Cracks widen in Left

Statesman News Service, 12 November

KOLKATA, Nov. 11: Exploding the illusion of Left unity, the Left Front junior partners ~ RSP, Forward Bloc and the CPI ~ today held the CPI-M “solely responsible” for the fresh blood-letting at Nandigram. Never before during the past three decades of LF rule has the CPI-M been put on the dock by its junior partners in such unambiguous terms.

After the Governor indicted the Marxists’ naked aggression at Nandigram in their bid to wrest villages from the control of Trinamul Congress and BUPC, the LF junior partners’ resolution, adopted at an emergency meeting, completely isolated the CPI-M in state politics.

The pithily-worded resolution dealt such a stunning blow to the CPI-M that the latter immediately reacted by saying that it always had to bear the brunt of “attacks” from its adversaries.

“It’s sad that our LF partners have decided not to stand by us at this hour when 28 villagers belonging to our party have been killed during violence unleashed by the Opposition at different places during the past few months. The LF partners’ action will only help the Trinamul and its allies,” Mr Shyamal Chakraborty, CPI-M state committee member said.

Adding to the CPI-M’s woes the PWD minister and RSP leader, Mr Kshiti Goswami stuck to his decision not to remain in the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Cabinet. He even urged his party colleagues to resign from the Cabinet in protest against the CPI-M’s handling of the situation in Nandigram.

“The CPI-M wants bloodshed to recapture its lost territory, trampling down democracy. I cannot accept a situation where innocent people are being subjugated through brutal use of force,” Mr Goswami said.

The PWD minister, who has already stopped using his official car, said he won’t go to the state secretariat tomorrow.

The RSP will discuss, at its state committee meeting on 13 and 14 November, the situation arising out of Mr Goswami’s decision.

In Delhi, after the CPI-M politburo meeting, which was dominated by Nandigram issue, Mr Sitaram Yechury claimed that there were no cracks in the LF on the issue.

The LF junior partners held a two-hour-long meeting and adopted a resolution stating that they “don’t support wanton violence as a means to find a solution in Nandigram”.

“We are totally opposed to it. The CPI-M alone is responsible for this unfortunate turn of events. Peace and normalcy would have to be restored in no time and appropriate administrative action taken. Persistent social and political initiative would also have to be taken for restoration of peace,’’ the unanimous resolution said.

Explaining their stand that the CPI-M is solely responsible for the arson and carnage at Nandigram, the junior partners said the CPI-M leadership had never discussed with them its plan to take control of Nandigram by using force and causing bloodshed.

Undeterred by such trenchant criticism, both within the LF and outside, the CPI-M today claimed that Nandigram was “at last free from terror and the people there could now breath in fresh air under the open sky”.

The CPI leader and minister for water investigation, Mr Nandagopal Bhattacharya, reportedly told his colleagues in the LF that the chief minister had asked him to “wait for a couple of days when things would be all right”. The partners wondered whether the chief minister’s assurance implied that the CPI-M would drive away all its opponents at Nandigram with the help of the CRPF. A team of NDA leaders will visit Nandigram soon, BJP president, Mr Rajnath Singh, said, according to its state unit.