Kolkata(IANS) : West Bengal Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi has always been too dignified and erudite a figure for the Left government to engage in mud-slinging. But Nandigram finally ended the veiled bonhomie as the two engaged in a wordy duel over the ongoing invasion by the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) in the trouble-torn region.
Governor Gandhi Friday night termed the manner in which villages in Nandigram were recaptured by the CPI-M as “unlawful and unacceptable”, prompting the party to react, terming him “partial”. The governor has raised quite a few eyebrows in the ruling ranks for his sympathy with opposition leader Mamata Banerjee and social activists like Medha Patkar on their Nandigram and Singur tirades.
“The ardour of Deepavali has been dampened in the whole state by the events in Nandigram. Several villages in Nandigram are oscillating from deepest gloom to panic,” Gandhi said in a nearly 700-word statement.
Terming the entry of CPI-M men in Nandigram as unacceptable, Gandhi said: “Even as of 4 p.m. this day (Friday), I have received phone calls from responsible persons in Nandigram saying that 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,” Gandhi said.
While Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee was quick to welcome the governor’s strongly worded statement as a courageous and just observation, the CPI-M said the governor was “not impartial”.
“For months, CPI-M supporters there were living in camps in Khejuri across Nandigram after they had to flee. They had even met the governor but did he act then? A delegation of uprooted CPI-M men had also met him,” CPI-M senior leader Shymal Chakraborty said.
“The people expect impartial statements from the governor. The Trinamool Congress and the Bhumi Uchchhed Pratirodh Committee (BUPC) it backs have for the past 11 months indulged in atrocities, looting, arson and killings and rendered 3,500 people homeless. But the governor has remained silent on it. This is unfortunate,” Chakraborty said.
He charged the governor with expressing concern about respected personalities (Medha Patkar and Kolkata’s leading intellectuals) being stopped from entering Nandigram, but said he had remained silent on the manner Nandigram MLA Mohammed Illyias had been dragged out of his car and beaten up.
Gandhi said he had “also asked the administration to remove new unauthorised man-made blocks” at four entry points in Nandigram.
The cold war between the CPI-M and governor was brewing for long with Gandhi visiting hospitals several times to call on Nandigram victims and persuading Mamata Banerjee to end her indefinite hunger strike in December last year and issuing statements.
But Gandhi has never been so critical of the CPI-M or direct in his intervention, drawing angry reactions from CPI-M leaders like Binoy Kona.
“When our supporters were out of their homes during Durga Puja, his festive spirit was not dampened. He has insulted his post,” said Konar, a CPI-M leader whose statements, often considered vulgar and below-the-belt, are alleged to have incited the Nandigram violence.
Mamata Banerjee welcomed the governor’s statement and thanked him “on behalf of the people of West Bengal”.
The governor’s statement follows his meeting with a delegation led by Medha Patkar Friday, a day after she and several city intellectuals and human rights activists were attacked on way to Nandigram.
Over the past week, the CPI-M has launched a massive offensive against the Trinamul Congress-backed anti-land acquisition BUPC group in Nandigram and regained lost bases in the area. Their cadres, known as Harmat Bahini, entered village after village and torched houses belonging to the rival groups.
While the CPI-M maintains that peace is returning to Nandigram, rights activists and political opponents say a new reign of terror has been unleashed in Nandigram.
Violence in Nandigram has claimed 32 lives since January, when the region flared up over proposed land acquisition for a special economic zone (SEZ). The state government scrapped the plan later in the face of stiff resistance.
Though the SEZ was scrapped, a turf battle continues in Nandigram between the CPI-M and the Trinamool Congress-supported BUPC in the run-up to local body elections in May next year.