Author: TNN
Publication: The Economic Times
Date: November 14, 2007
An eye for an eye, Mahatma Gandhi had said,
would turn the whole world blind. But then, West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb
Bhattacharjee is no Gandhian.
At a packed press conference in Writers Buildings
on Tuesday, Mr Bhattacharjee reaffirmed the Red Brigade's 'Nandigram operation'
over the past week. Something, that saw the CPI(M) regain control of the bloody
Nandigram turf from local villagers, who were defending it since January under
the aegis of the Trinamool Congress-controlled Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee.
'They've been paid back in their own coin,"
asserted the chief minister. That instant, the chief minister didn't seem
even remotely concerned about whether he represented the state government
or his party. The lines had evidently been blurred.
Continuing in an aggressive vein, he said:
"They had occupied the area for 11 months. So our people had no choice."
He went on to suggest that had central paramilitary forces arrived earlier,
things could have been brought under control more smoothly.
"It's true that the state police forces
could not step in wherever required while the clashes went on in and around
Nandigram from November 8 to 11. But it must also be remembered that the same
forces were not allowed to go anywhere close to Tekhali, Garchakraberia or
Sonachura for the past 11 months. CPI(M) party members retaliated out of sheer
desperation."
The chief minister added that he had sought
additional central forces as early as October 27. "I wrote to the Union
ministry of home affairs asking for central forces, but they sent me a regret
letter on November 5, saying that due to polls in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh,
it would not be possible to keep the request.
Thereafter, I spoke to two Union ministers,
Shivraj Patil and Pranab Mukherjee, and got the forces sanctioned." The
chief minister was quick to acknowledge that hundreds of people evicted from
their homes in the past few days are holed up in relief camps and the central
forces could play a crucial role in rehabilitating them.
On the existence of Maoists in the trouble-torn
areas of Nandigram, the chief minister and the state home secretary directly
contradicted each other.
While home secretary Prasad Ranjan Roy earlier
in the day told newsmen that not a single Maoist has been either identified
or arrested by police forces in Nandigram, Mr Bhattacharjee maintained that
Maoists definitely had a strong presence in the area over the past few months.
"I had information from central intelligence
sources that a group of Maoists with rifles and mines, led by one Ranjit Pal,
have entered in Nandigram from Jharkhand. We cannot trace them at the moment,
but their involvement with BUPC changes the entire dimension of the crisis
in the area."
Taking a dig at senior BJP leader LK Advani,
who was visiting Nandigram on Tuesday, Mr Bhattacharjee said: "Thank
God he went, saw and came back peacefully.
At least he did not conduct a rathayatra all
the way to Nandigram."
"Opposition leaders are claiming that
'silence of the graveyard' prevails in Nandigram at the moment. Let me ask
them, for the past 11 months, was it an abode of heavenly peace?"
On being asked whether the state's image as
an investor-friendly place has received a jolt, Mr Bhattacharjee shot back,
"That's not true. All ongoing projects and the pending ones are going
on smoothly. Even today, we have signed a treaty for wagon manufacturing,
between Texmaco and an Australian firm."
