West Bengal Politics: Naxalite Movement

The History of Naxalite Movement in West Bengal

Following the India-China war, the party split into two during 1964 –Communist Party of India (CPI) and Communist Party of India (Marxist) {CPI (M)}. While the CPI preached the theory of ‘peaceful road to non-capitalist development’, the CPI(M) adopted the centrist line. Though there were serious differences on ideological and tactical grounds, both the parties went ahead with their parliamentary exercises and formed the United Front government in West Bengal.

In the backdrop of such organizational upheavals within the Indian Communist movement, an incident in a remote area transformed the history of left-wing extremism in India. The term Naxalites came from Naxalbari, a small village in West Bengal, where a section of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) led by Charu Mazumdar, Kanu Sanyal, and Jangal Santhal initiated a violent uprising in 1967. In a remote village called Naxalbari in West Bengal, a tribal youth named Bimal Kissan, having obtained a judicial order, went to cultivate his land on 2 March 1967. The local landlords attacked him with the help of their goons. Tribal people of the area retaliated and started  forcefully recapturing their lands. What followed was a rebellion, which left one police sub inspector and nine tribals dead. Within a short span of about two months, this incident acquired great visibility and tremendous support from cross sections of Communist revolutionaries belonging to the state units of the CPI (M) in West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. 

If the readers go by the name of the states where Communist movement grew up they will notice a significant feature. States like West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh have large number of Muslims as minority and states like Orissa,  Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Kerala have large number of Christan as minority. Historically Communist movement grew in India by adding fuel to the “Minority” sentiment from 1967 itself. So, we leave upto readers to understand meaning of so called “Communal” word.

Now let us get back to our topic of Naxalite movement. These conflicts go back to the failure of implementing the 5th and 9th Schedules of the Constitution of India. In theory, these Schedules provide for a limited form of tribal autonomy with regard to exploiting natural resources on their lands, e.g. pharmaceutical and mining, and 'land ceiling laws', limiting the land to be possessed by landlords and distribution of excess land to landless farmers and labours. The caste system is another important social aspect of these conflicts.

Though the United Front Government of West Bengal, headed by the CPI (M) was able to contain the rebellion within 72 days using all repressive measures possible, these units had a formal meeting in November1967, as a result of which the All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries (AICCCR) was formed in May 1968. ‘Allegiance to the armed struggle and non-participation in the elections’ were the two cardinal principles that the AICCR adopted for its operations. However, differences cropped up over how an armed struggle should be advanced and this led to the exclusion of a section of activists from Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, led respectively by T. Nagi Reddy and Kanhai Chatterjee.

On the question of the ‘annihilation of the class enemy’ (শ্রেণী শত্রু), the Kanhai Chatterjee group had serious objections, as they were of the view that the annihilation of the class enemy should only be undertaken after building up mass agitations. However, a majority in the AICCCR rejected this and the AICCCR went ahead with the formation of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) in May 1969. This led Chatterjee to join the Maoist Communist Centre(MCC). The CPI(M-L) held its first congress in 1970 in Kolkata and Charu Mazumdar was formally elected its general secretary.

Since then, both the CPI (M-L) and the MCC continued with their respective forms of armed struggle for the next couple of years. During this period, Charu Majumdar became the undisputed Naxalite guru and with the organizational skills of Kanu Sanyal and Jaghal Santhal, the movement spread to different corners of the country. The country witnessed the euphoria of a Maoist revolution. However, it was far more short-lived than expected. What was generally perceived by Indian as well as Chinese Communist revolutionaries as the final enactment of the revolution, in reality, proved to be no more than a dress rehearsal. As hundreds of CPI (ML) cadres lost their lives, and thousands were put behind bars, the movement witnessed confusion, splits and disintegration. During that period thousands of immaculate brains went wayward and thousands lost lives. Present young generation, those who have interest in politics, can ask their parents. Every family have some sad story to share. It is during that period, post-independence West Bengal witnessed massive destruction of Bengali intellectuals and talent. Charu Majumdar’s larger-than-life image also had its negative impact, for after his death in 1972, the central leadership of CPI (ML) virtually collapsed.

The history of the Naxal movement post-Charu Mazumdar, is characterized by a number of splits, brought about by personalized and narrow perceptions about the Maoist revolutionary line and attempts at course-correction by some of the major groups. Even Kanu Sanyal, one of the founders of the movement, could not escape this. He gave up the path of "dedicated armed struggle" by 1977 and accepted parliamentary practice as a form of revolutionary activity.

Violence in West Bengal

Around 1971 the Naxalites gained a strong presence among the radical sections of the student movement in Calcutta. Students left school to join the Naxalites. Charu Majumdar, to entice more students into his organisation, declared that revolutionary warfare was to take place not only in the rural areas as before, but everywhere and spontaneously. Thus Majumdar declared an "annihilation line", a dictum that Naxalites should assassinate individual "class enemies"(শ্রেণী শত্রু) – landlords, businessmen, university teachers, police officers, politicians of the right and left and others.

The chief minister, Siddhartha Shankar Ray of the Congress Party, instituted strong counter-measures against the Naxalites. The West Bengal police fought back to stop the Naxalites. The house of Somen Mitra, the Congress MLA, was allegedly turned into a torture chamber where Naxals were confined illegally by police and the Congress cadres. CPI-M cadres were also involved in the "state terror". After suffering losses and facing the public rejection of Majumdar's "annihilation line", the Naxalites alleged human rights violations by the West Bengal police, who responded that the state was effectively fighting a civil war and that democratic pleasantries had no place in a war, especially when the opponent did not fight within the norms of democracy and civility.

Large sections of the Naxal movement began to question Majumdar's leadership. In 1971 the CPI(ML) was split, as the Satyanarayan Singh revolted against Majumdar's leadership. In 1972 Majumdar was arrested by the police and died in Alipore Jail. His death accelerated the fragmentation of the movement.

The term ‘Naxal’ came from the name of a village - Naxalbari. In fact this village is in between Nepal border & main city of North Bengal Siliguri. Strategically village was important for Naxalites as they could have crossed Nepal border when attacked by police. CPI(M) ruled Bengal for 34 years and despite having an Minister, Mr. Ashoke Bhattacharya at Siliguri, the condition of village remained pathetic & roads even more horrible. Any public outage arises from under development of particular area. It appears none of the political parties were keen to develop this area even after Kanu Sanyal influence got reduced. We would like to draw reader's attention that Mr.SS Ahluwalia, from BJP, after being elected as MP in 2014 Lok Sabha Election from Darjeeling constituency noticed that and adopted village of Kanu Sanyal, Hatighisa, as his village for improvement in Adarsh Gram Yojana.

Difference between Naxalism and Maoism

Most of us get confused between Naxalites and Maoists when we hear these terms. We will try to explain in the simplest possible way the difference between Naxalites and Maoists so that our young readers can understand the difference.

The difference between Maoists struggle and the Naxalite movement is that both trace their origin to the Naxalbari uprising of 1967, but while the Naxalite movement thrives on the original spirit of Naxalbari; the Maoist struggle is an outcome of the 1967 uprising. Maoists work with an agenda and use weapons to achieve their aims. Naxalism focuses on mass organisations while the Maoism relies mainly on arms.

Naxalism

Naxalism originated as a rebellion against marginalization of the poor forest dwellers and gradually against the lack of development and poverty at the local level in rural parts of eastern India. It began in 1967 with an armed peasant uprising in Naxalbari village of Darjeeling district in West Bengal. 

The origin of the Naxals was a result of the split that took place in the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in 1967. It led to the formation of the Communist Party of India (Marxist and Leninist). West Bengal being the centre of the movement initially, Naxalism spread to the even lesser developed areas like Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh.

The CPI-ML has been fighting elections in several states across India. Most prominent among these groups are the CPI-ML (Liberation), CPI-ML (Kanu), CPI-ML (Jan Shakti), CPI-ML (New Democracy) and others.

Maoism

Maoism originated in China as a form of communist theory derived from the teachings of Chinese political leader Mao Zedong. Maoists were the loyal believers of the Chairman Mao’s philosophy that "Power flows from the barrel of the gun."

When the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) was born out of the Naxalbari uprising, a section of communist rebels retained a distinct identity. Along with Marxism and Leninism, a new concept, which is of Maoism, started emerging in India.

Around 1966, the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) was formed in West Bengal. Keeping a low profile in the earlier years, the group shot into prominence in Bihar in the mid - 1980s, when they killed 54 Rajputs in Dalelchak-Bhagaura village of Aurangabad.

In other words, there are two fundamental differences between the Naxalites and Maoists. While the Naxalites take part in elections and many of them are registered parties with the Election Commission of India, Maoists do not support the elections at all. Also, the Naxalites may have an armed wing, but the existence of the Maoists depends on their armed militia.

Therefore, the two terms (Naxalites and Maoists) should not be used interchangeably as they are not same and their ideologies have different roots.

Reference

www.dnaindia.com

www.wikipedia.com

Kujur, Rajat – Naxal Movement in India: A profile

Digital Voting

Our Prime Minister, Sri Narendra Modi, has called for 'Digital India' and is working hard to implement it. The rationale behind 'Digital India' are to address and reduce corruption and to enhance the ambit of eGovernance through it. NDA government has already launched MyGov.in (URL - https://mygov.in) - a platform for citizen engagement towards good governance in India. MyGov.in is a website through which a citizen can directly reach Prime Minister or any other Ministers and give suggestions or register complaints.

In an initiative to further enhance the ambit of eGovernance, Government of India has launched a portal in April 2015, nvsp.in - National Voter's Service Portal. Using this portal a citizen can

• Search name in National Electoral Roll by entering basic details.
• Locate polling station on map.
• Print voter information slip.
• Apply for Enrolment, Modification, Deletion and change of address in electoral roll
• Know Booth Level Officer(BLO), Electoral Roll Officer(ERO)
• Know District Election Officials and officials in Chief Election Office

A step further, we may land into an era of Electronic Voting (eVoting)!

Is it necessary? Many political parties and leaders might oppose it. I hope readers won't ask which political parties or leaders will oppose this, after day long killing of Democracy in Kolkata Municipal Election!!

Can Voting be done through SMS, Internet and Mobile application? A question if answered 'Yes' will save exorbitant amount which is usually spent for election in India. Not only expenditure it will do the following:

• Eliminate Rigging
• Reduce Chaotic situation
• Reduce Political Murders
• Reduce attack on opposition parties' supporters
• Person out of station can also Vote
• Indians living abroad can vote
• Save Trees (being Paperless)
• Reduce long queues at Booth
• Reduce huge expenditure On poll official's posting
• Reduce Expenditure on State & Central Paramilitary force

People might raise questions for people those who doesn't have access to Mobile, Internet and Mobile application, for them the conventional way of voting will continue. In case of single mobile number in a family, there should not be any problem in sending multiple votes from a single mobile, if the SMS of vote carries EPIC voter number. One can not vote twice with the same EPIC number. It is for sure that parties like CPM, TMC and also Congress in Murshidabad will not like this as the system to vote in Bengal as voting by illegal ghost voters plays a major role in West Bengal vote. In most of the cases Ghost voters are dual citizen of India & Bangladesh.

Bharatiya Janata Party has proved by its unique member enrollment programme how effectively this process can be done. Till yesterday morning (19.04.2015) statistics showed 16,97,70,347 people has called the toll-free no. 1800-266-2020 . In the second step of sending EPIC no by SMS around 6 Crore people failed. It proves these 6 Crores are either illegal voters or supporters of other parties. At that point of time BJP's registerd members were 10,00,98,905 excluding those 6 Crores who didn't enroll their EPIC Number. All the Mobile numbers who passed first phase of giving missed call & those passed the second phase of sending SMS with EPIC number are in the records of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

So once again Bharatiya Janata Party has become trendsetter & proved that if you have respect in democracy you can solve the major electoral problem.

We urge the Election Commission of India to consider this option and implement it after evaluating its Pro and Cons. We want to live in a democratic world & don't want to see such picture on newspapers, as given below, on the very next day of poll.

Potato: Production, Processing and Marketing - Problems and Solutions

PRODUCTION

Potato known as “hidden treasure’’ ranks fourth after Rice, Wheat, and Maize is a staple crop in many countries of the world. It is cheap and plentiful crop that grow in a wide varieties of climates and locales. Native of Peru and Bolvia and known by mankind before 8000BC spread all over the world by European traders and colonisers. At present World is producing nearly 400 million tonnes of potato every year and 75% of it is consumed by human. Remaining 25% is being used in food for domestic animals, commercial use in textile industries, paper making, potato starch, adhesive, Biodegradable packing, food industries, beverage, polylactic acid and in plant research.

India stand second largest grower of potato after China. At present nearly 33%of total production of worlds are shared by China and India only. Due to perishibility only 5% of worlds potato is traded internationally. Export share of India s potato is only 0.5% annually which comes only one tenth of global trading. India produce nearly 50 million tones of potatoes annually and it is per capita higher [19.9 tonnes per hectare] than worlds average [17.4 tonnes per hectare].

Potato production in West Bengal is nearly 110 lakh tones this year which is 10% higher than previous financial year . In India west Bengal is the second largest potatoes producer after Uttar Pradesh. Nearly 4.5 lakh hectare has been used for potato production this year which is 10% more field used for production than last year.

PROBLEMS

Potato cultivation has yearly boom and bust cycle. One year there is bumper crop and prices fall to levels which are not remunerable for the farmers and cultivators. This lead to very severe problem for farmers who have to throw away a large portion of their produce as the cold storage get full and it becomes un remunerable to even store them. Next year the farmer’s plant potato in less area and the volume decrease and the price escalates rapidly. This cycle goes on regularly. There is no mechanism to stabilise the volume or price.

Family members mourn the death of potato farmer
Nritya Gopal Burman, in Jalpaigur, March 2015.

Potato glut and plunging prices have triggered suicides in Bengal’s Hooghly, Burdwan and Bankura district [the major districts producing potatoes] prices have crashed one kg of potato selling for Rs2-3 while cost of production of one kg tuber comes nearly Rs 5. Last year [2013-14] farmers reaped a good harvest and earned hand some profit. But prices across the country were volatile because the crop failed in Uttar Pradesh largest producer of potatoes. Bengal the second largest could have stepped in eased matters out.

Encouraged by that experience and dreaming of making good money Bengal farmer’s sowed potato over more than 4lakh hectares of land which was 10% more area than previous year. Production was bountiful an impressive 1crore plus tones. The state’s 435 cold storages capable of storing maximum 62 lakh tones over flowed. Nearly half of the total production lay out in the open exposed to the forces of nature [heat, wind and rain]. Farmers tried to store some portion at home but damage by rottening became uncontrolable.

The neighbouring states wary after the bitter experience of 2013 with Bengal who banned the exporting of potatoes to other state, tried to improve home production, so the demand of Bengal potatoes slumped. The next work of potato marketing was disturbed in 2013 by the government intervention resulting adverse effect on exporting to other states. The traders from Jharkhand, Assam, Andhra Pradesh are not willing to purchase and Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, also have bumper crop this year. Saddled with large stocks of unsold potatoes farmer are in big trouble.

Most of the farmers of West Bengal are small and marginal farmers [below one hectare]. With a myth of getting more production by using heavy dose of chemical fertilisers and pesticides have escalated the cost of production very high nearly Rs 21000 per bigha [1/3 acre] and this over doses of chemicals are the main cause for rottening of potatoes and lowering quality of the produce and thus non-exportable. Farmers are compelled to sell potato at Rs 140 per 50kg bag while cost of production comes to Rs 250 per 50kg bag, thus Rs 110 loss per 50kg bag, which is the main cause for suicide of the Bengal farmers. Refusal of export due to poor quality worsened the situation.

Local consumption is nearly 7 lakh tones per month, nearly 5-6 lakh tones is used for nursery & seed purpose and 63 lakh tone are stored in cold storage. Rest nearly 30 lakh tones are left for distress sell and making all sorts of the problems to the farmers .The tragedy of the whole story is that the consumer in the cities are paying Rs 8-10 per kg of potato while farmers are selling it at through away prices [Rs 2-3per kg], Only 30% of the consumer price are being availed by farmers and the maximum share i.e. 70% is being looted by middle-men.

High-level of wastage and value loss is largely due to the lack of basic infrastructure, like cold storage and handling facilities at the farm level. And there are large numbers of intermediaries in the chain who place large cost in the system. There is further loss as the produce is transported from the farm to the market. Transportation under poor road conditions and very high temperature variations increases the loss of the produce form farm to market place.

SOLUTIONS

An integrated action plan is highly needed from farmers’ field to consumer plate, addressing all the problems at production, post-harvest management, value addition, transportation and marketing level of operations.

PRODUCTION LEVEL MEASURES

Inconsistency in potato cultivation is one of the major problems of the day. Boom & bust have become a yearly phenomenon. So there must be system for cultivation and control for production according to the need of the market and consumers on a regular basis. This is why NDA government is planning to introduce Daily Data for Agricultural Produce, which will record the produce and the quantity consumed thus will depict the real requirement of the produce.

To improve the quality of the production best seed and planting materials must be used recommended for specific climate and locales. Use of heavy doses of chemical fertilisers and pesticides must be stopped, as they are main cause for poor quality of potatoes and make it non-exportable.

Natural soil amendments and natural pesticides must be encouraged giving incentives to natural farming and farm inputs. This will improve the quality of the produce and will insure the poison free food for consumers and export. Farmer will get better price of their produce growing it naturally. Bengal farmers are using highest dose of chemicals to produce potatoes which have become the main cause of quality degradation and making the Bengals potatoes unfit for export. Natural farming of potato cultivation will improve the quality and better results can be obtained while storing them at home. NDA government is advocating for Soil Card - a health card for agricultural soil, since it took over in May 2014, which will guide the farmers regarding requirement of exact quantity of fertilizer and pesticides for the produce.

POST HARVEST MANAGEMENTS MEASURES

Digging, grading, storing at farm level are very inefficient, storage capacities in cold storage is also insufficient. Nearly 50% of the produce remain unsorted because less capability of cold storage. So there is dire need to build more cold storage and pre-cooling facilities nearby production areas. And capacities of existing cold storage must be increased. So that further losses and distress sell could be stopped.

VALUE ADDITION MEASURES

Only 0.5% of the total potatoes is being processed by processing industries which is very less amount and have nearly no impact on the problem solving. Processing of potatoes must be increased giving incentives to micro, small and medium food processing units so that percentage of processing of potatoes could be improved at a sufficient level. Other commercial usages of potatoes in textile, paper making, biodegradable packing and adhesive industries must be encouraged also.

MARKETING MEASURES

Marketing of potatoes in India is very problematic as here are numbers of intermediaries adding greatly to the final cost of production. Farmers get only 25-30% of the consumers price becuse nearly seven hands operate in the system from farmers’ field to retail chain or outlets. If we integrate the chain from farmers field to consumer plates nearly 70-75% of the consumer price could be transferred to the farmers.

Consumer forums can be involved and may encourage developing a Forward and Backward linkage for quick procurement and disposal of the produce. An early demand can be passed to farmers level which will help to control the production according the demand of the consumers. They may be encouraged to grow other cash crops to avoid the glut as there is demand at consumer side.

CONCLUSION

It nutshell we can conclude it that with a philosophy of cluster and consortium approach for production, post-harvest management, transportation, processing and marketing of potatoes must be integrated from farmers’ field to consumer’s plate. And this will be a Silent Revolution to solve all the problems of potato cultivators. Naturally grown poison free potato availability to the consumers on a reasonable price could be ensured while farmers could also be ensured to get a remunerable price of their produce for whole of the year.

An R&D is highly needed at all the steps of potato cultivation, post-harvest management, value addition and marketing and a long term policy & strategy to combat the potato disaster must be prepared at state and national level.

West Bengal Politics: Blood Stained Names – II

This is in continuation to our earlier article West Bengal Politics: Blood Stained Names – I and our endeavour through this series is to aware the youth about few events which happened in West Bengal. We hear these names but many of us are still unaware what exactly happened. In our previous article we have mentioned about Sain-Bari, Marich Jhanpi, Ananda Marg and Keshpur. In this article we will briefly recount few such names.

Nanoor Massacre

Soon after the Left Front (LF) came to power in 1977, the poor people of this locality became virtual slaves of the money lenders, land lords, promoters, contractors and tax extracting goons, all belonging to the CPM. Any protest meant either torture by the Harmads or arrest by the police branding the protester as a Naxalite activist. After the success of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the Panskura election the oppressed people saw a ray of hope in the new party and the influence of the party went on increasing rapidly in the area dominated by poor people especially scheduled castes and Muslims.

Then the Harmad force took control of the entire area and declared that anybody showing allegiance to the TMC would be punished mercilessly. They identified some middle farmers who were spreading propagating for the TMC and threatened the landless labours of the locality that anyone working with these farmers would be punished. They in fact wanted to punish these farmers not by any violent means but by spoiling their agricultural production, the means of their livelihood. While none of the local labours could be mobilized, one such farmer hired 11 landless labours from outside. It was in the early morning on 27th July 2000. As soon as these labours, unaware of the Harmad threat, started working on the land of the farmer, armed Harmads attacked them and brutally killed all of them.

Victims of Nanoor massacre were Seikh Nizam, Rasul Bax, Sabur Seikh, Seikh Salamat, Harai Seikh, Saran Mete, Safikul Seikh, Seikh Safiq, Asraf Seikh, Saifur Seikh, Seikh Ali Hossain. CPM claim themselves secular, is this a proof of secularism? CPM appeased Muslims for Votes only, never looked into their well-being or development.

After any such heinous act, CPM use to cover it up with concocted stories to confuse people and deviate people’s attention. They did same in this incident, once again concocted a story that they were dacoits and killed by the local people when they attempted dacoity at a house in that locality. Mr. Somnath Chatterjee, M.P. from Bolpur (that contains Nanoor), described the victims as notorious anti-socials. However, when the stories did not work, the local CPM leaders admitted that the 11 victims were innocent landless labours. To save face, top CPM leaders like Jyoti Basu, Biman Basu and Anil Biswas condemned the massacre without forgetting to mention that this was a reaction of torture on the CPM supporters by Trinamul Congress and other parties opposed to the CPM.

Chhota Angaria Annihilation

After the combined Harmad-Maoist onslaught to evict the TMC supporters from the Keshpur area, the Harmads could drive out the TMC supporters from the entire west Midnapore district. Defection from the CPM was stopped by threats and most of the TMC supporters rejoined the LF simply to save their lives.

Abdul Bakhtar Mandal and some of his followers at Chhota Angaria village in west Midnapore, ignored the Harmad threats and continued campaigning for the TMC in the assembly elections. So, action was necessary. The deadly duo – Tapan Ghosh and Sukur Ali, along with the killer team, surrounded the house of Mandal where TMC supporters had assembled and set it ablaze on 4th January, 2001. Mandal himself could escape, but most of the inmates were either burnt alive or shot dead by the Harmads. Because of the tight-lips of the eye witnesses to the incident it was very difficult to get the exact information about the number of persons killed in the incident. Later on it was found, 11 died in that incident.

In fact, later on when the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) took up the case, all the witnesses including the chief witness Bakhtar Mandal declined to co-operate as they were all warned by CPM that any cooperation with the CBI would mean torturous death of the witness and his family members. For this reason, the CBI was compelled to release the arrested persons, which included the two chief Tapan Ghosh and Sukur Ali, unconditionally and withdraw the charges against them. As soon as these two pathological murderers were released from CBI custody, not only the West Midnapore leaders, but also the top state-level leaders and ministers celebrated the occasion by garlanding Tapan Ghosh and Sukur Ali and describing them as the 'most precious assets' of party.

Rape and Murder of Tapasi Malik

Tapasi Malik, the teen-age daughter of a poor peasant became a staunch supporter of the 'Save Farm' movement of the evicted Singur peasants since their land had been grabbed. She had the courage to openly protest against the intimidation of the Harmads.

Tapasi Malik's mother with her photo.

On 18th December, 2006, at 5 A.M. she went out of her house to answer nature's call; she was dragged by hair by the Harmads inside the area barbed wired for the Nano factory. She was  gang raped by the Harmads. Then dragged her in a pit which was done beforehand for the purpose, where she was burnt alive. Her abdominal area was totally burnt off. The villagers discovered her burnt body at 6 A.M. The police immediately rushed to the spot and dispersed the villagers. Then they dragged her father, Sri Manoranjan Malik and compelled him to write that it was a case of suicide because of a family problem. The mass, now magnified, could snatch away the papers from the police tear off the papers containing false report of Tapasi's father. The leader of the opposition (TMC) in the legislative assembly soon came to the spot and made the police to write the FIR of murder.

It was a well-planned case and CPM had already prepared their story that it was a case of suicide because of a family quarrel. CPM always tried the famous saying of Promod Dasgupta (actually said by Paul Joseph Goebbles - Adolf Hitler's Propaganda Minister in Nazi Germany), 'a lie told hundred times becomes a truth', but his theory was disproved again.

Nandigram Genocide

The LF government of West Bengal decided to acquire 14,000 acres of multi-cropping rich agricultural land from the area Nandigram in the East Midnapore district and hand it over for setting up a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) to the Salem group of Indonesia. To acquire land in a high handed way, Lakshman Seth declared on 28th December, 2006, on behalf of the Haldia Development Authority that about 14,000 acres of land would be acquired from the cultivators of Nandigram. The villagers, disregarding the threats, protested against the decision before the panchayat office on 3rd January 2007. Immediately police arrived and dispersed the protesters by lathi charge.

Soon the villagers organized themselves into the Bhumi Uchhed Protirodh Committee (BUPC) (Committee against Eviction from Land) and started putting up barricades on the road by felling trees, digging roads and placing massive stones on the roads at regular gaps so as to prevent the entry of police jeeps.

1^st Round – The Harmads soon arrived from various parts of the state and created an armed camp at Khejuri, right outside Nandigram. On 7th January, 2006, a large number of Harmads, armed with sophisticated weapons, attacked the villagers and three villagers were killed in the encounter. The villagers could, however, repulse the attack and a Harmad was killed in the encounter. A parallel administration was set up by the cultivators and a resistance group was formed to combat the attacks by the police and the Harmads.

Realizing the impossibility of subjugating the reluctant cultivators by sheer threat, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya sought time to chalk out some effective plan for the cultivators, announced on 9th February, 2007 that no land would be acquired without the consent of the affected cultivators.

2^nd Round – took the Nandigram people completely unawares. They had taken Buddhadeb Bhattacharya's assurances in face value and living in fool's paradise that soon the government would sit with the protesters to decide about the land issue. The onslaught came on 14th March, 2007. Hundreds of armed Harmads wearing police uniforms (wearing Hawaii Chappals) mixed with the accompanying police force attacked the villagers and took possession of the area after indiscriminate killing and raping. More than 14 villagers were killed and hundreds wounded, many females, age ranging from five to sixty five were gang raped. But ultimately the valiant people of Nandigram, both women and men with simple weapons like sticks, iron rods and domestic choppers could chase away the criminals, the spineless cowards looking for girls to rape.

Under such pressure Mr. Buddhadeb Bhattacharya once again played his trick and declared on 3rd September, 2007 that the site for the SEZ would be shifted from Nandigram to the sparsely populated island of Nayachar, 30 kilometres from Haldia.

3^rd Round – hundreds of Harmads armed with long range Kalashnikov rifles, mortars, Molotov cocktails, hand grenades and naphtha bombs encircled Nandigram from all sides and entry of the outsiders including the journalists was completely blocked. The invaders, from six different directions, went on invading village after village by killing people and setting fire on houses indiscriminately. The killers used 500 captured BUPC members, mostly women, as shields while advancing through the villages and this gave the villagers little opportunity to resist the attack which started on 6th November 2007 and ended after all the villages were under the control of the Harmads on 8th November. Red flags were raised at the top of all the houses. Thousands of villagers had fled from the villages and taken shelter in the houses of relatives or refugee camps outside the Nandigram war-zone. The male supporters of the BUPC who had failed to escape were hunted out by the Harmads and killed after exemplary torture, then started indiscriminate looting of properties and raping of women of all ages.

On 13th November, the trigger happy Buddha made the comment before the hilarious celebrators of the victory, “They have been paid back in the same coin.”

CBI was entrusted with enquiry of Nandigram Genocide. It revealed Maoists connection. Maoists were given shelter by villagers and they helped villagers cut off the villages from police and administration.

Now the readers should notice that CPM went for land acquisition during their regime is now opposing Land Bill tabled by NDA!!

Mangalkot Murders

Mangalkot, in the district of Burdwan, was gradually shifting side being inspired by the new wind of justice and fearlessness. This panicked the Harmads and local people were threatened by the local dons. In an encounter with the unarmed masses a notorious Harmad was killed on 15th June 2009 and the incident was followed by wanton murder, raping, looting and burning of houses of people who were shifting allegiance. For this purpose Harmads from other parts of the Burdwan district rushed to the area.

On 15th July, 2009, a team of Congress MPs (members of parliament) attempted to visit the place and restore peace in the area, they were attacked and chased by the Harmads before the eyes of the inactive police. This was aired in electronic media within few minutes; many of us seen the telecast of Mr. Manas Bhuiya running through paddy field fleeing the spot. Most of the MPs were wounded.

Netai Firing

A Harmad armed camp was formed in the Netai area of the Lalgarh of West Midnapur during December 2010. CPM claimed that these camps sheltered CPM supporters who were evicted from their villages. According to the villagers the camp consisting of about 25 armed Harmads from outside was formed at the house of the local CPM leader Rathin Dandapat. After establishment of the camp at the village, the CRPF left the village leaving the helpless villagers at the hands of notorious criminals.

The torture on the villagers started soon. They were forced to cook for and wash clothes of the Harmads. One man was forced to make 40 to 50 chapattis in a day. The members of the camp shouted at villagers for any mistakes in cooking, like more salt or better taste. The unarmed villagers were compelled to guard the armed men of the camp. One day they forced, at gun point, the villagers to participate in the rally of CPM. Unwillingly they were obeying all orders from the camp. Villagers were not spared and there were repeated orders from the camp to send young girls for the service of the Harmads. But people of this area, unlike those around the other camps, showed courage by not sending their females to the camps. Huge arms and ammunitions were also stockpiled in the camp.

On the first week of January, 2011, the Harmads issued an order that all villagers in the age group 18-35 should undergo arms training in the camp with a view to annihilating supporters or members of non-CPM parties. After that, on 6th January, the villagers unanimously decided that it was not possible to take arms training.

On 7th January around 2 thousand villagers out of four thousand populations gathered before the camp at 8 AM. The villagers and the camp members held discussions at the Bat-tala Chak which is 20 to 25 meter away from the camp or the house of Rathin Dandapat. They told the leaders of the camp that villagers were not willing to take arms training. After discussion of 15 to 20 minutes the leaders said that they required the consent of the higher party committee in this matter. In the name of consent of higher committee they called the armed Harmads from the other camps close to Netai. After few minutes, from south of the village some armed men entered the village. Then firing on the people started simultaneously from the camp and the incoming Harmads.

At least nine persons including four women were killed at the spot and hundreds were injures. The police force from the nearby Lalgarh police station came to the village after 6 hours of the incident allowing the Harmads to fire at the villagers for a long time and the police did not take any initiative to resist the incident from nearby police station. On the contrary, the police gave the murderers to get away from the place of the incident. The police also did not co-operate with the villagers to hospitalise the injured.

In March 2015, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharya admitted that Netai was their fault!!

Well so far we tried to bring in front of our young readers about various names or incidents of West Bengal politics which happened during Left Front regime. In our next article we will bring in front of our readers such names from TMC regime.

West Bengal Politics: Blood Stained Names – I

In recent times we found that the young generation of India are taking lot of interest in national as well as state politics which buck the global trend of declining in interest in politics. The youth not only show a high level of interest in politics.  There is no decline in this interest across generations. There is a reasonably high level of participation by youth in all forms of politics — direct, indirect, formal, non-formal and in social media. To increase awareness amongst youth we will try to recount few incidents which happened in past and heard those names ‘n’ number of times in West Bengal. But exactly what happened many of the youth are unaware till date!

Terror, exploitation, crime, corruption and slavery of the masses were characteristic of the 34 year Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPIM or CPM) rule in West Bengal which is unprecedented in the human history in recent times.  Way long before they came to power CPM had established their character of criminal and horrible activities through murder, rape, extortion of money from common people, terrorizing the voters and all opponents. It is because of CPM few names will remain in the history books of West Bengal for next few hundred years viz. Sain-Bari, Marich Jhanpi, Keshpur etc. Let us go through briefly.

Sain-Bari

President's rule was imposed on the state of West Bengal on 16th March 1970 which ended the Anti-Congress United Front Government. The Harmads went on rampage right after the day of declaration of President's rule. From the early morning on 17th March, the Harmads, armed, organized marches in different areas. The most aggressive was the armed rally in Pratapeswar-Shibtola area in the district of Burdwan. On their way the The Harmad procession started extorting money from people, forced them to express loyalty to CPI-M and humiliated women of the houses that fell on their way. The Harmads were armed with sophisticated weapons and menacing, and already stories were in abundance about their brutality. So nobody dared protest or complain to the police.

As soon as the procession advanced near the house of the Sains, flaming arrows were hurled at their house as the Sain brothers showed the bravery to disregard the diktat of Benoy Konar to change their loyalty from National Congress to CPIM and join the procession. The miscreants entered their house in flames, brutally beheaded Pranab Sain and Malay Sain along with the private tutor Jiten Roy who attempted to save the lives of the Sain brothers. The face of the old mother of the Sains was smeared with the blood of her sons. The air reverberated with the inhuman roar of happiness of the Harmad squad after the terrible act. The Harmads played 'holi' with the blood of the victims.

The Harmad dons organizing the crime were declared as great heroes and assets of the party. Benoy Konar was elected to the West Bengal Legislative Assembly from the Memari (Vidhan Sabha constituency) in 1969, 1971 and 1977. His wife, Maharani Konar, was elected from the same constituency in 1982, 1987 and 1991.

Marich Jhanpi

After partition of India in 1947, there was a rapid inflow of Hindu refugees into West Bengal from East Pakistan (presently Bangladesh). Well to do refugees managed to settle in the cities in West Bengal, but the majority – the lower castes and poor people, were sent to Dandakaranya forest in Orissa and Madhya Pradesh (now Chhattisgarh). There they were forced to live in concentration camps named Permanent Liability Camps in extremely miserable and inhuman conditions. During the 1960s, the CPM was the lone party which protested against the inhuman treatment of the Bengali refugees in Dandakaranya and promised that they would get them rehabilitated in West Bengal as soon as they assume power.

After the LF govt. came to power in 1977, CPM invited the Dandakaranya refugees to West Bengal. CPM thought that all the refugees would not be able to travel to West Bengal, only a few hundreds would do so. Refugees started coming into West Bengal in thousands and expressed their willingness to get settled in Marich Jhanpi and adjacent islands. CPM got panicked realizing that accommodation of lakhs of refugees would destroy the ecology of the mangrove zone. So, strong administrative measures were adopted to resist the massive inflow of refugees. They were detained at railway stations without food and water and the Harmads had the free hand in looting whatever little money they had and raping and looting the females. Ultimately most of the refugees could be sent back to Dandakaranya. Only about 15, 000 of them were permitted to reach the islands.

All of a sudden the govt. announced that the refugees who had already settled would have to return back to Dandakaranya. But the refugees were unable to return. Even within the restricted conditions they felt they were better here than the horrible camps. So they did not pay heed to the warnings of the govt.

The LF went all out to evict the refugees from the mangrove islands. Accordingly on January 26, 1979, thirty police launches created blockade of the relevant islands. Then their fisheries, tube wells and all sources of water and food supply were destroyed by the police. Finally, the police attacked them with tear gas shells. Still the desperate refugees with their backs on the wall did not surrender. 




Then the horrible Harmad attack commenced with police coverage. The huts of the refugees were raged and there were cruel killing of the men. The females were gang raped before being killed; even children and elderly women were not spared. Many of those who jumped into the sea were either devoured by the crocodiles or drowned. Those who surrendered to the police were however saved and sent back to Dandakaranya. About forty five percent of the settlers were killed by the Harmads.

The L.F. govt. however, could hush up the matter as the police and the Harmads could successfully block the entry of the media men at the time of the carnage. But in 2002, the matter surfaced when one eye witness and survivor of the incident Jagadish Chandra Mandal published a book titled "Marich Jhanpi: Naishwabder Antarale."

Ananda Marg

The incident had connection with the education policy of the Left Front (LF) Government. Within a few years after the LF assumed power, the education system of West Bengal completely collapsed. The exceptions were the Institutions run by the Ramakrishna Mission, the Jesuit Churches and institution run by the Anand Marg. The attempts to attack the Ramakrishna Mission and the Jesuit institutions were foiled by the timely intervention by Jyoti Basu. So the target was Anand Marg.

The Anand Marg sanyasis appealed to both the common people and the state govt. to restore discipline and academic atmosphere in the educational institutions. In certain areas of the Purulia district and Kasba in Kolkata their preaching had remarkable influence on the ordinary CPM supporters and members of the SFI – the student wing of the CPM.

The horrific and planned attack came right before an educational seminar organised by Ananda Marg. In the morning of 30th April 1982, the sanyasis and the nun hired taxis to reach the venue of the seminar. As soon as the taxis carrying them had entered the over-bridge called Bijan Setu, the armed Harmads blocked the two entries to the bridge and posted armed guards at various points of the bridge so that the masses cannot intervene. Then they dragged out the sanyasis and the nun from the taxis thrashed them to death and then the bodies were burnt with petrol. Thousands of people watched the horrible killings but nobody could intervene because of the armed Harmads guarding the entire bridge with threatening announcements that anybody trying to intervene would be shot dead.

Keshpur

Keshpur is a part of the Panskura parliamentary constituency in West Midnapore district. There was a sharp inner party struggle in the CPM. On one hand, the leaders were ruthless Harmad dons and on the other, the lower rank, the majority were dedicated communists. These young men were against the exploitation of the poor people by the money lenders, landlords, contractors and promoters holding important positions in the CPM. As the CPM leadership took side with the Harmad dons, the cadres deserted the party and joined the newly formed Trinamool Congress (TMC). The dons were cornered as a consequence in the 2000 bye-election of the Panskura parliamentary constituency, the LF candidate was defeated by the TMC candidate.

Now the dons invited the Maoists from the adjacent state of Jharkhand to help them cope with the situation. The Maoists accepted it as they found an opportunity to establish their stronghold in West Bengal. They were aware of the exploitation of the tribal people of the southern districts of West Bengal and expected to establish a foothold among these oppressed people.

The Maoists joined the Harmads to evict the TMC supporters (erstwhile CPM cadres) and thereafter Maoists left the place to create their base among the tribals in the jungle areas of the districts of Bankura, Midnapore and Birbhum. The Harmad dons could now mobilize Harmad forces from other districts and in all the subsequent elections the CPM won overwhelmingly. In fact, in each election seventy percent of the votes were cast by the Harmads and only thirty percent of the voters were permitted to cast their votes. In course of these operations two most ruthless enforcers Tapan Ghosh and Sukur Ali, the most ruthless murderers country has ever seen, emerged in the scene.

We will continue this series and try to bring such blood stained names of West Bengal politics in front of our young readers. Those names will be from 34 years of Left Front regime and 4 years of Power Packed New Improved Left Front Regime – The Didi’s Era.