Voice of the Indian Revolution 12 May Day 2007 Call
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http//:peoplesmarch.googlepages.com Vol: 8 No: 4, May-June, 2007 Rs. 12 People’People’People’Voice of the sssIndian MarchMarchMarch Revolution NANDIGRAM : Slap in the face of CPI(M) Social-fascists Armed Resistance Assumes New Form Contents PEOPLE’S MARCH Vol : 8, No4,May 2007, Rs. 12 Voice of the Indian Revolution 12 May Day 2007 Call: 16 3 No genocide can Update: kill the rebellious Dandakaranya – spirit of the people qualitative leap in of Nandigram peoples’ war Political Martyr Column: Growing informalisation of Singur people resist cpm’s Red homage to comrade labour amidst a supposedly Raghavulu 24 social-fasicist terror 6 thriving Economy 21 Sezs—a shameless attempt Seminar on the ‘path of In Memory of Com. to snatch away rights of Chandrasekhara Rao 26 development’ 31 working class 23 People’s March Articles may be reprinted and translated in various Indian & Foreign Languages without permission, provided the source (www//:peoplesmarch.googlespages.com) is credited EDITOR: P. Govindan Kutty E-mail: [email protected] Mobile No. : 93886 22939 [email protected] [email protected] ................................................................................................................................. Owned Printed & Published by P. Govindan Kutty, Peroor house, Thripunithura, N.F. Ernakulam, Kerala — 682 301, Printed at Chithira Printers, 63/321, Poruvelil, Kannachanthodu Road, Kochi — 18 2 PEOPLE'S MARCH, May-June, 2007 NO GENOCIDE CAN KILL THE REBELLIOUS SPIRIT OF THE PEOPLE OF NANDIGRAM Samya ANDIGRAM witnessed higher Nakchirachar, Sonachuri Jalpai, Boli khal i.e, Khejuri, from launches as also from level of struggle than that of Brindabanpur, Balipota Sahebnagar, the house of Sankar Samanta, a CPM leader NSingur. Nandigram learnt from Osmanchak, Gar Chakraberia, Gokulnagar, living in a sprawling bungalow on the the experience of Singur and initiated an Kesabpur, Baranagar, Kalicharanpur, Sonachura side. They killed three members armed mass resistance movement the like Soudkhali, Dinabandhunagar, Nilpur of the Krishi Jami Ucchhed Birodhi of which has not been seen in West Bengal etc.(Dainik Statesman, 2,3 January 2007). Protirodh Committee, namely, Bharat for a long time. On 3 January 2007, when the news of a Mondal, Biswajit Maity and Sekh Salim and Ever since the WB government made meeting being held in the Panchayat office injured many. True to their hooligan colour, public its intention of handing over at Gar Chakraberia Bazar on the issue of they went on a looting spree in four or five thousands of acres of land in Nandigram land acquisition spread, many villagers shops, broke furniture and decamped with and adjoining areas to the notorious gathered and shouted slogans against the cash and goods. The intruders, however, Indonesian upstart capitalist Salem for the government order, Lakshman Seth and the did not go unpunished. According to setting up of a SEZ (in reality, Slave Panchayet pradhan. Sensing trouble, the unconfirmed reports, a total number of Economy Zone or a Special Exploitation CPM pradhan sought police help. The about 17 persons lost their lives, of which Zone), the people of Nandigram, police came and started firing on the the majority belonged to the CPM goons. irrespective of their religious, gender or villagers, as a result of which four persons Sankar Samanta, whose house was used political affiliations, swiftly organized were badly wounded. The peasants quickly as one of the places for launching the attack themselves under the banner of Bhumi retaliated by attacking the police force, and who himself was involved in it, was Uchhed Protirodh Committee(Committee dragging some of them from the police van lynched by the angry crowd. His granary, Against Eviction from Land) to put up when the van, in its hurry to leave the area, betel-leaf field and the two-storied house resistance against any attempt to grab their hit a light post and caught fire. The were burnt down by the crowd. Unlike the land. Among those who joined hands on policemen were beaten up and thrown into CPM goons who indulged in looting, there this common issue were a small section of the nearby river and they could escape was no looting in his house. It was a case local CPM cadre, TMC, Jamiat-e Ulema-e further thrashing only after tendering an of typical crowd action where the people Hind, CPI, some CPI(M-L) groups, Maoists apology to the angry crowd. The villagers did not touch anything in the house. From and others. In 38 mouzas (mouza is a knew from their experience that soon more early January till 13 March 2007, Nandigram revenue division comprising some villages) forces would be coming. So they started was in the hands of the people themselves. under Nandigram Block 1, regular meetings putting up barricades on the road by felling They set up a parallel administration in the were organized to mobilize public opinion trees, digging roads and placing massive area, formed resistance groups to protect against land acquisition. Women took a stones on the roads at regular gaps so as themselves from the police and the CPM leading role and formed resistance groups to prevent the entry of police jeeps. It was goons. The methods the people used to with whatever traditional weapons they a spontaneous movement of the people defend themselves were somewhat similar could lay their hands on, viz, sickles, sticks, and within one night everything was to those used by the revolutionary people iron rods etc. complete. The land of Nandigram is well- of this region during the Quit India known to have a rich revolutionary heritage movement of 1942 when a parallel ‘National HOW IT STARTED in both anti-feudal and anti-imperialist Government’—‘Tamralipta Jatiyo Sarkar’ On 28 December 2006, the notorious struggles from the days of yore, and the had been in existence for 17 months. Laksham Seth, the sitting MP of the CPM form of resistance they put up was clearly GENOCIDE OF 14 MARCH declared on behalf of the Haldia in conformity with that heritage. All the Development Authority that about 14,000 CPM activists and leaders, who were trying What took place in West Bengal ruled acres of land would be acquired from the to deceive the people by saying that over by a ‘left-front’ government will put villagers for the creation of a ‘mega chemical industrialization would bring more to shame all previous acts of genocide hub’ for the Salem group(10,000acres), for employment opportunities, were compelled anywhere else in West Bengal, if not in a shipbuilding centre for the Ruia to leave their villages in the face of the India, Jallianwallabagh massacre included. group(2,500acres) and for the deposit of people’s wrath. There were regular armed It was a military operation ordered by silt after dredging in the Haldia dock skirmishes on the Sonachura-Khejuri side Buddhadev Bhattacharya and planned and area(2,000 acres). The formal notice was put when CPM hoodlums — hired from carried out by the home secretary, Prasad up on 2,January 2007. Twenty-nine Keshpur, Gorbeta and other areas — tried Roy, Arun Gupta, the IGP, the DIG(West mouzas—as a whole or parts of them— to enter through that point. Medinipur Range), Anil Srinivasan, the SP would be acquired from Nandigram Block 1 The climax was reached in the early of East Medinipur. Laksham Seth, the MP and Khejuri Block 2. These include, among hours of 7, January on a foggy day when who sent armed goons and the various others, Kendemari Jalpai, Jadubarichok, the CPM hooligans attacked the villagers zonal and local CPM leaders and lumpens. Chakchilinga, Kanchanagar Jalpai no.7, with arms from the other side of the Talpati Biman Bose, the CPM leader, knew PEOPLE'S MARCH, May-June, 2007 3 everything and approved of the action. state forces will enter Nandigram any day They were attacked by the police on that Binoy Konar, the other CPM leader, who after the end of the school-leaving day, mercilessly beaten with lathis and had all through been threatening to bring Madhyamik examination and the beginning somehow remained alive only to recount hell to the people of Nandigram was also in of the Higher Secondary examination and the story of state brutality. It was reported the know. According to press reports, the would capture Nandigram. In the morning in some of the TV channels that as many as whole operation was planned well in of 14 March, the EFR, IRB jawans and the 50 dead bodies were found on the char land advance on 9, March in the hall of the guest policemen started firing indiscriminately on river Haldi, and that gharials (crocodiles) house of the Kolaghat Thermal Power Plant without any previous warning. Women, of the Sunderbans have got a scent of it behind closed doors (Sambad Protidin, 19, boys and girls who were in the front were and are moving through the Haldi. It was March, 2007). Of these criminals, Anil shot down. Women were chased, beaten reported in the newspapers that the CPM Srinivan is the person who rose to notoriety with sticks and then raped by the state leadership—and the finger is definitely by torturing Prof. Koushik Ganguly and forces and the CPM cadres. In the pointed at Lakshman Seth—had hired 300 many political prisoners accused of being Bhangabera area, children were kept by their ruffians at a cost of Rs.2 lakhs each for this connected with the Maoists and was mothers and they were playing in the field, operation, 10 of whom had recently been promoted by the WB government to the when the killing army came. Many children caught by the fact-finding CBI team. rank of superintendent of police after years were beheaded, some had their limbs torn The carnage in Nandigram will go down of oblivion.