Mourn! Celebrate!

Mourn! Celebrate!

Indian Holocaust My Father`s Life and Time -SIXTY THREE

Palash Biswas

http://indianholocaustmyfatherslifeandtime.blogspot.com/



Weep my country!

Humanity bleeds.

It is mourning all over Rural India!
It is all over resistance in the subcontinent.

We are attacked and we don`t realise!

The Nation is either Singur - Nandigram or Bidarbha- Duars tea Estates!

Come on India! Ha! Hoo! India!

Celebrate the Cricket Carnival!

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (Reuters) - India, after electing to bat, were all out for 191 in 49.3 overs against Bangladesh in their World Cup Group B match on Saturday.Bengalies may be delighted as Sourav Ganguly's cautious half-century steered India out of more trouble after they collapsed to 72 for 4. Just Forget Nandigram!

India: 191 all out in 49.3 overs (S.Ganguly 66, M.Mortaza 4-38)

KINGSTON, Jamaica (Reuters) - Ireland's part-time cricketers reduced Pakistan to 72-6 in the 21st over of their World Cup Group D match to leave the 1992 champions facing early elimination on Saturday.

Celebrate Nationality Bangla!

DHAKA (Reuters) - Parliamentary elections in Bangladesh, postponed in January amid widespread street violence, may now not take place until early next year, a key official at the Election Commission suggested.The commission planned to complete registration of parties seeking to contest the elections by July and then draw up a list of voters, election commissioner Sakhawat Hossain told reporters.An overhaul of the voters list would require six months at least, experts consulted by the election commission said.

"Our prime task is to hold a free and credible election. So we are trying to address every related issue and putting plans cautiously," Sakhawat, a former army brigadier-general, said late on Friday.


Eminent Bengali poet and Sahitya Akademi Award winner Sankha Ghosh today announced he would resign as Vice-president of the Bangla Academy!

Saha Academy affliated scientists and teachers as well as students of Jadavpur University come on streets !

Ruling communists in West Bengal on Saturday dropped plans to build a low-tax industrial hub on farm land, three days after 14 people died in clashes between police and villagers.The decision to move the project to another location in the state set off celebrations and fresh protests.The communists and their allies said the special economic zone (SEZ) and industrial hub would no longer be built at Nandigram, 150 km south of Kolkata.The park was to be built with the help of Indonesian conglomerate the Salim Group.

In another sign of unrest, farmers beat up government officials who were measuring land for an industrial project in Deganga, 60 km north of Kolkata.

India is developing the SEZs tax havens to lure foreign investors and close the gap with China's manufacturing, but many villigers in West Bengal and elsewhere are unhappy with the compensation being offered for their land.

Siddiqullah Choudhury, chief of the Jamiat-e-Ulema Hind, a Muslim group leading the protests, said: "We have taught the government a lesson they will never forget. You cannot play with the lives of innocent villagers."

A Bengali-language TV channel showed people dancing in Nandigram as they waved flags of leading opposition party Trinamul Congress and shouted slogans.

In neighbouring Orissa, about 500 villagers marched to protest against a proposed $12 billion steel plant by South Korea's POSCO Co. Ltd., which has also been hit by violence over the purchase of farm land.

Holding bamboo sticks, protesters shouted slogans, saying they would not allow POSCO to start the project, and tore down billboards welcoming the steelmaker, witnesses said.

"The decision to stall the acquisition of farm land for industry will have a ripple effect on similar movements," said Abhirup Sarkar, an economist at the Indian Statistical Institute.

"Wherever landless labourers are in a majority the government will face similar problems," he added.


Village women try to get a glimpse of Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, unseen, visiting affected areas at Nandigram, about 140 kilometers (88 miles) southwest of Calcutta, India, Saturday, March 17, 2007. Bowing to pressure from allies, the CPI-M led Left Front Saturday decided to immediately stop land acquisition at Nandigram and withdraw the police from the area in phases to defuse the tension after Wednesday's clash between the police and farmers that killed 14 people, according to a news agency.

If anyone has to be blamed for Nandigram, its me, Buddha says!
"I am deeply distressed. If any responsibility has to be fixed, I as the chief minister has to be held responsible," Bhattacharjee told a Left Front meeting after allies, the FB, CPI and RSP wanted the government to fix responsibility for the March 14 police firing that left 14 people dead in Nandigram.

A RSP leader who did not want to be named, told PTI that the Chief Minister, however questioned whether his owning responsibility would be proper when a CBI investigation was on.

In an unprecedented development, three ruling Left Front partners tonight decided to pull out of the West Bengal ministry if the CPM failed to fulfil their five-point charter of demands.

"A CBI inquiry is on. The truth will emerge. The question of fixing responsibility immediately will not be right," the Bhattacharjee said according to the RSP leader.

Not only administrative measures, but also political efforts should be made for the return of peace at Nandigram, Bhattacharjee said.

He, however, warned that the situation was becoming complex. "L K Advani has gone to Nandigram. Others are also going. The situation is becoming complicated."

On the firing, the Chief Minister said he did not have correct assessment of the situation that it would escalate to such an extent. "We knew there would be protests, but could not comprehend its scale."

He also agreed to the pullback of police forces from Nandigram in phases, one among the five demands of the allies.

It was assumed that Buddha may threaten to quit over Nandigram. He did not. The crisis in the Left Front over police firing in Nandigram deepened further on Friday with the CPI, RSP and Forward Bloc again threatening to quit the government unless five of their demands were met and the chief minister devising a counter strategy of threatening to step down. The chief minister's threat to quit would force the three Front partners to buckle under pressure, the CPI(M) believes.However, what further twisted the already complicated issue, was a phone call made by CPI(M) patriarch Jyoti Basu to Forward Bloc state secretary Ashok Ghosh during the meting. Basu advised the Forward Bloc leader that the three Front constituents should stick to their demands and should not buckle under any pressure.Significantly, Basu skipped the CPI(M) state secretariat meeting earlier in the day, which was stormy with several members saying that they had been kept in the dark about the impending police operation in Nandigram. The party's counter strategy to fend of the allies' pressure was devised in this meeting.


"Biman (Left Front chairman) came to me this morning. He was giving me some other advice. I did not agree. You stick to your demands and don't budge," Basu told Ghosh. He did not elaborate on what advice Biman had given him.


The five demands include: the Left Front must unanimously condemned police firing; police must be immediately withdrawn from Nandigram; the chief minister has to categorically announce that no SEZ would be set up in Nandigram; those who ordered the police firing must be identified and the CPI(M) must stop trying to run a one-party government and instead involve the Left Front in governance.

Anticipating the strategy of its three partners, the CPI(M) state secretariat discussed the thorny issue and devised its counter strategy. Though several members challenged the chief minister's claim that he had kept the secretariat members informed of the police action, the meeting in the end decided to firmly back Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.
THE Central Bureau of Investigation team today collected samples from the Nandigram spot where police firing had killed 14 villagers on Wednesday.Officials of the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) collected the samples.Visiting Nandigram following the Calcutta High Court’s order, the CBI team spoke to the locals about the tragedy and sought a list of people reported to be missing since. The team also visited Tamluk sub-divisional hospital and spoke to victims of the police firing admitted there.

Another Bengal pocket flares!

As wounds of Nandigram are still bleeding, people of another village of West Bengal on Saturday clashed with the police over land acquisition for an industrial project.The incident occurred in Deganga village of North 24 Parganas district when a government team went there to survey land for an industrial project.Initial reports said thousands of villagers clashed with police who were protecting the government officials, and ransacked vehicles and threw bombs.
Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Raj Kanojia said, "Five to six cops were injured in the incident. Our senior officials have rushed to the spot."

Left historians to return awards to West Bengal Govt. Buddhadeb ready to take responsibility of Nandigram issue.Medha Patkar leaves for Nandigram.The West Bengal government will not acquire land in Nandigram village for industry and police will be withdrawn from the village gradually.Parties of the Left Government decided this in Kolkata at a meeting to discuss the clashes between opponents of a proposed Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and police on Wednesday and Thursday. As many as 14 people died in the clashes.

After violence in Nandigram which claimed 14 lives, the government has decided not to give further approvals for Special Economic Zones where acquisition of land is being resisted. However, speaking to the TV18 network earlier, Union Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said that the violence in Nandigram is not going to hurt the future of SEZ!

The trouble in Nandigram first erupted on Jan. 7 after the leak of a government plan to acquire 22,000 acres of land in the area, and to build a petrochemical plant and shipyard.

The January violence prompted the federal government to temporarily suspend plans to establish scores of special economic zones intended to attract overseas investors with generous tax breaks. Most of the zones, including one to be set up in Nandigram, were to be built on farmland.

India is trying to attract foreign investment to spur its economy and help develop its largely backward infrastructure, and Federal Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said the government was still committed to setting up trade zones in other areas.

Justice Iyer speaks Out!
Noted jurist and former Supreme court judge Mr Justice VR Krishna Iyer has severely indicted Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s Marxist government for unleashing “terror” on Nandigram and has once again reminded Marxist leaders both here and in New Delhi that “socialism means humanism and not terrorism”. In a letter written to Mr Prakash Karat, CPI-M general secretary, the retired Supreme Court judge has demanded that “action at party level must be taken” against Mr Bhattacharjee” if governance over humanity is to be exercised for the benefit of the peasantry”. In his letter dated 15 March, the veteran jurist has said, “I am sure thousands like me will be shocked by the Nandigram incident. Please, please have some regards for those who feel that socialism is not terrorism, but humanism; and misrule by gun will not be the rule of the Left in State authority”.
Writing from Kochi, he has said: “I had and still have great hopes that the Marxists, if in power, will rule with compassionate ideology and win votes and people’s cooperation beyond party barriers. But to my horror, the terror practised yesterday at Nandigram fills me with dread and disappointment.”

Mincing no words the retired judge came down heavily on Mr Bhattacharjee saying “the illusion of exploitative power has led the ministry to govern by the gun. The consequent bloodshed demands your urgent attention and commands the party’s authority to arrest the frequency of police barbarity and the resultant bloodshed”.

Mr Justice Iyer prefaced his letter to Mr Karat by reminding him that he was law minister of the first Communist government in Kerala from 1957 to 1960 “under the charismatic chief ministership of EMS Namboodiripad who was also a great Leftist thinker”. Then expressing his “great disappointment” with the Buddhadeb government he writes, “But alas, in West Bengal things are murky, capitalism is happy, poor peasantry is in a state of privation and suffering from deprivation.”
He then goes on to say about EMS’s first Communist government in Kerala in 1957, “We came to power by the ballot and rarely, if ever used the bullet, with the result that the police violence was hardly used as an instrument against the peasantry to suppress their will. But look at the contrast now. The brutality and bloodshed, unleashed by the police force is now bulleting the humble humanity.”

Nandigram unfortunate, no need to send army: Antony
Thiruvananthapuram, March. 17 (PTI): Terming the police action in West Bengal's Nandigram as "unfortunate", Defence Minister A K Antony today said there was no need to send in the army to handle the situation there.

"On the whole it was unfortunate. But I do not want to make it a topic of political debate now as the CBI inquiry is on," Antony told reporters at the airport here.

Asked if it was necessary to send the army to Nandigram, he said there was no such proposal before the Centre as such situations were to he handled by the State Governments.

"Neither did they (West Bengal Government) ask for it, nor the Centre thought about it," he said.

CBI arrests 10 in Nandigram, arms, ammunition seized
Nandigram (WB), March 17 (PTI): Making a breakthrough in its investigation into the police firing here on March 14, the CBI today arrested 10 people and seized a large quantity of arms and ammunition from them.

East Midnapore's Superintendent of Police G A Srinivas told PTI the arrests were made at Khejuri this evening during raids by the CBI. He declined to specify the political affiliation of those arrested.

Srinivas said 14 improvised firearms, 500 rounds of assorted ammunition, binoculars and cellphones were seized by the CBI team from a brick kiln

Earlier in the day, CBI sleuths from Delhi accompanied by local officers and forensic experts inspected several areas at Gokulnagar village near here and dug up the earth at some places to ascertain whether arms and bodies had been buried there as was claimed by local people.

Reporters were barred by police from going near the places visited by the team, and CBI officials did not respond to queries from the media.

The CBI team also went to Tamluk Hospital and questioned those who were injured in Wednesday's police action that claimed 14 lives. They enquired about the circumstances under which they were injured and who was responsible for it.

The team had yesterday visited Sonachura village and collected evidence.

The CBI began probing the police firing in Nandigram, which has witnessed protests against the acquisition of land for a SEZ, on the directive of the Calcutta High Court issued in response to a PIL by several lawyers.

Stop acquisition of farm land everywhere: Mamata
Kolkata, March. 17 (PTI): With West Bengal's ruling Left Front announcing its decision not to acquire any land in Nandigram for industries, Trinamool Congress Chief Mamata Banerjee today demanded that the acquisition of land must be stopped everywhere, including in Singur.

"Only a verbal assurance will not do, all notices will have to be withdrawn legally. The Chief Minister had earlier said that the notice should be scrapped in Nandigram, but even after that genocide has taken place there," Banerjee, also the chief of the Krishi Jami Bachao Committee, told reporters here.

Noting that the immediate task is to restore peace in Nandigram, she claimed the state government was not capable of doing this.

Criticising Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Banerjee said: "We want the immediate arrest of the Chief Minister. People do not trust him. We don't treat him as a Chief Minister, but as a killer."

Progrrammes for Protest
Mamta Banerjee also announced a series of programmes to be undertaken by her party, including a march to the Assembly on March 23.

She said a procession will be taken out here tomorrow to demand the removal and arrest of the Chief Minister and the restoration of peace in Nandigram.

The Trinamool will observe March 19 as "Nandigram Day", she said, and requested people to light a lamp or a candle in memory of those killed in the police action.

A protest rally will be organised from Jorasanko, the birthplace of Rabindra Nath Tagore, to College Square on March 21.


'Something more' than Central intervention needed: Swaraj
Nandigram, March. 17 (PTI): The BJP today stopped short of demanding the dismissal of West Bengal's Left Front Government for the "ghastly" killings in police action here, and said "something more" than Central intervention was needed to address the issue.

"I had earlier demanded application of Article 355 in Bengal. But after seeing the ghastly situation, I think something more needs to be done," BJP MP Sushma Swaraj, who was here as part of a 10-member NDA delegation, told reporters.

An emergency meeting of the NDA may be convened to discuss the issue. "I think there is a need for an NDA meeting," she said.

Before setting out for the troubled area in Nandigram with the NDA team, Swaraj had demanded Central intervention in West Bengal under Article 355 of the Constitution for the police action on Wednesday that claimed 14 lives.

Asked whether a demand for dismissing the State Government under Article 356 will be discussed at the NDA meeting, she said: "If I tell you everything now then what is the need for holding a meeting?"

BJP MLAs oppose land acquisition in Bastar
Raipur, March 17 (PTI): Ruling BJP members today expressed unhappiness over the process of land acquisition by the administration for Tata Steel project in Bastar and demanded a fresh meeting of villagers.

Tribal BJP MLAs Lachchuram Kashyap and Subhau Kashyap of Bastar region today raised in the assembly the controversial land acquisition process by the Bastar district administration for the Tata's proposed steel project.

"When Tata's were providing Rs 8 lakh to the farmers per acre of land in Haryana why not in Chhattisgarh," asked former Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) state president Subhau.

The people from the affected ten villages had given a 13-point demand against acquiring of their land and the government should consider that, both the MLAs demanded.

The BJP members also wanted the state government to convene a Gram Sabha, under the Panchayat Raj system, to decide whether the villagers are interested to hand over their land or not.

They also demanded protection from the state government saying, without consent of the local villagers a single inch of their land should not be acquired for Tata.

Former Finance Minister Ram Chandra Singh Deo of Congress asked the state BJP government to ensure that Bastar should not become another Nandigram.

Instead of surrendering before the Tata, government should take the consent of farmers, said Ravindra Choubey of Congress

Left Front Meeting

The CPI-M extracted a major demand from its allies: the government will not apologise or condemn the police crackdown on protesters. The CPI-M also got a promise from the parties that they will not issue press statements on Nandigram.

“On behalf of the Left Front a political and social process will be started to restore normalcy in Nandigram,'' said Left Front Committee Chairman Biman Basu after the meeting.


"The Nandigram incident is unfortunate and sad, and the government will be on guard to ensure that it does not recur," Biman Bose, a senior West Bengal state government official, said after an emergency meeting of the state's Communist government.

"Land would not be acquired for any special economic zones in Nandigram," Bose said. He also said the government would begin to remove police forces, who returned to the area on Wednesday after abandoning their posts during related violence in January.

The meeting was held after the smaller allies, the RSP, Forward Bloc and the CPI, threatened to walk out of the govt if the police was not withdrawn from Nandigram and a proposed SEZ by Indonesia’s Salim Group was not scrapped.Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and former chief minister and CPI-M patriarch Jyoti Basu attended the meeting.

After so much HUE and Cry the left parteners are well tamed! NOnogenerian, Ex Chief ministerJyoti Basu knows well the language to share the Brahminical - Zionist - Imperialist- Nazi State Power and he has emerged as Saviour, the Great to save the progrresive, democratic mask
of Capitalist marxists in India.

Meanwhile, many supporters of the Save Land Committee returned to Garchakraberia, near Sonchura, today. The committee is spearheading the crusade against acquisition of 10,000 acres for a proposed special economic zone in Nandigram. They were chased away by CPI(M) activists and the police to Nandigram’s outskirts on Wednesday.

The committee members took the body of a villager who had been shot in the police firing and led a procession back to Garchakraberia. The body had been kept at Tamluk hospital’s morgue.Once in Garchakraberia, they torched all CPI(M) flags in the vicinity and even tried to set the Sonachura panchayat office on fire.

The administration today reduced police presence in the area. More than 3,000 police personnel storming into the area on Wednesday. Nandigram, meanwhile, continued to be tense on Friday. And with many CPI(M) supporters returning to the area with police support — they were chased out by anti-acquisition villagers earlier this year following the first phase of violence on January 3 and 7 — more violence is apprehended.

No hand in Nandigram clashes: Maoist leader


NDTV::EXCLUSIVE::

Rajesh Ramachandran

Saturday, March 17, 2007 (Nandigram):


West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya had claimed that cadres of the CPI-Maoists had organised the revolt against the police forces in Nandigram.

But in an exclusive interview with NDTV, West Bengal Secretary of CPI(Maoist) Somen, has an entirely different take on the events of Nandigram.

Somen laughs off the CPM's allegation that Maoists are behind Nandigram violence.

"Maoist influence and involvement in Nandigram is extremely limited. We don't have to use pipe guns now; we have automatic weapons. It's people's movement against land acquisition. Of course, we support the movement," he said.

He also said that the Chhattisgarh attack was in retaliation to Salwajudam (local adivasi militia raised by the government to fight Naxalites).

"It was an attempt to fight the government. We want to convert the guerrilla war into mobile warfare," he added.

He also expressed his opinion on JMM MP Sunil Mahato's murder. "The decision to kill Mahato was taken at a very senior level in 2003. It was to stop Mahato from raising a Salwajudam-like militia," he said.

The murder was more than a retaliation to Lango in which 14 Maoists were killed in 2003 by villagers. Lango is a village in the East Singhbhum district of Jharkhand.

After the clashes in Nandigram, an NDTV team visited ground zerp to piece together the events of Wednesday to understand what really happened.

While many versions on the day’s events have emerged, we spoke to a number of people and found a shocking story of how innocent villagers got caught between CPM cadres and those opposing them.

The Jomeen Uchhed Pratirodh Committee told women to form a human shield against the police, and assured them that the police would not fire on women and children.

The men were behind the women and children as they went ahead towards the police.

Now 48 hours later, hundreds have left their homes and those left behind are left to face and uncertain future.

Suddenly the firing started from both sides, the police in front and some people from the back of the crowd.

No one knows how it started or who fired first; all that is certain is that the women were caught in the middle.

Left intellectuals to return Rabindra Puraskar

Angry over the "brutal" police firing on villagers in Nandigram, three Left intellectuals including noted historian Sumit Sarkar have decided to return the Rabindra Puraskar conferred on them by the West Bengal government.To protest against the “organised genocide” of peasants in Nandigram, 12 theatre personalities, including Bibhas Chakraborty, Kaushik Sen, Bratya Basu and Suman Mukhopadhyay, resigned from the Pashchim Banga Natya Academy. Poet tarun Sanyal also returned Rabindra Puraskar. Nabarun Bhattacharya did the same with Bankim Puraskar.

The Forum of Artistes, Cultural Activists and Intellectuals headed by Tarun sanyal, demanded the resignation of the chief minister. “If the chief minister is a human being he should voluntarily resign,” said Subhaprasanna, the renowned painter.

Mahasweta Devi said that the government “should make necessary arrangements for medicines and doctors for the victims at Nandigram”, because there is no such facility for the Nandigram villagers at the moment. Mahasweta di called the masses to wear black batch in protest. She is spearheading the mass movement and is running everywhere where the Rural India is attacked.


Sumit Sarkar, his wife and prominent historian Tanika Sarkar and academician Pradeep Dutta took the decision to return the state's highest literary honour as a mark of protest against the police firing, that killed 14 people, and the industrial policy of the CPI(M)-led government.

"This is a strong protest against what the CPI(M) government is doing. We are all leftists, but we can't agree to killing of peasants. What has happened in Singur and now in Nandigram is horrible," Sarkar, who received the award in 1998, said here.

The coveted award is given by the West Bengal Bangla Akademi.

Sarkar said he and Tanika would intimated the Akademy formally about their decision to return the honour and the award money. "We would ask the Akademi to donate the money to organisations working for providing relief to the people of Nandigram," he added.

Left intellectuals, including the Sarkars, have been very vocal against the Left Front government's land acquisition in Singur and in Nandigram. They had also written an open letter to CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat expressing their protest.

While returning their Rabindra Puraskar citation and medal to the Academy, the Sarkars will donate the award money for the relief of the victims of the violence in Nandigram.

Referring to CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechuri's criticism of West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi for speaking out against the police action, Sarkar said, "If the Gujarat Governor had said something similar against (Chief Minister) Narendra Modi, Yechuri would have been very happy."

Medha Patkar leaves for Nandigram

Social activist Medha Patkar headed early on Saturday for Nandigram in West Bengal, where 14 people were killed in police firing on villagers protesting takeover of farmland for a special economic zone (SEZ).

"I have nothing to say. This was coming," Medha, who arrived here on Friday night, told reporters as she left for Nandigram, about 150 km southwest of here.

"She has left for Nandigram," one of Medha's associates said.

On Jan 10, the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader was arrested in Kolkata for her attempt to visit Singur, the focal point of mass protests against a Tata Motors project. After she was freed on bail, she visited Nandigram to address people resisting land acquisition for a special economic zone (SEZ) to be set up by Indonesia's Salim group.

The Narmada Bachao Andolan leader had also filed a petition against the West Bengal police for her arrest besides a defamation suit against Left Front leader Biman Bose for falsely linking her to the Nandigram flare-up in January. Bose later apologised for his mistake on a live television programme.


Under pressure, Congress to send team to Nandigram
Caught in a dilemma over the killings in Nandigram, the Congress Friday decided to send a party delegation to visit the violence-hit area in communist-ruled West Bengal after succumbing to its state unit's pressure.It announced that a delegation of senior leaders comprising Karan Singh (Rajya Sabha MP), Mohasina Kidwai (Congress Working Committee member) and Madhusudan Mistry (party chief whip in the Lok Sabha)- would leave for Nandigram Saturday.

In a bid to ensure that it was not acting only against the West Bengal government, the party said it was sending another team to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled Chhattisgarh, where Maoist rebels killed 55 policemen Thursday.

Congress general secretary Mukul Wasnik, Lok Sabha MP Kishore Chandra Deo and Rajya Sabha MP Mabel Rebello have been asked to visit Chhattisgarh.

'We are virtually caught between devil and the deep sea,' said a senior Congress leader referring to the party's 'helplessness' in condemning or taking a strong stance against developments in Nandigram.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M)-led Left Front provides crucial outside support to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

Fourteen local people, who were among those protesting the takeover of farmland in Nandigram in West Bengal's East Midnapore district for an industrial complex, were killed in police firing Wednesday.

While the West Bengal unit of the Congress, which has been in opposition in the Left-bastion state for more than three decades, demanded the dismissal of the Buddhadeb Bhattacharya-led CPI-M government, the central leadership's dilemma was evident in parliament itself.

The Congress MPs from West Bengal fully supported a slogan-shouting opposition, which has stalled the proceedings of the Lok Sabha for two days. When the Lok Sabha was adjourned for half-an-hour at 12 noon Friday, three of them - Dawa Narbula, Abu Hasnath Khan Chaudhary and Manan Hussien - were seen in animated discussions with Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

As Home Minister Shivraj Patil made a statement in the Lok Sabha over the killings, the Congress MPs from West Bengal were heard shouting, 'The statement is false.'

Justifying his government's stand, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi said: 'The home minister made the statement as he had promised that there would be an update on Nandigram developments. He cannot make any statement except what is furnished by the state government.'

'We do not have any other agency to collect information (on state law and order situation),' said Dasmunsi, who was also elected from West Bengal.

The West Bengal Congress MPs had met Gandhi Thursday and demanded that there should be strong condemnation from the national leadership over the incident.

The state unit's demand gained momentum after Railway Minister Lalu Prasad announced a three-member delegation from his Rashtriya Janata Dal would visit the trouble-torn area.

Kalam speaks SEZ mind

SHILLONG, March 16: Amidst a raging controversy over acquisition of farm land for industry, President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam today said no force should be used to take land from cultivators. “Any industrialist should discuss with the farmers. Unless they (farmers) agree to give their land, it should not be taken. It (land transfer) should be a mutual concern...There should not be any clash and no force can be used (to acquire land),” Dr Kalam told reporters at the Raj Bhavan here.
The President, who was on a brief visit here, was asked if he supported the acquisition of farm land for industries. Noting that there were two types of land, cultivable and dry, he said discussions should be held for acquiring cultivable land.
Dr Kalam, however, said problems were bound to arise if any one wanted to take up some activity. “Tell me one area where there is no problem,” he told the questioner. “If you don’t do any work, there would be no problem. But problems should not defeat you, rather you defeat the problem,” he said. n SNS