Nandigram shows CPM's brutal, savage face

LEFT'S LAST STAND: At least 30 people have died in Nandigram since January.

Other stories in the section:

Nandigram massacre revisited, a year on

It's exactly a year since the violence that killed 14 and injured more than 150 people in Nandigram.

• Nandigram yields more graves, 3 could be of women
• Two arrested for violence, protests in Nandigram

Featured Blog

Rajdeep Sardesai

Bhiwani to Beijing: Lessons from a journey

Featured Slideshows

Related Headlines

powered by

• Nandigram massacre revisited, a year on
• Nandigram yields more graves, 3 could be of women
• Two arrested for violence, protests in Nandigram

Keywords: Diptosh Majumdar, IBNLive Chat

Diptosh Majumdar: Initially, I was innocent enough to think that way. Buddhadeb, I thought, allowed Nandigram to happen on March 14 because he was coerced into submission by his party. Now I believe he is equally involved. Nandigram's industrialization plan has been shelved long ago. What needed to be done this time was to teach the anti-CPI(M) forces a lesson.

Surinder:Should Mamata Bannerjee not be put behind bars for being the rabble rouser that she has become in a strife-torn state?

Diptosh Majumdar: Why so? She has done nothing wrong this time. Every sane person in Kolkata, Aparna Sen, Mahasweta Devi, Rituparno Ghosh are out on the streets. Why blame her? She has taken up the right cause for the defenceless.

Deepak:Hi Diptosh, don't you think Mamata should be behind bars. Somehow I feel she is the person to create all the fuss and she is taking all the untoward attention for this.

Diptosh Majumdar: I answered this question right now. Why I think she has done everything right this time.

Anjali:Now that the SEZ has been scrapped, what's the solution to the ongoing clash?

Diptosh Majumdar: Why is everybody getting it wrong? SEZ was scrapped long ago, on March 14 or thereabouts. This clash is about pushing CPI-M supporters inside Nandigram.

Rahul:The Governor of West Bengal came forward to say that Nandigram was turning into a war zone. Why, in the wake of this statement, should the Centre not think of imposing President's Rule in the state?

Diptosh Majumdar: President's rule will only get the CPI(M) unnecessary sympathy at this point of time. I don't think the party deserves that.

Deb: Do you think there should be President's Rule in WB now?

Diptosh Majumdar: Fit case, no doubt.

Ajit:Why has everybody suddenly got active on Nandigram issue? It all looks like political vendetta. And am I sure since elections are coming in many states, everybody is trying to gain political mileage. What's your take?

Diptosh Majumdar: Nandigram is a fit case for protest in this country.

Muhammad Sajid: I am from Kerala. You can openly tell that the poor farmers in Nandigram facing CPM fascism.

Diptosh Majumdar: Absolutely. They are facing brutality from CPI(M)'s armed cadres.

Ander_9000@yahoo.com: What makes you think what Aparna Sen and some other people are doing is right?

Diptosh Majumdar: Isn't it human to speak out in defence of the defenceless? Do you approve of armed cadres entering villages with the police remaining mute spectators and these armed cadres butchering people? We even have visuals showing how people are being brutally killed and their bodies are being clandestinely removed by party workers.

Arghya Pal:What is the main reason behind this war ?

Diptosh Majumdar: The CPI-M's greed to retain power by hook or by crook in Nandigram.

Raja:Nandigram being a mono-crop area and not so fertile with high unemployment, don't you think that the best option would have been setting up a chemical hub? More than 50 per cent of the working male who belong to Nandigram work elsewhere and Nandigram is a major supplier of domestic hands in Midnapore and Kharagpur. With the proximity of Haldia, wouldn't this be the best place to set-up an industry?

Diptosh Majumdar: I have been travelling to different parts of Indian countryside, Raja. And I am realizing that land acquisition has to be made voluntary. You cannot force people out of your land. If I went to you Raja and asked for your home tomorrow and told you that you vacate your premises and I'll make you the chowkidar of a factory, how would you react?

Sugato Hazra:Does it illustrate the state of Communist-led democracy practiced in West Bengal during the last three decades?

Diptosh Majumdar: Exactly. It's the failure of the media, I admit, not to have been able to expose the nature of the CPI(M) rule. Even the EC failed in the last election. They couldn't study the underlying fear

Premangshu: Diptosh, National Security Adviser MK Narayanan had spoken about the involvement of Maoists in Nandigram violence, what is your say on that? They have created bunkers. trained local goons. What about that? All are fare and when CPM takes control fighting them, that is bad !

Diptosh Majumdar: You are quoting Karat. At this point of time nobody should believe a word he says. The public distrust in him is too high. And the Centre which protects the Left is equally culpable.

Robert Clive:It is very difficult to believe that a state government with a brute majority in the legislature could not tackle siege of Nandigram for 11 months but did so 'efficiently' in the last one week. Either it was complete incompetence or deadly planning by the CPI-M. Comment.

Diptosh Majumdar: You seem to be quite aware of what is happening in Midnapore. If you are a party insider, won't you rather pose that question to a Lakshman Seth or a district leader like Suryakanto Mishra?

Nandan Dasgupta: If I've got it right Karat says that if police had been used, the Government would have been accused of using unnecessary force and in the same breath he says that now the administration can go in (which it could not earlier). So is he admitting that access was obtained by non-government forces? Is that an indictment or have I got something wrong somewhere? Has the media been given entry?

Diptosh Majumdar: The media has not been given entry yet, that explains everything.

SB: 'Cadreism' is the only option open to unemployed youth of Bengal. How much of an option does one have? No industires nothing. See the primary schools in Bengal. If you are a cadre, then only can you get the job of a school teacher . And what will these teachers teach to the generations? I take care of you and you take care of me and this is how it has evolved over the past three decades in Bengal. We should not blame others for this. We are to be blamed ourselves for this plague.

Diptosh Majumdar: Agreed. And we have let the problem fester for 30 years now.

Raman:Is it correct to say that "the Left-ist government in Bengal has lead the mass in the wrong path for long, and now its pouncing on them so hard that their popularity and innocent lives are the claimed dues."

Diptosh Majumdar: It came with a lot of hope and promise in 1977 but then 30 years is a long time. You systematically grow parallel institutions which become worse than Frankensteins.

Anjan_S: Can you please explain briefly what exactly is happening in Nandigram. What was the triggering point? When news channels say , CPI(M) is trying to regain N'gram, it seems like the folklores, where kings strike back to regain his empire. What do the people want and what does the state government want?

Diptosh Majumdar: See the government announced long time back that they are not going to have the chemical hub. But what happened after that was really bad for the CPI(M). The Bhumi Uchched Pratirodh Committee acquired a lot of power and they were numerically more than CPI(M) supporters. This is a situation which the CPI(M) couldn't tolerate. That's why they attempted once to go in and take over on March 14. The final flush out operation by the cadres was done over the past five days. The police had to be spectators. For that's the way it is in West Bengal. You have to do what the CPI(M) tells you to do.

Raghuraman: Feudalism that's what it is, don't you think? The Left critises Modi, but what are they doing in Nandigram? Will this reflect in the next elections? And can this be used as a reason to fire the WB government, though its next thing to impossible?

Diptosh Majumdar: Not next elections maybe, but the process of the CPI(M) losing clout has started. They were doing well in Kolkata proper but after such incidents the urban people to begin with will leave CPI(M).

Nischel: Hi Dip, unfortunately the PM will give clean chit to Karat to remain in power?

Diptosh Majumdar: Unfortunately, yes. But do we expect any other form of behaviour from Dr Singh?

Sridhar: Dear Sir, I am really amazed to see medieval mentality prevailing in part of our country called West Bengal. Have we really developed in the true sense or urban richness is the only achievement?

Diptosh Majumdar: Agree with your concern. It's savagery. Barbaric is a word which has been used by the very respectable Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi

Anuj: Who do you think will benifit most from Nandigarm episode: Congress(I), BJP or Trinamul Congress?

Diptosh Majumdar: Trinamool should. The Congress will also benefit. If you look at the organization base of the Opposition parties in today's Bengal, Trinamool has some influence in south Bengal, Congress is powerful in Central and North Bengal, Murshidabad upwards.

Swarup: Do you see any end of cadre-raj after this gruesome incident?

Diptosh Majumdar: I see it worsening. I see it getting the licence to kill.

Dev: The CPI-M is playing political game. People of West Bengal are suffering it. Why is the Centre not taking any action? The Centre can sit on the nuclear deal issue forever, but for issues like this where people are the worst sufferer, isn't this time for Centre to wake up?

Diptosh Majumdar: The Centre will not do anything for the Left. The Congress is powerless. Take it from me, the Congress will not be able to use this as a bargaining chip with the CPI(M). The Left will shamelessly dictate terms even after this.

Sunando: What will be the fallout of the Nandigram issue on Lok Sabha General Elections (mostly in 2008) and Vidhan Sabha Elections in 2009?

Diptosh Majumdar:Not great maybe, but what may really happen that the CPI(M) may lose a lot in South Bengal and Kolkata proper say, the four parliamentary seats of Kolkata north-west, Kolkata north-east, Kolkata south and Jadavpur.

GK: Why shouldn't Tehelka investigate this matter and why should the Congress still choose to be an ally of Left?

Diptosh Majumdar: Why Tehelka alone? Every medium should investigate the matter.

Swasti S Bhowmick: With the Left-minded artistic fraternity in West Bengal changing tack, where does Buddhadeb go from here?

Diptosh Majumdar: Not all of them have changed tack and CPI(M) will now shower benefits on those who haven't criticised the party. Have you heard a word of criticism coming from Bengal's great novelist Sunil Gangopadhyay? Has he suddenly lost his voice? What about Mrinal Sen? Why is he quiet? Won't now the public say that they have been bought off?

Indradeep Das: What happened in Nandigram was not a war-like situation, but a brutal genocide the by the ruling party in Bengal.

Diptosh Majumdar: Agreed. Though I still need proof to label it a genocide, but unabashed killing of a large number of people by an armed party machinery.

Amit: Diptosh, what the party in power i.e. CPM, would achieve by letting the violence continue unabated in Nandigram. If we go by the current trends, they are even alienating their long time strong vote bank i.e. intellectual class of the state.

Diptosh Majumdar: After 30 years, you are too used to winning. You cannot simply give up your influence. That is what has happened to the party.

Arunita Roy:When CPM supporters get killed (28 of them in last 11 months), the intellectuals remain silent, the governor remains silent. When BUPC supporters get killed, it becomes 'genocide', 'Jalianwalabag', 'Gujarat' etc etc. Why this double standard?

Diptosh Majumdar: Arunita, congratulations at least you can count the number of CPI(M) supporters killed. You even have a figure. Nobody knows the number of non-CPI(M) political workers killed. Because you cannot keep a count. The number is too big.

Suryanarayan: Dear Diptosh, I have a very basic question. In this era of 24-hour news channels why is that we still do not know whats happening within Nandigram? The other more fundamental. I was reading the newspaper the other day and I came across a graphic which describes the canal and the positions of the CPI(M) and the BUPC and talks about who is attacking whom and which are the supply lines et. al. Is this what democracy has become which has a virtual free for all for capture of territories?

Diptosh Majumdar: Suryanarayan, the CPI(M) cadres are not letting us in. And in West Bengal, the police won't let us if cadres don't let us in. Even then we have got you exclusive footage.

Rajeev: People may say it's shocking to see these things happen in India specially in a place like West Bengal where it is supposed to be bhodroloog. I am not surprised as I have seen the Naxalite movement and how it was hijacked, just want to know from you how long will the ordinary man be held under this protest bandh and how will the poor man making a living if all of Bengal is closed for a few days. Mamata may have enough at home, the poor man does not. He may not live more than 3-4 days like this. What do you feel being on site there?

Diptosh Majumdar: Completely agree with you that bandhs are an overused, completely unjustified weapons but in this case, I find myself spontaneously sympathetic to the cause.

S Chowdhury:What is the situation in Kolkata now?

Diptosh Majumdar: Please see our channel, you'll get the latest.