State Terror

Editorial
Asian Age, March 16

The pre-planned police action in Nandigram, which resulted in a horrifying bloodbath, is undoubtedly a blot on the name of the Left Front government of West Bengal. And its sole responsibility lies with one person: chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. In his arrogance of power, he unleashed state-sponsored terror on poor farmers whose only fault was that they did not want to part with their land for Mr Bhattacharjee’s overzealous industrialisation drive. One had thought that after facing stiff resistance in Singur, where he has allotted 1,000 acres to Tata Motors, Mr Bhattacharjee must have learnt his lessons. But he apparently has not heard the saying "once bitten twice shy," because he lost no time in opening a new front at Nandigram where he wants to allot 10,000 acres to an Indonesian company to set up a SEZ. That the government was planning a major police crackdown had become clear on Sunday when Mr Bhattacharjee publicly threatened at a peasants’ rally that his government would capture Nandigram. The moment he sent several thousand policemen with the specific order of taking control of a cluster of hamlets, a massacre became a foregone conclusion. And a massacre is what the wretched villages witnessed. The military precision with which the huge police contingent first encircled and then stormed into the villages, shooting women and children, it seemed as if it was invading an enemy country. The Nandigram mayhem has understandably triggered a public outrage in the state and the country. Expressing his sense of horror over "spilling of human blood" governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi indicted the chief minister. The Opposition described the bloodbath as reminiscent of Jallianwala Bagh massacre. The Left Front constituents were so outraged by the "inhuman brutality" that some of them are even thinking of parting ways with the CPI(M). Even a large section of the CPI(M) is extremely angry with the chief minister’s arbitrary style of functioning. But instead of apologising for his appalling decision, Mr Bhattacharjee in his statement in the Assembly, tried to justify the unjustifiable. The chief minister again reiterated that the government would not set up a SEZ at Nandigram if the local residents did not want it. The question is: then why did he order the mass murder?