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POLITICAL DIARY
Nandigram…..A Half-Told Story
WHEN WILL TRUTH BE OUT?
By Poonam I Kaushish
New Delhi, November 27, 2007
What prompted a normally peace-loving Bengali
turn into a monster, indulging in mayhem? The optimist would
spew venom against the rising terrorism. The cynic would shrug
it off as yet another sordid chapter in the Indian State
losing its Iqbal and wily nily becoming partners in brutality.
Both refusing to face the ugly and harsh truth that violence
is increasingly becoming the rhetoric of our time!
The tragedy of India is that at the end of the day, every
bloodbath evokes the same token response. The police quell the
mob. A few arrests are made. Calm is restored and, finally,
the incident is unceremoniously dumped in the garbage of
history. With none the wiser about what precisely went wrong,
where lay the fault-lines and who was to blame. Every incident
remains a half-told or unfinished story…..Be it the 1984 Sikh
riots in Delhi, the 2002 Godhra riots to the latest carnage in
Nandigram.
The volcano of violence that erupted in peaceful Nandigram 11
months ago on January 3 finally engulfed Kolkata and
neighbouring areas on November 21. Leading to the Army being
called and curfew imposed. Even as Nandigram continues to
resemble a battleground of dead bodies, missing people, burnt
huts and refugee camps. The cries of grief drowned in the
volley of accusations flying thick and fast between the
people, State Government, the Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee
and exploding in Parliament.
Sadly, after the Prime Minster Manmohan Singh’s astonishingly
bland description of the events in Nandigram as “unfortunate”,
Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya “sharing the PM’s
concern and spirit,” but describing the happenings as “morally
and legally right”, down to the day-long debate in the Lok
Sabha and two-days in the Rajya Sabha none is wiser about what
went wrong in Nandigram? Who were the perpetrators and what
action was and is being taken to end the mayhem? All one has
are sketchy accounts. Depending on which side of the political
spectrum one is.
The Central Government would have us believe that the root
cause of the trouble was the announcement by the State
Government on January 3 of its decision to set up a Special
Economic Zone (SEZ) on 10,000 acres of land in Nandigram.
Asserted Union Information Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunshi: “It
was not the Maoists or the Naxalites. It was the common people
who retaliated because their lands were being acquired. And
the compensation was to be paid to the land owners and not to
them as share-croppers. How would they feed their children?
They, therefore, got united and said that they could not stake
their land. Enough is enough”
“Things went beyond control when the boss of the local area
propagated the campaign, that it should be done. If only those
who were identified by the police to be involved in the
January incidents could have been booked and brought to
justice, things would have taken a different turn. I think
that objective introspection is required in the whole matter.
(Sic).The people who are in the refugee camp and those outside
should be brought to their homes. There should be peace and
harmony.” Nothing more, nothing less.
Wrong, asserted the Opposition. It was the ruling CPM cadres
behind the carnage. Charged the Leader of Opposition in the
Lok Sabha, LK Advani, “When you try to convert the Party into
a substitute for Government, then things go out of hand. When
I visited Nandigram, the same thing was again and again
mentioned that party men, party cadres wore police uniforms
and fired at the hapless people.
Underscoring his indictment by quoting from the Governor’s
statement that he had “a feeling of cold horror” when he
visited the area. “The happenings are totally unlawful and
unacceptable.” The Kolkata High Court’s judgment that the
“action of the police department to open fire at Nandigram on
March 14 was wholly unconstitutional and cannot be justified
under any provision of the law”. The State Home Secretary’s
report of Nandigram resembling a “war zone.” Resting his case
with the DIG, CRPF’s statement that his men were “prevented
from entering Nandigram by the CPM.”
On the other hand, the State Government would have us believe
that the mayhem in Nandigram was the handiwork of the Maoists.
Speaker after speaker in both Houses asserted that the Maoists
had taken control there. Towards that end they cited from last
year’s Home Ministry Status Paper stating: “The Naxalite
movement continues to persist in terms of spatial spread,
intensity of violence, militarisation and consolidation,
ominous linkages with subversive groups. They operate in
vacuum created by absence of administrative and political
institutions, espouse the local demands and take advantage of
the disenchantment prevalent among the exploited segments of
the population…”
Justifying their argument by raising umpteen questions. Why
did the violence continue after the State Government had
withdrawn the SEZ notification on January 4? Why was the
movement and blockade not withdrawn and peace talks held? Why
was the Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee not disbanded? Why
were thousands of people driven out of Nandigram? They could
not return to their homes for more than 11months. Why was the
police not allowed to enter?
The answer? It was under siege by the Maoists and became
almost a liberated area. Sophisticated arms were smuggled in
with the help of outside fundamentalist political forces.
Farmers do not have AK-47 rifles, land mines and sophisticated
material to kill a man. They don’t dig up trenches and make
warlike preparations. Who did it? At whose behest was it done?
Should we not condemn that? Will you allow a liberated zone to
be created in Gujarat? Can we allow a State within a State?
QED. It is another matter that the State Home Secretary’s
statement contradicts their claim.
Perhaps to bail out the UPA’s principal ally, the Union Home
Minister Shivraj Patil, reiterated: “We have information that
some outsiders had instigated people from behind to take to
violence. They also brought sophisticated weapons into the
area." However, he refused to expand his statement by meekly
stating that “he could not disclose more.”
But his reply left many unanswered questions. If Nandigram was
the handiwork of outsiders, what was the need to give a
“directive (read advisory) to the State Government in writing?
Why advice that no one should be forced to leave his or her
home and everybody should be brought back and given full
protection. And demand that the State Government take steps to
bring the situation back to normal including removing fear in
minds of the people.
Further, he overruled the Opposition’s demand for a CBI
inquiry into Nandigram, by expressing his helplessness. “Even
if I want to send an investigating agency to any of the States
to investigate, I cannot because that is not allowed by the
Constitution. If you want that the CBI should inquire into a
particular matter, it is for the State Government to suggest
that the CBI should inquire into it or the Court to suggest
that. I think, in this case the matter has been referred to
CBI and the CBI has been looking into this.
Shockingly, even as the CBI and the powers-that-be grope in
the dark about what precisely happened in Nandigram and
Kolkata, comes news that three serial blasts have taken place
in U.P.’s Varanasi, Faizabad and Lucknow. The Harkut-ul-Ansar
has accepted responsibility. Predictably, the polity is once
again going through the routine--- mourning the dead,
sympathizing with the wounded and pledging to cull out the
perpetrators of the dastardly crimes. Failing to realize that
action not words is the answer of the day.
In the ultimate, our polity needs to tackle barbarianism
firmly and ruthlessly and make clear that it will not be
tolerated. Where anyone takes the law into his own hands. The
Iqbal of the State must be restored to ensure the rule of law.
It is time to recall Nobel laureate Rabindra Nath Tagore’s
words: “Let me not grope in vain, in the dark, but keep my
mind still in the faith that the day will break and truth will
appear in its simplicity.”---INFA
(Copyright India News & Feature Alliance)
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