The veteran CPI-M leader said police will step in to restore normalcy in trouble-torn Nandigram only if the political process fails.
KOLKATA: Police will step in to restore normalcy in trouble-torn Nandigram if the political process fails and opposition parties continue to stay away from all-party meetings, veteran CPI-M leader Jyoti Basu said on Sunday.
"An all-party meeting is the appropriate answer to the problem in Nandigram. But if the opposition backs out of this initiative, police will move in and do the work (restore normalcy)," he said after a meeting of the CPI-M state committee here.
The meeting, attended by Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee and state party secretary Biman Bose, discussed the Nandigram situation.
Asked to comment on the status report on the Nandigram situation which refers to the role of CPI-M supporters in clashes with the opposition and in organising assaults on social activists between April 29 and May one in Nandigram, Basu said "The state government will handle the matter the way it thinks best".
"Let them (opposition parties) take part in the all-party meeting and express their views", he said.
The Calcutta High Court on May 3 had directed the state government to ensure normal life in troubled Nandigram villages in East Midnapore district while observing that prima facie it appeared that the people had been denied fundamental rights under Article 21 after the state submitted a status report saying that the situation there was very serious.
At least fourteen people were killed by police firing in Nandigram on March 14 during protests against land acquisition for setting up a chemical hub. The government subsequently decided to drop the project.
The police have not been able to enter Nandigram as locals, opposed to the setting up of the SEZ on farm land, have dug up roads and damaged bridges to prevent entry of the police.
Differences within the ruling Left Front surfaced after the March 14 violence in Nandigram. The smaller partners virtually forced the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government to announce the scrapping of the SEZ project in the area.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee had said as long as attacks on Nandigram continued from adjoining Khejuri, a CPI-M stronghold, there can be no political dialogue between the two sides.
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