CPI-M Rule in
West Bengal, the Reign of Terror
Contents
I. Introduction
II. Sain-bari
Killings
III. Marich
Jhanpi Massacre
IV. Anand Marg
Killings
V. Keshpur
Violence
VI. Nanoor
Massacre
VII. Chhota
Angaria Annihilation
VIII. Singur and
Rape of Tapasi Malik
IX. Nandigram
Genocide
X. Mangalkot
Murders
XI. Netai Firing
I. Introduction
The 34 year CPI-M
(Communist Party of India-Marxist) rule in West Bengal, India was characterized
by terror, exploitation, crime, corruption and slavery of the masses
unprecedented in the human history in recent times. Long before they came to
power the political party had established its reputation of criminal and
horrible activities of murder, rape, extortion of money from common people,
terrorizing the voters and all opponents. During their horrible regime any
protest against them was sure death. This so called political party had two
major wings to enforce their heinous activities and remain in power by rigging
elections. They were the secret army, Harmads and the Herr Goebbels squad, the
Makus.
The Harmads
The CPI-M was
created after division of the CPI (Communist Party of India) in 1964. They
joined govt. in 1967 when the United Front (UF) govt. led by Ajay Mukherjee,
came to power by defeating the National Congress. The govt., under chaotic
situation, was dissolved and again the UF came to power in 1969. As early as
1967, the top leaders of the CPI-M, with perfect foresight, realized that by
fair means they would never be able to capture power in West Bengal on their
own. So they decided to form a secret army to rig elections and terrorize
people to vote for them. To this end all the die-hard criminals from all over
India and even from other states were invited to join the army with the
assurance of political and legal protection against all their crimes. They were
also lured by the prospect of getting lucrative booties of looted property and
women. Thus the secret army was soon formed and major CPI-M leaders brought
them under their command.
It was also felt
that these stray criminals needed proper training in modern arms and weapons
and therefore Goanese Portuguese criminals, expert in modern arms were hired
from the districts of Birbhum and Bankura. They had a long history. Their
forefathers were Portuguese pirates in the South and South-East Asia high seas.
Onslaught of the British Navy during the 19th century had forced them to give
up high sea piracy and get settled in Goa in Western India. Later on, some of
them moved to the South Bengal districts. Some of tem became docile by taking
up agriculture but others followed suit of their forefathers and were engaged
in various criminal activities.
The forefathers
of these Portuguese trainers were called Harmads and the secret army of the
CPI-M was christened after the forefathers of the trainers and they have been
known by that name although the original descendants had left for their homes
after completion of training.
The Makkus
The Goebles squad
of the CPI-M is popularly known as the Makus. Ma.Ku is the abbreviation for
Markin Kutta which means pampered dogs of USA. Actually the term was coined by
the Naxalites during the 1960s after they had segregated from the CPI-M and
accused that top leaders of the party were agents of the CIA (Central
Intelligence Agency, the US secret service). In this regard, however, the
Naxalites had mixed up things. Their conviction of the CIA connection was based
on radio Peking broadcasts, which had actually alleged the CPI-M leaders of
Kuomintang connections, not of CIA. Anyway, the term became very popular and
was used to mean the Goebles squad of the CPI-M, something different from wahat
the Naxalites had referred to.
Unlike the
criminal-based Harmads, the Makus squad was formed by mediocre intellectuals by
promise of offering them positions which they would never be able to acquire on
their own merits. The CPI-M govt., as soon as they came to power in 1977 by
means of widespread rigging and coercion by the Harmads, started rewarding the
faithful Makus. The party kept their promise and no body in West Bengal could
be appointed at the post of a vice chancellor or pro-vice chancellor of a
university, principal of a college and headmaster of a school unless he is a
loyal Maku. In govt. colleges, and universities, all posts of professors were
filled with the Makus alone. Besides in all appointments in the state, priority
was assigned to the Makus. Cases of the others were considered only if any
vacancy remained after recruiting the Makus and none remained as the ranks of
the Makus swelled day by day. Even all the job seeking Makus could not be
recruited and here started the inner party discontent.
With the Makus
and their gullible followers the CPI-M could build up a powerful propaganda
machinery capable of distorting the truth and making falsehood acceptable to
common people. Their Bengali daily 'Ganashakti' and two T.V. channels –
Chabbish ghanta (meaning 24 hours) and Akashbangla were the main media of
propagating the lies. The Makus were rewarded by lucrative posts in exchange
for their devoted service to the party.
The Makchha
The majority of
the blind supporters of the CPI-M, are however, innocent people without any
direct or indirect involvement in the criminal activities of the party. They
are simpletons who foolishly gulp the propaganda of the Makus. They are
commonly known as Makchha (Makur chhana, i.e., offspring of the Makus).
Horror of the
Harmads
The horror f the
Harmads started in 1969 when they started capturing different rural areas and
driving out all supporters of the opponent parties by the prowess of modern
arms. The first gruesome murders committed by them was the Sain-bari incident
II. Sain-bari
Killings
During the 1969
United Front regime the Harmads started capturing villages by the power of arms
and driving out all the opponents or forcing them to express allegiance to
CPI-M. The top leaders, however, tried to restrain their activities as they
expected long-term benefits from the continuation of the non-congress govt. It
was, however, difficult to contain the Harmads, who had turned crazy being
lured by the looted property and women of the captured villages and therefore
they generated a milieu of terror and anarchy compelling the Central govt. to dismiss
the U.F. govt. and proclaim President's rule in the state on 16th March 1970.
Now, there being no obligation to save the UF govt. the Harmads went on rampage
right after the day of promulgation of President's rule. From the early morning
on 17th March, the Harmads, armed to the teeth, organized marches in different
areas. The most belligerent was the armed rally in Pratapeswar-Shibtola area of
the district of Burdwan where they were most organized under a notorious Harmad don. On their way the para-military
procession started extorting money from people, forced them to express
allegiance to CPI-M and humiliated women of the houses that fell on their way.
The Harmads were armed with sophisticated weapons and menacing, and already
stories were galore about their ruthlessness. So nobody dared protest or
complain to the police.
As soon as the
procession approached near the house of the Sains, flaming arrows were hurled
at their house (as the Sain brothers had the intrepidity to disregard the
diktats of the terrible don Benoy Konar to change allegiance from National
Congress to CPI-M and join the procession). The miscreants entered their house
in flames, brutally beheaded Pranab Sain and Malay Sain along with the house
tutor Jiten Roy who attempted to save the lives of the Sain brothers and the
face of the old mother of the Sains was smeared with the blood of her sons. The
sky was reverberated with the inhuman roar of exhilaration of the Harmad squad
after the heinous act. And their 'holi' game with the blood of the victims.
Shockwaves were
sent throughout the country but the CPI-M leaders, the Harmads and the Maku's
celebrated the murder with pomp. The Harmad dons organizing the crime were
declared as great heroes and assets of the party.
At 12:30 PM on the
same day, Mr. Dilip Kumar Bhattacharya lodged an FIR with the Burdwan Police
Station. The police promptly investigated the case and filed a charge sheet
against the miscreants who could be identified by the onlookers of the
incident. Eight of them, including a few top ranking Harmad dons, were
convicted and life imprisonment was imposed upon them by the District and
Sessions Judge of Burdwan in 1971.
Their appeals to
the High Court were rejected. They did not appeal to the Supreme Court for
reasons best known to them. Their bad days ended as soon as the CPI-M led Left
Front (LF) came to power in 1977. All the convicts of the Sain murder case were
released on unconditional and unlimited parole and the records of the case were
destroyed by Maku agents among the employees of the High Court.
After release by
underhand means, some of the dons were rewarded with lucrative posts in the
party and government. Two dons among
them later on played a crucial role in various anti people activities
characterized by grabbing of land of poor people, looting, rapes and mass
killings.
Everybody forgot
the incident and was unaware of the fact that convicts sentenced to life
imprisonment were roaming freely around with unconditional parole and
organizing various anti people activities and heinous crimes. An article by an
erstwhile I.A.S. officer, well known for his efficiency, honesty and integrity,
Mr. Debabrata Banerjee, in the Mainstream magazine in December 2009, brought to
the knowledge of everybody that criminals sentenced to life imprisonment were
mysteriously roaming around with unconditional parole for 32 years. This was
important as at least two of these convicts were closely associated with mass
killing in Nandigram during 2007.
The article
panicked and infuriated the CPI-M. The Maku squad came forward to create
confusion about the Sainbari facts by adopting 'Rashomon' technique. In the
film under the same title by the Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, a woman was
raped and his husband murdered by a bandit at Rashomon gate in Japan. The
account of the incident is given by four persons, the woman, the soul of her
husband, a passerby and the bandit. Version of each person differs radically
from the other versions and at the end the spectator remains completely confused
about what had actually happened. The Makus adopted the same technique by
publishing blogs and articles which contradicted each other. Even there were
deliberate contradictory statements within the same blog.
But people of
West Bengal had already become familiar with the lies of the CPI-M and the plan
to confuse common people failed miserably. Out of utter frustration the Maku's
started vilifying everything non-CPI-M by using obscene languages. The blogs
slandered against Mr. Banerjee, the editor of the relevant journal (because of
the intrepidity to permit publication of article speaking against the CPI-M),
all other journals and mass media except those under direct control of the
CPI-M.
III. Marich
Jhanpi Massacre
Marich Jhanpi is
an island in the Sundarbans area in West Bengal, India. Massacre of hundreds of
refugee settlers in Marich Jhanpi and adjacent islands by the Harmads during
1978-79 revealed the true character of the CPI-M dominated Left Front govt. in
West Bengal which captured power in 1977 by means of intimidation of the voters
and widespread rigging.
After partition
of India in 1947, the Eastern Muslim dominated part of Bengal went under
Pakistan and there was a rapid inflow of Hindu refugees into West Bengal from
East Pakistan (the present independent country of Bangladesh). Most of the well
to do refugees could manage to get settled in the cities in West Bengal, but
the majority, mainly the lower castes and poor people, were sent to Dandakaranya
forest in Orissa and Madhya Pradesh (now Chhattisgarh). There they were forced
to live in concentration camps named Permanent Liability Camps in extremely
miserable and inhuman conditions.
During the 1960s,
the CPI-M was the lone party which protested against the inhuman treatment of
the Bengali refugees in Dandakaranya and promised that they would get them
rehabilitated in West Bengal as soon as they assume power.
After the LF
govt. came to power in 1977, a leader of the CPI-M invited the Dandakaranya
refugees to West Bengal. He, however, thought that the helpless refugees would
not be able to travel to West Bengal at all or only a few hundreds would do so.
So when the refugees started pouring into West Bengal in thousands and
expressed their willingness to get settled in Marich Jhanpi and adjacent
islands the CPI-M got panicked realizing that accommodation of lakhs of
refugees would destroy the ecology of the mangrove zone. So, strong
administrative measures were adopted to resist the massive inflow of refugees.
They were detained at railway stations without food and water and the Hardamds
had the free hand in looting whatever little money they had and raping and
looting the females. Ultimately most of the refugees could be sent back to
Dandakaranya. Only about 15, 000 of them were permitted to reach the islands
and the govt. imposed the condition that they would have to eke out leaving
without any govt. help and without damaging ecology or stealing forest
resources.
All of a sudden
the govt. announced that the refugees who had already settled would have to
return back to Dandakaranya. But the refugees were unable to return. Moreover
even within the restricted conditions they felt they were better here than the
horrible camps. So they did not pay heed to the warnings of the govt. They were
certainly damaging resources and causing harm to ecology to eke out living but
the govt. should have known this before hand. It's really a mystery why they
were permitted to get settled at first and suddenly the govt. became
overenthusiastic to evict them.
Anyway when the
refugees did not pay heed to the warnings of the govt. the LF went all out to
evict the refugees from the mangrove islands. Accordingly on January 26, 1979,
thirty police launches created blockade of the relevant islands. Then their
fisheries, tube wells and all sources of water and food supply were destroyed
by the police. Finally, the police attacked them with tear gas shells. Still
the desperate refugees with their backs on the wall did not surrender. Then the
horrible Harmad attack commenced with police coverage. The huts of the refugees
were raged and there were wanton killing of the men folk. The females were gang
raped before being killed; even children and elderly women were not spared.
Many of those who jumped into the sea were either devoured by the crocodiles or
drowned. Those who surrendered to the police were however saved and sent back
to Dandakaranya. About forty five percent of the settlers were killed by the
Harmads.
The L.F. govt.
however, could hush up the matter as the police and the Harmads could
successfully block the entry of the media men at the time of the carnage. But
in 2002, the matter came to the fore when one eye witness and survivor of the
incident Jagadis Chandra Mandal published a book titled "Marich Jhanpi:
Naishwabder Antarale" [Sujan Publications, Calcutta; 2002]. The book came to the knowledge of the general
readers when at the annual Calcutta Book Fair that year the review of the book
by Jhinuk Chakrabarty titled “Ghrina O Lajjar Kalo Itihas” (The dark history of
hate and shame) was published on page 16 of the Fair’s journal Pustakmela.
This alerted the
Harmad and Maku chieftains, and within a few hours they seized all the copies
of the journal from the stalls. Some were also snatched from the buyers and
burnt. Later on new prints of the journal were issued with review of Jyoti
Bhusan Chaki’s book for children.
Later on the
Bengali fiction writers Amitav Ghosh in his novel 'Hungry tide' gave an
elaborate account of the gruesome incident (Ghosh, Amitav (2008): The Hungry
Tide, Harper Collins Publishers, London, PP.252-255, 260-262, 274-280]
IV. Anand Marg
Killings
On 30th April
1982, 16 sanyanis and a nun belonging to the Anand Marg were killed and burnt
on the Bijan Setu near Ballygunge railway station by the armed Harmads with
thousands of people watching with horror in perfect day light.
The incident had
indirect connection with the education policy of the LF govt. Within a few
years after the LF assumed power, the education system of West Bengal
completely collapsed. The exceptions were the Institutions run by the
Ramakrishna Mission, the Jesuit Churches and a few newly established
institutions run by the Anand Marg. The attempts by the Maku-Harmad combination
to attack the Ramakrishna Mission and the Jesuit institutions were foiled by
the timely intervention by Jyoti Basu, then Chief Minister of West Bengal. Then
these criminals realized that even attacking the organizers of these powerful
institutions would not be tolerated by the top ranking party leaders.
So they targeted
the Anand Marg. They did not attack the institutions apprehending intervention
by the chief minister. They started intimidating the sanyasis and nuns and
teachers of their institutions and the Goebles squad played their roles
perfectly by inventing connection between the Anand Marg and the CIA. This
organization, in fact, depended on donations from philanthropic US NGOs which
had nothing to do with the US govt. or the CIA.
The Anand Marg
sanyasis enhanced the hatred of the Makus by organizing educational seminars in
which they used to appeal to both the common people and the state govt. to
restore discipline and academic atmosphere in the educational institutions. In
certain areas of the Purulia district and Casba in Calcutta their preaching had
remarkable influence on the ordinary CPI-M supporters and members of the SFI,
the student wing of the CPI-M.
The guardians and
students notwithstanding their support to the party started questioning the
honesty and moral character of the Maku teachers and governing body members of
many institutions. Some of them were even heckled and humiliated by SFI
students and CPI-M supporters after they had been caught red handed while
indulging in various immoral activities.
The Makus had no
way out but to seek help of the Harmads to teach the sanyasis, who had
corrupted even their own party supporters, a good lesson. So the attack was
planned immaculately.
The gruesome
planned attack came right before an educational seminar organized by the Marg.
In the morning of 30th April 1982, the sanyasis and the nun hired taxis to
reach the venue of the seminar. As soon as the taxis carrying them had entered
the over-bridge called Bijan Setu, the armed Harmads blocked the two entries to
the bridge and posted armed guards at various points of the bridge so that the
masses cannot intervene. Then they dragged out the sanyasis and the nun from
the taxis, thrashed them to death and then the corpses were burnt after pouring
petrol on them. The three police stations close to the spot remained quiet over
the matter as the police officials had already intimidated that the Harmads
would not hesitate to start firing not only on them but also on the masses
watching the incident in case the police tried to approach the bridge.
Thousands of people watched the horrible killings but nobody could intervene
because of the armed Harmads guarding the entire bridge with threatening
announcements that anybody trying to intervene would be shot dead.
Later on the
Goebbels squad fabricated a story that the Anand Margis were killed by an irate
mass with unidentifiable political attachment for various mischief committed by
them. Several festivities were held by the Makus and the Harmads to celebrate
their glorious achievements.
Mr. Sher Singh,
IAS, the then additional district magistrate of 24 Parganas district was
suspended because of intrepidity to poke his nose into the matter.
V. Keshpur
Violence
Keshpur is a part
of the Panskura parliamentary constituency in the west Midnapore district. The
unique characteristic revealed by this locality during the late 1990s was that
there was a sharp inner party struggle in the CPI-M. On the one hand, the
leaders were ruthless Harmad dons and on the other, the lower rank, the
majority were dedicated communists. These young men were against the
exploitation of the poor people by the money lenders, landlords, contractors
and promoters holding important positions in the CPI-M. As the CPI-M leadership
took side with the Harmad dons, the cadres deserted the party and joined the
newly formed Trinamul Congress (TMC) which from the very beginning took side
with the oppressed poor people. The dons were cornered at this as they could
not mobilize adequate Harmad force to tackle the deserters. As a consequence in
the 2000 bye-election of the Panskura parliamentary constituency, the LF
candidate was defeated by the TMC candidate.
Now the dons
invited the Maoists from the adjacent state of Jharkhand to help them cope with
the situation. The Maoists accepted it as they found an opportunity to
establish their stronghold in West Bengal. They were aware of the exploitation
of the tribal people of the southern districts of West Bengal and expected to
establish a foothold among these oppressed people.
The Maoists
joined the Harmads to evict the TMC supporters (the erstwhile CPI-M cadres) and
thereafter they left the place to create their base among the tribals in the
jungle areas of the districts of Bankura, Midnapore and Birbhum. The Harmad
dons could now mobilize Harmad forces from other districts and in all the
subsequent elections the TMC lost miserably. In fact, in each election seventy
percent of the votes were cast by the Harmads and only thirty percent of the
voters were permitted to cast their votes. In course of these operations two
most ruthless enforcers Tapan Ghosh and Sukur Ali, the most ruthless murderers
ever seen in the country, emerged in the scene.
VI. Nanoor
Massacre
Soon after the LF
came to power in 1977, the poor people of this locality became virtual slaves
of the money lenders, land lords, promoters, contractors and tax extracting
goons, all belonging to the CPI-M. Any protest meant either torture by the
Harmad enforcers or arrest by the police branding the protester as a Naxalite
activist. After the success of the TMC in the Panskura election the oppressed
people saw a ray of hope in the new party and the influence of the party went
on increasing rapidly in the area dominated by poor people especially scheduled
castes and Muslims.
Then the Harmad
force took control of the entire area and declared that anybody showing
allegiance to the TMC would be punished mercilessly. They identified some
middle farmers who were spreading propagating for the TMC and threatened the
landless laborers of the locality that anyone working with these farmers would
be punished. They in fact wanted to punish these farmers not by any violent
means but by spoiling their agricultural production, the means of their
livelihood. While none of the local laborers could be mobilized, one such
farmer hired 11 landless laborers from outside. It was in the early morning on
27th July 2000. As soon as these laborers, unaware of the Harmad threat,
started working on the land of the farmer, armed Harmads attacked them and
brutally killed all of them.
The Maku's once
again concocted a story that they were decoits and killed by the local people
when they had attempted to commit robbery in a house at the locality. Later on
the erstwhile speaker of the Loksabha and M.P. from Bolpur (that contains
Nanoor), Mr. Somnath Chatterjee
described the victims as notorious anti-socials. However, when the stories did
not work, the local CPI-M leaders admitted that the 11 victims were innocent
landless laborers. To save face, top CPI-M leaders like Jyoti Basu, Biman Basu
and Anil Biswas condemned the massacre without forgetting to mention that this
was a reaction of torture on the CPI-M supporters by Trinamul Congress and
other parties opposed to the CPI-M.
The case was
delayed by the LF govt. by devious means and two main culprits Nitya Chatterjee
and Manirujjaman, filed nominations as CPI(M) candidates for the panchayat
polls in 2003.
On May 12, 2005
the Harmads tried to kill the chief witness of the case Abdul Khalek and in the
attack he and his guard were seriously injured. Four Harmads were arrested by
the police in this connection. The incident panicked the other witnesses. The
case was ultimately hushed up like many other crimes committed by the Harmads.
The case once
again became alive after the miserable performance of the LF in the last
parliamentary election. Because of increasing power of the TMC and the changed
attitude of the police the witnesses could now speak out fearlessly and
eventually, 44 Harmads were awarded life imprisonment by a session court. Later
on, however, 23 of the accused were acquitted by the Suri court because of weak
evidence against them.
Before going into
the Chhota Angaria horror, something must be said about the enforcers.
Enforcers
This is a tiny
group of the Harmads headed by two most brutal killers to enforce discipline in
the party, which actually means, preventing desertions to the TMC. Since 1998,
the newly emerged TMC created a serious threat to the CPI-M as there was mass
desertion of its cadres and members to the new party. The enforcer group was
created to prevent this. The following account of their modus operandi would
make it clear how they created panic among the party members who were willing
to join TMC.
Two of the
members of the party protested openly against the anti poor activities of the
party in their locality in west Midnapore and threatened to join TMC. A few
days after their protests the two houses were attacked at night and one
protester and the wife and five year old son (as the protester had already
absconded) were abducted by the enforcers and taken to a remote place inside
the forest. Two of the innocent party cadres were also taken along so that the
story is spread and creates panic among the deserting members. The three
victims were stripped naked and tied with trees.
They enforcers
had worn masks and they could not be recognized. First they started with the
man. After one hour of hitting, cutting and spreading of table salt in the
injuries, the victim was unrecognizable. All his nails were removed, eyes cut
out, noses and ears cut off , lips and knuckles crushed and skins removed from
various parts of the body.
They next started
with the boy and at last with the female which was most horrible.
The bodies were
then cremated inside the forest. The two young cadres who had lost
consciousness were brought to senses by sprinkling water on their face and they
were compelled to catch hold of the weapons used for the operation. The chief
enforcer told them, 'go propagate the incident, but without mentioning time and
place. Otherwise we'll hand over the weapons with your finger prints to the
police.'
The threat of
these enforcers is the reason for refusal of the victim to give witness in the
Chhota Angaria case which would be described in the next installment.
VII. Chhota
Angaria Annihilation
After the
combined Harmad-Maoist onslaught to evict the TMC supporters from the Keshpur
area, the Harmads could drive out the TMC supporters from the entire west
Midnapore district. Defection from the CPI-m was stopped by threat of
'enforcers-action' and most of the TMC supporters rejoined the LF simply to
save their lives.
Abdul Bakhtar
Mandal, and some of his followers at Chhota Angaria village in west Midnapore,
ignored the Harmad threats and continued campaigning for the TMC in the
assembly elections. so, now action was necessary. The two 'enforcers', along
with the killer team, surrounded the house of Mandal where TMC supporters had
assembled and set it ablaze on 4th January, 2001. Mandal himself could escape,
but most of the inmates were either burnt alive or shot dead by the Harmads.
Because of the tight-lips of the eye witnesses to the incident it is very
difficult to get the exact information about the number of persons killed in
the incident.
In fact, later on
when the CBI (central bureau of investigations) took up the case, all the
witnesses including the chief witness Bakhtar Mandal declined to co-operate as
they were all warned by the 'enforcers' that any cooperation with the CBI would
mean torturous death of the witness and his family members. For this reason,
the CBI was compelled to release the arrested persons, which included the two
chief 'enforcers', unconditionally and withdraw the charges against them. As
soon as these two pathological murderers were released from CBI custody, not
only the west Midnapore leaders, but also the top state-level leaders and
ministers celebrated the occasion by garlanding the 'enforcers' and describing
them as the 'most precious assets' of the party.
VIII. Singur and
Rape of Tapasi Malik
The Singur area
in the district of Hooghly in West Bengal is a agriculture rich area comprising
of several villages close to the Railway station and the national highway. There's
a river in the area and irrigation facilities are available to all the
cultivators each of whom used to own small plots of land. The literacy level of
the area is also very high. When the Tata Motors desired to set up their
factory for the production of a cheap motor car 'Nano' (costing only $2,500),
and out of the six sites offered by the
LF government the Tatas offered their choice for Singur being the most suitable
land for the factory because of transportation and other infrastructural
facilities. The Tatas also had in mind establishment of a large number of
ancillary industries and small scale production units serving the consumers of
the hinterland by leasing out land to various companies.
For this purpose,
the demanded about 1000 acres of land. To meet their demand the LF government
resorted to an old rule of land acquisition, enacted long ago by the British
rulers. Basically, the rule, once dubbed as a 'black rule', was designed to
acquire agricultural land from the cultivators by legal order for public
projects.
The controversy
started as now the law was invoked to acquire 997 acres of rich agricultural
land by the government for the project of a private company. Besides, most the
cultivators were evicted from land at gun point by the Harmads. Soon the there
was a massive resistance from the evicted farmers notwithstanding the threats
of the Harmads. These now-landless cultivators reduced to proletariats defied
the constant threats of the Harmads and their movement got supports from the honest
intellectuals in West Bengal, the great celebrities like Medha Patkar, Anuradha
Talwar, Arundhati Roy and above all the intrepid Trinamul leader Miss Mamada
Bandyopadhyay. The support of this leader (who had already become an idol among
the common people of West Bengal with deep faith in the myths of incarnations
of mother goddesses to drive out the
demons), made the desperate agitators all the more powerful. The Harmads had to
retreat cowardly, and the false propaganda of the Maku's produced no results
and simply made them laughing stocks to the masses in West Bengal.
The Tatas finally
decided to move out of Singur on 3rd, October, 2008 leaving behind the half
constructed factory. Most of the installed machineries and shades were,
however, removed to Sanand in Gujerat where they constructed the mini car
factory on a vast piece of arid land offered by the Chief Minister Narendra
Modi.
The most pathetic
incident connected with the Singur case was the brutal rape and murder of
Tapasi Malik, a teen-age peasant's daughter who was among the first protesters
against land-grabbing. Before going into the incident let us analyze the
economic justifiability of establishing
mini-car factory.
Tatas were
justified in selecting Singur as the site of the factory. We should remember
that profit should be the ultimate goal of a corporate house. Private
corporations are not philanthropic institutions. If any firm turns
philanthropic, it would simply perish as in the game its competitors would not
turn philanthropist. They demanded the best possible land for the factory and
it was none of their business to see how the LF government would procure them.
They were by no means responsible for the heinous activities of the Harmads,
nor they had any obligation to rehabilitate the evicted cultivators. Here Mr.
Ratan Tata made a mistake. He wanted to eat the cake and have it at the same
time. He wanted to earn high profits through the car and the other small units
and at the time wanted to become a messiah among the unemployed in West Bengal.
Had Charlie Chaplin been alive, he would surely made a film out of it, 'the
Great Industrialist.'
What is the fun
in Tata's promises of employment?
Without going
into detail simply think of the forward and backward linkage effects of a cheap
luxury consumers durables industry with an agricultural hinterland? The
positive or spread effect would be nil. It would inspire neither industries
selling raw materials and intermediates nor industries buying intermediates
from it. The negative effect or backwash effect would be horrible. The
ancillaries and small units were specifically chosen to destroy the craft and
low- skilled small units in a vast area around the place.
Now think of the
maximum possible employment potential with a highly capital-intensive industry
like motor car.
The conservative
estimate puts the figure of indirect unemployment which the Tata scheme would
have generated at around 1,89,000. Add with this the evicted cultivators and
along with them the share-croppers and landless laborers associated with them
and deduct the maximum possible employment that the car factory and
sophisticated ancillaries could generate. In brief, the great philanthropic
hero, Mr. Ratan Tata, was going to reward West Bengal with a gift of
unemployment of two hundred thousands.
Anyway,
industrialist is an industrialist and both Kautilya and Adam Smith dubbed them
as oppressors of people in essence and it is a duty of the state to see to it
that they cannot do so. Now why did the LF government take such a decision.
Now one may
wonder what is the logic behind the adamant decision on the part of the CIP-M
for a project with eviction of a large number of poor cultivators and having
serious long term adverse impact on employment situation of the state.
The logic is very
simple. It is beneath dignity for cadres at the lower strata to travel by two
wheelers. But they cannot afford to buy costly cars. So a cheap car was an
urgent necessity and that is economics, that is Marxism. So Tat's proposal
conformed perfectly to the economics of the Harmads and Makus.
Now let us pass
on to the tragic Tapasi Malik rape case.
Tapasi Malik rape
& murder case
Tapasi Malik, the
teen-age daughter of a poor peasant became a staunch supporter of the 'save
farm' movement of the evicted Singur peasants since their land had been
grabbed. She had the courage to openly protest against the intimidation of the
Harmads.
On 18th December,
2006, when at 5 A.M. she went out of their house to answer nature's call, she
was dragged by hair by the Harmads inside the area barbed wired for the Nano
factory. She was then gang raped by the Harmads. Then in a pit dragged
beforehand for the purpose, she was burnt alive. Her abdominal area was totally
burnt off. The villagers discovered her burnt body at 6 A.M. The police
immediately rushed to the spot and dispersed the villagers. Then they dragged
her father, Sri Manoranjan Malik and forced him under coercion to write that it
was a case of suicide because of a family problem. The mass, now magnified,
could snatch away the papers from the police tear off the papers containing
false affidavit of Tapasi's father. The leader of the opposition (TMC) in the
legislative assembly soon came to the spot and made the police to write the FIR
of murder.
It was a well
planned case and the Makus had already prepared their story that it was a case
of suicide because of a family quarrel. These Goebbels squad Makus always
remembered the famous saying of Promode Dasgupta at the initiation of the
squad, 'a lie told hundred times becomes a truth', but his theory was disproved
again. the suicide story did not stand for the following reasons:
1. A girl of a
peasant family would have used easily available pesticides for that purpose but
it has now been proven that a complex aromatic organic compound, more volatile
than kerosene, was used to set Tapasi on fire. It was done so that no evidence
remained. This has been confirmed by D.P. Tarenia, the CID inspector-general.
2. A girl would
not spray petrol on her abdomen to get herself killed, generally people spray
these stuff from above.
3. Why should a
girl try to seek a pit to commit suicide and why should she first go down the
pit and then set herself on fire ?
The pit was dug
so that she could be buried and all her traces would disappear and she would
become just another name in the missing list at the local police station.
4. Her hair was
found strewn all over the different parts deep
inside the
guarded area in different spots. It had been ripped off from her
scalp while she
was still alive.
5. She was found
with her tongue protruding out,
which clearly
proves she was tortured before she was burnt.
6. Her loin
clothes lay far apart from her body.
7. Why would a
girl choose a protected area and heavily guarded area
to commit suicide
?
8. How can a girl
like that get into such a heavily guarded area
if she even
wanted to ?
9. Why did the
police try to push a statement through her
father that she
committed suicide?
10.The cuts on
her ankles, has now led the CID to believe that she was
dragged through
the field by her hair.
Then again the
indefatigable Makus fabricated another fantastic story that the girl was
murdered by her father and brother. one over enthusiastic Maku even concocted
the brazen story that the girl was a professional call girl.
Because of the
proved connivance of the state police with the Harmads, the high court
transferred the case from the police to the CBI. Two of the culprits, members
of the Hooghly district committee of the CPI-M and noted Harmad 'enforcers'
were arrested by the CBI on the basis of reliable evidence. The Makus now
fabricated the story that these two 'enforcers' had fell victim to a conspiracy
of the opposition parties.
The case, however,
could not be continued because of the lack of witnesses (most of them were
threatened to silence by the 'enforcers') and the culprits were released from
the Presidency jail and were received with garlands by top CPI-M leaders, the
Harmads and the Makus.
IX. Nandigram
Genocide
The LF government
of West Bengal decided to acquire 14,000 acres of multi-cropping rich
agricultural land from the area Nandigram in the East Midnapore district and
hand it over for setting up a SEZ (special economic zone) to the Salem group of
Indonesia.
To acquire land
in a high handed way, the Harmad don Lakshman Seth declared on 28th December,
2006, on behalf of the Haldia Development Authority that about 14,000 acres of
land would be acquired from the cultivators of Nandigram.
The villagers,
disregarding the threats of the Harmads, protested against the decision before
the panchayat office on 3rd January 2007. the police arrived in no time and
dispersed the protesters by lathi charging.
Soon the
villagers organized themselves into the Bhumi Uchhed Protirodh Committee (BUPC)
(Committee Against Eviction from Land) and started putting up barricades on the
road by felling trees, digging roads and placing massive stones on the roads at
regular gaps so as to prevent the entry of police jeeps. The Harmads soon
arrived from various pars of the state and created an armed camp at Khejuri,
right outside Nandigram. On 7th January, 2006, a large number of Harmads, armed
with sophisticated weapons, attacked the villagers and three villagers were
killed in the encounter. The villagers could, however, repulse the attack and a
Harmad was killed in the encounter. A parallel administration was set up by the
cultivators and a resistance group was formed to combat the attacks by the
police and the Harmads.
Realizing the
impossibility of subjugating the reluctant cultivators by sheer threat,
Buddhadeb Bhattacharya sought time to chalk out some effective plan and to
befool the cultivators, announced on 9th February, 2007 that no land would be
acquired without the consent of the affected cultivators. Now before going into
the unraveling the true character of this great hypocrite, a dark spot in the
company of the state chief ministers in India since independence, let us have a
brief look at the reasons why the CPI-M was so adamant to hold their control
over Nandigram.
Reasons
Salim-friendship
Salim Group is
the Javanese company owned by the close and trusted friend of the CPI-M,
Suharto who had become the president by ousting Sukarno in 1967 and held the
position till his resignation in 1998. During the late sixties, Suharto, expert
in annihilating leftist communists, gave the CPI-M the guidelines to crush the
Naxalites during the first UF government in West Bengal.
The notorious
Salim group selected their trusted friend as the last resort to find foothold
in the less developed countries and the CPI-M tried to their best to assist
their friend.
Comprador of the
reckless transnational firms
The CPI-M tried
prove their role as a friend of the transnational capitalists seeking profit at
any cost. The process of reckless globalization had come to an impasse with the
beginning of the new millennium. the environment awareness all over the world
had already put severe hurdles on the path of their reckless industrialization.
Moreover, the global economic crisis of the late 1990s and the subsequent views
of Stiglitz and other great economists led to a paradigm shift as regards globalization.
the view that industrialization should have a 'human face' gained much currency
in the international arena. Governments and
public in almost all the countries started objecting against reckless
industrialization and profit mongering by the transnational capitalists at the
cost of the majority. Under these circumstances the capitalists still goaded by
reckless profit mongering were
desperately looking for allies and compradors in the less developed countries
and the CPI-M wanted to proof themselves as the ally of the distressed
capitalists.
Panchayat
elections
Panchayats were
one of the most important sources of rural power and party fund for the CPI-M
and establishing control over the Nandigram zone was necessary for success in
the ensuing panchayat election.
The 2nd attack
The second attack
took the Nandigram people completely unawares. They had taken Buddha's
assurances in face value and leaving in fool's paradise that soon the
government would sit with the protesters to decide about the land issue.
The onslaught
came on 14th March, 2007. Hundreds of Harmads wearing police uniforms (mixed
with the accompanying police force) and armed with Kalashnikov rifles attacked
the villagers and took possession of the area after indiscriminate killing and
raping. More than 14 villagers were killed and hundreds wounded, many females,
age ranging from five to sixty five were gang raped. But ultimately the valiant
people of Nandigram, both women an men with simple weapons like sticks, iron
rods and domestic choppers could chase away the criminals, the spineless
cowards looking for girls to be raped.
Now protests came
from all quarters. The allied parties of LF blamed CPI-M for the cold blooded
murder and raping. All the honest and sensible citizens and intellectuals
demanded resignation of the incorrigible Buddha, the mastermind behind the
heinous operation. Sumit Sarker and Tanika Sarker, the eminent historian
couples returned their Rabindra
Puraskars, the highest literary awards by the West Bengal government, and
reacted by saying, “Jallianwalabag
massacre happened in colonial India but what happened in Nandigram is
shocking since it happened in a Left-ruled government in independent India…
here the entire CPI-M (Communist Party of India-Marxist) machinery and the
government were involved in the killings.”
A protest
procession was taken out by 2000 advocates of the Bar Association of West
Bengal. The governor of West Bengal Mr. Gopal Krishna Gandhi, the grand son of
Mahatma Gandhi, expressed deep shock over the incident. another incorrigible
congenital criminal, Biman Basu, criticized the Governor for making such
comment without prior permission from the ruling party.
A silent
procession was taken out by the honest intellectuals that included non-political
eminent literary men, scholars, film men to protest against the heinous crime.
Some spineless
intellectuals, occupying various coveted positions beyond their merits in
colleges and universities, some corrupt fiction writers and poets and film men
reputed as great womanizers held out a counter procession the day after the
first procession attributing the intellectuals taking part previous procession
with unprintable words and vociferously uttering threats that soon they would
learn a good lesson. They directed committed CPI-M supporters to burn out the
black-hands of these pampered dogs of the US imperialists and dig graves fore
them.
On 16.11.2007, a
two-judge bench of the High Court, consisting of The Hon’ble Chief Justice S.
Nijjar, and the Hon’ble Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghosh, declared the action
of the police to open fire at Nandigram
on 14.03.2007 was wholly unconstitutional and cannot be justified under any
provision of the law. The Hon'ble judges also directed the State of West Bengal
to pay to the victims immediate compensations.
Amnesty
International expressed serious concern over the incident and urged the LF
government to ensure that all persons under its jurisdiction are protected from
forced eviction and displacement, and that all those forcibly displaced during
the violence are ensured at the very least minimum essential levels of food,
shelter, water and sanitation, health care and education, as well as their
right to voluntary return or resettlement, and reintegration.
Under such
pressure Mr. Buddha once again played his trick and declared on 3rd September,
2007 that the site for the SEZ would be shifted from Nandigram to the sparsely
populated island of Nayachar, 30 kilometres from Haldia.
The camp mystery
The shameless
Maku's started fabricating stories that more than one thousand supporters of
the CPI-M had been evicted by the protesters from Nandigram and they were
living in miserable condition in temporary camps at Khejuri right outside Nandigram.
The actual number was much less and surprisingly not a
single evicted CPI-M supporters in the camp spoke the local dialect. moreover,
each of them possessed sophisticated arms and weapons. the same thing is true
about all other camps of evicted CPI-M supporters in other places and at other
times. the fact is that in all the cases evicted CPI-M supporters were there no
doubt, but none of them were local residents; they were the Harmads from
outside who had made inroads into the locality and later on driven out by local
people.
It would not be
out of place to give the account of a local CPI-M leader, an important member
of the panchayat samity of Lalgarh of West Midnapore. He had fled to Kolkata
with his family. While I asked him if he had left his house in fear of the Maoists,
he laughed aloud and made be completely flummoxed by saying, 'it's the fear of
the Harmads that has compelled me to leave my home. All the inmates of the camp
of 'evicted CPI-M supporters' close to
our house were outsiders. None of them spoke the local dialect; some even could
not speak Bengali and spoke Hindi or Urdu. Huge arms were stored in the camp.'
'We were told by
top local leaders that they were there to protect us from the attack of the
Maoists (imaginary!).' We had to entertain them with costly food and other
services. Then one day they saw my wife and sixteen year and ordered me to send
both of them to the camp at night.' I immediately shifted them to my relatives
house at Salt Lake and related the matter to the party leadership at Kolkata.
One of the topmost leaders of the party admonished me by saying that it's a
matter of shame that a trusted party worker fails to make such trifle sacrifice
for the party.'
The 3rd attack:
Sunrise or Sunset!
It came at a time when people of West Bengal were busy
celebrating the Deepavali festival. this time Mr. Buddhu did not involve the
police. Although the attack came all of a sudden, the villagers should have
predicted something like this as on 4th November, Brinda Karat, (a politburo
member of the CPI-M and wife of the General Secretary of the Party Prakash
Karat ) exhorted the Harmads to
recapture Nandigram by unleashing brutal attack on the on the villagers of Nandigram. She had, however, wrongly used
the term 'Dum Dum dawai' which happened during 1960 when a large number of
enraged people had brutally attacked the hoarders and money lenders at Dum Dum.
However, here the attackers were the representatives of the money lenders,
hoarders, corrupt promoters and black marketers and the attacked innocent small
cultivators. So it was a reverse Dum Dum dawai.
The entire
operation was organized by the two brutal enforcers under whose leadership
hundreds of Harmads armed with long range Kalashnikov rifles. mortars, Molotov
cocktails, hand grenades and naphtha bombs encircled Nandigram from all sides
and entry of the outsiders including the journalists was completely blocked.
The invaders, from six different directions, went on invading village after
village by killing people and setting fire on houses indiscriminately. The
killers used 500 captured BUPC members, mostly women, as shields while
advancing through the villages and this gave the villagers little opportunity
to resist the attack which started on 6th November 2007 and ended after all the
villages were under the control of the Harmads on 8th November. Red flags were
raised at the top of all the houses. Thousands of villagers had fled from the
villages and taken shelter in the houses of relatives or refugee camps outside
the Nandigram war-zone. The male supporters of the BUPC who had failed to
escape were hunted out by the Harmads and killed after exemplary torture by the
enforcers. Then started indiscriminate looting of properties and raping of
women of all ages and unfortunately a large number of females had failed to
escape out of the locality. Some females were killed after raping and the
others, especially the young ones, were taken to the Khejuri armed camp either
to be sent to the harems of the leaders or sold in the slut market.
Being shocked by
the heinous genocide and mass raping by the Harmads, the West Bengal governor
Gopal Krishna Gandhi said on 9th November:
“The ardor of
Deepavali has been dampened in the whole State by the events in Nandigram.
Several villages in Nandigram are oscillating from the deepest gloom to panic.
Large numbers of armed persons from outside the district have, it is
undeniable, forced themselves onto villages in Nandigram Block I and II for
territorial assertion. Thousands of villagers have consequently been intimidated
into leaving their homes … several huts are ablaze. Large numbers of villagers
have taken refuge in the local high school in Nandigram, bereft of food and
personal security…”. “At the time of writing, the most accurate description for
Nandigram is the one used by our Home Secretary, namely, it has become “a war
zone”. No Government or society can allow a war zone to exist without immediate
and effective action…the manner in which the “recapture” of Nandigram villages
is being attempted is totally unlawful and unacceptable. I find it equally
unacceptable that while Nandigram has been ingressed with ease by armed people
on the one hand, political and non-political persons trying to reach it have
been violently obstructed. Some of them were bearing relief articles for the
homeless. …effective action will have to be taken … These includes (i) the
immediate return of the ingressers (ii) the giving of urgent relief to the
displaced persons in Nandigram and (iii) the facilitation of their return to
their homes… unless these steps are taken within hours, and the syndrome of
“capture and recapture” is not ended, … the peace talks process will remain
grounded. …Let me conclude by saying: Enough is enough."
Reacting to the
despicable act of the CPI-M, the Argentinean progressive filmmaker Salanas, who
was invited as a special guest in Kolkata Film Festival, left Kolkata in utter
disgust.
On 13th November,
the trigger happy Buddha made the comment before the hilarious celebrators of
the victory, “They have been paid back in the same coin.”
Benoy Konar, the
president of the krishak sabha (the peasant wing of CPI-M had the satisfaction
to see his prophecy come true: in January 2007 after failure of the first
Harmad attack on the cultivators of Nandigram, had issued the grave warning to
the people of Nandigram, “We’ll surround from all sides all the four gram
panchayats and make life hell for them. Then they will understand the
fun!"
The heinous
operation was hailed by the Makus and Harmads as 'Sunrise in Nandigram' and the
occasion celebrated pompously. However, the other LF partners and even the
CPI-M minister for Land and Land Reform, expressed reservations on the brutal
operation. Buddha commented that they were paid back in their own coin.
While fleeing
after the operation, the two most notorious enforcers Sukur Ali and Tapan
Ghosh, absconding since CBI charge sheet in connection with Chhota Angaria
murders, were caught by the public and handed over to the police. They were,
however, soon released on bail and received with garlands by the top CPI-M
leaders.
The governor
Gopal Krishna Ganghi described the incident in brief as 'cold horror'.
The 'Sunrise',
however, turned into the beginning of the 'Sunset' for the CPI-M, the most
notorious criminal organization under the guise of a recognized All India
political party, not only for Nandigram but also for the rest of West Bengal.
Reaction soon took hold of the people of entire West Bengal and the strong wind
of virtuous forces started wiping out the evil forces of the CPI-M, the Harmads
and the Makus.
X. Mangalkot
Murders
Mangalkot, an
erstwhile stronghold of the Harmads in the district of Burdwan, was gradually
shifting side being inspired by the new wind of justice and fearlessness. This
panicked the Harmads and local people were threatened by the local dons. In an
encounter with the unarmed masses a notorious Harmad was killed on 15th June
2009 and the incident was followed by wanton murder, raping, looting and
burning of houses of people who were shifting allegiance. For this purpose
Harmads from other parts of the Burdwan district rushed to the area.
On 15th July,
2009, a team of Congress MPs (members of parliament) attempted to visit the place and restore
peace in the area, they were attacked and chased by the Harmads before the eyes
of the inactive police. Most of the MPs were seriously wounded.
XI. Netai Firing
A Harmad armed
camp was formed in the Netai area of the Lalgarh of West Midnapur during
December 2010. According to the villagers the camp consisting of about 25 armed
Harmads from outside was formed at the house of the local Maku leader Rathin
Dandapat. After establishment of the camp at the village, the CRPF (central
reserve police force) left the village leaving the helpless villagers at the
hands of the notorious criminals.
The torture on
the villagers started soon. They were forced to cook for and wash clothes of
the Harmads. One man was forced to make 40 to 50 chapattis in one day. The
members of the camp shouted at villagers for any mistakes in cooking, like more
salt or better taste. The non armed villagers were compelled to guard the armed
men of the camp. One day they forced, at gun point, the villagers to
participate in the rally of CPI(M). Unwillingly they were obeying all orders
from the camp.
The agricultural
work of the villagers was hampered for their service at the camp and
gradually it became unsafe for all the
females to go out of home. Still they were not spared and their were repeated
orders from the camp to send young girls for the service of the Harmads. Huge
arms and ammunitions were also stockpiled in the camp.
The picture of
this camp was not different from the other Harmad camps (more than 90 in West
Midnapore) claimed by the top CPI-M leaders and the Goebbels squad of the Makus
to be the refugee camps of the evicted CPI-M supporters. But people of this
area, unlike those around the other camps, showed courage by not sending their
females to the camps. The Harmads were however, order by the top leaders to
hold their patience in this regard and not to forcefully lift females from the
village.
On the first week
of January, 2011, the Harmads issued an order that all villagers in the age
group 18-35 should undergo arms training in the camp with a view to
annihilating supporters or members of non-CPI-M parties. After that, on 6th
January, the villagers unanimously decided that it was not possible to take
arms training.
On 7th January
around 2 thousand villagers out of four thousand population, gathered before
the camp at 8 AM. The villagers and the camp members held discussions at the
Bat-tala Chalk which is 20 to 25 meter away from the camp or the house of Rathin
Dandapat. They told the leaders of the camp that villagers were not willing to
take arms training. After discussion of 15 to 20 minutes the leaders said that
they required the consent of the higher party committee in this matter.
In the name of
consent of higher committee they called the armed Harmads from the other camps
close to Netai. After few minutes, from south of the village some armed men
entered the village. Then firing on the people started simultaneously from the
camp and the incoming Harmads.
At least nine
persons including four women were killed at the spot and hundreds were injures.
The police force
from the nearby Lalgarh police station came to the village after 6 hours of the
incident allowing the Harmads to fire at the villagers for a long time and the
police did not take any initiative to resist the incident from nearby police
station. On the contrary, the police gave the murderers to get away from the
place of the incident. The police also did not co-operated with the villagers
to hospitalize the injured persons. This proved beyond doubt the connivance
between the West Bengal police, the central reserve police force and the
Harmads in the heinous firing on unarmed villagers on 7th January, 2011.
The above
incident brought to the light the true nature of the CPI-M camps described by
Makus as the sheltering camps for the evicted members of their party
| Destroyer of West Bengal | ||||
| By Kanchan Gupta | ||||
Uncharitable as it may sound, but there really is no reason to nurse fond memories of Jyoti Basu. In fact, there are no fond memories to recall of those days when hopelessness permeated the present and the future appeared bleak. Entire generations of educated middle-class Bengalis were forced to seek refuge in other States or migrate to America as Jyoti Basu worked overtime to first destroy West Bengal's economy, chase out Bengali talent and then hand over a disinherited State to Burrabazar traders and wholesale merchants who overnight became 'industrialists' with a passion for asset-stripping and investing their 'profits' elsewhere. A State that was earlier referred to as 'Sheffield of the East' was rendered by Jyoti Basu into a vast stretch of wasteland; the Oxford English Dictionary would have been poorer by a word had he not made 'gherao' into an officially-sanctioned instrument of coercion; 'load-shedding' would have never entered into our popular lexicon had he not made it a part of daily life in West Bengal though he ensured Hindustan Park, where he stayed, was spared power cuts. It would have been churlish to grudge him the good life had he not exerted to deny it to others, except of course his son Chandan Basu who was last in the news for cheating on taxes that should have been paid on his imported fancy car. Let it be said, and said bluntly, that Jyoti Basu's record in office, first as Deputy Chief Minister in two successive United Front Governments beginning 1967 (for all practical purposes he was the de facto Chief Minister with a hapless Ajoy Mukherjee reduced to indulging in Gandhigiri to make his presence felt) and later as Chief Minister for nearly 25 years at the head of the Left Front Government which has been in power for 32 years now, the "longest elected Communist Government" as party commissars untiringly point out to the naïve and the novitiate, is a terrible tale of calculated destruction of West Bengal in the name of ideology. It's easy to criticise the CPI(M) for politicising the police force and converting it into a goons brigade, but it was Jyoti Basu who initiated the process. It was he who instructed them, as Deputy Chief Minister during the disastrous UF regime, to play the role of foot soldiers of the CPI(M), first by not acting against party cadre on the rampage, and then by playing an unabashedly partisan role in industrial and agrarian disputes. The fulsome praise that is heaped on Jyoti Basu today - he is variously described by party loyalists and those enamoured of bhadralok Marxists as a 'humane administrator' and 'farsighted leader' - is entirely misleading if not undeserving. Within the first seven months of the United Front coming to power, 43,947 workers were laid off and thousands more rendered jobless as factories were shut down following gheraos and strikes instigated and endorsed by him. The flight of capital in those initial days of emergent Marxist power amounted to Rs 2,500 million. In 1967, there were 438 'industrial disputes' involving 165,000 workers and resulting in the loss of five million man hours. By 1969, there were 710 'industrial disputes' involving 645,000 workers and a loss of 8.5 million man hours. That was a taste of things to come in the following decades. By the time Jyoti Basu demitted office, West Bengal had nothing to boast of except closed mills and shuttered factories; every institution and agency of the State had been subverted under his tutelage; and, the civil administration had been converted into an extension counter of the CPI(M) with babus happy to be used as doormats. Did Jyoti Basu, who never smiled in public lest he was accused of displaying human emotions, ever spare a thought for those who suffered terribly during his rule? Was he sensitive to the plight of those who were robbed of their lives, limbs and dignity by the lumpen proletariat which kept him in power? Did his heart cry out when women health workers were gang-raped and then two of them murdered by his party cadre on May 17, 1990 at Bantala on the eastern margins of Kolkata? Or when office-bearers of the Kolkata Police Association, set up under his patronage, raped Nehar Banu, a poor pavement dweller, at Phulbagan police station in 1992? "Emon to hoyei thaakey," the revered Marxist would say, and then go on to slyly insinuate that the victims deserved what they got. |
||||
| As a Bengali, I grieve for the wasted decades but for which West Bengal, with its huge pool of talent, could have led India from the front. I feel nothing for Jyoti Basu. | ||||
| Source: Sunday pioneer, January 10, 2010 |
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