Partha Sharma
What went on in Nandigram, West Bengal, was not unnoticed. Amnesty International alleges that there had been gross violation of human rights, especially in Nandigram of West Bengal.
The atrocities by the State Government and merciless killing of common people and farmers by West Bengal cops in support of the Marxist thugs, is nothing less than Hitler’s Gestapo or Stalin secret squads.
The world watched what the Marxists did to please their sponsor Indian rich oligarchs. They killed common people in West Bengal to hand over the farming land to rich Indian Industrialists.
The Congress Party of India ruling in New Delhi allowed this genocide looking to win the Left Parties to implement the India-US nuclear deal. The civilian nuke deal helps US Corporations like GE, Westinghouse and others to gain $100 billion or more. The Bush Administration and India’s Congress Party are eager to implement the deal so that $100 billion can be handed over to the US Corporations.
India still fails to prosecute the Marxists including top leadership in West Bengal who made countless people ‘disappear’ into mass graveyards. The Congress party at the center in New Delhi depends on the support of 60 MPs from the Left to stay in power. That is why India has allowed this atrocity to happen.
The opposition party BJP has vowed to bring all involved in Nandigram massacre into justice including Marxist leaders and West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya. This guy code named ‘Buddha’ in India has earned an international reputation – Butcher of West Bengal.
http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/19524.asp
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Amnesty slams Bengal, CPM for violence in Nandigram
NEW DELHI:
The world's premier human rights organisation, Amnesty International, has strongly indicted West Bengal and its ruling party, CPM, for the state-sponsored violence in Nandigram in 2007.
In its annual report, which was released on Tuesday, the global human rights NGO said private militias allied to the CPM committed "a range of human rights violations including unlawful killings, forced evictions, excessive police force and violence against women".
The report said, "In January and March, at least 25 mostly local residents, were killed in Nandigram, more than 100 were injured and at least 20 women were sexually assaulted by private militias allied to the ruling CPM."
The CPM has already been deeply indicted for the Nandigram violence last year as well as this year, with the result that the CPM suffered some of its worst defeats in these areas during the recent panchayat elections.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Amnesty_slams_Bengal_CPM_for_violence_in_Nandigram_/articleshow/3078297.cms
The world's premier human rights organisation, Amnesty International, has strongly indicted West Bengal and its ruling party, CPM, for the state-sponsored violence in Nandigram in 2007.
In its annual report, which was released on Tuesday, the global human rights NGO said private militias allied to the CPM committed "a range of human rights violations including unlawful killings, forced evictions, excessive police force and violence against women".
The report said, "In January and March, at least 25 mostly local residents, were killed in Nandigram, more than 100 were injured and at least 20 women were sexually assaulted by private militias allied to the ruling CPM."
The CPM has already been deeply indicted for the Nandigram violence last year as well as this year, with the result that the CPM suffered some of its worst defeats in these areas during the recent panchayat elections.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Amnesty_slams_Bengal_CPM_for_violence_in_Nandigram_/articleshow/3078297.cms
Friday, May 30, 2008
Revenge in Nandigram
Elora Sen and Shafi Rahman
It was the site where Comrade Reformer of Indian communism wanted to build his legacy. It was where he wanted to begin his New Bengal project. Then everything went wrong.
Nandigram became a landmark in the Marxist bloodlust, and Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya ceased to be the much indulged moderniser, the Bangla version of Deng Xiaoping.
The carnage brought out the Stalinist savagery of the party. On May 21, it was as if the ghosts had their revenge.
Since the horrors of November 2007, CPI(M) leaders had been giving lessons on the need to understand the "ground realities" in the West Bengal villages and forecasting a Left victory in Panchayat polls in Nandigram and Singur.
Kicking the apparatchiks of AKG Bhawan off their high moral pedestal, Nandigram has hit back.
It was a clear mandate against the party by the people of Nandigram and Singur, giving Trinamool Congress their first-ever seats in the Zilla Parishads.
They won two districts: South 24-Parganas and East Midnapore (including Nandigram), both former CPI(M) strongholds.
The Left Front suffered a major setback with its overall tally in the state coming down to 519 Zilla Parishad seats from 619 in 2003. Trinamool improved its tally from 16 seats to 121 and Congress moved up from 67 seats to 98.
The Congress has fared well in two areas-its stronghold in Malda where Ghani Khan Chowdhury's legacy is still intact, and North Dinajpur, another Left Front bastion.
This is a huge humiliation for CPI(M). The party has been consistently maintaining that the atrocities in Nandigram and Singur would be of little consequence.
The defeat will also weaken CPI(M) efforts to bridle the reform policies of the UPA Government which is entering its last stretch.
For Trinamool leader Mamata Banerjee, this was more than just poetic justice. "This is the beginning of the end for the CPI(M) Government here. The Centre too must take note," she thundered.
"Where the ballot could speak, we have done well. The Centre must realise that for 31 years, the Left Front has not allowed a proper election machinery to function. They have not allowed people to vote."
Trying to explain why her party did so well in Singur and Nandigram she said it was because the people did not fall for CPI(M)'s propaganda that "Krishi amader bhitti, shilpa amader bhabishat (Agriculture is our base, industry is our future)."
The Congress, which maintains the number of Zilla Parishads where it is in power, also came out strongly against the Left Front. Says Congress leader Subrata Mukherjee, "The chief minister should resign following the mandate given in Singur and Nandigram."
The three-phase local body elections, which the chief minister had said would be a "people's festival" turned out to be a bloody battle not just between CPI(M) cadres and Trinamool and Congress supporters, but also between fellow Left Front members such as RSP and Forward Bloc.
The polls were also seen as a litmus test for the Bhattacharya Government's farmland acquisition policy for industries in the state.
Never before had this debate of industrialisation versus agriculture played such a vital role in Panchayat elections. The results may come in the way of the party's efforts to push reforms in the Left-ruled states.
Top CPI(M) top leadership stood by the chief minister saying he never deviated ideologically.
"After the experience of Nandigram, where a chemical hub was proposed to be set up and political and administrative mistakes were made, we must be all the more careful on large-scale land acquisition," CPI(M) noted in its recent assessment of the events at Nandigram.
After lying low following the Nandigram fiasco, Bhattacharya along with his reformist counterparts from the party's Kerala unit, had successfully pushed forward reform-friendly guidelines in the last party congress in April.
"We need to review the electoral results in Nandigram. People in Nandigram never wanted an SEZ there and we also failed to explain the project to the people before we started implementing it. The police firing also antagonised the common man." says M.K. Pandhe, CPI(M) Politburo member.
He also points at the alliance patched up by the Congress, Trinamool and BJP. "They had ideologically nothing in common. They are all bound by hate against CPI(M). We lost out not because our votes have gone down but because all-the anti-CPI(M) votes have been consolidated," says Pandhe.
The victory also brings cheer to civil society groups and the ultra-Left, whom the CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat termed as Nardoniks, a dirty word in Marxist lexicon used to describe intellectuals who idealise agricultural economy.
http://indiatoday.digitaltoday.in/component/option,com_content/Itemid,1/task,view/id,8678/issueid,55/sectionid,21
It was the site where Comrade Reformer of Indian communism wanted to build his legacy. It was where he wanted to begin his New Bengal project. Then everything went wrong.
Nandigram became a landmark in the Marxist bloodlust, and Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya ceased to be the much indulged moderniser, the Bangla version of Deng Xiaoping.
The carnage brought out the Stalinist savagery of the party. On May 21, it was as if the ghosts had their revenge.
Since the horrors of November 2007, CPI(M) leaders had been giving lessons on the need to understand the "ground realities" in the West Bengal villages and forecasting a Left victory in Panchayat polls in Nandigram and Singur.
Kicking the apparatchiks of AKG Bhawan off their high moral pedestal, Nandigram has hit back.
It was a clear mandate against the party by the people of Nandigram and Singur, giving Trinamool Congress their first-ever seats in the Zilla Parishads.
They won two districts: South 24-Parganas and East Midnapore (including Nandigram), both former CPI(M) strongholds.
The Left Front suffered a major setback with its overall tally in the state coming down to 519 Zilla Parishad seats from 619 in 2003. Trinamool improved its tally from 16 seats to 121 and Congress moved up from 67 seats to 98.
The Congress has fared well in two areas-its stronghold in Malda where Ghani Khan Chowdhury's legacy is still intact, and North Dinajpur, another Left Front bastion.
This is a huge humiliation for CPI(M). The party has been consistently maintaining that the atrocities in Nandigram and Singur would be of little consequence.
The defeat will also weaken CPI(M) efforts to bridle the reform policies of the UPA Government which is entering its last stretch.
For Trinamool leader Mamata Banerjee, this was more than just poetic justice. "This is the beginning of the end for the CPI(M) Government here. The Centre too must take note," she thundered.
"Where the ballot could speak, we have done well. The Centre must realise that for 31 years, the Left Front has not allowed a proper election machinery to function. They have not allowed people to vote."
Trying to explain why her party did so well in Singur and Nandigram she said it was because the people did not fall for CPI(M)'s propaganda that "Krishi amader bhitti, shilpa amader bhabishat (Agriculture is our base, industry is our future)."
The Congress, which maintains the number of Zilla Parishads where it is in power, also came out strongly against the Left Front. Says Congress leader Subrata Mukherjee, "The chief minister should resign following the mandate given in Singur and Nandigram."
The three-phase local body elections, which the chief minister had said would be a "people's festival" turned out to be a bloody battle not just between CPI(M) cadres and Trinamool and Congress supporters, but also between fellow Left Front members such as RSP and Forward Bloc.
The polls were also seen as a litmus test for the Bhattacharya Government's farmland acquisition policy for industries in the state.
Never before had this debate of industrialisation versus agriculture played such a vital role in Panchayat elections. The results may come in the way of the party's efforts to push reforms in the Left-ruled states.
Top CPI(M) top leadership stood by the chief minister saying he never deviated ideologically.
"After the experience of Nandigram, where a chemical hub was proposed to be set up and political and administrative mistakes were made, we must be all the more careful on large-scale land acquisition," CPI(M) noted in its recent assessment of the events at Nandigram.
After lying low following the Nandigram fiasco, Bhattacharya along with his reformist counterparts from the party's Kerala unit, had successfully pushed forward reform-friendly guidelines in the last party congress in April.
"We need to review the electoral results in Nandigram. People in Nandigram never wanted an SEZ there and we also failed to explain the project to the people before we started implementing it. The police firing also antagonised the common man." says M.K. Pandhe, CPI(M) Politburo member.
He also points at the alliance patched up by the Congress, Trinamool and BJP. "They had ideologically nothing in common. They are all bound by hate against CPI(M). We lost out not because our votes have gone down but because all-the anti-CPI(M) votes have been consolidated," says Pandhe.
The victory also brings cheer to civil society groups and the ultra-Left, whom the CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat termed as Nardoniks, a dirty word in Marxist lexicon used to describe intellectuals who idealise agricultural economy.
http://indiatoday.digitaltoday.in/component/option,com_content/Itemid,1/task,view/id,8678/issueid,55/sectionid,21
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Terror cloak foils CPM cadre
Rajib Chatterjee
CHINSURAH
Male Trinamul Congress candidates for various panchayats in Hooghly's Jangipara block are visiting the block office wearing burqas and ladies' slippers to collect their identity cards these days.
The reason: CPI-M cadres are allegedly not allowing the Opposition candidates to enter the block office. The Opposition candidates in Jangipara ~ the Assembly constituency of the state higher education minister Mr Sudarshan Roy Chowdhury ~ have devised this new technique to access the block office after some of their party colleagues, who went to the block office to collect their identity cards, were beaten up allegedly by CPI-M cadres in front of the office.
“Our six panchayat candidates from Dilakas, Mundulka and Kotulpur panchayats wore burqas and managed to elude the CPI-M cadres who are now keeping a watch in front of the block office to prevent our candidates from accessing the block office,” Mr Moinuddin Sheikh, a Trinamul Congress leader, said.
“Two of our candidates were beaten up by CPI-M cadres near the block office when they were on their way to collect identity cards,” Mr Sheikh said. He alleged that policemen, despite being aware of the “terror” being unleashed by the CPI-M cadres, are reluctant to take any steps to allow Trinamul candidates into the block office. “We had brought the matter to the notice of senior police officers, who preferred to keep their eyes shut. We apprehend an attack on our candidates prior to panchayat polls. The CPI-M cadres had forced nine of our candidates from Dilakas panchayat to withdraw their nomination papers. Despite being threatened, six Trinamul Congress candidates have refused to succumb to CPI-M sponsored terror,” Mr Sheikh alleged.
Three Trinamul Congress supporters, who had gone to Dingelhati village in Jangipara to hoist their party flag yesterday, were slapped allegedly by a group of CPI-M cadres. “Ultimately, we had to return without hoisting the party flag. We told police officers about the incident who reached the spot three hours after we were attacked,” Mr Sheikh alleged. According to reports, the CPI-M cadres allegedly forced at least 20 Trinamul candidates to withdraw their nomination papers from three panchayats in Jangipara.
Opposition parties couldn't even field a single candidate in Atpur panchayat owing to alleged threat by CPI-M cadres. “Policemen are acting at the behest of the CPI-M zonal committee member instead of being impartial.
“We would write to the state electoral officer demanding additional security arrangements for Jangipara on polling day,” Mr Dilip Yadav, senior district Trinamul Congress leader, said.
Mr Arup Basu Mallick, secretary of the CPI-M Jangipara zonal committee, denied the allegation, saying Opposition party leaders were offering a “cooked up story” about the CPI-M.
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?date=2008-04-30&usrsess=1&clid=1&id=228449
CHINSURAH
Male Trinamul Congress candidates for various panchayats in Hooghly's Jangipara block are visiting the block office wearing burqas and ladies' slippers to collect their identity cards these days.
The reason: CPI-M cadres are allegedly not allowing the Opposition candidates to enter the block office. The Opposition candidates in Jangipara ~ the Assembly constituency of the state higher education minister Mr Sudarshan Roy Chowdhury ~ have devised this new technique to access the block office after some of their party colleagues, who went to the block office to collect their identity cards, were beaten up allegedly by CPI-M cadres in front of the office.
“Our six panchayat candidates from Dilakas, Mundulka and Kotulpur panchayats wore burqas and managed to elude the CPI-M cadres who are now keeping a watch in front of the block office to prevent our candidates from accessing the block office,” Mr Moinuddin Sheikh, a Trinamul Congress leader, said.
“Two of our candidates were beaten up by CPI-M cadres near the block office when they were on their way to collect identity cards,” Mr Sheikh said. He alleged that policemen, despite being aware of the “terror” being unleashed by the CPI-M cadres, are reluctant to take any steps to allow Trinamul candidates into the block office. “We had brought the matter to the notice of senior police officers, who preferred to keep their eyes shut. We apprehend an attack on our candidates prior to panchayat polls. The CPI-M cadres had forced nine of our candidates from Dilakas panchayat to withdraw their nomination papers. Despite being threatened, six Trinamul Congress candidates have refused to succumb to CPI-M sponsored terror,” Mr Sheikh alleged.
Three Trinamul Congress supporters, who had gone to Dingelhati village in Jangipara to hoist their party flag yesterday, were slapped allegedly by a group of CPI-M cadres. “Ultimately, we had to return without hoisting the party flag. We told police officers about the incident who reached the spot three hours after we were attacked,” Mr Sheikh alleged. According to reports, the CPI-M cadres allegedly forced at least 20 Trinamul candidates to withdraw their nomination papers from three panchayats in Jangipara.
Opposition parties couldn't even field a single candidate in Atpur panchayat owing to alleged threat by CPI-M cadres. “Policemen are acting at the behest of the CPI-M zonal committee member instead of being impartial.
“We would write to the state electoral officer demanding additional security arrangements for Jangipara on polling day,” Mr Dilip Yadav, senior district Trinamul Congress leader, said.
Mr Arup Basu Mallick, secretary of the CPI-M Jangipara zonal committee, denied the allegation, saying Opposition party leaders were offering a “cooked up story” about the CPI-M.
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?date=2008-04-30&usrsess=1&clid=1&id=228449
Deterrence CPI-M-style
By: Sunando Sanyal
Not much evidence remains of the alleged gangrape of Ms Radharani Ari because of the time lost in prosecuting the case. Still there should be an investigation into what happened and why no enquiry has been held. The appropriate authorities are the National Commission for Women and National Human Rights Commission.
The woman herself asks the chief minister of West Bengal: “How many times will your cadres rape me? The CPI-M men entered my house at about 2 pm (on 14 April). I knew them. Well, I’m Radharani Ari. I live in Nandigram, Block 1, Gokulnagar. (One day), 14 March, 2007, changed my life forever. At about 2 pm, the CPI-M men entered my house. Honourable chief minister, I knew them all. They were Badal Garudas, Kalipada Garudas and Snehansu Das. They committed bestial violence on me. I fell unconscious. Much later my husband picked me up off a nullah ... I gave police the three names of the rapists. But they didn’t enter it in their khata.” Ms
Ari further tells the chief minister: “I talked to the CBI babus. I mentioned the names of the rapists to one officer called Balbir Ram. Finally, the CBI booked Badal and Kalipada. But do you know what happened to Snehansu Das? Being honourable, you may not know that in the forthcoming panchayat poll Snehansu Das is seeking election at the 167th booth of Gokulnangar Gram Panchayat (in East Midnapore) on a CPI-M ticket” (Dainik Statesman, April 20, 2008).
CPI-M cadres did it again. In her own words: “This time on 18 April they entered our house at about 10.30 pm, after the CPI-M marchers had dispersed. They hit my husband and son, who fell to the floor. They carried me off. (Next morning) my sons Bapi Adhikari and Ajit Adhikari brought me home from a nearby paddy field. Honourable chief minister, I could identify them this time too. They were Snehansu Das again, accompanied by Gurupado Patra, Manik Patra, Purna Das, Prakas Das and Raju Garudas. Thirteen months and five days later, I had to be taken to Nandigram Hospital again. I don’t believe these goons will be punished. … we will have to live at the mercy of your police and cadres. I know too you have no sympathy for the gangraped like us. Or else the person who raped me twice could not have sought election on your party ticket.”
Ms Ari was transferred to Seth Sukhlal Karnani Memorial (SSKM) Hospital thereafter, where Saonli Mitra (theatre person), Aparna Sen (actor and director), Joy Goswami (poet), Subhaprasanna (artist) and Arpita Ghosh (playwright) visited her. At a subsequent press conference, Mitra and Subhaprasanna said the police should have taken action on Ms Ari’s complaint. They are right.
A while ago a TV channel showed a teenager claiming to be raped, with the connivance of her own mother, by her stepfather. The police took the man into custody.
Ganashakti, the CPI-M mouthpiece, virtually called Ms Ari a liar on 21 April. Headlined ‘Aggrieved father asks: My daughter was with me all the while. When was she raped?’, a report quotes Mr Chittaranjan Das, Ms Ari’s father, as saying: “On Friday night she was with me. How come I don’t know of the rape? She had cooked up a similar story before. Now she cooks up another. On Saturday (19 April) I saw a number of Trinamul Congress (TMC) workers put her on a ‘van-rickshaw’ (a cycle-drawn contraption). ‘Where are you taking her,’ I asked them. ‘To hospital,’ they replied.”
Ms Ari disowns her father. “My father is a CPI-M leader of the area,” she says. “For the past 30 years I have had no connection with him .... My children do not know him.” In any event, on her complaint, in disregard of her father’s views, police should have booked the alleged rapists and subjected them to a medical examination. For, as medical jurisprudence puts it, possible evidence of rape is obtained from marks of violence on the person of not only the victim but also the accused. So why weren’t the accused booked and subjected to medical examination?
Ganashakti (24, 25 and editorially on 26 April) quotes Professor AK Ghosh, medical superintendent and vice-principal of SSKM Hospital, as saying that “there was no rape on Radharni Ari”. Mr Sujato Bhadra, a human rights activist, points out that, concerning rape, “Only the head of the medical board can issue a statement. Why is the superintendent standing in for him? Is it to cover up an unpleasant truth?” He quotes an authority on medical jurisprudence, as saying, “The medical officer should not give his opinion that no rape had been committed. (For) rape is a crime not a medical condition.” Bhadra is right. I find another authority, Dr KS Narayana Reddy agreeing with this view. The superintendent’s unseemly zeal in denying the rape can only speak of a cover-up. Therefore, not just the rape but also what prompted Dr AK Ghosh to deny it should be probed.
Ganashakti does admit that the doctors found “abrasions on the elbow and on the lower back” of Ms Ari. Why did the doctors rule these out as prima facie evidence of rape? Going by medical jurisprudence these might have been caused by “pressure on the gravel and hard ground”. Dr Reddy says: “The examination should be carried out (soon after the rape, as) minor degrees of injury may fade rapidly and swelling and tenderness of the vulva may disappear in a few hours. (And) the possibility of detection of spermatozoa from the genital tracts also diminishes without delay.” And as Mitra and Subhaprasanna said, allegation of rape by the woman concerned has to be taken as prima facie evidence for the legal process to start, not what her father says.
The CPI-M has long been using rape as deterrence against disobedience. Mr Sukharanjan Sengupta, a veteran journalist, says: “In West Bengal the CPI-M has created a secret organisation consisting of a private army that includes a murder squad and a highly trained raping squad.” This is plausible, if you consider the rapes committed at Nandigram on 14 March, 2007, in the presence of policemen. The CBI caught 10 of the rapists from the Janani Brickyard, Khejuri, and handed them over to the West Bengal Police, who set them free. Again Tapasi Malik, who organised a protest movement amongst the women of Singur against the land grab for the Tatas, was burnt to death to wipe out all proof of rape. The accused, Suhrit Dutta, head of the Singur local committee of the CPI-M, was remanded in custody. Even after Dutta confessed, the party called him an “asset”. As everybody knows, the CPI-M has forced opposition candidates to withdraw from the panchayat elections with rape threats.
(The writer is former Head of the Department, English, Belur Ramkrishna Mission College)
Not much evidence remains of the alleged gangrape of Ms Radharani Ari because of the time lost in prosecuting the case. Still there should be an investigation into what happened and why no enquiry has been held. The appropriate authorities are the National Commission for Women and National Human Rights Commission.
The woman herself asks the chief minister of West Bengal: “How many times will your cadres rape me? The CPI-M men entered my house at about 2 pm (on 14 April). I knew them. Well, I’m Radharani Ari. I live in Nandigram, Block 1, Gokulnagar. (One day), 14 March, 2007, changed my life forever. At about 2 pm, the CPI-M men entered my house. Honourable chief minister, I knew them all. They were Badal Garudas, Kalipada Garudas and Snehansu Das. They committed bestial violence on me. I fell unconscious. Much later my husband picked me up off a nullah ... I gave police the three names of the rapists. But they didn’t enter it in their khata.” Ms
Ari further tells the chief minister: “I talked to the CBI babus. I mentioned the names of the rapists to one officer called Balbir Ram. Finally, the CBI booked Badal and Kalipada. But do you know what happened to Snehansu Das? Being honourable, you may not know that in the forthcoming panchayat poll Snehansu Das is seeking election at the 167th booth of Gokulnangar Gram Panchayat (in East Midnapore) on a CPI-M ticket” (Dainik Statesman, April 20, 2008).
CPI-M cadres did it again. In her own words: “This time on 18 April they entered our house at about 10.30 pm, after the CPI-M marchers had dispersed. They hit my husband and son, who fell to the floor. They carried me off. (Next morning) my sons Bapi Adhikari and Ajit Adhikari brought me home from a nearby paddy field. Honourable chief minister, I could identify them this time too. They were Snehansu Das again, accompanied by Gurupado Patra, Manik Patra, Purna Das, Prakas Das and Raju Garudas. Thirteen months and five days later, I had to be taken to Nandigram Hospital again. I don’t believe these goons will be punished. … we will have to live at the mercy of your police and cadres. I know too you have no sympathy for the gangraped like us. Or else the person who raped me twice could not have sought election on your party ticket.”
Ms Ari was transferred to Seth Sukhlal Karnani Memorial (SSKM) Hospital thereafter, where Saonli Mitra (theatre person), Aparna Sen (actor and director), Joy Goswami (poet), Subhaprasanna (artist) and Arpita Ghosh (playwright) visited her. At a subsequent press conference, Mitra and Subhaprasanna said the police should have taken action on Ms Ari’s complaint. They are right.
A while ago a TV channel showed a teenager claiming to be raped, with the connivance of her own mother, by her stepfather. The police took the man into custody.
Ganashakti, the CPI-M mouthpiece, virtually called Ms Ari a liar on 21 April. Headlined ‘Aggrieved father asks: My daughter was with me all the while. When was she raped?’, a report quotes Mr Chittaranjan Das, Ms Ari’s father, as saying: “On Friday night she was with me. How come I don’t know of the rape? She had cooked up a similar story before. Now she cooks up another. On Saturday (19 April) I saw a number of Trinamul Congress (TMC) workers put her on a ‘van-rickshaw’ (a cycle-drawn contraption). ‘Where are you taking her,’ I asked them. ‘To hospital,’ they replied.”
Ms Ari disowns her father. “My father is a CPI-M leader of the area,” she says. “For the past 30 years I have had no connection with him .... My children do not know him.” In any event, on her complaint, in disregard of her father’s views, police should have booked the alleged rapists and subjected them to a medical examination. For, as medical jurisprudence puts it, possible evidence of rape is obtained from marks of violence on the person of not only the victim but also the accused. So why weren’t the accused booked and subjected to medical examination?
Ganashakti (24, 25 and editorially on 26 April) quotes Professor AK Ghosh, medical superintendent and vice-principal of SSKM Hospital, as saying that “there was no rape on Radharni Ari”. Mr Sujato Bhadra, a human rights activist, points out that, concerning rape, “Only the head of the medical board can issue a statement. Why is the superintendent standing in for him? Is it to cover up an unpleasant truth?” He quotes an authority on medical jurisprudence, as saying, “The medical officer should not give his opinion that no rape had been committed. (For) rape is a crime not a medical condition.” Bhadra is right. I find another authority, Dr KS Narayana Reddy agreeing with this view. The superintendent’s unseemly zeal in denying the rape can only speak of a cover-up. Therefore, not just the rape but also what prompted Dr AK Ghosh to deny it should be probed.
Ganashakti does admit that the doctors found “abrasions on the elbow and on the lower back” of Ms Ari. Why did the doctors rule these out as prima facie evidence of rape? Going by medical jurisprudence these might have been caused by “pressure on the gravel and hard ground”. Dr Reddy says: “The examination should be carried out (soon after the rape, as) minor degrees of injury may fade rapidly and swelling and tenderness of the vulva may disappear in a few hours. (And) the possibility of detection of spermatozoa from the genital tracts also diminishes without delay.” And as Mitra and Subhaprasanna said, allegation of rape by the woman concerned has to be taken as prima facie evidence for the legal process to start, not what her father says.
The CPI-M has long been using rape as deterrence against disobedience. Mr Sukharanjan Sengupta, a veteran journalist, says: “In West Bengal the CPI-M has created a secret organisation consisting of a private army that includes a murder squad and a highly trained raping squad.” This is plausible, if you consider the rapes committed at Nandigram on 14 March, 2007, in the presence of policemen. The CBI caught 10 of the rapists from the Janani Brickyard, Khejuri, and handed them over to the West Bengal Police, who set them free. Again Tapasi Malik, who organised a protest movement amongst the women of Singur against the land grab for the Tatas, was burnt to death to wipe out all proof of rape. The accused, Suhrit Dutta, head of the Singur local committee of the CPI-M, was remanded in custody. Even after Dutta confessed, the party called him an “asset”. As everybody knows, the CPI-M has forced opposition candidates to withdraw from the panchayat elections with rape threats.
(The writer is former Head of the Department, English, Belur Ramkrishna Mission College)
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Tension Mounts In Battleground Nandigram
Joydeep Sen Gupta
Nandigram
Panchayat polls in West Bengal are just three days away and tension is mounting at the battleground of Nandigram in east Midnapore district. Several people have been injured in clashes between the ruling CPM and the Trinamul Congress anti-SEZ supporters.
With leaders like Mamata Banerjee scheduled to campaign on Thursday, the administration is on alert to prevent further clashes.
Dozens of injured villagers have been admitted to Nandigram hospital following clashes in which they claim the aggressors were armed CPM cadres.
''We are being threatened by the CPM supporters. They have warned us that if we lose in the panchayat polls, nobody will survive. They are only capable of butchering people,'' said Arijit Jana, anti-SEZ supporter.
''Terror unleashed by CPM is incredible. They are creating all sorts of problems for us to prevent us from voting,'' said Radhakanta Sinha, husband of a Panchayat candidate.
Allegations are flying thick and fast between the CPM and the anti-SEZ, who are going to electoral battle on Sunday for 52 Zilla Parishad seats in East Midnapore district.
Last time, the Left had won 50 seats. The CPM claims the Trinamul supporters are crying foul of losing whatever little support they had.
''By force they captured the entire area. But now there is resistance and so they are crying. Also people are deserting BUPC or the Trinamul Congress. So they have become furious,'' said Shyamal Chakraborty, CPM MP.
The Home Secretary and the Director General of Police visited Nandigram on Tuesday to oversee poll arrangements. But the tension in Nandigram is palpable and is likely to escalate in the coming days.
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080049210
Nandigram
Panchayat polls in West Bengal are just three days away and tension is mounting at the battleground of Nandigram in east Midnapore district. Several people have been injured in clashes between the ruling CPM and the Trinamul Congress anti-SEZ supporters.
With leaders like Mamata Banerjee scheduled to campaign on Thursday, the administration is on alert to prevent further clashes.
Dozens of injured villagers have been admitted to Nandigram hospital following clashes in which they claim the aggressors were armed CPM cadres.
''We are being threatened by the CPM supporters. They have warned us that if we lose in the panchayat polls, nobody will survive. They are only capable of butchering people,'' said Arijit Jana, anti-SEZ supporter.
''Terror unleashed by CPM is incredible. They are creating all sorts of problems for us to prevent us from voting,'' said Radhakanta Sinha, husband of a Panchayat candidate.
Allegations are flying thick and fast between the CPM and the anti-SEZ, who are going to electoral battle on Sunday for 52 Zilla Parishad seats in East Midnapore district.
Last time, the Left had won 50 seats. The CPM claims the Trinamul supporters are crying foul of losing whatever little support they had.
''By force they captured the entire area. But now there is resistance and so they are crying. Also people are deserting BUPC or the Trinamul Congress. So they have become furious,'' said Shyamal Chakraborty, CPM MP.
The Home Secretary and the Director General of Police visited Nandigram on Tuesday to oversee poll arrangements. But the tension in Nandigram is palpable and is likely to escalate in the coming days.
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080049210
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Bengali Woman Stripped, Beaten and Chased by CPI(M) Activists
Nandigram On Boil Again
Saugar Sengupta Kolkata
The fierce turf war between the CPI(M) and the Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee (BUPC) in the run-up to the crucial panchayat elections saw a woman being beaten, stripped and chased almost a km by CPI(M) activists on Monday, a replay of the shameful Guwahati incident last year. West Bengal PCC president PR Dasmunsi, meanwhile, has sought postponement of the May 11 elections in Nandigram in view of the continuing violence.
On Tuesday, two more BUPC women claimed to have met a similar fate for refusing to support the CPI(M). Minati Das, Kshama Das and Sandhya Das (all names changed) of Simulkundu village also alleged that the Nandigram police refused to lodge a complaint in this regard. But according to PTI, the State Government has ordered a CID probe into the incident.
The women alleged that hordes of CPI(M) cadre, led by local leader Mamata Das, were trying to force their menfolk into joining the CPI(M) processions. "When they refused, they were dragged out. When we protested, the CPI(M) cadre started beating and stripping us. We ran nearly a km with only tatters on us," they claimed.
A BUPC delegation later demanded immediate transfer of Nandigram officer in-charge Debashis Chakrabarty. However, East Midnapore SP S Panda said he had no information on the issue.
The CPI(M) denied the allegations, saying the party cadre were being framed to tarnish the Left Front's image and stall the election process.
CPI (M)'s East Midnapore district secretary AK Guria alleged that one of his comrades, Sheikh Javed, was shot at by the "rivals" which made the women flee in panic. "In the melee, some of them might have received injuries," he maintained. Meanwhile, a group of 25 BUPC candidates from Nandigram met the State Election Commissioner and asked him to provide adequate security for holding free and fair elections.
Meanwhile, PCC president PR Dasmunsi has written to Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, State Election Commissioner AK Gupta and the Union Home Secretary for postponing the May 11 panchayat elections in Nandigram in view of the violence there. He has warned that any move to "force" the election on people would deteriorate the situation.
With CPI(M) activists allegedly attacking BUPC workers for "daring" to contest the elections, the situation is worsening by the day. Earlier, in an apparent bid to woo Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, the PCC president had requested the party supporters to vote for the firebrand leader's party at places where the Congress has not put up candidates.
Meanwhile, the State Government on Tuesday changed its proposal to remove police camps from Nandigram. State Home Secretary Ashok Mohan Chakrabarty said no police camp would be removed. The Government was thinking in terms of deploying paramilitary personnel in the two Midnapores to conduct the polls, he added. "While the Nandigram officer in-charge would not be removed, the Government has decided to depute the Haldia SDPO in Nandigram to oversee the law and order situation," Chakrabarty said.
For any comments, queries or feedback, kindly mail us at pioneerletters@yahoo.co.in
http://www.dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_variable=front%5Fpage&file_name=story3%2Etxt&counter_img=3
Saugar Sengupta Kolkata
The fierce turf war between the CPI(M) and the Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee (BUPC) in the run-up to the crucial panchayat elections saw a woman being beaten, stripped and chased almost a km by CPI(M) activists on Monday, a replay of the shameful Guwahati incident last year. West Bengal PCC president PR Dasmunsi, meanwhile, has sought postponement of the May 11 elections in Nandigram in view of the continuing violence.
On Tuesday, two more BUPC women claimed to have met a similar fate for refusing to support the CPI(M). Minati Das, Kshama Das and Sandhya Das (all names changed) of Simulkundu village also alleged that the Nandigram police refused to lodge a complaint in this regard. But according to PTI, the State Government has ordered a CID probe into the incident.
The women alleged that hordes of CPI(M) cadre, led by local leader Mamata Das, were trying to force their menfolk into joining the CPI(M) processions. "When they refused, they were dragged out. When we protested, the CPI(M) cadre started beating and stripping us. We ran nearly a km with only tatters on us," they claimed.
A BUPC delegation later demanded immediate transfer of Nandigram officer in-charge Debashis Chakrabarty. However, East Midnapore SP S Panda said he had no information on the issue.
The CPI(M) denied the allegations, saying the party cadre were being framed to tarnish the Left Front's image and stall the election process.
CPI (M)'s East Midnapore district secretary AK Guria alleged that one of his comrades, Sheikh Javed, was shot at by the "rivals" which made the women flee in panic. "In the melee, some of them might have received injuries," he maintained. Meanwhile, a group of 25 BUPC candidates from Nandigram met the State Election Commissioner and asked him to provide adequate security for holding free and fair elections.
Meanwhile, PCC president PR Dasmunsi has written to Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, State Election Commissioner AK Gupta and the Union Home Secretary for postponing the May 11 panchayat elections in Nandigram in view of the violence there. He has warned that any move to "force" the election on people would deteriorate the situation.
With CPI(M) activists allegedly attacking BUPC workers for "daring" to contest the elections, the situation is worsening by the day. Earlier, in an apparent bid to woo Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, the PCC president had requested the party supporters to vote for the firebrand leader's party at places where the Congress has not put up candidates.
Meanwhile, the State Government on Tuesday changed its proposal to remove police camps from Nandigram. State Home Secretary Ashok Mohan Chakrabarty said no police camp would be removed. The Government was thinking in terms of deploying paramilitary personnel in the two Midnapores to conduct the polls, he added. "While the Nandigram officer in-charge would not be removed, the Government has decided to depute the Haldia SDPO in Nandigram to oversee the law and order situation," Chakrabarty said.
For any comments, queries or feedback, kindly mail us at pioneerletters@yahoo.co.in
http://www.dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_variable=front%5Fpage&file_name=story3%2Etxt&counter_img=3
Monday, May 5, 2008
CPI(M) recaptures area in Nandigram before panchayat poll
Nandigram (PTI): In a re-enactment of recapture of Nandigram in November last year, armed CPI(M) cadres on Monday took control of a stronghold of an opposition Trinamool Congress-backed outfit, spearheading an agitation against acquisition of farmland, ahead of next Sunday's panchayat poll.
East Midnapore district superintendent of police S Panda said Roynagar, Jambari and Simalkunda areas in Satengabari village witnessed violence with guns and bombs being used.
He, however, declined to identify the attackers.
The TC-supported Bhumi Uchched Pratirodh Committee members said armed CPI(M) cadres on motorcycles hurled bombs and opened fire at Satengabari before capturing it, forcing 3,000 BUPC supporters to flee their homes.
After the recapture, the CPI(M) cadres attacked a relief camp where 300 BUPC members were sheltered at Maheshpur, they said.
Five BUPC supporters were missing after the attack, they alleged.
CPI(M) district secretariat member Ashok Guria admitted his partymen had carried out an operation but claimed it was to rescue three CPI(M) men.
He claimed a CPI(M) cadre was shot by BUPC activists and four others were injured. "They (BUPC) opened fire and our men retaliated."
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/002200805051968.htm
East Midnapore district superintendent of police S Panda said Roynagar, Jambari and Simalkunda areas in Satengabari village witnessed violence with guns and bombs being used.
He, however, declined to identify the attackers.
The TC-supported Bhumi Uchched Pratirodh Committee members said armed CPI(M) cadres on motorcycles hurled bombs and opened fire at Satengabari before capturing it, forcing 3,000 BUPC supporters to flee their homes.
After the recapture, the CPI(M) cadres attacked a relief camp where 300 BUPC members were sheltered at Maheshpur, they said.
Five BUPC supporters were missing after the attack, they alleged.
CPI(M) district secretariat member Ashok Guria admitted his partymen had carried out an operation but claimed it was to rescue three CPI(M) men.
He claimed a CPI(M) cadre was shot by BUPC activists and four others were injured. "They (BUPC) opened fire and our men retaliated."
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/002200805051968.htm
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Clashes continue in Nandigram
Statesman News Service
NANDIGRAM:
Amidst the visit of a team of intellectuals to Nandigram, clashes continued today at several villages leaving several persons injured, including two Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee (BUPC) members who were shot at. A few houses of BUPC supporters at Gokulnagar,
Simulkundu, Sonachura, Kalicharanpur Kanungochawk and Adhikaripara were also vandalised by armed goons alleged to be CPI-M cadres at 12.30 p.m. today.
The injured people could not be brought to hospital immediately as the attackers kept the villages encircled for a few hours. Threats from CPI-M cadres have compelled many rival supporters to flee their houses and they have taken shelter in make-shift camps set up at Nandigram and other areas.
BUPC leaders alleged that the Nandigram police had taken a partisan role during today's incidents. Even, the CRPF jawans were prevented from taking action by the Nandigram OC, the leaders charged.
According to the locals who have taken shelter at Nandigram, a group of CPI-M cadres along with some outsiders sneaked into Sonachura village from Khejuri side, then started firing indiscriminately and hurling bombs.
When they attacked Maitypara, two villagers in a field were shot and injured. But none of the villagers dared to come to their aid and so they were left unattended there for hours.
Another group of CPI-M workers unleashed a reign of terror in the nearby villages of Gokulnagar, Simulkundu, Adhikaripara and Kanungochawk, BUPC leaders alleged.
The CPI-M’s district secretariat member Mr Ashok Guria countered with the allegation that Trinamul Congress workers attacked local party leader Mr Phani Jana at Balarampur last night. "They fired two rounds at him and later beat him up. Many of our supporters in Rainagar and Balarampur areas have fled from their houses and taken shelter at Boya," he said. The district superintendent of police Mr SS Panda meanwhile disparaged media reports of violence in the area, saying the situation is as serious as is being described.
"I have no reports that two people were shot at. The police are frequently patrolling the areas and the situation is under control," he said.
Meanwhile, members of the Forum of Artistes, Cultural Activists and Intellectuals and Swajan headed by artist Subhaprasanna, poet Tarun Sanyal and playwright Saoli Mitra met the Nandigram BDO Mr Santiram Ghorai and submitted a memorandum expressing concern over the deteriorating law and order situation in Nandigram ahead of the panchayat polls. They also submitted a memorandum to the CRPF authorities in Nandigram. They demanded a peaceful poll and security for the common people in Nandigram.
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=6&theme=&usrsess=1&id=202444
NANDIGRAM:
Amidst the visit of a team of intellectuals to Nandigram, clashes continued today at several villages leaving several persons injured, including two Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee (BUPC) members who were shot at. A few houses of BUPC supporters at Gokulnagar,
Simulkundu, Sonachura, Kalicharanpur Kanungochawk and Adhikaripara were also vandalised by armed goons alleged to be CPI-M cadres at 12.30 p.m. today.
The injured people could not be brought to hospital immediately as the attackers kept the villages encircled for a few hours. Threats from CPI-M cadres have compelled many rival supporters to flee their houses and they have taken shelter in make-shift camps set up at Nandigram and other areas.
BUPC leaders alleged that the Nandigram police had taken a partisan role during today's incidents. Even, the CRPF jawans were prevented from taking action by the Nandigram OC, the leaders charged.
According to the locals who have taken shelter at Nandigram, a group of CPI-M cadres along with some outsiders sneaked into Sonachura village from Khejuri side, then started firing indiscriminately and hurling bombs.
When they attacked Maitypara, two villagers in a field were shot and injured. But none of the villagers dared to come to their aid and so they were left unattended there for hours.
Another group of CPI-M workers unleashed a reign of terror in the nearby villages of Gokulnagar, Simulkundu, Adhikaripara and Kanungochawk, BUPC leaders alleged.
The CPI-M’s district secretariat member Mr Ashok Guria countered with the allegation that Trinamul Congress workers attacked local party leader Mr Phani Jana at Balarampur last night. "They fired two rounds at him and later beat him up. Many of our supporters in Rainagar and Balarampur areas have fled from their houses and taken shelter at Boya," he said. The district superintendent of police Mr SS Panda meanwhile disparaged media reports of violence in the area, saying the situation is as serious as is being described.
"I have no reports that two people were shot at. The police are frequently patrolling the areas and the situation is under control," he said.
Meanwhile, members of the Forum of Artistes, Cultural Activists and Intellectuals and Swajan headed by artist Subhaprasanna, poet Tarun Sanyal and playwright Saoli Mitra met the Nandigram BDO Mr Santiram Ghorai and submitted a memorandum expressing concern over the deteriorating law and order situation in Nandigram ahead of the panchayat polls. They also submitted a memorandum to the CRPF authorities in Nandigram. They demanded a peaceful poll and security for the common people in Nandigram.
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=6&theme=&usrsess=1&id=202444
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