Kolkata, Nov 11 (IANS) A day after gun battles raged in West Bengal’s Nandigram claiming two lives, tension continued to simmer in the region. Ripples of the tension were also felt in Kolkata, the seat of power of the 30-year-old communist regime, with the non-Marxist constituents of the Left Front keeping the heat on the government to act.
West Bengal Public Works Department Minister Kshiti Goswami, of the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) who had Saturday desired to resign from the government in protest, said he would not attend his office from Monday.
“I don’t want to attend office. I have communicated my decision to the party secretary and they would discuss and take a decision,” said Goswami, one of the vocal critics of the government over Nandigram.
Nandigram in East Midnapore district erupted in gun battles Saturday after activists of the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) allegedly fired on an unarmed procession of rival Bhumi Uchched Pratirodh Committee (BUPC) members, killing two and injuring several others.
Meanwhile, the three Left Front allies – the Forward Bloc, RSP and Communist Party of India (CPI) – have called an emergency meeting Sunday of the “mini-front” to discuss the situation in Nandigram.
“We, all three Left partners, have called the meeting to discuss the issue of fresh violence in Nandigram. All senior party leaders are expected to attend the meeting,” CPI state secretary Manju Kumar Majumdar told IANS.
Majumdar said that his party would act upon the decision taken by the left partners at the meeting.
Senior CPI leader and West Bengal Water Resource Development Minister Nanda Gopal Bhattacharya said the meeting would decide how to initiate peace process and stop violence in Nandigram.
A disgruntled Kshiti Goswami said, “It’s the sole responsibility of the state government to protect people in Nandigram. I don’t know if they are CPI-M or Trinamool Congress activists. To me, they all are human beings.”
Meanwhile, West Bengal’s Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Raj Kanojia told IANS there was no fresh report of violence in Nandigram Sunday.
However, some TV channels reported of sporadic firing in some areas like Tekhali in the area. The channels say five people were killed in the violence, but the official death toll was two till Sunday morning.
“There are bodies lying in Amgachia area but the CPI-M is firing from there and so even the police cannot retrieve the bodies from there,” a member of the anti-land acquisition BUPC Abdus Samad told IANS from Nandigram.
“The situation is volatile and fresh gun battles can start any minute,” said a photojournalist covering the violence in Nandigram.
Trinamul Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, whose convoy was stopped near Kolaghat Saturday night by the CPI-M cadres, has left for Nandigram.
The fresh violence Saturday prompted the Trinamool Congress chief to resign as MP.
In Kolkata, the intelligentsia rallied behind a fasting Medha Patkar and other human rights activists as they boycotted a state-organised film festival.
Over the past week, the CPI-M launched a massive offensive against the BUPC in Nandigram to regain its lost ‘bases’. Their cadres entered village after village and allegedly torched houses belonging to the rival groups.
While the CPI-M maintains that peace is returning to Nandigram, rights activists say otherwise.
Violence in Nandigram has claimed 34 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.
However, a turf battle continues in Nandigram between the CPI-M and the BUPC in the run-up to local bodies elections in May next year.