Red brigade's total war in battleground Nandigram

BLITZKRIEG: Pitched battle between the police and agitators in Nandigram.

    

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Nandigram is like any other town in Marxist West Bengal. The red flags and the narrow, working-class streets don’t tell the town’s recent history till one comes to burnt two-storey building.

A freshly painted signage says this is the CPI-M’s office in Nandigram. The charred walls and the twisted fans remind the CPI-M workers of that time when anti-land acquisition activists mobilised by a political alliance and backed by the Trinamool Congress controlled this town and nearly all villages under its jurisdiction.

Today the red flag is back in all villages of Nandigram and this signals the end of a 11-month siege by the anti land acquisition group, Bhumi Uchched Pratirodh Committee (BUPC).

The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) maintains a tenuous peace in Nandigram but it’s stretched to its limits, as the CPI-M and the BUPC have not given up their claims here.

Lakshman Seth, CPI-M MP from Haldia, doesn’t regret the violence in Nandigram. “We have answered them in the language they used to capture this area. I will not say any anything beyond this. The Government had a plan to set up a mega chemical hub and it wanted to acquire land. What is the fault of the CPI-M? Why should you attack and kill our supporters for that? You have the right to campaign against industrialisation and we have the right to campaign for i?” says Seth, who is the chairperson of the Haldia Development Authority.

Mohammad Yasin, a member of the CPI-M’s zonal committee in Nandigram, alleges BUPC supporters had weapons and the government did not act against them.

BUPC leader Bhabani Prasad Das admits his group “simple country-made weapons” but claims they were no match to what CPI-M workers had.

The National Human Rights Commission and the Central Bureau of Investigation, at is headquarters in Delhi, are now investigating these allegations and joining the dots to figure out how the CPI-M recaptured Nandigram.

CPI-M’s Nandigram battle plan

Nandigram is surrounded on three sides by the Haldi and the Hoogly rivers and the Talpathi canal. The canal lies between Khejuri villages and Nandigram and it was the frontline between the CPI-M and the BUPC during violence.