When a people lose the confidence of the government, it is time to dissolve the people and elect a new one. Thus spake Brecht and this is exactly what the Indian heirs of Stalin are doing in West Bengal. On the day of the 90th anniversary of the October Revolution the armed gangs of the CPM launched another bloody attack on the people of Nandigram who had committed the crime of refusing to be its Praja anymore. The Home secretary of the West Bengal who is supposed to know what is happening in the state said that it is a war like situation in Nandigram and the CPM is leading the attack. He was promptly censured by the patriarch Jyoti Babu and the hawk Biman Bose. They castigated him for his ‘lack of understanding’ of the ground situation which, they claimed was based on misinformation. Who has the ‘Right’ information, pray? Who, but the Party! The Party is all pervasive in the state of WB and the Home Secretary was trying to commit the greatest blasphemy questioning it.
How many people have been killed and how many displaced? You would never know the exact figure and extent as the area is under seige and the CPM would never allow ‘outsiders’ to meddle into their affairs. They are sorting it out and the state government of the West Bengal has given them a free run. This is one reason why the party has asked Buddhadeb to wait a little till they have finished their business of cleansing Nandigram of the undesirable elements.
What you are witnessing in West Bengal is a true Stalinist Terror unleashed on a people which refused to follow the Party prescription of development. How dare they, Benoy Konar, the Togadia of the CPM thundered. We would make their life hell if they do not fall in line, he had warned, and hell it has been for last six months. The people of Nandigram are facing economic blockade, isolation, their children have lost precious months as schools have stopped normal functioning.
The violence on the Nandigram people is not a local decision. Violence from the Party has got sanction from the top. The Left front chairman Biman Bose told the media that they cannot be expected to shower ROSHOGOLLAS when bombs were being thrown on them. [Incidentally, this is a line attributed to Jyoti Basu himself, during the 1960s, the heyday of the Naxalite movement.] The unofficial chief of the Party Jyoti Basu found a logic for the party violence when he said that they could do little as they have been pushed to the wall. More steel was added to the Bengal CPM muscles when Brinda Karat issued a clarion call to her women cadre last week in Kolkata to adiminster ‘DAM DAM DAWAI’ [the Dum Dum medicine – an expression used to refer to the fact that in Dum Dum area, the CPM in the days of the terror in the 1970s, ‘fought back with arms’ – a euphemism for the fact that the party had mobilized then, under the then youth leader Subhash Chakrabarty (now maverick minister) mobilized gangs of criminals to pay back the Congress in its own coin.] to the political opportunists. Brinda was speaking in Bangla to make sure that her message goes to the lowest on the party ladder. What was she trying to prove? That she should not be mistaken as a soft spoken elite Bhadra mahila ? that she has learnt the ropes and can be as violent and perverse as the real class man Benoy Konar? That she has finally declassed herself? Is she aware, as one commentator has rightly asked that she has committed a cognizable offence by making a public call for violence ? She is a politburo member of the party and the only recognized woman face of CPM nationally. Would the party and its General Secretary kindly make their position clear on this matter?
No wonder the attacks by the CPM turned fiercer after the call by Brinda Karat. We are told that it is not she who monitors, plans and executes things in West Bengal. What she does is to legitimize the violence done by the party men. She is also a member of Rajya Sabha. One expected her to talk sanity when everything seems to be going haywire in West Bengal. But she chose to be more belligerent. It is a very mild question to ask: Was it not highly irresponsible on part to have done so? What we are witnessing in Bengal is a disorientated Party. It had not expected people to react the way they did in Nandigram and elsewhere. It is also getting desperate by the possibility of losing support of the people in more areas. Recent agitations against large scale party backed corruption on the PDS front is adding to its worry. In utter frustration and confusion the CPM has fallen back on the only language it knows well: the language of violence. It is not very surprising that the violence by the CPM is creating a fertile ground for the violent politics of the Maoists. Yes, land mines are being used in West Bengal. Who is doing it? Not the CPM as they know only to make bombs and use firearms. It has to be the Maoists, we are told. We may or may not agree. But there can be little disagreement on the fact that the state has allowed CPM to behave as its armed force. What is evident is that the state does not seem to be so perturbed by its loss of authority in Nandigram, it is more concerned about CPM losing its hold permanently there.
Recent events have brought in sharp relief the nexus between the party and police and the state organs. People of Bengal are telling the party in the language they have been taught by it for last three decades that they want it to leave them alone. CPM has already lost the moral battle. It lies battered and is in pieces. It will not be long before this moral defeat gets converted into defeat which is understood in political terms. It took 30 long years for the people of West Bengal to finally start dismantling the Stalinist rule. 30 years is a long time but it is shorter than 70.
KAFILA - COLLECTIVE EXPLORATIONS SINCE 2006 
It been reported that Medha Patakar and her friends have been attacked by the CPM cadre while they were on their way to Nandigram.The assault took place in the presence of the police. The party men were shouting that they would not let Medha enter Nandigram at any cost.
Does this attack remind you of the picture of Medha being pushed around, dragged by her hair by the BJP goons at the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad after the 2002 genocide?
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very frankly, if the Maoists are there in nandigram leading the people’s resistance against an extremely violent and dictatorial state, what is wrong in that? how else do you plan to fight this lumpen CPM brigade?the ‘hopes’ of civil society can not wish away on its own the violent reality of the CPM regime. and in it, i feel the Maoists are the only hope for the fighting and resilient mass. after all who shot the first bullet?it is the state..the people in Nandigram are just fighting it back now to secure their land and livelihood. without the Maoists and their help..this could never be achieved.
so please keep this civil society pacifism to yourself only..
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Thanks, Apoorva, for a good article. The last sentence, however, suggests that the November Revolution was a mistake from the very beginning, a mere regime change. On the contrary, it was an event where the people actually made history, and became a beacon of hope for the oppressed worldwide.
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I do agree with you Rajesh, that the November/October revolution was not or should not be treated as some monstrosity in itself. It was actually an instance of people making history. However, I do not think that Apoorvanand really meant that. Nonetheless, it is good to point that out as a word of caution. I often think that the Russian revolution – like so many others, was a major spontanesous uprising which was ultimately, ‘taken over’ by a determined vanguard. It is this vanguard – and its accompanying mindset (reflected, e.g. in Jaya’s comment about keeping ‘your civil society pacifism to yourself’), that is really problematic. When the revolutionary upsurge was at its peak, remember Lenin observing that ‘while the proletariat is fighting, the bourgeoisie is stealing towards power’? The implication was therefore that ‘we’ on behalf of the proletariat should tale over power. That the Bolsheviks did, astutely, under Lenin’s leadership. However, the Bolsheviks remained a minority, not just in the party but also in the soviets till the 10th Congress of the RCP(B)- till that ‘momentous’ occasion when like Robespierre, Lenin sanctioned, if not actually, assumed the postion of, the voice of terror. Not only did the RCP ban factions within the party, they banned all other parties and groups in the soviets. From the CPM to the Maoists, this is the heritage that is sought to be upheld by those who claim the ‘monopoly of truth’ and deride ‘civil society pacifism’ in the same language (see the CPM newspapers to see how they attack this ‘civil society’ in the same language).
However, to return to your question, this does not mean that the October revolution itself was a mistake. But the revolution did not mean the same thing to everybody – it is only one specific rendering, popularized through ‘The History of the CPSU(B)’and the Comintern affiliated CPs that has come to be remembered as the revolution. The Russian Revolution was nothing, if not a popular uprising against despotism and war. Bolshevism was not its agenda; a certain general inclination towards some kind of socialism certainly was but that included a wide range of actors. Just to remind our vanguardist revolutionries who rail against ‘civil society pacifism’, it was Rosa Luxembourg who was among the first to see how Leninism would inevitably instal party dictatorship over the people.
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at least 200 people killed today by cpm cadres………
that is very unfortunate incident for our west bengal people. Nandygram is totaly destroyed by cpm today………
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And where then would you situate the Partisans of the 1941-45 War who also “re-captured” their territory from Hitler ?
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Nandigram at last is free from blockades after 11 months of terror and a status of ‘liberated zone’. A 4 KM squad of people has reached the sky with Red flags at Sonachura and Garchakraberia. People from all over the place are rejoicing their free status after a 11-month-old reign of terror, extortions, and gunpowder. It is almost like a freedom for the masses from the shackles of brutal force, Maoist schools of arms, Trinamul extortion racket and the communal rumours.
All blockades have been removed, wherever they were, and people are moving freely. It can never be forgotten that when the TMC chief last moved in to Nandigram, the Zonal Committee office of CPIM was set ablaze. The people of the place understand and can figure out who is the messenger of trouble and terror. They tried to find their own way to find out how the messenger of trouble and terror can be shown the door, all these at the local level without any sort of central intervention from any political parties. Of course a few unwarranted events happened, which is unfortunate, and should not have happened.
CRPF was requested by the Chief Minister, and there was a lot of dilly dallying by the center. Probably a nexus was working to provide space for the armed Maoists and Trinamul goons to flee the place. The CRPF have come and will not be politically controlled by any of the political parties. They are free to do what they feel best to bring peace at the place, and remove the terror from the minds of the people.
A local Bengali news channel started to create a big fuss yesterday on the two Tapan Ghosh and Suker Ali, and falsely alleged that they have connections with Choto Angaria. Nandigram and Choto Angaria are two separate things altogether, and the electronic media is trying to juxtapose the two. An ambulance was transporting a few patients to the Kamardaha hospital and these two people were returning from Digha, they showed conclusive evidence of their stay and vacation at Digha, and the Trinamul with the help of electronic media tried to create a big fuss around these two unrelated events.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist), being a bigger partner, takes a lot of responsibilities on their shoulders, and it is happening since the semi-fascist rule of Congress of 1971-72. Left Front is an expanding coalition. Left Front is based on the slogan of unity-struggle-unity. Each of the constituents of the Left Front has their own identity. But it is important to see that none of the constituents should do something that encourages the opportunist opposition. If any of these constituents do not find any role of the Trinamul in this whole Nandigram episode, sadly it seems ultimately to be a tragi-comic farce! Even today there were landmine blasts near the Jellingham factory, those were planted by the Maoists on the run to injure and kill the innocent people returning to their respective homes.
Almost 100 CPI(M) workers and sympathisers died during the Keshpur Line of terror by the opposition party, but after Keshpur was freed from the clutches of this force, Gurudas Dasgupta of CPI was again elected from the place. At least 28 CPI(M) activists were killed at Nandigram during the last few months, but again it will be Md. Iliyas who will contest and win assembly election from Nandigram.
A few electronic and print media has suddenly after 11 long months woken up to the civil rights, which is always encouraging to see. But their disease is not still leaving them. Yesterday 417 people in the marching people of Nandigram crossed the Tekhali bridge to flee from the clutches of the Trinamul Maoists. The march was obviously to create more trouble in the area with armed Maoists behind the squad and innocent people in the front acting as a shield. The people were no longer ready to act as shields of the armed Maoists, and a few people were shot from behind, two died. After a complaint by the BUPC, a large contingent of police went there to get those 417 out, 407 of them chose to stay back as they were tired of the terror and were not feeling safe in the hands of Maoist-Trinamul violence.
It is to be reiterated that the Communist Party of India (Marxist) does not want any kind of retaliation. CPI(M) wants the government to start the economic reconstruction of Nandigram from tomorrow itself if possible.
A few intellectuals and artists wanted to create a bad name for the International Kolkata Film Festival to the whole world. There was a very high chance that using these intellectuals and artists as shield a few vandals could have done anything at the place where the festival was going on, and we are extremely pained to see this. But it is important to note that these few are not the monopoly repository of the intellect of Bengal.
Peace has returned to Nandigram, perhaps for ever. The people of Nandigram learnt a lesson, who are their friends and who are their enemy. It will be easier for them to identify and isolate friends and enemy in the future. When the whole cause is irrelevant, the bandh called tomorrow will again be a grand fiasco!
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Nandigram – Martyrs’ List of CPIM Sympathisers: 3 January – 10 November 2007
1. Sankar Samanta Sonachura 07.01.2007
2. Sunita Mandal 09.02.2007
3. Dilip Mandal Gokulnagar 29.04.2007
4. Mohiroah Karan Jambari 29.04.2007
5. Ram Kamila Rangkinipur 05.05.2007
6. Sunita Jana Kanangochak 07.05.2007
7. Harekrishna Chiti Brindabanchak 04.07.2007
8. Bapan Patra Pankhai 29.07.2007
9. Arun Das Baratala 04.08.2007
10. Mahadeb Mandal Relief Camp 24.06.2007
11. Jamini Mandal (Das) Sonachura 10.03.2007
12. Rasmoni Das 08.05.2007
13. Mantu Mandal Sonachura-Jalpai 04.04.2007
14. Manas Mandal Katari 08.10.2007
15. Mohan Mandal Ranichak 08.10.2007
16. Mir Khurshed Satebgabari 26.10.2007
17.Chanchal Middya Amgachia 07.11.2007
18. Gostha Das Keyakhali 27.10.2007
19. Nirapada Ghanta Haludbari 06.11.2007 Land Mine
20. Tushar Shaw 06.11.2007 Land Mine
21. Sankar Maiti Kasharia 06.11.2007
22. Sunil Bar(in bomb attack at Relief Camp)27.10.2007
23. Bachan Garudas 27.10.2007
24. Srimanta Das 30.10.2007
25. Gourhari Laya Das 01.11.2007
26. Gabinda Singh 01.11.2007
27. Tapan Manna 03.11.2007
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Men and women of Nandigram, who had to desert their homes leaving all behind
have returned. They are looking towards a life of being united with parents,
spouses and children. They are trying to plant poles again just to live
under shade and have at least once a day food to eat. A section of people
has started dreaming the work of repair and reconstruction to be started by
the Panchayet, the schools to reopen, markets and shops to run, health
centers to operate, are in a spirit of doubt of reasons not known. The
Hindus expect to lit the evening diyas and the mosque Imam to chant Aajan.
But tragedy has its black shadow still hanging over Nandigram, the smoke of
disaster has not yet been off from the air. The harmads of Maoists and
members of the BUPC along with the TMC activists before leaving certain
zones of Sonachura, Garchakraberia, Adhikaripara etc planted mines,
explosives in a scattered way and made arrangements for remote operation.
The devices have taken lives and injured a lot of home coming people. A
number of people are still dwindling in schools, college or simply in fields
under tents. A great portion of these people, most of which are CPIM
sympathizers, are anxiously waiting to join the work of developmental
activities and to restore peace. Much of this chaos to terrorize people with
the deliberate intention of usurping lands from the real landowners was
really inhuman. It was simply useless to take resort to areas and ignoring
administration, create disquiet taking hold of law and order in their own
hands when the Chief Minister himself declared that no question of land
acquisition would arise when no chemical hub would be setup at Nandigram,
since the people in general did not have a consent. So what it the reason of
the agitation of defending the land by BUPC?
So long there prevailed lawlessness and riots, torture, molestation on
women, looting, destroying property and killing lives continued for long 11
months at a stretch. The poor peasants having small plots of croplands have
been sitting idle gazing at their lands filled with weeds with their
implements getting rusted. It was decided in a joint meeting with the
administration along with the TMC leaders and land saviours committee
members that the deceased in the 14th March incident would be given
compensation and proper steps would be taken against the offending police
officers if found guilty, and that would be in consonance with the High
court order.
By this time, a few of the police officers were transfered. It was resolved
that the government would start the work of development, health, education,
100 day employment generation scheme would again start moving, the panic
stricken people driven out from Nandigram and Khejuri would be taken back to
their own homes, the lawsuits excepting murder and rapes would be withdrawn
according to the demands of the BUPC patronized by TMC, Maoists, SUCI and
others having only self-interest.
But the actual scenario is otherwise. The Panchayet chiefs were not allowed
to work, even to open the office, they had been forced to write that they
wouldn’t start working. Otherwise they were threatened that there will be
false allegation of corruption against them. So the ray of hope was again
nipped in the bud. The TMC supporters were allowed in but not others. At
last the peoples unity won the game, they got back facing an armed
resistance.
The arms had to bow down before mass and the government got the way to
implement the process of reconstruction, its a victory of the people of
Nandigram. Now the responsibility lies with the BUPC and the TMC to remove
the armed Maoists from the area of Nandigram.
The activists of the CPIM have now a greater responsibility. They have
proved that power lies with the people and not guns. People have suffered a
lot for the last 11 months. They are distressed with the pain of having to
see the deaths of their near and dear ones. They have suffered cruelty in
the hands of BUPC. But, they need to wipe their tears, and rebuild a new
Nandigram with a broken heart. Even a single incident of violence against a
human being will show them in good spirits.
Men and women of Nandigram, Your victory is a glorious tribute to many
activists and villagers who laid down their lives in the hands of BUPC
violence. Shankar Samanta and a few others were killed with medieval
cruelty, cruel torture on Sumita Mondal, have kindled fire in your hearts.
We all need to be beside these families, with all possible help. We all need
to start the normal functioning of Panchayats. Poor people must not get
divided because of political colours.
People from all over are saluting you. Red salute to the people of
Nandigram. Your sacrifice, your struggle, your victory have created a new
chapter in the glorious history of the left democratic struggle.
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gram Tribute to the October Revolution – CPM style at Kafila is a quite interesting post but quite difficult to understand for me –
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