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CPM terror grips
Nandigram
Streets deserted;
houses and shops remain locked
WSN Network
 Nandigram:
The entire Nandigram town is cloaked in red. CPM flags flutter from
rooftops, shops and the wrecked checkpoints that were set up by
Trinamul Congress and Bhumi Uchchhed Pratitrodh Committee to keep
the Red brigade at bay. The streets are deserted. Houses closed and
shops locked. Nandigram seemed like a ghost town on Monday.
The stillness only broken by bands of motorcycle-borne CPM cadres
zipping around the empty streets, shouting slogans. Later in the
afternoon, a strong CRPF contingent reached Nandigram. They have
been stationed at Nandigram police station, awaiting deployment.
However, the ‘‘victory’’ may not yet be complete for CPM. It is Red
fear that rules Nandigram now. ‘‘If CPM wants its victory to be
really complete, it will have to win over the minds of the common
people of Nandigram. That will not be easy. Our agitation against
land acquisition will continue,’’ said BUPC leader Sheikh Samad.
CPM leaders are aware of this. They’ve been holding ‘peace rallies’
all over the town and even adjoining areas. ‘‘We want all the people
who have fled from their villages to return home. We are making no
distinction between CPM supporters and BUPC sympathisers. Even BUPC
leaders can return and stay peacefully like earlier,’’ CPM’s
Nandigram zonal committee secretary Ashok Bera said, as he led a
procession of party supporters through Nandigram town on Monday.
‘‘Only, the Maoists must leave.’’ Bera admitted, though, that CPM
leaders have not encountered many Maoists since they reentered
Nandigram. The procession that Bera was leading started with peace
slogans but it didn’t take long for the mood to change. CPM
supporters started shouting that Trinamul Congress would have to
‘‘answer for its actions.’’
Not surprisingly, BUPC leaders are not convinced that they would be
allowed to return to Nandigram and stay in peace. Leaders like
Samad, Abu Taher, Sheikh Sufiyan, Bhabani Prasad Das and Sayam Kazi
were seen huddled together on the verandah of the BDO’s office.
‘‘For the past seven days, we have been receiving threat calls,’’
Taher said. None of them is going back home. ‘‘We are staying in
Nandigram town, though our families are back in villages,’’ they
said.
Dozens of BUPC sympathisers, who were forced out of their homes
during the weeklong CPM assault, are huddled in a Nandigram school.
Many of them are in a state of shock. ‘‘On March 14, I was beaten up
so badly by CPM supporters that I had to be hospitalised. I am
afraid to go back,’’ said Mehroon Bibi of Jalpai village. ‘‘Those
who are returning to their villages are being forced to participate
in CPM rallies at gunpoint,’’ said a Amgachhi villager.
Seven injured people are still in Nandigram block hospital, with
bullet injuries. Places like Maheshpur and Gokulnagar, the sites of
many shootouts in the past few days, wore a deserted look. The BUPC
leaders fear the ‘‘Red terror’’ will continue till the next year’s
panchayat elections because CPM will throw in everything to win the
polls. The Opposition is not sure if it can hold on to its support
base any longer.
‘‘Whenever common people face lack of security, their allegiance
will switch to those that are more powerful,’’ said a BUPC leader.
Opposition leaders demand that all weapons be seized in Nandigram.
‘‘CRPF can do this if they are allowed to function independently,’’
said a BUPC leader.
14
November, 2007
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