POLITICAL DIARY

New Delhi, 23 November 2007

Nandigram…..A Half-Told Story

WHEN WILL TRUTH BE OUT?

By Poonam I Kaushish

What prompted a normally peace-loving Bengali turn into a monster, indulging in mayhem? The optimist would spew venom against the rising terrorism. The cynic would shrug it off as yet another sordid chapter in the Indian State losing its Iqbal and wily nily becoming partners in brutality. Both refusing to face the ugly and harsh truth that violence is increasingly becoming the rhetoric of our time!

The tragedy of India is that at the end of the day, every bloodbath evokes the same token response. The police quell the mob. A few arrests are made. Calm is restored and, finally, the incident is unceremoniously dumped in the garbage of history. With none the wiser about what precisely went wrong, where lay the fault-lines and who was to blame. Every incident remains a half-told or unfinished story…..Be it the 1984 Sikh riots in Delhi, the 2002 Godhra riots to the latest carnage in Nandigram.

The volcano of violence that erupted in peaceful Nandigram 11 months ago on January 3 finally engulfed Kolkata and neighbouring areas on November 21. Leading to the Army being called and curfew imposed. Even as Nandigram continues to resemble a battleground of dead bodies, missing people, burnt huts and refugee camps. The cries of grief drowned in the volley of accusations flying thick and fast between the people, State Government, the Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee and exploding in Parliament.

Sadly, after the Prime Minster Manmohan Singh’s astonishingly bland description of the events in Nandigram as “unfortunate”, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya “sharing the PM’s concern and spirit,” but describing the happenings as “morally and legally right”, down to the day-long debate in the Lok Sabha and two-days in the Rajya Sabha none is wiser about what went wrong in Nandigram? Who were the perpetrators and what action was and is being taken to end the mayhem? All one has are sketchy accounts. Depending on which side of the political spectrum one is.

The Central Government would have us believe that the root cause of the trouble was the announcement by the State Government on January 3 of its decision to set up a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) on 10,000 acres of land in Nandigram. Asserted Union Information Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunshi: “It was not the Maoists or the Naxalites. It was the common people who retaliated because their lands were being acquired. And the compensation was to be paid to the land owners and not to them as share-croppers. How would they feed their children?  They, therefore, got united and said that they could not stake their land. Enough is enough” 

“Things went beyond control when the boss of the local area propagated the campaign, that it should be done. If only those who were identified by the police to be involved in the January incidents could have been booked and brought to justice, things would have taken a different turn. I think that objective introspection is required in the whole matter. (Sic).The people who are in the refugee camp and those outside should be brought to their homes. There should be peace and harmony.” Nothing more, nothing less.

Wrong, asserted the Opposition. It was the ruling CPM cadres behind the carnage. Charged the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, LK Advani, “When you try to convert the Party into a substitute for Government, then things go out of hand.  When I visited Nandigram, the same thing was again and again mentioned that party men, party cadres wore police uniforms and fired at the hapless people.

Underscoring his indictment by quoting from the Governor’s statement that he had “a feeling of cold horror” when he visited the area. “The happenings are totally unlawful and unacceptable.” The Kolkata High Court’s judgment that the “action of the police department to open fire at Nandigram on March 14 was wholly unconstitutional and cannot be justified under any provision of the law”. The State Home Secretary’s report of Nandigram resembling a “war zone.” Resting his case with the DIG, CRPF’s statement that his men were “prevented from entering Nandigram by the CPM.”

On the other hand, the State Government would have us believe that the mayhem in Nandigram was the handiwork of the Maoists. Speaker after speaker in both Houses asserted that the Maoists had taken control there. Towards that end they cited from last year’s Home Ministry Status Paper stating: “The Naxalite movement continues to persist in terms of spatial spread, intensity of violence, militarisation and consolidation, ominous linkages with subversive groups. They operate in vacuum created by absence of administrative and political institutions, espouse the local demands and take advantage of the disenchantment prevalent among the exploited segments of the population…”

Justifying their argument by raising umpteen questions. Why did the violence continue after the State Government had withdrawn the SEZ notification on January 4? Why was the movement and blockade not withdrawn and peace talks held? Why was the Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee not disbanded?  Why were thousands of people driven out of Nandigram? They could not return to their homes for more than 11months.  Why was the police not allowed to enter?

The answer? It was under siege by the Maoists and became almost a liberated area. Sophisticated arms were smuggled in with the help of outside fundamentalist political forces. Farmers do not have AK-47 rifles, land mines and sophisticated material to kill a man. They don’t dig up trenches and make warlike preparations. Who did it? At whose behest was it done? Should we not condemn that? Will you allow a liberated zone to be created in Gujarat?  Can we allow a State within a State?  QED. It is another matter that the State Home Secretary’s statement contradicts their claim.

Perhaps to bail out the UPA’s principal ally, the Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil, reiterated: “We have information that some outsiders had instigated people from behind to take to violence. They also brought sophisticated weapons into the area." However, he refused to expand his statement by meekly stating that “he could not disclose more.”

But his reply left many unanswered questions. If Nandigram was the handiwork of outsiders, what was the need to give a “directive (read advisory) to the State Government in writing? Why advice that no one should be forced to leave his or her home and everybody should be brought back and given full protection. And demand that the State Government take steps to bring the situation back to normal including removing fear in minds of the people.

Further, he overruled the Opposition’s demand for a CBI inquiry into Nandigram, by expressing his helplessness. “Even if I want to send an investigating agency to any of the States to investigate, I cannot because that is not allowed by the Constitution. If you want that the CBI should inquire into a particular matter, it is for the State Government to suggest that the CBI should inquire into it or the Court to suggest that. I think, in this case the matter has been referred to CBI and the CBI has been looking into this. 

Shockingly, even as the CBI and the powers-that-be grope in the dark about what precisely happened in Nandigram and Kolkata, comes news that three serial blasts have taken place in U.P.’s Varanasi, Faizabad and Lucknow. The Harkut-ul-Ansar has accepted responsibility. Predictably, the polity is once again going through the routine--- mourning the dead, sympathizing with the wounded and pledging to cull out the perpetrators of the dastardly crimes. Failing to realize that action not words is the answer of the day.

In the ultimate, our polity needs to tackle barbarianism firmly and ruthlessly and make clear that it will not be tolerated. Where anyone takes the law into his own hands. The Iqbal of the State must be restored to ensure the rule of law. It is time to recall Nobel laureate Rabindra Nath Tagore’s words: “Let me not grope in vain, in the dark, but keep my mind still in the faith that the day will break and truth will appear in its simplicity.”---INFA

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)