By IANS,
Kolkata : West Bengal Chief Minister Buddahdeb Bahttacharjee had ordered the police firing in Nandigram March 14, 2007 that claimed 14 lives, the state’s ruling Left Front partner Forward Bloc alleged Monday.
Speaking at a meet-the-press programme, Bloc state secretary Ashok Ghosh said Bhattacharjee had made the admission at a Left Front meeting after the incident that followed months of siege over the East Midnapore district zone by Trinamool Congress-led farmers in protest against the state government’s bid to acquire land for setting up a chemical hub.
Fourteen persons died, the majority of them falling to police bullets, and several women were raped and molested March 14, 2007.
“Bhattacharjee told the Front leaders ‘I have ordered the firing. I take responsibility. I won’t blame anybody else. But what I did was wrong’,” Ghosh said.
The statement, coming days ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, is bound to see the opposition claiming some brownie points, as was evident from Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee’s comments during the day.
“We knew all along that he (Buddhadeb) is responsible for the firing. He is, after all, the police minister. Now he must reply to what Ghosh has said,” Banerjee maintained.
Ghosh also termed the Tatas as “traitors” for shifting the Nano small car project from the state’s Singur to Sanand in Gujarat.
Global auto major Tata Motors announced the shifting of the prized project last October after two years of sustained protests by the Trinamool Congress-led protestors demanding return of fertile land which they alleged was forcibly taken by the state government for the car project.
“What the Tatas have done is grossly wrong. They have done injustice to the people. They are traitors,” Ghosh said.