The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has imprisoned itself in a fort that is impervious to any contact from the outside world. It is only the apparatchiks who talk among themselves and understand a dialect, or dialectics, that has no isomorphism with the real world. Their own world is perfect. Or so they believe?and want others to believe in the existence of their fantastic world. Nothing else can explain the Marxists? complete isolation in Indian politics.
When Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee accuses the Marxists of committing atrocities, rape, murder and plunder at Nandigram, they retaliate by calling her allegations as politically motivated. Trinamool Congress activists, in association with armed Maoist groups, are pursuing mischievous plans to keep Nandigram on the boil, CPM general secretary Prakash Karat said in New Delhi on November 12 after the two-day politburo meeting. Comrades also dismiss the Bharatiya Janata Party'scharges against them in a similar fashion.
But it is not as easy to rubbish the criticism of the Congress, whose Government the CPM supports in New Delhi; in fact, the grand old party is an ally, even though in West Bengal they are rivals. And the Congress has been unequivocal in its condemnation of the CPM'sbarbarity at Nandigram (even though it did little to check the orgy of murder and pillage let loose by the comrades). ?Nandigram is an example of politics of annihilation and revenge,? said Union I&B Minister P.R. Dasmunsi.
It hurt the CPM. The party reacted vehemently; it accused the minister of ?aiding and abetting? armed hoodlums ?backed by Trinamool Congress? to take over Nandigram. ?At every stage in the past 11 months since the armed hoodlums backed by Trinamool Congress took over Nandigram, Dasmunsi has been aiding and abetting these forces,? CPM leaders Sitaram Yechury and Basudev Acharia said in a joint statement.
Their statement was a bundle of lies and white lies. Consider the example: ?He (Dasmunshi) must therefore be accountable for the delay in sending the CRPF to Nandigram which would have helped in tackling the situation earlier.? The wide world knows that it was the CPM goons who prevented the entry of CRPF into Nandigram, and yet the party bosses have the brazenness to blame somebody else for the delay in CRPF deployment.
Unfortunately, much of Congress leaders? comments against the CPM'sbarbarity at Nandigram are little more than a sham. As Leader of Opposition L.K. Advani said in a statement, ?The CPI-M has declared war not only on the people of Nandigram, but also on the Indian state. Under the Dhritarashtra-like impotence of the Sonia-Manmohan dispensation, the CPI-M has declared Nandigram a no-go area and established a Red Republic accountable to none.?
In any case, the CPM bosses can call Dasmunsi'sremarks as the ramblings of a bourgeois leader. But what it is unwilling to recognise is the fact that the criticism of its role in Nandigram is universal. Even its own allies?which normally kowtow the CPM line on most issues?have not only distanced themselves from anything related to Nandigram but have blamed the Marxists for all the bad things that have happened in that God-forsaken place. Surely, the CPM cannot call its Left Front allies as bourgeois parties.
Further, most Left-leaning intellectuals and academics have castigated the CPM for its oppression in Nandigram. Prominent historian Sumit Sarkar, activist Medha Patkar, well-known filmmakers and other public figures are disgusted with the brutality and shamelessness of the CPM, but the party is not bothered.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee defended the violent ?recapture? of Nandigram. ?They have been paid back in the same coin. Our supporters, after remaining away from their homes for 11 months, were desperate to return. They risked their lives and returned home,? Bhattacharjee said. Never before in the history of Independent India cruelty has been defended and justified by a chief minister with such confidence and aplomb.
Bhattacharjee also repeated the lie of Yechury and Acharia, saying that the Central Government delayed CRPF deployment. But, as The Indian Express reported on November 13, ?Hardly had armed CPM cadres today finished planting red party flags on areas they reclaimed when the state government allowed the first columns of the Central Reserve Police Force to enter the area and carry out marches along main arterial roads. The decision to deploy the CRPF was announced almost a fortnight ago but the government kept it on hold until the ?takeover? was complete.?
The ?takeover? was blacked out for the rest of the world, as the CPM unleashed a reign of terror in the area. As the news report said, ?It was only today (i.e., November 12) that the press was allowed access into Nandigram. For the past five days, all roads leading to Nandigram either via Nandakumar, Khejuri or Kapasberia, were blocked. Picketing cadres openly threatened violence if one ignored the diktat. (CPM) Cadres were posted all along these entry routes. The state administration just watched.?
The CPM apparently believes that it can still fool everybody; what it does not realise is that its arguments no longer cut any ice in any quarters. Consider the conspiracy theory that Trinmool-Maoist combine was behind the violence in Nandigram. Mamata Banerjee retorted, ?Those who had gone to Nepal and talked to Maoists are now shouting about the Maoists here.? She is right; the CPM is not.
Nandigram should be seen as a lesson for not only the people of that area or state but entire India. This is the ?Red Republic? that the communists want to establish in our country. They did it in Russia, China, Cambodia, and other countries; the result was more than 100 million deaths. If the Reds can wreak havoc when they are not fully in power, imagine what misery, destruction and bloodbath they would perpetrate if catapulted to office in New Delhi. Make no mistake about it: the communists are capable of crimes against humanity. And they will have compunction in butchering millions.
We, the people of India, have the duty to ensure that India does not become a larger version of Nandigram.
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