The CPI(M) has been pushed to the backfoot in West Bengal after the violence that killed seven people in Nandigram on Saturday.
CPI(M) divided
Ajoy K Das/Sumanta Ray Chaudhuri
KOLKATA: The CPI(M) has been pushed to the backfoot in West Bengal after the violence that killed seven people in Nandigram on Saturday. The incident has thrown open a big challenge for the party that has been in power in the state for the past 30 years.
Union minister for Parliamentary Affairs Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi, who visited Nandigram on Tuesday along with other Congress leaders, said the fear and tension among locals in Nandigram would prevail unless chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee issued a statement saying no land will be acquired. "I've assessed the situation and will give a report to the Centre. It is the state government's duty to ensure that farmers and agricultural labourers do not suffer from insecurity."
BJP president Rajnath Singh, too, met state BJP leaders to discuss Nandigram and the controversy over land acquisition. "The state government neither has a clear land acquisition policy, nor a transparent system of compensation. It is natural for those engaged in agriculture to protest such acquisition of land," he said.
This is probably the first time when a turmoil over the government's land acquisition plans has punched deep holes into traditional Left support amongst farmers and agricultural labourers-the bailiwick of CPI(M)-led government. The CPI(M) is already worried over the steady trickle of some of its hardcore workers towards the embryonic 'Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee' (Committee to Counter Land Eviction), a replica of 'Krishi Jami Raksha Committee' (Save Farm Land), a joint forum of the Trinamool Congress, SUCI and Naxalite elements that started protests over land acquisition at Singur.
Meanwhile, the news that is fast gaining mileage in the state political circle is the difference in opinion between the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government and the party itself.
The Left Front chairman, Biman Bose, has over the past few days propounded a conspiracy theory that outsiders from Orissa and Bihar have infiltrated Nandigram to create law and order problems. And they used the land acquisition issue as their weapon.
But the CPI(M) central committee member and frontline peasant leader, Benoy Konar, while acknowledging that his party's support base among farmers and agricultural labourers have suffered erosion, differed.
He said those involved in violence were not outsiders or criminals from outside the state.
"Many of them are local peasants and we had no prior information of the tension brewing in the region for quite some time," Konar said.
Friends turn foes
Kay Benedict
NEW DELHI: It appears to be a reversal of roles. The CPI(M) is changing spots and in the process making itself attractive to the bourgeoisie in urban centers. But at a cost. The party has lost the sympathy of its intellectual cadre while the poor and peasants are flocking to parties like the Trinamul Congress.
Thanks to its zeal to accelerate industrial development of West Bengal and the newfound bonhomie with corporate houses, as many as six Left and left-of-center intellectuals have come out in the open against its "anti-peasant" stand and "non-transparent bid to acquire land for the industrial project in Singur and SEZ in Nandigram.
After the Nandigram flare-up, the ranks of intellectuals turning against the party have swelled. Those who have already come out against the manner in which land is being acquired are: historians Sumit Chakraborty, Romila Thapar, Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy, Medha Patkar, Justice Rajinder Sachar (of Sachar committer on Muslim empowerment), Jean Dreze and Aruna Roy.
In a veiled reaction, the CPI(M) politburo on Tuesday issued a statement saying the intellectuals had fallen prey to misinformation.
"This not a spontaneous outburst but a planned political attack led by the TMC and ultra-Left elements committed to violence," the party said.
Earlier, on Monday, Romila Thapar, Justice Sachar, Sumit Chakraborty and Arundhati Roy shot off letters to CPI(M) leaders: "While we condemn the burning down of the CPI(M) office in Nandigram, we condemn the party more strongly - and the state-sponsored strong-arm tactics.”
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