By IANS
Kolkata : Four activists of All India Forward Bloc, the second largest constituent of the Left Front government in West Bengal, were killed and at least 25 injured Tuesday when the police opened fire on “violent” party protestors in the northern town of Dinhata.
All India Forward Bloc (AIFB), the disgruntled constituent of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M)-led Left Front, called a 24-hour shutdown Wednesday, but said it would not pull out of the Front because of “political necessity”.
The party had organised a statewide protest, demanding minimum 100 days’ employment for the jobless, cancellation of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) policy to secure farmers’ land rights, and job quotas for Muslims.
It also wanted a bar on the unbridled entry of national and multinational biggies in retail business in the state.
“Four Forward Bloc supporters are dead while 25 people, including 20 policemen, are injured at Dinhata in Cooch-Behar district. The police had to resort to firing after they were attacked by the party’s unruly supporters and baton-charge and teargas failed,” Inspector General of Police (North Bengal) R.S. Nawla told IANS.
“The party’s supporters broke through police cordon and injured cops,” Nawla said. He added that the injured were admitted to hospitals.
Cooch-Behar is about 800 km from Kolkata.
“The firing was barbaric. We don’t demand any inquiry because we know it won’t yield results. We leave it to the people to give their verdict and so we have called a shutdown,” an angry AIFB general secretary Ashok Ghosh told a press conference.
Ghosh, however, said they would continue being a part of the Left Front.
“We are in the Front for a political necessity. We will remain with the Front so long we feel it is a necessity. It is not a political compulsion or opportunism,” he said.
Forward Bloc’s Cooch-Behar secretary Udayan Guha said the firing was pre-planned as the protest was peaceful. But Nawla claimed that the police resorted to firing to quell the mob after the protestors attacked the sub-divisional officer’s (SDO) office, set fire to vehicles and injured policemen.
“The police were told about our programme clearly, but they took extreme measures since they were bent upon silencing our voices. A year after the police firing in Nandigram, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya said he would not have sent cops if he had known there would be firing. It seems he will repeat the expression in Dinhata after a year,” Guha told IANS.
Firing on a constituent of the ruling Left Front is unprecedented in the over three-decade-long rule of the communists. The March 14 police firing in Nandigram, in which 14 people were killed, targeted mostly villagers who were then supporters of the Trinamool Congress-led Bhumi Uchched Pratirodh Committee.
The Forward Bloc of late has been vocal against CPI-M’s policies. They have been at loggerheads over issues like Nandigram, the car project at Singur and retail business policies.
“It is a shame. The police in West Bengal have turned trigger-happy and we had been long protesting against this undemocratic behaviour of the police to silence democratic movements,” said Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee.
Trinamool Congress and Socialist Unity Centre India (SUCI) have lent support to the shutdown called by the Forward Bloc. Congress also lent moral support to the agitation.
In West Bengal, the Forward Bloc has 23 seats in the 294-member state assembly.
While the total strength of Left Front in the assembly is 235, with the CPI-M alone accounting for 176 seats, the Bloc is the second largest Front partner since other allies like Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) and Communist Party of India (CPI) account for 20 and eight seats respectively.
The Trinamool Congress, which is trying to woo Left constituents like the Forward Bloc and RSP, has 30 seats in the assembly.