By IANS
New Delhi : Launching a blistering attack on the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) for violence in West Bengal’s Nandigram, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Wednesday called for imposition of the president’s rule in the state if the situation did not improve, but the central government did a fine balancing act.
A short duration discussion in the Lok Sabha on Nandigram after a two-day standoff that led to the paralysis of both houses of parliament saw moods fluctuate as speakers discussed threadbare the arson and killings in the troubled region of CPI-M-ruled West Bengal.
Initiating the debate, Leader of Opposition L.K. Advani described the violence in Nandigram as a “turning point” in the history of CPI-M and urged the central government to call Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi and get a detailed report of the incidents in Nandigram.
“Just as Nikita Khrushchev was the turning point in Russian communism and Czech communist party head Alexander Dubchek was the turning point when Russian troops occupied Czechoslovakia, Nandigram is going to be a turning point in the history of the CPI-M,” declared the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader.
Advani went one step further to demand that an all-party delegation be sent to the area as political parties had asked after the torching of the Sabarmati Express in Godhra, Gujarat in 2002.
Kicking off the discussion under Rule 193, which does not involve voting, Advani asked the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government to warn the state government under Article 355. He also called for invoking Article 356 and dismissing the Left Front government if it still failed to heed to its warnings.
Article 355 enjoins on the union government to secure every state of the union from external or internal dangers and ensure governance in conformity with the constitution.
However, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi walked the tightrope over the issue though he reminded the house that the state government had come under fierce attack from Left-leaning intellectuals, artistes and writers.
Dasmunsi reminded Advani of how as home minister during the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime he (Advani) had responded when he (Dasmunsi) personally went to plead with him to act when similar violence erupted in Panskura and Keshupur areas of Midnapore district.
“I can’t do anything since this is a state matter,” the minister quoted Advani as saying then.
“Today he is suggesting an all-party delegation, but then he was not willing to pay a visit himself as the country’s home minister,” said Dasmunsi, an MP from West Bengal.
He also took a dig at the BJP leader for his alleged proximity with West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.
“Is it not surprising that neither Mamata Banerjee of Trinamool Congress nor a Congress delegation nor any other political leader is being allowed to enter Nandigram, yet only Advaniji was allowed to lead a delegation (to the area)?”
Alluding to the Left parties that prop the UPA government, Dasmunsi conceded, “Whether in Nandigram or elsewhere, we are with the Left Front with only one objective and that is not to allow communal elements to take over the country.”
Replying to the debate, Home Minister Shivraj Patil said some leftwing extremists were responsible for fanning the violence and arms and ammunition were recovered from the area.
He also pointed out the immediate need was to rehabilitate those who had suffered from the violence.
The Left leaders, expectedly, made a forceful defence of the West Bengal government and blamed the central government indirectly for not coming to its aid in time by sending the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).
CPI-M MP Mohammad Saleem justified the entry of CPI-M cadres into Nandigram and said that Nandigram villagers were pushed out of their dwellings for 11 months.
In his sweeping attack, Saleem spared neither the Congress party nor the BJP and reminded them that the threat of Maoists was far more serious than to be ignored and lost in anti-CPI-M rhetoric.
“The chief minister asked for the CRPF on Oct 27. Immediately a central minister announced that if the CRPF enters Nandigram, he would go and sit on a dharna.
“We expect the central minister to be a minister of the country, a leader of the Congress party and not a faction of the Congress party,” said Saleem, referring indirectly to Dasmunsi who had opposed on record sending of the CRPF to West Bengal.
Communist Party of India (CPI) leader Gurudas Dasgupta confronted Patil wanting to know why he had failed to send the CRPF in time when matters were getting out of hand, especially when the whole of Nandigram was fast becoming a ‘liberated area’.
“Will you allow a liberated zone in Gujarat? Or will you allow liberated zone in Andhra Pradesh?” Dasgupta queried.
Dasgupta supported Saleem by pointing out that once Bhattacharjee had personally assured that no land would be acquired for industry in Nandigram, there was no justification for carrying out the “siege” of the place for 11 months.