[Reader-list] CPI (M) and West Bengal CM's Statements onNandigram

[Taraprakash]

Thank heavens I took care to read till the end. I initially thought this message was coming from CPM, but it was coming from something more dangerous, more fascist, more sectarian, (there is no dearth of adjectives for this wonderful dying (at least in JNU) institution, SFI, (suppliers of fraudulent information). Before I continue, I would like to admit that someone related to me is part of JNU Student Union from this institution. And also that never in my life I formally joined any organisation active in election related politics. So there is no reason for me to be unreasonably biased against SFI, or any  other organization for that matter.

My first disillusionment with the student wing of the concerned party was caused in my very first year at JNU. On the morning of the election day, a very senior and devoted member of SFI, he stopped considering me his friend after I started openly denouncing SFI on various issues, *informed* me that All India Student Association and ABVP (student wings of ML and BJP respectively) reached a compromise the previous night. I was told that if I voted for Aisa, it would be akin to voting for ABVP. I still fail to follow the logic, but few votes I was considering for SFI, I "wasted" on AISA, in the view of SFI, on ABVP. 

The way this organization functions in JNU, I really used to sympathise with some sensible friends associated with SFI. A classmate once made some suggestion and she was told to join AISA if that was how she thought. Many of Those who join SFI considering it to be a leftist intellectual movement, get so disillusioned with the left politics that they join some right wing party. 95 % of the people who leave SFI in JNU join NSUI, the student wing of Congress. 
I will not start narrating the horror stories some people from West Bengal told me about the fate of those who did not join SFI, just because someone sitting in JNU can tell what actually happened in Nandi Gram, I don't think it will be proper for me to narrate from outside the state what happens to those who do not join SFI in West Bengal.

I was really naive when I used to sympathize with CPM for having such a great student wing. But I did not remain *innocent* for long. And what reminded me of all this was the message below and Md. Salim's statement on BBC Hindi that Nuxulites, RSS and Jamait-e Ulema-e Hind were all working together to disrupt the *normal life* in nandi Gram and I was instantly reminded of the SFI guy on the election day.

I wish the message below should also have clarified what did Prakash Karath mean when he said , "The mistakes were made in Nandi Gram", if all that the below message says is true. In fact, Before CPM lumpins massacred 14 or more people in Nandi Gram, Sita Ram Yachuri, the most available person for SFI in JNU, in an interview on a TV channel said that district administration had no authority to send any notice about land acquisition, why wasn't any action taken against whoever caused that problem. Well, since CPM cannot have any answer for many such questions, they are not better not asked here.

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: prakash ray 
  To: reader-list at sarai.net 
  Sent: Friday, March 23, 2007 2:56 AM
  Subject: Re: [Reader-list] CPI (M) and West Bengal CM's Statements onNandigram


  March 19, 2007                                      CPI (M)               Press Release 
  I.                   No Land Acquisition in Nandigram 
  There was continuing false propaganda that land is going to be acquired in Nandigram for the chemical hub SEZ. After the January 3 incident and protests by the local people, the Chief Minister of West Bengal had made it clear that there will be no land acquisition if the people do not want it. Following are the facts.

  1.   There was no notification for land acquisition in Nandigram. There was only a notice issued by the Haldia Development Authority announcing the intention to acquire land in certain areas. 

  2.   On February 9, the Chief Minister announced that no land will be acquired without the consent of the people of Nandigram.

  3.   Repeatedly in the last few weeks, the Chief Minister has categorically stated that the proposed chemical hub would be shifted if the people do not want it.

  4.   The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) after its meeting held on February 17-18 in a press statement announced the following:  "The CPI(M) leadership of West Bengal has informed the Polit Bureau that the SEZ proposals for Bengal will be finalized after the changes in the SEZ Act and Rules are brought about at the Central level. The Left parties are already engaged in seeking changes in the SEZ Act. There is no question of any land being acquired for the SEZ projects, as in Nandigram, against the wishes of the people. " 

  5.   Because all the CPI(M) members and supporters were driven out and the local police and administration have been absent since January 3, 2007 the mischievous propaganda that land will be taken away continued without being countered among the people. 

  II.                What has been happening in Nandigram Since January 3, 2007 
  CPI(M) members and supporters and their families numbering around 2500 were driven out of Nandigram Block I.   A thousand of them are staying in relief camps in adjoining areas.

  1.   On  January 6, armed men of the Jami Rakkha Committee attacked the relief camp on the southern side of the Bhangabera bridge in Khejuri area. There was resistance from the camp and in the ensuing conflict three of the attackers died. 

  2.   On January 7,  Sankar Samanta, a CPI(M) panchayat member was burnt alive in a hay stack.

  3.   On February 7, policeman Sadhucharan Chatterjee was attacked and killed near Khejuri. His body was thrown into the river.

  4.   On February 10, Sunita Mandal, a class X student was brutally murdered after torture.

  5.   On March 3, a woman (name withheld) who is from a CPI(M) sympathiser's family was gang raped by miscreants led by a local TMC leader.





  -- 
  Prakash K Ray
  254, Sutlej, JNU, New Delhi-67
  www.cinemela.org (available soon)
  cinemela.blogspot.com 
  (0) 9811450214 



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