes in Nandigram, an NDTV team visited ground zerp to piece together the events of Wednesday to understand what really happened.</b>
<b>While many versions on the dayâs events have emerged, we spoke to a number of people and found a shocking story of how innocent villagers got caught between CPM cadres and those opposing them.</b>
<b>The Jomeen Uchhed Pratirodh Committee told women to form a human shield against the police, and assured them that the police would not fire on women and children.</b> <i>(So, lets get this straight. These people asked their women and children to become human shields and then fired from behind, so that when police fired back, their own family members would die! NDTV! that is very smart! <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo--> ) </i>
<b>The men were behind the women and children as they went ahead towards the police.</b>
Now 48 hours later, hundreds have left their homes and those left behind are left to face and uncertain future.
<b>Suddenly the firing started from both sides</b>, the police in front and some people from the back of the crowd. <i>(Yes, that would explain if women and children had been killed shot in the back. that would have been the work of 'the' some people in the back <!--emo&:lol:--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='laugh.gif' /><!--endemo--> )</i>
No one knows how it started or who fired first; all that is certain is that the women were caught in the middle. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<b>After the clashes in Nandigram, an NDTV team visited ground zerp to piece together the events of Wednesday to understand what really happened.</b>
<b>While many versions on the dayâs events have emerged, we spoke to a number of people and found a shocking story of how innocent villagers got caught between CPM cadres and those opposing them.</b>
<b>The Jomeen Uchhed Pratirodh Committee told women to form a human shield against the police, and assured them that the police would not fire on women and children.</b> <i>(So, lets get this straight. These people asked their women and children to become human shields and then fired from behind, so that when police fired back, their own family members would die! NDTV! that is very smart! <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo--> ) </i>
<b>The men were behind the women and children as they went ahead towards the police.</b>
Now 48 hours later, hundreds have left their homes and those left behind are left to face and uncertain future.
<b>Suddenly the firing started from both sides</b>, the police in front and some people from the back of the crowd. <i>(Yes, that would explain if women and children had been killed shot in the back. that would have been the work of 'the' some people in the back <!--emo&:lol:--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='laugh.gif' /><!--endemo--> )</i>
No one knows how it started or who fired first; all that is certain is that the women were caught in the middle. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
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To be fair to the police, it is not easy to have a very clean operation in such highly charged situations. Americans with their much more highly trained police force and facing a much less charged situation in Waco Texas burnt the whole house down killing more than 80 people including scores of children.
Such tactics was introduced by CPM in the 1950s. Now it is facing the same tactics from organized muslim groups. What is worrisome is that Hindus have become a minority along a large stretch of the
West Bengal-Bangladesh border. What would the police do if muslims refuse entry to the police in the border region? All the crimes of CPM in the last 40 years are coming back to haunt them.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Bengal shuts down in protest </b>
Saugar Sengupta | Kolkata
Pioneer.com
Most spontaneous bandh in 30 years
All of West Bengal went on an unprecedented strike on Friday to protest Wednesday's CPI(M)-sponsored police brutality in Nandigram that has left at least 14 men and women dead and many missing. The State has not witnessed a bandh so complete and spontaneous in the past three decades of Left Front rule, reflecting the popular mood at the moment.
While most people stayed at home, enraged Opposition activists torched buses that were ordered to ply by the Government. Road and rail traffic was disrupted. Top district administrative officials and policemen were beaten up in many places.Â
The bandh, called separately by the Trinamool Congress, the Congress, the SUCI, the BJP and the CPIML (Liberation) for varying durations, received support from unusual quarters with key allies of the CPI(M) - the CPI, the RSP and the Forward Bloc - saying the people's response was spontaneous and unprecedented.
"There is no point denying the success of the bandh. The question is not who called it, but on what issue it was called. It was a complete bandh," CPI State secretary Manju Majumdar said.Â
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Even CPI, RSP, Forward Bloc supported bandh
Police arrest 268 people in Kolkata alone
Road, rail traffic disrupted
Marxist cadre clash with Opposition activists in Malda, Balurghat
30 per cent attendance recorded at Writers' Building and State Secretariat
Jyotibabu describes Buddhadeb as arrogant man: Mamata
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Shivraj Patil defends firing </b> link
Rajeev Ranjan Roy | New Delhi
<b>Cong backs CPM on Nandigram</b>
Toeing the line of an unrepentant CPI(M), Home Minister Shivraj Patil on Friday defended the 'police brutalities' on the agitating farmers of Nandigram on March 14, saying that the policemen opened the fire in self-defence. Patil informed the Lok Sabha that 'the police initially fired rubber bullets' to control the situation, but it yielded no results.
"<b>Ultimately, the police had to open fire in self-defence to disperse of the mob,"</b> he said, which left scores of farmers dead and many others injured.
Referring to the situation that led to the killings, Patil said that the police movement started at 10 am on March 14 in Nandigram area. <b>"While one of the police parties could move into Nandigram without resistance, two other police parties were confronted by large gatherings of hostile people,"</b> he said.
<b>"When the police asked them to disperse, they paid no heed and resorted to heavy brick-batting, causing injury to some policemen. To disperse the mob, police lobbed tear gas shells. The mob then became more agitated and started hurling bombs followed by opening of fire,"</b> he said.
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<b>No SEZ at Nandigram, says Buddha</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->
Faced with the possibility of his own resignation or the threat of three key Left Front constituents pulling out of his government, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee buckled under pressure and owned up the responsibility for the mayhem in Nandigram.
At the crucial Front meting on Saturday, the chief minister also conceded the Left allies' demand and announced that no SEZ would be set up at Nandigram and so there would not be any land acquisition there. He also agreed to withdraw police from the area and initiate a "socio-political" process to restore peace and confidence among the people.
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<b>"There will be no SEZ in Nandigram. There will be no land acquisition for industries there. The chemical hub may come up in Haldia instead. I will publicly announce this on Monday. I will also withdraw police in phases from the area," </b>the chief minister said.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
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