[Reader-list] an article on Nandigram

[TaraPrakash]

Thanks for this link. I am pasting the article for those who may not want to
download adobe reader required to read pdf files.
It is distressing that a party I once sympathized with, has fallen to such a
crude tribalism. Time to get rid of the legislative assembly. Time to ban
and perhaps destroy the fascists in the garb of communists once and for
all.

Economic and Political Weekly October 13, 2007
Economic and Political Weekly October 13, 2007
Nandigram:
Six Months Later
The findings of a people’s tribunal in Nandigram point to the fact
that relief, rehabilitation and justice are yet to be provided to the
victims of the Nandigram police firing on March 14.
Dipanjan Rai Chaudhuri,
Satya Sivaraman
A recently released report of the
people’s tribunal on Nandigram
has described the police firing and
killings of March 14 in Nandigram as
nothing less than a “state sponsored
massacre”. And yet six months later the
beleaguered people of Nandigram still
live in a state of siege with no signs of
relief, peace or justice in the near future.
While they have been victorious in their
battle against state attempts to take over
their land for a chemical hub, they
continue to be subjected to systematic
“punishment” by the Left Front government
for their defiance. Apart from facing
attacks on an almost daily basis by CPI(M)
cadre from their neighbouring stronghold
of Khejuri, the people of Nandigram are
coping with loss of livelihoods, severe
trauma and injuries from the March 14
incident. On their part, the Left Front
government and the main ruling party
CPI(M) have just shrugged off the massacre
as if nothing had happened.
Revisiting March 14
Part of the CPI(M) strategy all along has
been to cast doubts on what really happened
in Nandigram on March 14, with
some of its leaders referring to it as a
“clash” between police and protestors
opposed to the land acquisition. It is even
implied that some of the 14 people officially
declared as killed in the police action
may have died due to violence indulged
in by a section of the Nandigram villagers
themselves. The report of the people’s
tribunal, headed by justice S N Bhargava,
a former chief justice of the Sikkim High
Court however finds, “There was unprovoked,
indiscriminate firing without
sufficient warning and without following
the established procedure in accordance
with law against a peaceful, religious and
lawful gathering of mostly women and
children from Nandigram”. The report
names 14 people, including two women,
who were killed by the police, and one
person who is missing. Further, it describes
the unsavoury collusion between the
government agencies and the ruling CPI(M)
party, thus:
The motive behind this massacre seems
to be the ruling party’s wish to “teach a
lesson” to poor villagers in Nandigram
by terrorising them for opposing the
proposed Special Economic Zone (SEZ)
project.
The 5-member tribunal, which was
organised by a national initiative of con
cerned citizens and included well known
journalists, social activists, and doctors
received 194 depositions from villagers
and civil society organisations during its
hearings in Nandigram and Kolkata from
May 26-28. Of these seven written depo
sitions claimed victims of the firing by
police and CPI(M) cadre had bullet inju
ries on the upper part of the body. Two
claimed witnessing two people being shot
in the chest, and one alleged that she saw
a relative of hers shot in the back. Ac
cording to the day-sheet at Nandigram
health centre on March 14, four persons
were brought dead with bullet injuries in
the head or the abdomen. Many deponents
mention that there was no parleying before
start of the assault and they were falling
back and running away while the police
kept on firing. The tribunal concludes:
“The
lack of parleying seems to suggest
that the carnage caused by police firing
on the retreating mass, mainly of women
and children, was pre-planned. The depo
sitions also clearly bring out that police
went on firing after the people started to
flee and that they were not firing towards
the legs.”
The report cites one deposition which
mentions stone throwing by youngsters,
but is unequivocal in concluding that
“There is no evidence of the carriage of
any arms by the villagers”. More than 50
depositions allege violence, including
firing, lathi charge and sexual violence,
by alleged CPI(M) cadre – some dressed
in police uniform but wearing slippers
and others with black masks or white
veils to hide their faces. Some deponents
could identify and name the CPI(M)
cadre among them. The involvement of
non-police persons in the violence is seen
in the stab injury in the chest of one of
the persons brought dead to the Nandigram
health centre, and also in the reported use
of sophisticated arms like SLRs, not issued
to the police forces.
The report goes on to state starkly:
“Children were not spared. Fracture
cases due to police lathi charge have been
treated by doctors. The rape of a 12-year
old girl by a named CPI(M) cadre has
the mother and sister as eyewitnesses.
There are persistent reports of cruelty on
very young children by the policemen.”
A medical camp set up by a collective of
independent doctors identified nine child
victims. A doctor described two of the
injuries examined by him to be “brutal”.
Administrative Indifference
Shockingly, till date, not a single family
of the 14 people killed in March have
received even ex gratia payment leave
alone full compensation. No relief has
been provided to those wounded in the
police firing and unable to pay for their
treatment or resume work of any kind.
Though in June this year the Left Front
government hinted at the possibility of
offering compensation, a central committee
member of the CPI(M) has gone on
record to oppose such a move as he did
not consider the Nandigram struggle to
retain land “to be a democratic movement”.
All this is in stark contrast to the way the
CPI(M) rightly demanded and got compensation
for its activists killed in police
firings in Khammam from the Andhra
Pradesh government.
The West Bengal government has also
not cooperated at all in attempts to trace
Subrato Samanta who is missing since
March 14 and is alleged to have been
shot by many eyewitness accounts. Given
the brazen partisanship of the state administration
and its own involvement in
the March 14 massacre, it is also not
surprising that no charges have been filed
against policemen or CPI(M) cadre implicated
in the killings or the numerous
cases of rape and sexual abuse of women
from Nandigram on that day.
The Left Front government on the other
hand has in fact tried to protect all those
implicated by a team of CBI investigators,
who on March 17, 2007 arrested 10
persons with illegal arms and ammunition
in their possession from the Janani Brick-
fields, within the disturbed area. A case
was started against the 10, who were
clearly there at the service of the ruling
party, under the Arms Act and the
Criminal Conspiracy Act. The local police
however did not file a charge sheet
within the statutorily required 90 days,
and the miscreants obtained bail. It must
also be mentioned that the report of the
executive inquiry conducted by Balbir
Ram, Commissioner, Burdwan Division
at the behest of the West Bengal govern
ment has also not been made public.
Further, not a single minister of the Left
Front government, no front rank leader of
the main ruling party, no top level official
from the administration has so far visited
the affected people of Nandigram, not
even just to listen to their complaints.
Recently the veteran CPI(M) leader
Jyoti Basu remarked that “It seems as if
Nandigram does not belong to Bengal
anymore and has become a liberated zone”.
The truth is that Nandigram has become
“enemy territory” for the CPI(M) and its
people aliens to be routed and subjugated
to the diktats of their party.
Sexual Abuse
One of the most serious charges levelled
against the police and CPI(M) cadre involved
in the March 14 violence in
Nandigram was widespread rape and
sexual abuse of women. The tribunal
report says, “There were a disturbingly
large number of incidents of sexual violence
by both police and armed ruling
party cadre against women, many of them
carried out in the most cruel, degrading
and inhuman manner”.
More than 20 depositions before the
tribunal alleged sexual violence. A
woman and her married daughter allege
rape, and also name CPI(M) cadre as
assailants. The youngest daughter, a minor,
was also raped before them. There is
another deponent who makes a clear
accusation of rape, and three other depositions
which do not use the term but
whose experience on March 14 clearly
point to rape.
Other cases of sexual violence include
insertion of rods into the sex organ, and
scratching and biting in the breast and
pelvic regions. The report says: “Sexual
violence and the threat thereof were used
as intimidation by CPI(M) cadre who are
quoted by Nandigram villagers as taunting
them with ‘Tell your women we are coming’”.
No official body, like the West
Bengal commission for women, has so far
taken any steps to record and investigate
the charges voiced by the sexually abused
women. On the other hand, Lakshman
Seth, the CPI(M) MP from Tamluk and
the main force behind the land acquisition
move, went on record with a statement
that the those women who did dare to
claim rape or sexual abuse were all lying
because “no woman subjected to sexual
violation would talk publicly about it”.
Lack of Medical Facilities
The government has also not taken any
steps so far to arrange for adequate
medical attention to the affected people
although their plight was thrust into
public knowledge again and again.
The carnage of March 14 was a one-day
affair, though the violations continued for
two days. But health problems still dog
the victims, gunshot injuries, lathi charge
injuries, falls and fractures, tear gas
generated burns and ocular problems,
psychological trauma all require attention
and treatment. But, the facilities at the
Nandigram health centre and the Tamluk
hospital are woefully inadequate. The
government refuses to take the responsibility
of ensuring proper treatment for the
victims, and NGO help is all that reaches
them. Also, there is evidence now that
many of the medical discharge certificates
of victims of the March 14 violence were
manipulated. The SSKM government
hospital in Kolkata, where several of the
injured were taken to, referred to what
was clearly a bullet injury in one case as
being due to “a metallic foreign body”.
About the SSKM hospital the people’s
tribunal report observes:
The doctors and the administration refused
to give any information and, on insistence,
advised the protestor to go to court. Discharge
certificates were incomplete. Type
of injury (bullet injury, head injury,
fracture, etc) was not clearly mentioned.
Police case number was not given. The
aim was to underrate severity of the injury
and obstruct legal action.
The doctors of the government health
service, too, stand charged by deponents
before the tribunal with unethical behaviour,
ranging from fear, leading to a reluctance
in recording the evidence of police atrocities,
to partisanship exemplified by falsification
of dates of discharge of victims.
Prospects of Peace
The people’s tribunal report also points
out the reasons why negotiations between
the government and the people of
Nandigram or between the supporters of
the CPI(M) and the Bhoomi Uchched
Pratirodh Committee (BUPC), which is
leading the anti-land acquisition struggle
have failed to make any headway so
far.
One is the clear partisan attitude of the
state administration, especially the police.
As the report notes, “Despite lodging of
complaints by various members of the
BUPC, no step was taken by the police
personnel on the basis of the said complaints
and there was no arrest of the miscreants
who are members of the CPI(M)”.
Secondly the report notes, “As of writing
this report in August 2007 regular
firing and terrorising of villagers in Nandigram
by CPI(M) cadre based in Khejuri
and counter-violence by members of the
BUPC was still continuing on an almost
daily basis”, and refers to 21 such armed
incursions into Nandigram fom Khejuri,
brought to the notice of the tribunal.
Thirdly the report says that there is no
agreement yet over how to work out the
return of supporters of the CPI(M), hailing
from Nandigram, who have been
living with their families in camps on the
Khejuri side due to alleged intimidation
by BUPC members. The CPI(M) have
claimed that there were thousands of such
displaced people, while the maximum
number of such cases conceded by BUPC
is 250.
School students in the area have been
severely affected by the ongoing violence.
Some schools have been made into police
camps, and there is little security for
school goers in the daily exchange of fire.
The report quotes one deposition by a
NGO working among the children in both
Nandigram and Khejuri:
Maheshpur high school (763 on the rolls)
found 80 per cent absent after March 14.
Those who were coming were tense and
fearful. The annual examinations were
postponed twice. Still, many could not
appear, and were subsequently examined
orally and half-yearly results also taken
account of to decide (their) promotion.
Teachers felt that 70 per cent of examinees
were affected by the unrest.
Gokulnagar high school is a police camp.
Policemen occupy 11 out of 22 classrooms.
The school has been forced to open two
shifts. Science practical classes are taken
in the open ground as policemen occupy
the labs.
.... Lessons are disturbed and girl students
are uncomfortable.... the toilets give off
a stench. There is scarcity of water because
so many are consuming it.
It may be mentioned that agitating
students finally forced the police to vacate
the Gokulnagar high school in July.
The Way Out of the Mess
Among its recommendations, the people’s
tribunal has suggested:
– the continuation of the CBI inquiry
into the incidents at Nandigram with a
speedy conclusion thereof, placing special
emphasis on inquiry into the specific
roles and culpability of different officials
in the administration, in the events of
March 14;
– re-arrest of the 10 CPI(M) cadre, caught
red-handed with illegal arms, by the CBI,
and subsequently bailed out due to deliberate
negligence of the state police;
– setting up a special bench, headed by
a woman judge, to hear the complaints
of violence against women;
– setting up “monitoring committees” by
the Calcutta High Court to ensure peace-
keeping in such areas like Nandigram where
violent incidents continue to date and;
– identification and prosecution of the
CPI(M) cadre who impersonated policemen
on March 14.
The tribunal has also called for the
involvement of the national human rights
commission in working out ex gratia relief
to the families of those who have been
killed and two persons injured in the police
action. It has asked the West Bengal government
to provide compensation and damages
for injury and loss of life and property to
victims of the March 14 violence, on par
with that paid in the case of the police
person killed in Nandigram on February
7, 2007, as part of an earlier incident.
Referring to the CPI(M) supporters
living as refugees in the camps at Khejuri,
the tribunal report observes that the peace
process must allow the return and resettlement
of all Nandigram residents, irrespective
of their party affiliations barring those
few accused of direct involvement in the
heinous crimes of March 14-16. An independent
body trusted by both the
people of Nandigram and the refugees
should monitor the return it said.
Grounds for Optimism
The only ray of hope in all these months
has been the response of the governor of
West Bengal, Gopal Krishna Gandhi, who
immediately after the March 14 massacre
issued a statement that said “the news of
deaths by police firing in Nandigram this
morning has filled me with a sense of
cold horror”.
Following this the high court at Kolkata
suo motu initiated a public interest litigation
through an order which said, “Prima
facie we are satisfied that this action of
the police department is wholly unconstitutional
and cannot be justified under any
provision of law”, and called for a special
inquiry into the incident by the central
bureau of investigation (CBI). In August,
the high court also concluded hearings of
a class action suit (among several others
still pending) filed by the West Bengal
bar association against the police action
of March 14 and a judgment is still
awaited. The people’s tribunal report
notes approvingly the role of civil society
in West Bengal in the aftermath of Singur
and Nandigram: “There were huge
spontaneous protest rallies and meetings
in Kolkata and district towns as civil
society initiatives. Students, teachers, doctors,
lawyers, office workers, science club
organisers, scientists, artistes, writers,
dramatists, singers – all staged protest
marches and meetings and also raised
donations to organise relief and rehabilitation
works.”
Had civil society not erupted as it did,
the West Bengal government would not
have budged from its plan of imposing a
chemical hub on Nandigram, drowning
all protests in blood and tears. Hopefully,
they will continue to play the role of
defending the human rights of ordinary
people in the face of state aggression and
authoritarian behaviour.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tapas Ray" <
tapasrayx at gmail.com>
To: "TaraPrakash" <
taraprakash at gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, November 10, 2007 9:39 AM
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] WB CPI (M) Deputation meets Governor on
Nandigramdevelopments

> The memorandum places a great deal of emphasis on Maoist involvement.
> Mention of this factor is also being heard frequently from
> government/ruling quarters. There was a lengthy item recently in Ajkaal, a
> Bengali daily supposedly close to Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya,
> with a title that translates roughly as 'Not Cong[ress] or Trinamool, it's
> Maoists that are entrenched in Nandigram'. The item says, essentially,
> that Tinamool and other opposition party workers are providing cover for
> Maoists in the area.
>
> With this supposed involvement of Maoists, Nandigram becomes part of the
> larger Maoist challenge which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has stated as
> being the greatest before the Indian state at this time. Therefore, a
> subtext in the memorandum is a call - to the Centre through the Governor -
> to view Nandigram as part of the national "Maoist problem". This call for
> a "law-and-order" approach can also be read as an admission of the failure
> of the political process.
>
> A few thoughts, for whatever they are worth.
>
> Long before the Maoists became involved in Nandigram, which is in the
> south-eastern part of West Bengal, in the coastal region, they had
> established themselves in the western part. In fact, one of their
> strongholds at that stage was the tribal-inhabited western part of
> erstwhile Midnapore district. Nandigram was also in Midnapore. After the
> district was split up into West M. and East M., the Naxalite (Maoist) belt
> fell in West Midnapore along with Bankura and Purulia districts. Nandigram
> fell in East Midnapore.
>
> Thus, geographically, the Maoists were never far from Nandigram. The West
> Bengal government and the CPI(M) probably should have foreseen that if
> discontent festered, it would not be long before the Maoists found their
> way into Nandigram.
>
> But why and how have the Maoists come back to West Bengal - in the western
> part long before Nandigram - over a quarter century after it seemed that
> the state had put the bloody Naxalite phase, which lasted from the late
> 1960s to mid-1970s, behind itself? If the weakness or failure of the
> democratic process can be blamed for the rise of the Maoist challenge in
> the tribal-dominated states of Chattisgarh and Jharkhand, and the tribal
> areas of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa, can something similar be
> said of West Bengal as well? A senior leader of one of the CPI(M)'s
> "junior partners" in West Bengal's Left Front government had told me that
> extremism was bound to rise if the people's urge for democracy was curbed.
> He was a grassroots politician, not an academic, and I suppose he had his
> ear to the ground.
>
> If he had seen the writing on the wall, why hadn't the "senior partner" in
> the coalition, namely the CPI(M)?
>
> Was there a way to forestall Nandigram's turn towards extremism - assuming
> that it has indeed taken that turn as the CPI(M) MPs and ruling circles
> claim? There probably was, but that option was - and is still being -
> passed by. The CPI(M) MPs' memorandum to the Governor makes it clear that
> even almost eight months after the March 14 carnage, in which 14 people
> died, the "package announced" for victims - include compensation for the
> victims, shifting of the remaining police officers, punishment for the
> guilty, withdrawal of cases, and providing relief to the distressed
> people - is still only being "iterated". In this regard, those interested
> may read this article, which appeared in the Economic and Political Weekly
> last month:
>
>
http://www.epw.org.in/uploads/articles/11127.pdf
>
> It says, "The findings of a people’s tribunal in Nandigram point to the
> fact that relief, rehabilitation and justice are yet to be provided to the
> victims of the Nandigram police firing on March 14.
>
> Tapas
>
>
>
> TaraPrakash wrote:
>> In other words, the government has lost control and must be replaced.
>> It was an interesting thing to add in the memo that the alliance that
>> included ultra left destroyed red flags. The governor should be
>> infuriated by this revelation. So, the president's rule in West Bengal?
>> Marshal law?
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "prakash ray" <
pkray11 at gmail.com>
>> To: <
reader-list at sarai.net>
>> Sent: Saturday, November 10, 2007 2:21 AM
>> Subject: [Reader-list] WB CPI (M) Deputation meets Governor on
>> Nandigramdevelopments
>>
>>
>>> A delegation of four WB CPI (M) MPs and one MLA met the Hon. Governor on
>>> the
>>> late morning of 9 November. The delegation in a detailed memorandum

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "prakash ray" <pkray11 at gmail.com>
To: <reader-list at sarai.net>
Sent: Saturday, November 10, 2007 2:36 AM
Subject: [Reader-list] an article on Nandigram


> Dear all,
>
> please see the article on Nandigram..
> http://www.pragoti.org/pragoti/news_detail.php?news_id=344&sessionid=
>
> prakash
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