To understand the brutal assaults by West Bengal police and CPI (M)'s hired goons on 14th March'07 on people of Nandigram block-I, one has to go back 3-4 months in the densely populated area near the Bay of Bengal. The state government wanted to acquire nearly 2000 acres of arable land including some 200 temples, mosques, schools and homestead plots to hand over to the Salim Group of Indonesia for setting up a chemical hub and SEZ. This incensed the farming and fishing community, as they did not have any other skills and with compensation money would not get any land to buy in equally densely populated blocks I & II. Their sentiments were exploited by opposition parties, particularly Trinamool Congress, led by firebrand Mamata Banerjee. The first uprising occurred on 3rd January, this yea, on a rumour that some ooficers had arrived at a panchayet office to start the acquisition. The villagers went amok, cut roads, bridges and culverts on main roads to resist the advance of the police. They raised an outcry against local leaders and cadres of the CPI (M), as a notification was found, issued by the Haldia Development Authority, headed by the local MP, Lakshman Seth. Inter and intra-party clashes began with bombs, bullets and grenades, leaving at least half a dozen villagers dead. The Chief Minister admitted an administrative error in issuing the notification and promised not to acquire any land in Nandigram for industries, if the people did not want. However, over two months passed and villagers did not allow CPI (M) goons and cadres return home and rebuild their support base. Over 2000 of them were out of their homes and they exerted pressure on Mr. Seth to do something. The Chief Minister was misled by some officers and party leaders to believe that there was administration in the troubled area and the police could not enter to restore law and order. The CM walked into the trap and gave his consent to launch a massive police offensive to break the resistance. Local CPI (M) leaders took advantage of the situation and some 300 of them entered with police contingents on the 14th and indulged in an orgy of firing, raping women and killing school-going children. Although the official death-toll is 14, local people put it at over a thousand. The CBI team which gave its report to Kolkata High Court on 22nd March will reveal the extent of brutality, being compared with General O'Dyer's killing of over a hundred civilians in a walled Amritsar garden, Jalianwala Bagh on 13th April 1919, in protest of which Rabindranath Tagore returned knighthood to the British Raj in Delhi. In my opinion, since the Chief Minister has admitted his mistake in under-estimating the ground-swell and resistance by the people of Nandigram, he should resign, owning moral responsibility. In addition, the State or Central Police must arrest key CPI (M) leaders, like Benoy Konar and Lakshman Seth who threatened dire action to avenge expulsion of their partymen and openly instigated violence. But will Bengal's blindly loyal police do these or a shameless CM tender resignation? This was not his first mistake and administrative failure but third, beginning with similar police offensive on farmers of Singur on 28th November, last year, followed by the issue of a notification by HDA which set ablaze Nandigram in the first week of January, this year?
