Daylight in China will spell the break-up of PRC: CPM chinatern jaalra-s to note.
I am posting this on this CPM blog because CPM is part of china-tern and consists of China patriots. Exposing PRC to the external world in the wake of an earthquake devastation may spell the beginning of the end -- the break-up of PRC as it happened with the erstwhile Soviet Union. Karats may have nowhere to go for their pseudo-commie ideology tutorials.
kalyan
From Russia with love
New York Times
Posted online: Monday, May 26, 2008 at 0246 hrs IST
Two decades ago, Mikhail Gorbachev’s campaign to inject some daylight into Soviet society doubled back on him like a heat-seeking missile.
Now China’s leaders are playing with the same volatile political chemistry as they allow the world an unexpectedly vivid look at the earthquake devastation in the nation’s southwest regions. The rulers of cyclone-battered Myanmar, by contrast, are limiting access and even aid to the stricken delta region.
“When you start opening up and loosen controls, it becomes a slippery slope,” said Jack F. Matlock Jr., the American ambassador to Moscow during much of the Gorbachev period, as he watched the events in China. “You quickly become a target for everyone and before long, people go after the whole system.”
China has taken a different reform path from Russia, offering its people robust economic growth, in exchange for continued one-party rule. Playing up the response to the earthquake while restricting coverage of repression in Tibet, could prove a shrewd move, rather than one that cascades into instability.
Still, it is worth recalling a time when a little openness flew out of control.
As a correspondent and bureau chief for The New York Times in Moscow in the late 1980s, I had a ringside seat to observe the slow disintegration of the Soviet Union under Gorbachev. The collapse of the Soviet empire and dissolution of the Communist Party were not exactly what he had in mind when he took power in 1985 and launched his twin policies of glasnost (greater openness) and perestroika (political reform).
But he had no inkling of where his initiatives were headed when, shortly after taking office, he broke new ground for a Kremlin leader by mingling with citizens in Leningrad and giving unscripted interviews.
In those early days of glasnost, it was hard to tell whether the changes were purely superficial or the start of something more profound.
One day in late 1985, Allen Ginsberg, the American beat poet, unexpectedly turned up at the Moscow bureau of The Times, bearing a package from Yevgeny Yevtushenko, the Soviet poet. It was the text of a speech that Yevtushenko had given to the Writer’s Union.
Serge Schmemann, my colleague, described it in a front-page story: “The poet’s strong words against distortion of history, against censorship, self-flattery, silence and privilege in the world of letters were strikingly bold.”
As glasnost gathered force in the years that followed, it ripped away the layers of deceit that were the foundation of the Soviet state.
The explosion of a nuclear reactor at Chernobyl in April 1986 shattered the Kremlin’s credibility — and gave a powerful impetus to glasnost. The Kremlin seemed paralysed by the accident. The first government announcement — an innocuous 44 words — came more than a day after the reactor meltdown, and hours after Sweden detected alarming levels of radiation in its air, 800 miles north of Chernobyl.
Gorbachev, embarrassed by the debacle, redoubled his efforts to make the government and party more transparent.
The truth about Stalin’s brutality, and even Lenin’s, was exposed. Newspapers and journals wrote honestly for the first time about government corruption and mismanagement. Artists, playwrights, filmmakers and writers looked unsparingly at the abuses of the Soviet system.
Unflinching coverage of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in Ogonyok, a spirited magazine, gave Russians their first glimpse of a ruinous conflict. It was not long before opposition to the war began to grow.
A striking moment of glasnost came with the killer earthquake in Armenia in December 1988. Faced with the deaths of tens of thousands of Soviet citizens, and desperate for outside aid, the Kremlin lifted restrictions on travel to Armenia. Foreign relief flights, including American military planes carrying food, water and medical supplies, were welcomed in Yerevan, the Armenian capital. Sounds a lot like China today.
Gorbachev wasn’t prepared for the assault of long-repressed political forces let loose by his reforms. The most potent was nationalism in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia; Armenia and Georgia; and throughout Eastern Europe.
Once uncorked, nationalism essentially overwhelmed Gorbachev. Within months, of the 1991 coup attempt, the Soviet Union dissolved and Mr. Gorbachev was out of work.
Russia today, despite Vladimir Putin autocratic ways, enjoys a degree of freedom inconceivable at the height of Communist rule. Glasnost helped make it that way.
China’s leaders may not take comfort in that thought.
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/314596.html
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Saturday, May 24, 2008
CPM says: "...they will make them all Radharani" -- Mahasweta Devi
CPM says: "...they will make them all Radharani" -- Mahasweta Devi
CPI-M violence continues in Nandigram: Mahasweta Devi
Saturday, 24.05.2008, 12:39pm (GMT)
Kozhikode, May 24 West Bengal's ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) continues to unleash violence in Nandigram even after they lost local bodies elections in the trouble-torn region last week, Bengali novelist and rights activist Mahasweta Devi has said.
"They are going around burning houses and raping women," she said.
Mahasweta Devi was delivering the inaugural address at a meeting of the Adhinivesha Prathirodha Samiti (Committee against the invasion of imperialists) here Saturday.
Nandigram, about 150 km from Kolkata in East Midnapore district, flared up in January last year over land acquisition plans for a proposed special economic zone (SEZ). At least 35 people were killed in 2007 in intermittent violence with activists of the CPI-M, which leads the state's ruling coalition, and opposition Trinamool Congress-backed farmers fighting pitched battles.
"The CPI-M cadres are saying it is their duty. They are threatening women who are protesting against the project. They say that they will make them all Radharani," Mahasweta Devi said. Radharani Ari, a villager from Nandigram, was raped allegedly by CPI-M activists.
Mahasweta Devi said the rural West Bengal badly needs development. "Indoctrination will not end people's misery. Now, crores of rupees are spent through panchayats, but not a single road has been constructed in West Bengal by panchayats."
Commenting on the CPI-M-led government in Kerala, she said it should listen to people.
Two months ago, the writer had addressed two open letters to Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan on the plight of the landless in the state.
"Achuthanandan thinks I write for vested interests. I only fight to bring basic human values," she said.
http://www.insidekerala.com/n/article/MainNews/17781/
CPI-M violence continues in Nandigram: Mahasweta Devi
Saturday, 24.05.2008, 12:39pm (GMT)
Kozhikode, May 24 West Bengal's ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) continues to unleash violence in Nandigram even after they lost local bodies elections in the trouble-torn region last week, Bengali novelist and rights activist Mahasweta Devi has said.
"They are going around burning houses and raping women," she said.
Mahasweta Devi was delivering the inaugural address at a meeting of the Adhinivesha Prathirodha Samiti (Committee against the invasion of imperialists) here Saturday.
Nandigram, about 150 km from Kolkata in East Midnapore district, flared up in January last year over land acquisition plans for a proposed special economic zone (SEZ). At least 35 people were killed in 2007 in intermittent violence with activists of the CPI-M, which leads the state's ruling coalition, and opposition Trinamool Congress-backed farmers fighting pitched battles.
"The CPI-M cadres are saying it is their duty. They are threatening women who are protesting against the project. They say that they will make them all Radharani," Mahasweta Devi said. Radharani Ari, a villager from Nandigram, was raped allegedly by CPI-M activists.
Mahasweta Devi said the rural West Bengal badly needs development. "Indoctrination will not end people's misery. Now, crores of rupees are spent through panchayats, but not a single road has been constructed in West Bengal by panchayats."
Commenting on the CPI-M-led government in Kerala, she said it should listen to people.
Two months ago, the writer had addressed two open letters to Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan on the plight of the landless in the state.
"Achuthanandan thinks I write for vested interests. I only fight to bring basic human values," she said.
http://www.insidekerala.com/n/article/MainNews/17781/
Exeunt...CPM shooting at theatre movement
Exeunt...CPM shooting at theatre movement
Exeunt...
Author: Jaideep Mazumdar
Publication: Outlook
Date: June 2, 2008
URL:
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20080602&fname=Theatre+%28F%29&sid=1
Introduction: Post Nandigram firing, the Communists are shooting at
another movement: the theatre
If you can't silence them, starve them of work. That seems to be the
credo of the CPI(M) in West Bengal.
Its target: theatre personalities who were vocal in their opposition to
the CPI(M)'s depredations in Nandigram. Over the past year, dissenting
directors and artistes have seen 'call shows' (invitations for staging
plays) decline to a trickle and have found it impossible to hire
government-owned auditoriums. Plays by directors like Kaushik Sen and
Arpita Ghosh, who have been in the forefront of Nandigram-related
protests, have witnessed last-minute cancellations. Faced with imminent
financial ruin, many directors are openly contemplating switching to
other creative pursuits.
Successful director Bratya Basu is one of the CPI(M)'s targets. He told
Outlook: "All my earlier plays received a surfeit of call shows. But
over the past one year, such invites have dipped to some two per cent of
what I used to receive-that's soon after I started speaking out against
what happened at Nandigram. I've been advised to stop criticising the
government and concentrate only on my theatre."
Call shows are the lifeline of theatre groups. The invitations come from
educational institutions, local clubs and cultural associations. Notes
Bibhas Chakraborty, who resigned as Paschim Banga Natya Akademi
president, protesting the police firing in Nandigram in March 14 last
year: "The CPI(M) operates at various levels-often in an insidious
manner. It is well known that the party dominates the state's cultural
sphere. It has been using its clout to stop invites coming to people
like us."
Kaushik Sen tops the list of those marked out by the CPI(M). Perhaps the
most vociferous critic of the party among theatre personalities, Kaushik
felt the backlash immediately after his post-March 14 protests. "A
school invited my theatre group. I told them I'd stage Tagore's famous
Dakghar, but they told me it had political overtones. I then decided on
Satyajit Ray's apolitical Bonkubabur Bandhu. Even so, the show got
cancelled. I came to know they were pressured by the local CPI(M) MLA.
Ever since, I haven't been receiving invitations to stage my plays,"
Kaushik told Outlook.
Shaonli Mitra's group Pancham Baidik has also been blacklisted. Ever
since Shaonli and her associates like Arpita Ghosh hit the streets on
Nandigram, they have been rendered jobless. Belghoria Ethic, a theatre
group from a Calcutta suburb, launched an anti-genocide forum, Ganahatya
Birodhi Nagarik Mancha, post Nandigram. It organised a convention on the
subject; this led a library that was its chief patron to sever all links
with the group. "The library's action was dictated by local CPI(M)
leaders," says Ethic's Debashish Sengupta.
The experiences of two prominent theatre directors are revealing. Manoj
Mitra and Meghnad Bhattacharya, who resigned along with others from the
Natya Akademi after the Nandigarm killings, had their shows at a college
at Raniganj and in Cooch Behar cancelled abruptly. "I was shocked to
hear about the cancellation, especially since I had been associated with
Raniganj College for decades. Luckily a senior CPI(M) leader intervened
and the cancellation was withdrawn," Manoj told Outlook. The senior
CPI(M) leader was industries minister Nirupam Som.
In Meghnad's case, it was chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya's
intervention that led to the organisers reissuing the invitation to
him."The fact that the CM and the industries minister intervened proves
that withdrawing the invitations was the handiwork of the CPI(M). Why
should theatre directors at all have to depend on ministers for
survival?" wonders Bibhas Chakraborty.
Meghnad, who heeded the CM's request to rejoin the Natya Akademi,
unwittingly admitted the CPI(M)'s sinister role. "All this is the
handiwork of lower-level CPI(M) functionaries. The CM himself admitted
he has no control over such people," Meghnad told Outlook in defence of
the CM.
A spate of cancellations has led to directors like Bratya Basu thinking
of exploring other options. "At this rate, I doubt if I can continue in
theatre," he says. Others like Debesh Chattopadhyay are also thinking of
giving up. If people like Bratya and Debesh were to quit, the CPI(M)
would have achieved its motto of sending the message that there's a
price to pay for dissent. But that would be at the cost of throttling
Bengal's culturally important art form-the theatre.
Exeunt...
Author: Jaideep Mazumdar
Publication: Outlook
Date: June 2, 2008
URL:
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20080602&fname=Theatre+%28F%29&sid=1
Introduction: Post Nandigram firing, the Communists are shooting at
another movement: the theatre
If you can't silence them, starve them of work. That seems to be the
credo of the CPI(M) in West Bengal.
Its target: theatre personalities who were vocal in their opposition to
the CPI(M)'s depredations in Nandigram. Over the past year, dissenting
directors and artistes have seen 'call shows' (invitations for staging
plays) decline to a trickle and have found it impossible to hire
government-owned auditoriums. Plays by directors like Kaushik Sen and
Arpita Ghosh, who have been in the forefront of Nandigram-related
protests, have witnessed last-minute cancellations. Faced with imminent
financial ruin, many directors are openly contemplating switching to
other creative pursuits.
Successful director Bratya Basu is one of the CPI(M)'s targets. He told
Outlook: "All my earlier plays received a surfeit of call shows. But
over the past one year, such invites have dipped to some two per cent of
what I used to receive-that's soon after I started speaking out against
what happened at Nandigram. I've been advised to stop criticising the
government and concentrate only on my theatre."
Call shows are the lifeline of theatre groups. The invitations come from
educational institutions, local clubs and cultural associations. Notes
Bibhas Chakraborty, who resigned as Paschim Banga Natya Akademi
president, protesting the police firing in Nandigram in March 14 last
year: "The CPI(M) operates at various levels-often in an insidious
manner. It is well known that the party dominates the state's cultural
sphere. It has been using its clout to stop invites coming to people
like us."
Kaushik Sen tops the list of those marked out by the CPI(M). Perhaps the
most vociferous critic of the party among theatre personalities, Kaushik
felt the backlash immediately after his post-March 14 protests. "A
school invited my theatre group. I told them I'd stage Tagore's famous
Dakghar, but they told me it had political overtones. I then decided on
Satyajit Ray's apolitical Bonkubabur Bandhu. Even so, the show got
cancelled. I came to know they were pressured by the local CPI(M) MLA.
Ever since, I haven't been receiving invitations to stage my plays,"
Kaushik told Outlook.
Shaonli Mitra's group Pancham Baidik has also been blacklisted. Ever
since Shaonli and her associates like Arpita Ghosh hit the streets on
Nandigram, they have been rendered jobless. Belghoria Ethic, a theatre
group from a Calcutta suburb, launched an anti-genocide forum, Ganahatya
Birodhi Nagarik Mancha, post Nandigram. It organised a convention on the
subject; this led a library that was its chief patron to sever all links
with the group. "The library's action was dictated by local CPI(M)
leaders," says Ethic's Debashish Sengupta.
The experiences of two prominent theatre directors are revealing. Manoj
Mitra and Meghnad Bhattacharya, who resigned along with others from the
Natya Akademi after the Nandigarm killings, had their shows at a college
at Raniganj and in Cooch Behar cancelled abruptly. "I was shocked to
hear about the cancellation, especially since I had been associated with
Raniganj College for decades. Luckily a senior CPI(M) leader intervened
and the cancellation was withdrawn," Manoj told Outlook. The senior
CPI(M) leader was industries minister Nirupam Som.
In Meghnad's case, it was chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya's
intervention that led to the organisers reissuing the invitation to
him."The fact that the CM and the industries minister intervened proves
that withdrawing the invitations was the handiwork of the CPI(M). Why
should theatre directors at all have to depend on ministers for
survival?" wonders Bibhas Chakraborty.
Meghnad, who heeded the CM's request to rejoin the Natya Akademi,
unwittingly admitted the CPI(M)'s sinister role. "All this is the
handiwork of lower-level CPI(M) functionaries. The CM himself admitted
he has no control over such people," Meghnad told Outlook in defence of
the CM.
A spate of cancellations has led to directors like Bratya Basu thinking
of exploring other options. "At this rate, I doubt if I can continue in
theatre," he says. Others like Debesh Chattopadhyay are also thinking of
giving up. If people like Bratya and Debesh were to quit, the CPI(M)
would have achieved its motto of sending the message that there's a
price to pay for dissent. But that would be at the cost of throttling
Bengal's culturally important art form-the theatre.
Friday, May 23, 2008
Does CPM know the art of damage control? Let CPM lick its wounds.
Does CPM know the art of damage control? Let CPM lick its wounds.
Kolkata, Telegraph, Issue Date: Saturday , May 24 , 2008
Panchayat cloud on 10 LS seats of Left
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
Calcutta, May 23: If voting patterns in the Lok Sabha polls due in a year follow the panchayat trend, the Left would lose around 10 seats, snipping its tally to 25, below the score in 1984 that remains the lowest point in the past 30 years.
After a preliminary study of the panchayat results, where the gap at the lowest level of the three-tier system has narrowed dramatically from over 1500 to just above 200, the CPM fears the Left will lose eight to 10 seats. Trinamul believes the Opposition can wrest 11.
An MP and a central committee member of the CPM said: “Looking at the panchayat results, there could be a possibility of losing between eight and 10 parliamentary seats. But a detailed study has to be made.”
At the gram panchayat — the lowest— level, the CPM’s tally stands at 1,562 panchayats and the Opposition’s at 1,340, according to figures collected individually from district magistrates today.
The numbers mentioned in yesterday’s edition were given to the media by CPM state secretary Biman Bose. There are differences between the two sets of figures but they do not change the fundamental lesson emerging from the results: that the Left has taken a hard knock.
The CPM has estimated the possible loss of Lok Sabha seats from Trinamul’s massive victories in East Midnapore and South 24 Parganas and what it calls an “inexplicable’’ rise in the number of panchayat samiti seats won by that party in North 24 Parganas, Nadia and Howrah — all in south Bengal.
Hannan Mollah, an MP of the CPM, admitted that the party could lose some Lok Sabha seats “but there won’t be any sea change as the Trinamul Congress thinks. Moreover, panchayat polls should not be compared with parliamentary elections.”
It may be true that voters’ considerations in a parliamentary poll are different but Trinamul is claiming a “major swing against the CPM’’. Partha Chatterjee, the leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, said: “We (Trinamul) have won several panchayat samiti and gram panchayat seats in areas where our party had not been able to penetrate for years. We think that at least 11 Lok Sabha seats can be wrested from the Left.”
Poll researcher Dwaipayan Bhattacharyya agreed that voters do not treat Assembly or Lok Sabha polls the way they do local bodies elections. “The vote shares have to be seen to find out whether there would be any change in the ruling party’s strength.”
The CPM has based its extrapolation of the panchayat results to the Lok Sabha by calculating the vote shares of the Left and the Opposition in every polling booth where Trinamul has fared well or put up a “respectable performance”, said a party leader.
Having worked out the percentage shares of the Left and the Opposition, the CPM has allotted the votes according to Lok Sabha constituencies to see the impact.
CPM state committee member Rabin Deb said the party conducted a booth-wise survey of votes secured by the Left and the Opposition after every election.
“A preliminary study of the districts where the Opposition met with success can be an indication of future trends. But Lok Sabha polls are a long way off and it would be premature to comment on our party’s prospects.”
The Lok Sabha constituencies that Trinamul is eyeing, encouraged by the panchayat results, are Barasat, Basirhat, Contai, Tamluk, Diamond Harbour, Mathurapur, Jadavpur, Joynagar, Krishnagar, Uluberia and Nabadwip.
A CPM central committee member admitted that these constituencies could pose problems for the Left but expected the situation to change as “our party knows the art of damage control”.
http://telegraphindia.com/1080524/jsp/frontpage/story_9314602.jsp#
GP results rub it in
Statesman News Service (May 24, 2008)
KOLKATA, May 23: For the first time since the Left Front introduced the panchayati raj system in the state in 1978, it lost control of nearly 50 per cent of the gram panchayats this time, signifying that nearly half of rural Bengal has turned its face away from the Marxist-led regime.
A clear picture emerged today as results of the 3,220 gram panchayats were declared. The LF won 1,585 GPs while the Opposition dramatically surged ahead notching up a victory in 1,498 GPs. The results in 137 GPs have been either a tie or hung.
The LF had won 2,303 GPs in the 2003 elections routing the Opposition which managed to bag only 897 GPs, whereas the number of GPs where the results were a tie or hung was only 20. The LF's lowest tally of GPs before was 56 per cent in 1998 and the highest 72 per cent in 1988. Its share ranged between 56 and 70 per cent during the six consecutive terms that it held sway over the panchayats.
The comfort that the CPI-M drew from its victory in 13 of the 17 Zilla Parishads when the results first started pouring in two days back, was eroded by serious worries yesterday when the Opposition won 89 panchayat samities against the LF tally of 189, showing that the ruling combine's grip on the rural vote bank was loosening.
But today, the illusory success in the ZPs turned into a nightmare with the GP results making it clear that nearly half the political space in rural Bengal ~ which has hitherto been the LF's mainstay ~ has been captured by the Opposition. The results sent such shock-waves down the spine of the CPI-M that its state leadership immediately started wooing the junior partners whom it had treated shabbily and insolently during the run-up to the poll.
State industries minister Mr Nirupam Sen was summoned to Alimuddin Street in the afternoon. It was the duo of Mr Sen and the chief minister who were the chief architects of the skewed industrialisation policy that has proved the LF's undoing in the rural poll.
The CPI-M state secretary and LF chairman, Mr Biman Bose, had even taunted that the junior partners saying that it was misplaced confidence that was spurring them
http://thestatesman.org/page.news.php?clid=1&theme=&usrsess=1&id=205233
Kolkata, Telegraph, Issue Date: Saturday , May 24 , 2008
Panchayat cloud on 10 LS seats of Left
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
Calcutta, May 23: If voting patterns in the Lok Sabha polls due in a year follow the panchayat trend, the Left would lose around 10 seats, snipping its tally to 25, below the score in 1984 that remains the lowest point in the past 30 years.
After a preliminary study of the panchayat results, where the gap at the lowest level of the three-tier system has narrowed dramatically from over 1500 to just above 200, the CPM fears the Left will lose eight to 10 seats. Trinamul believes the Opposition can wrest 11.
An MP and a central committee member of the CPM said: “Looking at the panchayat results, there could be a possibility of losing between eight and 10 parliamentary seats. But a detailed study has to be made.”
At the gram panchayat — the lowest— level, the CPM’s tally stands at 1,562 panchayats and the Opposition’s at 1,340, according to figures collected individually from district magistrates today.
The numbers mentioned in yesterday’s edition were given to the media by CPM state secretary Biman Bose. There are differences between the two sets of figures but they do not change the fundamental lesson emerging from the results: that the Left has taken a hard knock.
The CPM has estimated the possible loss of Lok Sabha seats from Trinamul’s massive victories in East Midnapore and South 24 Parganas and what it calls an “inexplicable’’ rise in the number of panchayat samiti seats won by that party in North 24 Parganas, Nadia and Howrah — all in south Bengal.
Hannan Mollah, an MP of the CPM, admitted that the party could lose some Lok Sabha seats “but there won’t be any sea change as the Trinamul Congress thinks. Moreover, panchayat polls should not be compared with parliamentary elections.”
It may be true that voters’ considerations in a parliamentary poll are different but Trinamul is claiming a “major swing against the CPM’’. Partha Chatterjee, the leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, said: “We (Trinamul) have won several panchayat samiti and gram panchayat seats in areas where our party had not been able to penetrate for years. We think that at least 11 Lok Sabha seats can be wrested from the Left.”
Poll researcher Dwaipayan Bhattacharyya agreed that voters do not treat Assembly or Lok Sabha polls the way they do local bodies elections. “The vote shares have to be seen to find out whether there would be any change in the ruling party’s strength.”
The CPM has based its extrapolation of the panchayat results to the Lok Sabha by calculating the vote shares of the Left and the Opposition in every polling booth where Trinamul has fared well or put up a “respectable performance”, said a party leader.
Having worked out the percentage shares of the Left and the Opposition, the CPM has allotted the votes according to Lok Sabha constituencies to see the impact.
CPM state committee member Rabin Deb said the party conducted a booth-wise survey of votes secured by the Left and the Opposition after every election.
“A preliminary study of the districts where the Opposition met with success can be an indication of future trends. But Lok Sabha polls are a long way off and it would be premature to comment on our party’s prospects.”
The Lok Sabha constituencies that Trinamul is eyeing, encouraged by the panchayat results, are Barasat, Basirhat, Contai, Tamluk, Diamond Harbour, Mathurapur, Jadavpur, Joynagar, Krishnagar, Uluberia and Nabadwip.
A CPM central committee member admitted that these constituencies could pose problems for the Left but expected the situation to change as “our party knows the art of damage control”.
http://telegraphindia.com/1080524/jsp/frontpage/story_9314602.jsp#
GP results rub it in
Statesman News Service (May 24, 2008)
KOLKATA, May 23: For the first time since the Left Front introduced the panchayati raj system in the state in 1978, it lost control of nearly 50 per cent of the gram panchayats this time, signifying that nearly half of rural Bengal has turned its face away from the Marxist-led regime.
A clear picture emerged today as results of the 3,220 gram panchayats were declared. The LF won 1,585 GPs while the Opposition dramatically surged ahead notching up a victory in 1,498 GPs. The results in 137 GPs have been either a tie or hung.
The LF had won 2,303 GPs in the 2003 elections routing the Opposition which managed to bag only 897 GPs, whereas the number of GPs where the results were a tie or hung was only 20. The LF's lowest tally of GPs before was 56 per cent in 1998 and the highest 72 per cent in 1988. Its share ranged between 56 and 70 per cent during the six consecutive terms that it held sway over the panchayats.
The comfort that the CPI-M drew from its victory in 13 of the 17 Zilla Parishads when the results first started pouring in two days back, was eroded by serious worries yesterday when the Opposition won 89 panchayat samities against the LF tally of 189, showing that the ruling combine's grip on the rural vote bank was loosening.
But today, the illusory success in the ZPs turned into a nightmare with the GP results making it clear that nearly half the political space in rural Bengal ~ which has hitherto been the LF's mainstay ~ has been captured by the Opposition. The results sent such shock-waves down the spine of the CPI-M that its state leadership immediately started wooing the junior partners whom it had treated shabbily and insolently during the run-up to the poll.
State industries minister Mr Nirupam Sen was summoned to Alimuddin Street in the afternoon. It was the duo of Mr Sen and the chief minister who were the chief architects of the skewed industrialisation policy that has proved the LF's undoing in the rural poll.
The CPI-M state secretary and LF chairman, Mr Biman Bose, had even taunted that the junior partners saying that it was misplaced confidence that was spurring them
http://thestatesman.org/page.news.php?clid=1&theme=&usrsess=1&id=205233
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
...etai CPM-er sesher suru -- Mamata
Ashis Chakrabarti's article on panchayat election 2008 results in Telegraph, Kolkata, 23 May 2008 ignores facts:
Gram Panchayats: 1479 oppn., 1597 LF (2303 in 2003 elections)
Panchayat Samitis: 126 oppn, 183 LF (265 in 2003 elections)
Editor of Telegraph should ask Ashis should learn arithmetic.
http://telegraphindia.com/1080523/jsp/frontpage/story_9309640.jsp
kalyan
...etai CPM-er sesher suru -- Mamata
How CPM captured, and holds on to rural Bengal
By Nitish Sengupta (Deccan Chronicle, 22 May 2008)
In the past week or so, during the panchayat elections in West Bengal, the CPI(M) cadre in Nandigram, Khejuri, Keshpur and many other pockets in the state have gone crazy violating criminal laws and constitutional rights in order to retain their physical control over their areas of influence. The CPI(M) men committed murders, raped women on a very visible scale and physically prevented independent intellectuals and human rights workers from visiting Nandigram — including such well-known persons as filmstars Aparna Sen and Saoli Mitra, not to speak of political leaders like Mamata Banerjee. The CPI(M)’s Lok Sabha MP for that region has openly entered into verbal confrontation with the commanding officer of the CRPF in the area, actually threatening him in the face of television cameras. They have physically beaten large numbers of men and women, snatched their voter identity cards and confined them to their homes in an attempt to prevent them from going to the polling booths to cast their votes. All this has happened in the open, with the CPI(M) leadership not showing any sign of remorse or regret, or even trying to reassert control over their belligerent cadre.
People often wonder how the CPI(M) has been able to retain control over rural West Bengal for as long as three decades. The answer lies in the fact that they have been making full use of the resources of the panchayati raj institutions gifted to them unwittingly by Rajiv Gandhi, who introduced the practice of giving direct finances from the Centre to the panchayats and even amended the Constitution for this purpose. Since that time the CPI(M) has retained full control on the panchayat elections so that they can directly gain access to its great resources and can claim that all the welfare and development measures undertaken by the panchayats, many of them coming from the Centre, are actually being done by their party. Unlike most other states, the CPI(M), after coming to power in West Bengal during a phase of absent-mindedness by the people in 1977, started the practice of fighting panchayat elections on a political basis and getting control over the panchayats, which they have not given up since then. To help them to win elections they resorted to making their cadre take physical control over vast rural areas. Ordinary voters are simply not allowed to vote. At times non-CPI(M) candidates are prevented by physical force from submitting their nominations, thereby ensuring the election of a large number of CPI(M) candidates unopposed. In order to retain this physical control, the cadre has been armed to the hilt, having their own guns, bombs, swords, spears and other weapons, which they use without any restraint against their political opponents. The police force has been politicised to an extent unknown anywhere else in this country. Most of the policemen recruited in West Bengal over the last two decades are CPI(M) cardholders or at least CPI(M) sympathisers, as are schoolteachers in the districts. Politically subservient station house officers have been posted in all thanas. They do not register any criminal complaint without a nod from the local CPI(M) boss. They even refuse to register FIRs in the normal course, although they are under obligation to do so under the Criminal Procedure Code. It is the secretary of the local CPI(M) unit, popularly known as the LCS, who is the main power centre in rural areas. Even ministers look for his recommendation in most cases. There has thus been a massive politicisation and criminalisation in rural areas of West Bengal. In every parliamentary constituency, the CPI(M) takes care to retain one Assembly segment under its tight physical control so that no matter how voters elsewhere vote, nearly 100 per cent polling in favour of their candidate in this segment usually ensures the victory of the CPI(M) candidate.
Strangely enough, the leadership of the CPI(M) in West Bengal, outwardly known as bhadralok leaders for their culture and intellect, choose to turn a blind eye towards the criminal activities of their cadre and the widespread violation of constitutional provisions and fundamental rights, as well as the usual provisions in our criminal law ensuring human rights. This explains why, unlike their counterparts in Kerala who know how to court defeat once every five years or so, the CPI(M) in West Bengal has never known defeat and has been uniformly successful in all elections to the Lok Sabha, the Assembly and panchayats over the last three decades. It is an amazing case where the proletariat of Karl Marx fell victim to Lenin’s party, and Lenin’s party in turn fell victim to the Stalinist and Maoist cadre. One does not know when West Bengal is going to be rescued from this captivity, which has destroyed its spirit, intellect and culture for several generations, not to speak of the steady economic decline which has downgraded what was once the foremost state of India during the halcyon days of Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy into one of the most backward states in the country.
Today the CPI(M) stands isolated not only from the intellectuals, artists and other right-thinking sections of the people, but also from its own political allies like the Revolutionary Socialist Party and the Forward Bloc within the Left Front. Even the CPI(M) patriarch, Jyoti Basu, who built the United Front from scratch, lamented that the Left Front today is as good as non-existent. There are reports of armed clashes between the CPI(M) on the one hand and its allies in the Left Front on the other, leading to the death of people and destruction of property. It is only the CPI(M)’s cadre in the rural areas, a law unto themselves, who are sustaining their political party in power.
Dr Nitish Sengupta, an academic and an author, is a former Member of Parliament and a former secretary to the government of India
http://deccan.com/Columnists/Columnists.asp?#How CPM captured, and holds on to rural Bengal
Issue Date: Thursday , May 22 , 2008
Nandi Payback
CPM bleeds in land-and-minority backlash; loses 3 councils, gains 1
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
Calcutta, May 21: The Left today suffered the biggest poll jolt since the 2001 Assembly verdict as it lost two districts to Mamata Banerjee and one to the Congress in the panchayat polls, raising the question whether land acquisition for industry was exacting a heavy political cost.
Shaken though it was by the loss of Nandigram-scarred East Midnapore and South 24-Parganas, the CPM announced: “There will be no going back on the policy of industrialisation.”
Murshidabad was its sole — and big — revenge on the Opposition as it won the district back from the Congress, but it had only 13 of the 17 zilla parishads (district councils) in the bag compared with 15 in 2003.
Land acquisition for industry was an issue in the two south Bengal districts of East Midnapore and South 24-Parganas, though not in North Dinajpur, where the Left could not forge unity among its constituents.
In East Midnapore and South 24-Parganas, both heavily minority-dominated districts, fears over losing land took a religious colour, fed by the discontent among the minorities brought out by the Sachar Committee report.
East Midnapore gained notoriety because of the prolonged violence in Nandigram over an aborted land acquisition attempt while South 24-Parganas will be the site for large projects to be built by the Indonesian Salim group.
In neighbouring North 24-Parganas, which the Salim road project will touch and where notices for land acquisition have been issued, the Left won by the thin margin of three, with Mamata’s score having soared from two to 16.
The results in West Midnapore, Burdwan, Bankura and Purulia, where too large tracts of land have been taken over for industry, are a warning against jumping to the conclusion that the panchayat verdict is a slap in the face of the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government’s industrialisation drive.
In all four districts, the CPM has not only won but has posted huge victories, even improving on its 2003 tally in some cases. The difference, however, is that in these four districts, there was no controversy over acquiring land.
Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee refused comment on the results.
Benoy Konar, the CPM state secretariat member who addressed the media today instead of the party’s Bengal secretary Biman Bose, said: “It will be simplistic to infer that people voted against industrialisation. We failed to convince farmers in these two districts (East Midnapore and South 24-Parganas) where people have apprehensions about losing land.”
The apprehensions overrode expectations of benefits from the showpiece Tata small-car project at Singur, where the CPM lost all three zilla parishad seats to Trinamul. In 2003, the CPM had won the three but had lost the Assembly seat to Trinamul in 2006.
If Nandigram led to the loss of East Midnapore for the CPM, the party won Hooghly, of which Singur is a part, though not with the ease of 2003. Trinamul opened its account in the district, grabbing 11 seats.
Mamata was distributing rasogollas after the results became known, finding a reason to smile after two consecutive routs in the 2004 Lok Sabha and the 2006 Assembly polls, which halved her 2001 MLA count of 60.
“Jene rakhoon, etai CPM-er sesher suru (Make no mistake, this is the beginning of the CPM’s end),” she said.
“In 2003, we had only 16 zilla parishad seats. But this time we have been able to wrest not only two zilla parishads on our own but even won over 120 zilla parishad seats.”
Mamata interpreted the results as a “mandate against state-sponsored terrorism”, but added that the people had also voiced their protest against the move to “grab farmland from the poor in the name of industrialisation”.
The chief minister can expect more trouble arising out of this conclusion for his industrialisation programme. Trinamul said it would not “allow the administration to take away an inch of land from unwilling farmers”.
Although the Congress lost Murshidabad, the victory in North Dinajpur was being seen as an achievement for Priya Ranjan Das Munshi, the Union minister who had called on Congress supporters to vote for the strongest candidate in their areas, even if it meant backing Trinamul.
If this led to an informal coming together of anti-Left forces in North Dinajpur, the Left itself was bitterly divided in the district, as it was also in South 24-Parganas.
http://telegraphindia.com/1080522/jsp/frontpage/story_9304845.jsp
Not just Singur and Nandigram, CPM gets battered across rural West Bengal
Bidyut Roy
Posted online: Friday, May 23, 2008 at 0044 hrs IST
Kolkata, May 22
The CPM is facing an unprecedented dent in what it has long taken for granted, its support in the rural areas in West Bengal. The trickle of defeat during Wednesday’s counting of the panchayat polls at the Zilla Parishad (district council) level turned into a flood today when results of the lower tiers emerged.
The battering of the CPM was not restricted to Nandigram or Singur but was evident across the state. In Nandigram, it lost not only the Zilla Parishads but all the ten Gram Panchayat (GP) seats to the Trinamool and of the 16 GP seats in Singur, the Trinamool has won 15 and only one has gone to the CPM. In both these places, the CPM was dominant the last time.
By late tonight, the verdict was clear: although the Left has kept its control over a majority of the seats at all levels, it has received its worst setback ever. The Left Front won 1,633 of the 3,220 Gram Panchayats in the state, down from its 2003 tally of 2303.
The Opposition won 1,463 GPs , with the Trinamool bagging the major share, almost three-quarters. In the 2003 Panchayat elections, the Opposition had got barely 917 GPs.
Of the 329 Panchayat samitis (the middle tier), the Left Front had won 284 and the Opposition 45 in 2003. This year, however, the Left’s tally shrunk to 189 while the Opposition surged to 140.
A stunned CPM was groping for answers. Said Left Front chairman and CPM veteran Biman Bose: “We have to discuss why this grievance accumulated to such an extent...Our arrogance, ego and deviations —- we must study if these were factors...We will review whether the functioning of our Panchayats is to blame for the results. There may have been some deviations.”
“People have not liked our style of functioning and we will have to take a lesson, but that does not mean they have voted against industrialisation,” Minister for Commerce and Industries Nirupam Sen said today. “There is no rollback in our industrialisation policy but we have been unable to communicate properly the benefits of industrialisation. People misunderstood us. However, we have begun rectifying it and the process started much before the panchayat results. This is a long process and we are taking several measures to address this.”
So strong was the anti-incumbency that Trinamool Congress won in several areas where it didn’t campaign, including districts where Trinamool leader Mamata Banerjee didn’t visit.
For example, three “Sabhadhipatis” lost elections in Nadia, North and South Dinajpur districts. The “Sabhadhipatis” are the chairmen of the Zilla Parishad and an epitome of power, authority and clout. Normally, top district level party leaders occupy the chair.
The anti-incumbency factor was also visible in far-off areas like Coochbehar or closer to home in Howrah and Birbhum. In Coochbehar, two panchayat samitis were won by the Trinamool for the first time. Similarly in Birbhum, considered a traditional Left bastion, the Opposition wrested five Panchayat Samitis from the ruling Left. On an average, one panchayat samiti controls about 10 Gram Panchayats.
In Howrah, though the CPM managed to retain control of the Zilla Parishad, it suffered a huge setback in the middle tier. Of a total of 14 Panchayat Samitis in the district, the Trinamool won 10.
A jubilant Mamata, who had not expected such results, said: “The results show how much the people are angry with them. The people have taught them a lesson, but they never learn.”
Zilla Parishads Oppn. 230 LF 518 (622 in 2003)
Panchayat Samitis Oppn. 140 LF 189 (284 in 2003)
Gram Panchayats Oppn. 1463 LF 1633 (2303 in 2003)
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/313423.html
CPM routed in Nandigram, Singur panchayat polls
Slap for CPM in Singur and Nandigram
Saugar Sengupta | Kolkata
Trinamool wrests Red bastions
The CPI(M) suffered its biggest electoral defeat in panchayat polls ever since it came to power 30 years ago. The party conceded four district boards to an Opposition that was still divided. Trinamool Congress and the Congress shared the win clinching two boards each. That the Marxists picked up 13 was no solace as they had lost two of their strongest citadels.
Counting for the gram panchayat and panchayat samiti seats had started when the reports last came in. While East Midnapore farmers avenged the police firing in Nandigram by banishing the Marxists from the board, Nandigram proper saw three out of four seats going to the Trinamool Congress. Left Front got 17 to Trinamool's 36 seats in East Midnapore. The Left Front had won all but one seat from the district in 2003.
It would be difficult to gauge the anti-CPI(M) wave from the mere number of boards the Opposition wrested from the ruling party. This because even the Opposition polled whopping 32 per cent votes, seven per cent higher than what it got after the death of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984.
Interestingly, the CPI(M) lost all the three seats from Haldia -- bastion of MP and party strongman Lakshman Seth, leading Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee to assert: "It is a farmers' mandate and it is not the Trinamool Congress but Bengal's farmers who have won." She added the result would have been better had there been no rigging in the areas.
Similarly, Singur in Hooghly district where the anti-land acquisition movement started shoved the Marxists out with all four seats going to the Trinamool Congress. The district board, however, went to the Marxists who won it 31:10.
But more than Nandigram, East Midnapore and Singur, the thumping victory of the Trinamool Congress in South 24 Parganas seemed to take the observers by surprise. Here the Trinamool and its allies picked up 39 seats to Left Front's 31. The Congress won four.
The factor that the district has four Ministers, including Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, seemed to make the contest more interesting. "It is a victory of Mamata Banerjee over the Chief Minister," party MLA Sobhandeb Chattopdhayay said. Parts of the Trinamool chief's constituency fall in South 24 Parganas that had seen a bloody war between the Marxists and allies RSP leading to five deaths.
In North 24 Parganas, the Left Front won 26 seats while the Trinamool had bagged 17 and the Congress eight.
In North Bengal, Union Minister PR Dasmunsi did a face-saver for the Congress by snatching back North Dinajpur from the Left Front that was a divided house here. The tally was 14:8 in favour of the Congress. The party managed to retain Malda by winning 18 seats to LF's 15.
However, the Congress lost its prestige battle at Murshidabad that sent three of its MPs, including Pranab Mukherjee. The Left Front that fought unitedly against a divided Congress here wrested the district board winning 25 seats to Congress' 27.
Results coming in till late in the evening showed the LF winning 479 seats to Trinamool Congress' 110, Congress 99 and the rests 10. The total number of district board seats is 748.
The Marxists managed to keep other Left bastions winning Jalpaiguri, Coochbehar, Purulia, West Midnapore, Nadia, Coochbehar, Bankura, Birbhum, Howrah, Hooghly, Burdwan and South Dinajpur.
Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had gone about acquiring land from the farmers. Ironically however, Wednesday saw the very ground beneath the ruling CPI(M)'s feet slipping out fast.
The rural elections that took place in the backdrop of Singur-Nandigram face off literally found Marxists electorally stripped in their own backyard: rural Bengal.
Unfazed CPM guns for CRPF DIG
Kolkata: A couple of days after the Bengal IGP gave a clean chit to CRPF DIG Alok Raj in a molestation case filed against him by a woman at Nandigram in East Midnapore district, the Bengal police said there was no plan to drop charges against the "accused officer" as a police investigation was still in progress.
The CRPF officer was on peace-keeping duty in Nandigram, where the ruling CPI(M) and its police had been involved in a bloody fight against the opposition Trinamool Congress following a mass resistance against forced acquisition of agricultural lands by the Government for industrial purposes, when he was reportedly implicated in a molestation case by an alleged CPI(M) supporter.
The charges notwithstanding, Raj was found to be present at Nandigram police station during the time when the alleged crime took place. An IGP-level inquiry found Raj innocent and State Home Secretary Ashokmohan Chakrabarty even went on record conveying the IG's report. He, however, later claimed the media misinterpreted his statement.
SS Panda, SP (East Midnapore) however claimed the charges would not be dropped against Raj till the police probe was on. The CRPF officer's force is being probed in an assault case as well. Panda has been named by the opposition as a CPI(M) man of Keshpur-Garbeta fame.
"The matter will go to the court and a trial will take place," Panda said. Apparently his statement comes on the same day when the CPI(M) got a sound electoral drubbing at the hands of the Trinamool Congress.
Meanwhile, Raj is weighing his legal options, sources close to him said. "Though the FIRs are still there, I have heard that the inquiry report gave me a clean chit.... I will soon ask the Bengal Government to give me a copy of the complaints and the inquiry report. My force is supposed to be on duty at Nandigram, but I am being kept out. I have received no orders to go there on May 21," he said.
According to reports from Nandigram, the local CPI(M) was not favourably disposed towards the CRPF as it had been acting tough on the armed party cadre who were raiding Nandigram from the Khejuri side. Raj had a verbal duel with Haldia MP Laxman Seth, who reportedly directed him to stay back in his camp. But the officer snubbed him, saying he was not bound to take orders from the MP.
Meanwhile, Trinamool sources said they would stand by "an honest officer like Alok Raj who came to protect our lives but is now being framed by the CPI(M)".
http://dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_variable=front%5Fpage&file_name=story1%2Etxt&counter_img=1
Indo-Asian News Service
Kolkata, May 21, 2008
First Published: 21:33 IST(21/5/2008)
Last Updated: 21:39 IST(21/5/2008)
CPI-M routed in Nandigram, Singur Panchayat polls
West Bengal's ruling Left Front on Wednesday maintained an overall lead in the elections to the local self-government bodies, but the Front's dominant partner Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) suffered defeat in several districts, including the troubled areas of Nandigram and Singur, as officials counted the votes.
The Front suffered a severe setback in East Midnapore district, besides suffering losses in North 24-Parganas and South 24-arganas districts. In Midnapore, the CPI-M lost control of the Zilla Parishad or district council, the top tier of the state's Panchayat system, for the first time after an uninterrupted reign of 30 years.
The Nandigram region, which saw violence after protests against the government's abortive bid for land acquisition for a chemical hub, comes under East Midnapore.
The main opposition Trinamool Congress, which spearheaded the agitation in Nandigram, made a clean sweep in the area, besides making impressive gains at Singur in Hooghly district, another flashpoint where the party had mobilized farmers against land acquisition for Tata Motors' small car project.
According to reports till afternoon, the communists' citadels of Burdwan, Purulia and Bankura remained intact, but the ruling coalition was engaged in a neck and neck race with the Congress for control of the Zilla Parishads (or district councils) in Murshidabad and Malda districts.
During the last elections in 2003, the Congress had won the two Zilla Parishads, and the Left Front emerged victorious in all other 15 districts.
The CPI-M suffered a further dent in its image as three of the incumbent zilla parishad chiefs, owing allegiance to the party, bit the dust in North Dinajpur, South Dinajpur and Nadia districts.
In Nandigram, the Trinamool Congress trounced the front in the gram Panchayat or village council and Panchayat Samiti polls, besides winning all the four Zilla Parishad seats in the area.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print.aspx?Id=bb822bd8-d05c-4482-bcaf-728ba06cb3ae
Nandigram, May 21 (PTI) CPI-M and Trinamool Congress activists threw bombs and exchanged fire in three areas in embattled Nandigram shortly after zila parishad election results were declared in the East Midnapore districtd today.
Though no casualty was reported, the police said bomb blasts and gunshots were heard at Sonachura, Gokulnagar and Garchakraberia in Nandigram.
Both Trinamool Congress and CPI-M workers traded bombs and gunshots.
There was no report of any victory processions here till this evening.
Strict security measures were taken 200 metres around the counting centres.
Reports from other districts, however, said the situation had remained peaceful. PTI
http://www.ptinews.com/pti%5Cptisite.nsf/0/5974D6E618848EF465257450004F7494?OpenDocument
Saugar Sengupta | Kolkata
Trinamool wrests Red bastions
The CPI(M) suffered its biggest electoral defeat in panchayat polls ever since it came to power 30 years ago. The party conceded four district boards to an Opposition that was still divided. Trinamool Congress and the Congress shared the win clinching two boards each. That the Marxists picked up 13 was no solace as they had lost two of their strongest citadels.
Counting for the gram panchayat and panchayat samiti seats had started when the reports last came in. While East Midnapore farmers avenged the police firing in Nandigram by banishing the Marxists from the board, Nandigram proper saw three out of four seats going to the Trinamool Congress. Left Front got 17 to Trinamool's 36 seats in East Midnapore. The Left Front had won all but one seat from the district in 2003.
It would be difficult to gauge the anti-CPI(M) wave from the mere number of boards the Opposition wrested from the ruling party. This because even the Opposition polled whopping 32 per cent votes, seven per cent higher than what it got after the death of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984.
Interestingly, the CPI(M) lost all the three seats from Haldia -- bastion of MP and party strongman Lakshman Seth, leading Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee to assert: "It is a farmers' mandate and it is not the Trinamool Congress but Bengal's farmers who have won." She added the result would have been better had there been no rigging in the areas.
Similarly, Singur in Hooghly district where the anti-land acquisition movement started shoved the Marxists out with all four seats going to the Trinamool Congress. The district board, however, went to the Marxists who won it 31:10.
But more than Nandigram, East Midnapore and Singur, the thumping victory of the Trinamool Congress in South 24 Parganas seemed to take the observers by surprise. Here the Trinamool and its allies picked up 39 seats to Left Front's 31. The Congress won four.
The factor that the district has four Ministers, including Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, seemed to make the contest more interesting. "It is a victory of Mamata Banerjee over the Chief Minister," party MLA Sobhandeb Chattopdhayay said. Parts of the Trinamool chief's constituency fall in South 24 Parganas that had seen a bloody war between the Marxists and allies RSP leading to five deaths.
In North 24 Parganas, the Left Front won 26 seats while the Trinamool had bagged 17 and the Congress eight.
In North Bengal, Union Minister PR Dasmunsi did a face-saver for the Congress by snatching back North Dinajpur from the Left Front that was a divided house here. The tally was 14:8 in favour of the Congress. The party managed to retain Malda by winning 18 seats to LF's 15.
However, the Congress lost its prestige battle at Murshidabad that sent three of its MPs, including Pranab Mukherjee. The Left Front that fought unitedly against a divided Congress here wrested the district board winning 25 seats to Congress' 27.
Results coming in till late in the evening showed the LF winning 479 seats to Trinamool Congress' 110, Congress 99 and the rests 10. The total number of district board seats is 748.
The Marxists managed to keep other Left bastions winning Jalpaiguri, Coochbehar, Purulia, West Midnapore, Nadia, Coochbehar, Bankura, Birbhum, Howrah, Hooghly, Burdwan and South Dinajpur.
Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had gone about acquiring land from the farmers. Ironically however, Wednesday saw the very ground beneath the ruling CPI(M)'s feet slipping out fast.
The rural elections that took place in the backdrop of Singur-Nandigram face off literally found Marxists electorally stripped in their own backyard: rural Bengal.
Unfazed CPM guns for CRPF DIG
Kolkata: A couple of days after the Bengal IGP gave a clean chit to CRPF DIG Alok Raj in a molestation case filed against him by a woman at Nandigram in East Midnapore district, the Bengal police said there was no plan to drop charges against the "accused officer" as a police investigation was still in progress.
The CRPF officer was on peace-keeping duty in Nandigram, where the ruling CPI(M) and its police had been involved in a bloody fight against the opposition Trinamool Congress following a mass resistance against forced acquisition of agricultural lands by the Government for industrial purposes, when he was reportedly implicated in a molestation case by an alleged CPI(M) supporter.
The charges notwithstanding, Raj was found to be present at Nandigram police station during the time when the alleged crime took place. An IGP-level inquiry found Raj innocent and State Home Secretary Ashokmohan Chakrabarty even went on record conveying the IG's report. He, however, later claimed the media misinterpreted his statement.
SS Panda, SP (East Midnapore) however claimed the charges would not be dropped against Raj till the police probe was on. The CRPF officer's force is being probed in an assault case as well. Panda has been named by the opposition as a CPI(M) man of Keshpur-Garbeta fame.
"The matter will go to the court and a trial will take place," Panda said. Apparently his statement comes on the same day when the CPI(M) got a sound electoral drubbing at the hands of the Trinamool Congress.
Meanwhile, Raj is weighing his legal options, sources close to him said. "Though the FIRs are still there, I have heard that the inquiry report gave me a clean chit.... I will soon ask the Bengal Government to give me a copy of the complaints and the inquiry report. My force is supposed to be on duty at Nandigram, but I am being kept out. I have received no orders to go there on May 21," he said.
According to reports from Nandigram, the local CPI(M) was not favourably disposed towards the CRPF as it had been acting tough on the armed party cadre who were raiding Nandigram from the Khejuri side. Raj had a verbal duel with Haldia MP Laxman Seth, who reportedly directed him to stay back in his camp. But the officer snubbed him, saying he was not bound to take orders from the MP.
Meanwhile, Trinamool sources said they would stand by "an honest officer like Alok Raj who came to protect our lives but is now being framed by the CPI(M)".
http://dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_variable=front%5Fpage&file_name=story1%2Etxt&counter_img=1
Indo-Asian News Service
Kolkata, May 21, 2008
First Published: 21:33 IST(21/5/2008)
Last Updated: 21:39 IST(21/5/2008)
CPI-M routed in Nandigram, Singur Panchayat polls
West Bengal's ruling Left Front on Wednesday maintained an overall lead in the elections to the local self-government bodies, but the Front's dominant partner Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) suffered defeat in several districts, including the troubled areas of Nandigram and Singur, as officials counted the votes.
The Front suffered a severe setback in East Midnapore district, besides suffering losses in North 24-Parganas and South 24-arganas districts. In Midnapore, the CPI-M lost control of the Zilla Parishad or district council, the top tier of the state's Panchayat system, for the first time after an uninterrupted reign of 30 years.
The Nandigram region, which saw violence after protests against the government's abortive bid for land acquisition for a chemical hub, comes under East Midnapore.
The main opposition Trinamool Congress, which spearheaded the agitation in Nandigram, made a clean sweep in the area, besides making impressive gains at Singur in Hooghly district, another flashpoint where the party had mobilized farmers against land acquisition for Tata Motors' small car project.
According to reports till afternoon, the communists' citadels of Burdwan, Purulia and Bankura remained intact, but the ruling coalition was engaged in a neck and neck race with the Congress for control of the Zilla Parishads (or district councils) in Murshidabad and Malda districts.
During the last elections in 2003, the Congress had won the two Zilla Parishads, and the Left Front emerged victorious in all other 15 districts.
The CPI-M suffered a further dent in its image as three of the incumbent zilla parishad chiefs, owing allegiance to the party, bit the dust in North Dinajpur, South Dinajpur and Nadia districts.
In Nandigram, the Trinamool Congress trounced the front in the gram Panchayat or village council and Panchayat Samiti polls, besides winning all the four Zilla Parishad seats in the area.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print.aspx?Id=bb822bd8-d05c-4482-bcaf-728ba06cb3ae
Nandigram, May 21 (PTI) CPI-M and Trinamool Congress activists threw bombs and exchanged fire in three areas in embattled Nandigram shortly after zila parishad election results were declared in the East Midnapore districtd today.
Though no casualty was reported, the police said bomb blasts and gunshots were heard at Sonachura, Gokulnagar and Garchakraberia in Nandigram.
Both Trinamool Congress and CPI-M workers traded bombs and gunshots.
There was no report of any victory processions here till this evening.
Strict security measures were taken 200 metres around the counting centres.
Reports from other districts, however, said the situation had remained peaceful. PTI
http://www.ptinews.com/pti%5Cptisite.nsf/0/5974D6E618848EF465257450004F7494?OpenDocument
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Fight against terror in Nandigram
Fight Against the Terror in Nandigram, Build Your Own Independent & United Struggle
18 May, 2008
by the Sramik Sangram Committee, translated and published in Sanhati 18 May 2008, republished by Hydrarchy 18 May 2008
A fugitive criminal is ruling roost in Nandigram, directing a huge armed force of party cadres. A police officer waves and gives a beaming smile to the criminal while passing by in his jeep — a picture familiar in today’s ‘peaceful’ Nandigram. A group of socially established intellectuals were prohibited from proceeding towards Nandigram on the basis of Government’s directive a day before the Panchayat polls. If this is the treatment meted out to the people belonging to the higher ranks of social hierarchy, one can easily imagine the tremendous threatening, intimidating and terrorized situation in which the toiling masses of Nandigram are striving to live. You have to work for CPIM, participate in their party processions and if you defy, you will be confined in your home with broken limbs. If one dares to raise a voice of protest, houses will be set to fire, the protesting people will simply ‘disappear’.
There seems to be no other way with both the police and the administration not merely being silent observers but party to this mayhem organized by CPIM. The women are pleading desperately to the central army and the CRPF officers for protection. What a picture of Nandigram are we witnessing! Today’s Nandigram is indeed terrorized by the nexus of CPIM, police and administration. What we witnessed during the Panchayat elections is just a continuation of the terror unleashed since last November. Even the CRPF officers have not been spared from the threats by CPIM leaders. The continuous description of terror, beatings, violence, rapes .…wails, screams and groans — is this the only picture that characterize Nandigram?
No, the above picture is just one aspect of Nandigram. Nandigram signifies protests; it signifies spontaneous resistance by the peasantry. Nandigram stands as a symbol of resistive struggle against the attack of the ruling class. One has to remember that Nandigram is not merely represented by the incident of 14th of March, 2007. The real Nandigram revealed itself when a small procession of 40-50 people with a martyr’s dead body turned spontaneously into a 40-45 thousand odd peoples’ spontaneous protest rally on the 16th of March that drove out the perpetrators of violence, the party vandals from Sonachura and gained control over the village. The CPIM thugs who are on the carnage today had to flee to save themselves; the police were forced to escape and take shelter in the confines of school premises. The government was forced to bow down in the wake of this united resistance by thousands of land labourers and peasants. Where has that Nandigram disappeared?
Has that Nandigram been completely vanquished by the terror of CPIM? No, Nandigram is struggle and resistance personified — it can never die. The struggle continues to live within the fighting people, amidst the workers, peasants and toiling masses. Yet a question looms — why did such a situation evolve?
It has to be understood that the fighting mass of Nandigram failed to retain their power of united resistance within their control. The struggling people started losing their power and ability out of their own volition, from the moment they started submitting themselves in the hands of the parties. Perhaps they were under the illusion that it would be possible to re-exert themselves through the power of the parties in the forthcoming Panchayat elections. This marks the reason for their failure, the reason for backtracking — not exposed earlier but has become clear in this phase of ongoing bloody violence. However, this is not the end, this cannot be the end. People of Nandigram will definitely take lessons from history to revive and restore their unity and struggle.
Friends, CPIM has compelled us to chose between parties — either you are on ‘our’ side or ‘theirs’ which simply means that either you belong to CPIM or to the Trinamul. Are we such powerless, inanimate pawns in the hands of the stinking representatives of the ruling class? No, not at all. CPIM, Trinamul, Congress and the various other horses of the same stable do not represent West Bengal. Within this West Bengal an embryo of a new West Bengal, a new India is gradually emerging from the struggle of the workers, peasants and the toiling masses. A West Bengal of workers and peasants is burgeoning from the fights that are striving to establish an independent and autonomous struggle and organisation by completely detaching from the clutches of the established old parties. The ruling class and CPIM are scared of this spontaneous resistance by the workers and peasants and that is why they are determined to bulldoze these struggles. This explains the continued violence in Nandigram.
Raise your voice of protest against the terror unleashed by the CPIM in connivance with the police and administration. However, it is just not enough to protest against the terror, murders, rapes and inhuman torture. One has to stand for the new socio-political awakening, extend active support towards the emerging struggle and organization of workers and peasants. You will have to be an architect in building your own organization, in your factories or farmlands. Gather strength to fight against each and every onslaught of the ruling class; build up the power to resist. And this is how you can give a fitting reply to the onslaught of violence in Nandigram.
Sramik Sangram Committee
http://strugglesnews.wordpress.com/2008/05/18/fight-against-the-terror-in-nandigram-build-your-own-independent-united-struggle/
18 May, 2008
by the Sramik Sangram Committee, translated and published in Sanhati 18 May 2008, republished by Hydrarchy 18 May 2008
A fugitive criminal is ruling roost in Nandigram, directing a huge armed force of party cadres. A police officer waves and gives a beaming smile to the criminal while passing by in his jeep — a picture familiar in today’s ‘peaceful’ Nandigram. A group of socially established intellectuals were prohibited from proceeding towards Nandigram on the basis of Government’s directive a day before the Panchayat polls. If this is the treatment meted out to the people belonging to the higher ranks of social hierarchy, one can easily imagine the tremendous threatening, intimidating and terrorized situation in which the toiling masses of Nandigram are striving to live. You have to work for CPIM, participate in their party processions and if you defy, you will be confined in your home with broken limbs. If one dares to raise a voice of protest, houses will be set to fire, the protesting people will simply ‘disappear’.
There seems to be no other way with both the police and the administration not merely being silent observers but party to this mayhem organized by CPIM. The women are pleading desperately to the central army and the CRPF officers for protection. What a picture of Nandigram are we witnessing! Today’s Nandigram is indeed terrorized by the nexus of CPIM, police and administration. What we witnessed during the Panchayat elections is just a continuation of the terror unleashed since last November. Even the CRPF officers have not been spared from the threats by CPIM leaders. The continuous description of terror, beatings, violence, rapes .…wails, screams and groans — is this the only picture that characterize Nandigram?
No, the above picture is just one aspect of Nandigram. Nandigram signifies protests; it signifies spontaneous resistance by the peasantry. Nandigram stands as a symbol of resistive struggle against the attack of the ruling class. One has to remember that Nandigram is not merely represented by the incident of 14th of March, 2007. The real Nandigram revealed itself when a small procession of 40-50 people with a martyr’s dead body turned spontaneously into a 40-45 thousand odd peoples’ spontaneous protest rally on the 16th of March that drove out the perpetrators of violence, the party vandals from Sonachura and gained control over the village. The CPIM thugs who are on the carnage today had to flee to save themselves; the police were forced to escape and take shelter in the confines of school premises. The government was forced to bow down in the wake of this united resistance by thousands of land labourers and peasants. Where has that Nandigram disappeared?
Has that Nandigram been completely vanquished by the terror of CPIM? No, Nandigram is struggle and resistance personified — it can never die. The struggle continues to live within the fighting people, amidst the workers, peasants and toiling masses. Yet a question looms — why did such a situation evolve?
It has to be understood that the fighting mass of Nandigram failed to retain their power of united resistance within their control. The struggling people started losing their power and ability out of their own volition, from the moment they started submitting themselves in the hands of the parties. Perhaps they were under the illusion that it would be possible to re-exert themselves through the power of the parties in the forthcoming Panchayat elections. This marks the reason for their failure, the reason for backtracking — not exposed earlier but has become clear in this phase of ongoing bloody violence. However, this is not the end, this cannot be the end. People of Nandigram will definitely take lessons from history to revive and restore their unity and struggle.
Friends, CPIM has compelled us to chose between parties — either you are on ‘our’ side or ‘theirs’ which simply means that either you belong to CPIM or to the Trinamul. Are we such powerless, inanimate pawns in the hands of the stinking representatives of the ruling class? No, not at all. CPIM, Trinamul, Congress and the various other horses of the same stable do not represent West Bengal. Within this West Bengal an embryo of a new West Bengal, a new India is gradually emerging from the struggle of the workers, peasants and the toiling masses. A West Bengal of workers and peasants is burgeoning from the fights that are striving to establish an independent and autonomous struggle and organisation by completely detaching from the clutches of the established old parties. The ruling class and CPIM are scared of this spontaneous resistance by the workers and peasants and that is why they are determined to bulldoze these struggles. This explains the continued violence in Nandigram.
Raise your voice of protest against the terror unleashed by the CPIM in connivance with the police and administration. However, it is just not enough to protest against the terror, murders, rapes and inhuman torture. One has to stand for the new socio-political awakening, extend active support towards the emerging struggle and organization of workers and peasants. You will have to be an architect in building your own organization, in your factories or farmlands. Gather strength to fight against each and every onslaught of the ruling class; build up the power to resist. And this is how you can give a fitting reply to the onslaught of violence in Nandigram.
Sramik Sangram Committee
http://strugglesnews.wordpress.com/2008/05/18/fight-against-the-terror-in-nandigram-build-your-own-independent-united-struggle/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
