Freedom!

Freedom!

Indian Holocaust My Father`s Life and time - Fifty Eight

Palash Biswas
http://indianholocaustmyfatherslifeandtime.blogspot.com/



Nation on Friday paid homage to Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru on their 76th Martyrdom Day. What freedom have we achieved ? Tolerating all the nonsense, the rotten system, it is not a tribute, but in fact Insult to Martyrdom itself as the Nation faces Genocides of masses and Untouchablity sustained with Vaidiki rituals!

Golabalisation is Post modern Manusmriti and this is why, despite industrialisation and urbanisation, IT, mobile 4G technology, computor and internet, the Caste System gets stronger!

Ninety percent top policy making posts are occupied by the ruling Brahmins!
Despite Voting Rights the masses in India, the underclasses, the dalits and minorities have no political representation!
Money power and Cast system have the ultimate say in Polity , Economy and Society!

Communist Party was formed by the Hindu Zamindar Brhmins to stop any Revolution in India following Russian and chinese line! Now the Left in India has ensured well that there won`t be any revolution. Buddhadev has not committed a crime to follow the capitalist way of development as we examine all the cases of Brahminical betrayals from Telengana to Naxalbari.

Congress had to get the Statepower from the British to make the Brahmins dominating. Reservation and quota policy were adopted to appease the underclasses. The Dalits got some insignificant percent of govt jobs but the Dalit movement was undermined fainally. That reservation has become the bone of contention now and globalisation with disinvestment and privatisation have made the constitutional reservation irrelevent. Now the Ruling Brahmins are trying their best to abolish Reservation.

They have not got the political power despite the share of power in some states as bargained for sleeping with the Caste Enemies. Mayabati fields mostly Brahmins to get power back. Is this the way for Social Change?
Social Justice and Equality are the terms which actually means inherent Injustice and inequality!
Yes, we have got Freedom to be enslaved!
We have got Freedom to be Killed!
We have got Freedom to be Raped!


Nandigram: Horror Stories Emerge

Fact finding report of the delegation deputed by the Calcutta High Court
23 March, 2007
Countercurrents. org

Report of the team who went to Nandigram in the district of Purba Medinipore in terms of the order of the Hon'ble High Court dated 15.03.2007 passed by the Hon'ble Division Bench comprised of Mr. S.S. Nijjar, Chief Justice and the Hon'ble Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghosh in a writ petition filed by the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights and Paschim Banga Khet Majdoor Samity.
http://www.counterc urrents.org/ nandigram- report230307. htm

Nandigram: Women complain sexual assault
Mohuya Chaudhuri, Bano Haralu

http://www.ndtv. com/template/ template. asp?template= nandigramviolenc e&slug=Nandigram% 3A+Women+ complain+ sexual+assault&id=102415&callid=1&category=National
Film clip: http://www.ndtv. com/ndtvvideo/ default.asp? id=12412

Basu rubbishes news of Buddha removal.Nandigram fallout: Bengal CM holds high-level meet.
Meanwhile, The West Bengal government has provided ‘Z-plus’ security to Tata Motors’ small car project site at Singur in Hooghly district following a blast and the recovery of explosives near its boundary wall on Sunday.Police fear Maoists may try to attack the site.Officers from the bomb disposal squad of the Crime Investigation Department have been deputed at the site along with regular police personnel. The bomb squad will comb the site regularly with metal detectors. They will also get two sniffer dogs.

Communist patriarch Jyoti Basu on Friday termed as absurd the speculation over removal of Buddhadeb Bhattacharya as Chief Minister of West Bengal in the aftermath of the March 14, 2007 Nandigram killings and the groundswell of protests demanding his resignation.
In the wake of the massive outcry against the West Bengal government over the police firing in Nandigram, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Friday held a meeting with top administrative and police officials to review the overall situation. The state government's stand on land acquisition for industries and the Nandigram police firing on March 14 is understood to have figured at the meeting. There was no official briefing. Refusing to divulge what transpired at the meeting, Home Secretary P R Roy said, "Why should I disclose it to the media?"

Besides the home secretary, the meeting, was attended by Chief Secretary A K Deb, DGP A B Vohra, IGP (Law and Order) Raj Kanojia, ADG (CID) Sujit Sarkar, SP (Hooghly district) S Sarkar and Industry Secretary Sabyasachi Sen.

"This is an absurd news (of Buddhadeb's removal). There has been no such talk in the party, neither has the Chief Minister expressed his desire to step down," Basu told reporters while emerging from the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) office at Alimuddin Street.

"If there were wrongs done by the cops that day it would be probed and action taken," Basu said.

The former Chief Minister also questioned the jurisdiction of the Calcutta High Court in ordering a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the Nandigram mayhem.

"The Supreme Court should review if the high court has such power," Basu said amid widespread speculation that the CBI report on Nandigram submitted to the court contained anomalies on the police version of the firing that killed 14 villagers and left several others injured and homeless. Some women were reportedly raped.

The court would start hearing of CBI report on Monday.

The CBI team had last week recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition and arrested 10 suspected CPI-M men from Khejuri, adjacent to Nandigram.

Prakash Karat, CPI-M general secretary, had met Jyoti Basu at his Salt Lake residence to discuss the Nandigram fallout. He had ruled out the possibility of removing Bhattacharya as Chief Minister.

Bowing to pressure from its constituents, the CPI-M-led Left Front government in West Bengal ordered withdrawal of police from Nandigram in phases and scrapping of the proposal to establish special economic zones by taking over farmland.

Meanwhile, the West Bengal assembly continued to witness noisy scenes as Trinamool Congress legislators protested the Nandigram incident.

On the other hand,CPI(M )stands against piecemeal changes in SEZ policy.

The UPA government on Friday came under fresh attack from ally CPI(M) for amending the SEZ rules as it demanded a stop to "piecemeal changes" in the act while the group of ministers was reviewing the overall policy. The party slammed the changes made in the SEZ rules by the Commerce Ministry last week, saying it goes against the suggestions given by the four Left parties, which support the Congress-led government at the Centre, on the issue.

One of the changes allow the developers to acquire more land in contiguous areas while the other seeks to continue with the tax concessions for the contractors working for the private SEZ developers, it said. "This would mean that the scope of the SEZ can be expanded beyond the initial approval. This goes against the suggestion given by the Left parties that a ceiling should be fixed for the size of the SEZ," it said in a statement.

The party also slammed the decision to continue with the tax concessions for the contractors.

The overall SEZ policy and the changes required in the Act and rules are being considered by the group of ministers. While this exercise has not been completed, it is surprising that the Ministry of Commerce has made certain amendments to the SEZ rules, it said.

"The empowered group of ministers must finalise their report and only then the required changes should be put in place," it said and asked the government not to make piecemeal changes in the SEZ rules.

Blood on the soil
BY BARKHA DUTT

23 March 2007

THE images of the bloodbath at Nandigram are haunting — a young woman's dead body being rolled off a rickety vegetable cart, her green sari soaked in blood; an old man's head draped in bloody bandages, his arm outstretched for help that never came; a policeman mercilessly thrashing an unarmed villager. This looked like a one-sided battle.


But the grim emotional dimension to the West Bengal violence does not necessarily help in answering the questions at the heart of the debate. Is this Brand Buddha's fall from grace? How much of the trouble is because of the chief minister's own bungling and how much of it is him being offered up at the guillotine by rivals within his own party? And most importantly, which side does the conflict between farms and factories leave you and me on? Does this herald the end of India's much-hyped SEZ scheme? And more to the point, should it?
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/opinion/2007/March/opinion_March76.xml§ion=opinion&col=
Pl read these stories, too!
Kanika Datta: Communists fail in communication Business Standard
Brand Buddha gets a pat from Karat Daily News & Analysis
SEZ, lies and massacres Economic Times
Financial Express.bd - Socialistworker.co.uk
all 24 news articles »

Our Land, Their Development: A Photo Essay On Singur - India ...Our Land, Their Development: A Photo Essay On Singur News and Commentary.
www.indiamike.com/india/showthread.php?t=27438 - 77k - Cached - Similar pages

Focus on the Global South

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Peoples' Memorandum to the G33 Ministerial meeting in Jakarta:

Now is the time for Food Sovereignty

20th March 2007

We, representatives of peasant organisations, social movements and civil society organisations from across the world welcome the trade ministers from the Group of 33 to Indonesia. We recognise the importance of the G33 meeting at this juncture when the developing countries are under significant pressure to reduce their tariffs and allow more "market access" to agricultural products from the US and EU. We recognize that your efforts to resist this pressure and to gain meaningful special and differential treatment in the Doha round of WTO negotiations are important, however we would like to raise some vital issues and demands.

FARMERS DEVASTATED BY LIBERALISATION

Liberalisation of the agriculture sector under structural adjustment programmes and the Uruguay round of commitments has devastated millions of farmers throughout the developing world. The incidence of farmer suicides in India and other developing countries has shown an alarming increase and the deepening economic and social crisis in the rural sector is largely the result of liberalisation polices. Rural unemployment has increased as subsidised agricultural imports flood into developing countries. The agrarian distress has reached serious proportions and have left millions of farmers starving and landless. Countries who used to be able to feed their people have become dependent to giant global corporations, who are the main beneficiaries of the liberalisation and market opening that has taken place under the Agreement on Agriculture. A "development" outcome that meets the needs of small and marginal farmers is impossible within the WTO framework.

WTO IS ANTI FARMER AND ANTI DEVELOPMENT

The WTO is inherently anti-development. Studies by the World Bank and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace show that the gains to developing countries from the conclusion of the Doha Round are either minimal or non-existent. Projections of the gains from a "likely Doha scenario" show that just $16 billion out of $96 billion would go to developing countries. Adjusting for Special and Sensitive Products in agriculture, developing country gains come to just $ 6.7 billion (to be shared between 110 developing countries) out of a total of $ 38.4 billion. These are the figures; the human cost is millions of lost livelihoods.
The full statement can be read at www.nyeleni2007.org
If you would like to endorse this statement, please send us an email by tomorrow, March 21, 10am Jakarta time (which is at 11pm US Eastern Time).


Tejo Pramono < tpramono@viacampesina.org>

Mary Lou Malig < marylou@focusweb.org>


In solidarity,

Afsar H. Jafri

Focus on the Global South

To,
Shri Montek Singh Ahluwalia,
Deputy Chairman,
Planning Commission,
Government of India.

Dear Shri Ahluwalia

We are shocked to learn that noted senior activists
from many organisations across India including Medha
Patkar, as well as poor people from different states,
who came to meet you on World Water Day were
manhandled and arrested at your office building. As
you know, the work that the Planning Commission has an
enormous effect on millions of people of India and the
affected people have a right to meet you and talk
about their concerns.

The police and the Rapid Action Force used excessive
force on the peaceful protestors including many women,
and today we received news that all the 63 people have
been remanded to judicial custody for 15 days. This
police and legal action is completely
disproportionate, and if the cases are not withdrawn,
we are forced to conclude that the government wants to
divert attention so that it can avoid listening to the
people.

Thousands of people and activists have come from many
states across India since March 19th, as part of
Action 2007 program, to draw the attention of the
government to the enormous problems being faced by
them. They have been holding a Jan Sansad (People's
Parliament) from March 20-24 at Jantar Mantar with
sessions focused on the burning issues affecting them.
For each session, invitations have been issued to the
Ministers and Secretaries of concerned ministries so
that they have the opportunity to hear the peoples
problems and respond to them. However, apart from one
exception, no representative of the government has
shown up to hear the people.

Therefore the people themselves were forced to come to
the government offices to have a dialogue and convey
their demands. In this context, if all the government
can do is impose police force on the citizens and take
excessive legal action, then it sends out a message to
Indian citizens that the government is not interested
in peaceful methods of engaging with its citizens.

We request you to take immediate action to ensure that
(a) all those arrested should be released immediately,
(b) the cases against them withdrawn and (c) a
dialogue be held by you with them on issues of
national concern that they had come to present to you.

Sincerely,
Palash Biswas,
Kolkata

Get in touch with us call 9910345405 or e-mail
action2007@gmail. com / www.action2007. net
www.action2007. net

Delhi Office: Action 2007, 1-A, Goela Lane, Under Hill
Road Civil Lines, Delhi â€" 110054
Tel.: 011-23933307, (0)9868200316 E-Mail:
action2007@gmail. com

Mumbai Office: Action 2007, C/0 Chemical Mazdoor
Sabha, 29-30, First Floor, 'A wing' Haji Habib
Building, Naigaon Cross Road, Dadar (East),
Mumbai-400014, Tel.: 022-24150529, (0)9969363065
As you already know that 62 activists of Action 2007
have been arrested on 22nd March 2007, 2 pm at the
Planning Commission Office. The group including
activist Medha Patkar were having a symbolic protest
against the privatisation and appropriation of water
resources (by large dams, coke and pepsi bottling
plants and other unsustainable forms of development)
leading to deprivation and water scarcity faced by a
large population in the country on World Water Day.

The police and Rapid Action Force did not allow the
activists to take an appointment with the Deputy Chair
of Planning Commission and arrested the activists
while waiting in the compound of the Yojana Bhavan
(Planning Commission office). While arresting,
unnecessary force was used and many of the activists
were manhandled and many
women activists were manhandled/attacked by men
police. In spite of the fact that this was a
non-violent protest, Rapid Action Force was deployed
to arrest the activists, and they used such excessive
force, tearing clothes of some of the women activists.

The activists were then taken to the Parliament Street
Police station and were asked to sign blank arrest
memos. There were procedural delays and only after 9
pm were they presented to the judicial magistrate who
was called to the police station itself.

The magistrate has remanded all of them to judicial
custody for 15 days until April 5th. This is
completely disproportionate and excessive police and
legal action against peaceful protestors who went to
have a dialogue with the Planning Commission members
on World Water Day!

Woolmer was strangled to death: police

Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer was strangled to death in his hotel room during the World Cup, the Jamaica Police have said.
"The official report from the pathologist states that Mr. Woolmer's death was due to asphyxia as a result of manual strangulation," Police spokesman Karl Angell read out from a statement.

"In these circumstances, the matter of Mr. Woolmer's death is now being treated by the Jamaican police as murder," he added.
The Bob Woolmer murder story
Meanwhile, International Cricket Council chief executive Malcolm Speed, who was present in the press conference, announced that the World Cup would continue despite the development.
http://www.rediff.com/wc2007/2007/mar/23woolmer.htm
Suspect held in Woolmer case: Geo TV
http://www.rediff.com/wc2007/2007/mar/23woolmer5.htm?zcc=rl

SEZ policy to stay: PM

Making it clear that the SEZ policy has come to stay in the country, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday said a humane and just policy on the resettlement of land oustees was being formulated by the government.


"SEZ as an instrument of economic policy has come to stay. But in the process of implementation, we have been exposed to certain problems which cannot be dismissed. It is the strength of our democracy," he said when asked whether the government was planning to overhaul the SEZ policy.The Prime Minister was replying to questions after his speech at the India Today Conclave here.


He said "if we find there are some flaws in our policy, we can set in motion a mechanism to redress those gaps in our policy".


Asserting that "a more humane, more effective and a more just policy" with regard to the resettlement of land oustees was in the process of being formulated, Singh said pending that, there was some delay in going ahead with the announced policy of the government on SEZ.


"I do believe that we should address these concerns if we want the policy to succeed in the long run," he said.


• Live Score: India win toss; elect to field vs SL

http://content-www.cricinfo.com/wc2007/engine/current/match/247476.html

What would happen if India loses

Sanjay Rajan

March 23, 2007 13:00 IST
If India fail to reach the Super Eights stage of the World Cup, analysts and businesses have already started to weigh up what the impact would be in the cricket-crazy nation.
The 1983 winners need to beat formidable Sri Lanka in the final Group B match on Friday to stay in contention for one of the two berths.
http://www.rediff.com/wc2007/2007/mar/23loss.htm

The sovereignty of the nation state is under pressure from all sides, undermined from below by "nationalistic" forces in the form of ethnic or other groups asserting their desire for autonomy and pressured from above through participation in treaties, international organizations, and other transnational structures necessary for dealing with urgent global problems but that also impinge on a nation's independent decision-making power. Forces of economic globalization both in trade and capital, also exert pressure, driven forward by the collective actions of transnational business, investors, and the governments of the major trading powers, but still immune to control or even direction by the publics most affected. Structurally, the state is at the same time both too large and too small to solve modem problems.

SEZ yes, but farmers consent must: Deshmukh
In the wake of farmers' protest over land acquisition for special economic zone, Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Friday assured the state Legislative Council that his government would not interfere in the process and "nothing will proceed until farmers are satisfied."

"Both the Centre and state government have consistently maintained there will be no interference from their side in land acquisition (for SEZs)," Deshmukh said in the Upper House.

India's great rush for SEZs

"It is up to the developer (of SEZ) and the farmer to sit and decide among themselves. Until the farmer is satisfied nothing will proceed," he added.

The chief minister said the state government has only notified the land for SEZs and farmers would get the market price of their land.

He said no agricultural land would be sold and there would be proper rehabilitation.

The CM was replying to a special mention by PWP MLC Jayant Patil who said the government was helping in land acquisition for Reliance SEZ in Raigad, where farmer were protesting.

Other members, including Diwakar Raote and Madhukar Sarpotdar of Shiv Sena and Sanjay Dutt of Congress, also raised the issue in the House.

Probe CIA funding of Kerala journalists: CPI

Thiruvananthapuram: The Communist Party of India (CPI) on Friday demanded a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into allegations that a section of Kerala journalists were being funded by the CIA.
CPI state secretary Veliyam Bharghavan told reporters: "Either the CBI or RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) should inquire about the alleged funding of some Kerala journalists by the CIA (US' Central Intelligence Agency). It is now clear that there is a media syndicate in Kerala that plants false stories."
http://content.msn.co.in/News/National/nationalIANS_230307_1730.htm

Shukla P Sen Posted this Item
One Week
This report deals with some of the things that I have
seen, and with some of the events that I have taken
part in, during the week starting on Monday 12th 2007.

If it seems too long please remember that compelling
reasons make it so. The feeling of terror that
Nandigram evokes is one reason. That terror is
natural. But it is no reason for forgetting that
terror exists elsewhere as well. It exists in Singur,
for example. The report therefore begins with Singur.
I visited Singur on March 13th. The place is
50-minutes away from Kolkata. It is easily reached by
car. One goes along a National Highway that heads
north out of the city, towards places beyond Singur.
Gopal Nagar is the first mouza in the district that
you hit after you get off the highway. It looks
prosperous. A main road runs through the middle of the
village. Many ponds lie on either side of the road.
There are many pukka houses. I would be happy to live
in one of them.
We stopped for water and tea at one such house. It
belongs to the Koley family. Ratan Koley is (or was) a
schoolteacher. His wife Mayarani greets us. She led
the first protest against the move to locate a modern
car plant in Singur. The entire family is involved in
the Andolan against giving up land for industry. The
women of Singur are at the forefront of the protest
against land acquisition.
Medha Patkar has described Singur in a recent Daily
South Asian article. I can, with one exception,
confirm that description. For Haradan Bag was dead.
The events that started in May 2006, events over which
he had very little control, had led him to take his
own life. We visited the Bag home in Beraberi
Purbapara. The para is a relatively poor part of
Beraberi, the mouza that lies just beyond Gopalnagar
We reached the Bag household between 3 and 4 pm. The
widow was prostate with grief, lying on a bed in a
darkened room adjoining the veranda on which Haradan
babu had consumed the pesticide that killed him. A
little girl (may be her grand daughter Payel) lay fast
asleep by her side. The widow's eyes were closed. But
she was not unconscious. She kept on repeating one
phrase "Amra kee korbo?" (What shall we do?), over and
over. We asked her relatives about her behavior. They
had to use force repeatedly to restrain her from going
out of the house in the direction of what used to be
her husbands field. She would do so even at night. The
relatives did not seem much troubled by her behavior.
A local doctor, they said, had told them that the
widow's behavior was not at all uncommon for someone
in that situation.
Earlier on, we had been to see the Bhui family. They
had lost a young son Raj Kumar (aged 22 I believe)
some months ago. Raj had been beaten severely with
lathis, and I do not know what else, when he went out
to attend a meeting at night. He had returned home to
sleep, got up as usual, went to bathe and collapsed.
He was dead by the time medical attention arrived.
We attended and spoke at several Shok Sabha's for
Haradan Babu. Little white monuments were the
centerpieces of all the Sabha’s. They all carried the
same message "Haradan Bag, we will not forget you."
The last Sabha was held in an open field just by the
side of the wall enclosing the part of Singur that the
villagers no longer own. There were plenty of
uniformed, armed guards around, within the enclosure
and on a watchtower. There was no communication
between them and us. The Sabha, which was conducted as
all such rituals usually are, needs no comment from
me.
But the very impressive women that I met throughout
the day certainly do deserve comment. They spoke
openly and vigorously about their agitation. They
described how the police had assaulted them. When they
reached the part where the police tore their blouses
off, they mimed what had happened, holding their own
hands close together in the middle of their chests,
and pulling them apart violently. "What animals they
are," was all that they said then. They pointed out
that some of the police wore Hawai Chappals saying
"Have you ever seen a policeman on duty with hawai
chappals? They were the CPM’s cadre bahini, not
police."
Wednesday March 14. Kolkata is gripped in a large
number of very quickly organized processions. People
squatted on the road, in protest against the State.
The State had ordered its police to kill people in
Nandigram. The killings were incidental to the main
objective of the operation, which was to enforce the
rule of law; if the state had been the USA, the
killings would have been called "collateral damage."
There had been no rule of law in Nandigram, after the
brutal fiasco called "Land acquisition, West Bengal,
2007," had erupted there in early January.
Strangely, the same State did nothing to us when we
broke the law, openly, in Kolkata. I squatted along
with many others in the middle of Jawaharlal Nehru
Road, in the heart of the city, from before 5 pm to
around 6. 45 pm. No policeman prevented us from doing
that. They even assisted us. They were very polite:
"Sir, please sit a little on this side so that there
is some space for cars etc. to move." I pointed this
out to Anuradha Talwar who said "Maybe, they have had
enough blood for a day." I replied, "Not so. They are
the pipes for blood to flow, to the people who rule
us." Policemen, In West Bengal, obey every order they
get, verbal or written, constitutional or
unconstitutional. They complain vociferously - in
private while they are in service, and sometimes
publicly, after they retire. They are machines at
best, mercenaries at worst. Take your choice.
We had marched to J L Nehru Road along two other major
city streets. We started from Wellington Square, which
is to the East J L Nehru Road, at 4. 30 pm. We marched
down the middle of both streets. We were disrupting
traffic, in a major metro and doing it during a peak
traffic period. The State was silent. The people on
the street watched us in silence as we marched in
silence. They did not seem to mind the disruption that
we caused. We carried a vivid banner showing Buddha
Bhattacharya obsequiously shaking hands with a smiling
Rattan Tata. Both men were on top of a mountain of
human skulls. Try to imagine us doing that in
Nandigram, at the same time, far away from urban
India, its media and its people.
Something else happened on that day. The Governor of
West Bengal released an official statement on the
happenings in Nandigram. He said, in part, that the
happenings "have filled me with a cold horror." I was
very struck by that, and by the whole statement. Over
a month ago, the Governor had promised us (meaning
Samar Bagchi, Sujato Bhadra, Aditi and Sumit Choudhury
and myself), when we went to Raj Bhavan to meet him
(Mamata Banerjee was on hunger strike then; Medha
Patkar was confined, along with several other people,
to a guest house in Chandra Nagar and prevented from
going anywhere near Singur) that he would do all he
could. He said, very eloquently "I will saturate my
constitutional role." He had lifted both his arms as
he said those words. His eyes looked very serious.
The Governor had kept his word. What about the
electronic media, at the national level? I watched
NDTV before going to bed. They have a "most important
events" list, or something like that. The list had 8
things in it, but nothing from West Bengal. One person
is killed in Gujarat and that makes the list. Many die
here and the event is not recognized. I guess West
Bengal has joined the country's North Eastern states
as part of India that the mainstream need not care
about.
The Central Govt. certainly does not care about it. It
has to rely on the support of the left. It is
therefore obliged to let the warlords of the left do
what they like in their own territory.
March 15th. Another day of meetings and processions,
including one by the Buddhi Jeevi people. They ask me
to attend their Press Conference at the Kolkata Press
Club, at 3 pm. I think, however, that Nandigram is the
place to be active in, and spend some time convincing
people that we need to go there, fast, if possible on
March 17th. The 16th is out because there is an all
Bengal 12 hour Bandh.
A telephone call brings the dreadful news that lots of
people, including children were brutally murdered at
the Bhanger Bera Bridge. The bridge separates
Sonachura from Khejuri, and also separates the people
opposed to the SEZ from the CPM’s cadres in Khejuri. I
think of relaying this to the Governor, but decide not
to do so till checking further.
I arrive late at the Press Club. The atmosphere is
extremely tense. Lots of people are there in a very
small room; lots of speeches are made, by people from
the theater, literary and cinema world; lots of people
announce their resignations, from various Government
sponsored Academies. The Press meet is followed by a
march towards the Esplanade, and a public meeting.
More speeches are made there. More constructively,
money is collected for the people of Nandigram. The
people of Nandigram need money and medical help in
vast amounts. The Presidency General Hospital in
Kolkata also needs lots of blood for the wounded of
Nandigram who have been shifted from Nandigram to
Kolkata.
Once the meeting ends, I go to the College Square
office of the National Alliance of People’s Movements
hoping that they will agree to go to Nandigram. They
have other plans for the 17th. But a team from Dilli
consisting of B .D. Sharma, Arun Khote, D. Thankappan,
Medha Patkar and other people will be coming on the
evening of the 16th and going to Nandigram on a fact
finding trip the next day. I am asked to accompany
them, and I agree.
March 16th. There is a 12-hour Bandh. I stay at home,
getting ready to go to Nandigram early the next day.
March 17th. A phone call from Devjit wakes me up at 4.
30 pm. I think, "Good, we are going to start early."
Not that early, alas because it is past sunrise when
the van finally picks me up. We reach Nandigram by 9
pm. The drivers are very good; so is the drive.
First Stop: Nandigram hospital. It is not a hospital
at all but a small cluster of small, one-story
buildings located on a compound just off the road into
town. The wounded are in a new looking block. A large
crowd is waiting for us. They accompany us into the
ward; the two guards by the gate are powerless. The
wardroom is clean; there are no people on the floor as
one sees in all big public hospitals in Kolkata. I
speak a little, and listen a lot, to the wounded, just
as all the other team members do. I shall be doing a
lot of both things till midnight.