Nandigram - Shameful!
The recent events in Nandigram makes me hang my head in shame. I had seen scenes like this only in the freedom struggle movies but what I saw on TV was shocking to say the least. There was an open war between the farmers at Nandigram and the police. The police and the farmers were pelting stones at each other and when two women came to carry the dead body of a farmer, they were brutally assaulted and they couldn’t carry the dead body.
This comes closely on the heels of the Singur controversy.
What is going on in Bengal? The govt. that harps on being the govt for the poor is hell bent upon destroying those very poor farmers.
The decision to setup a SEZ in Nandigram became a thorny issue for the govt when the farmers refused to give their lands away. The govt then send 3000 troops to “restore the rule of law in Nandipur”
West Bengal DGP A B Vohra said they were told to ‘‘restore the rule of law’’ in Nandigram and had mobilised as many 3,000 policemen early this morning. But the policemen, he said, faced stiff resistance from a 5,000-strong mob — members of the Save Land Committee who were armed with guns, bombs and other weapons.
Vohra said six bodies had been recovered and the death toll could rise as reports were awaited from other areas. A late night PTI report put the toll at 11 killed while partners of the ruling Left Front said it could be between 10 and 13 while the Opposition Trinamool claimed 20 people had been killed.
Are we living in a free country? Is this what happens in a free country? The govt can decide to take anybody’s land and then of course as usual fail to pay the proper compensation. When the land owner’s protest then bring in 3000 troops to control them and to remind them of the rule of law.
Sounds like a plot from the pre-independence era. Shameful!!!
April 30th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
The villagers are doll(as always in W.B.) in the hand of political parties, no exception is Nandigra. I remember few years back one evening, on my way from Chandipur to Nandigram, I came across a gang ( party caders) who stopped buses on the roads to protest against war in Iraq. The same villages are under darkness even now without electricty and they never even ask for it. Only reason I brought this comparison is to highlight the very fact of life of villagers in Nandigram. They are always manipulated in hand of political partis whose leadrs are our so called ministers or opponent leaders.
Currently Seth’s (MP from Haldia) gundas along with the local CPM cadres and some people support CPM blindly are trying to attack villagers. TMC call them outseiders. On the other hand TMC supporters are also using arms to protest them. The other impotant player here are some of muslim fanatic who use this opportunity to show their mussle power and they as always are the main source of arms for TMC supporters. Media should ask this question to Govt, how these people able to acquire arms and getting constant supply of arms.
Most of the media in india always lacks the basic understanding of the situation. They always highlighting the fact how trinamul and CPM wants to reolve the problem in Nandigram. The fact is both the parties are led by people who does not have sensitivity regarding life of villagers and are least interested to solve the real issue and bringing normalcy there. The media could have played a bigger role by pointing out the real issue which they failed as expected.
The need of the moment at Nandigram is that the parties should stop encoraging their own agenda. Will they do it themselves? No, as i have explained earlier.
The villagers wont be able to do that independently and so from Goverment need to take steps to force political parties to restrain from encouarging poor villagers to kill each other.