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Nandigram: Will the CBI report help in nailing culprits?
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First anniversary of Nandigram unrest
Bano Haralu
Thursday, January 03, 2008, (Nandigram)
It is exactly a year since the Nandigram SEZ crisis began and winds of change are cautiously blowing over the fields in Nandigram.
For eleven long months villagers here suffered a siege within as supporters of the CPI (M) and the Trinamool Congress backed Bhumi Uched Pratirodh Committee clashed over the controversial issue of land acquisition for a petro chemical hub. The standoff worsened with the issue turning into turf war for supremacy between the two political parties.
A year later the figure of people killed is still not known but at least 50 people have died and several are still missing. Hundreds have been injured and thousands made homeless for months with a feeling of fear and helplessness.
That is how the people of Nandigram will remember the year gone by. And this is where the first voices of protest against acquiring land for a Special Economic Zone were heard, exactly a year ago.
At a meeting of Kalichandrapur Panchayat, there were rumours that the Haldia Development Authority would announce a land acquisition drive.
Villagers feared their land would be taken away by force. One of the victims in the violence that followed was Rehman's 19-year-old son, a member of the Trinamool Congress-backed Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee.
"My son is no longer with us and I don't want an industry. I don't require one," said Sheikh Fojla Rahman.
In February, the Chief Minister announced no land would be forcibly acquired but by then the damage had been done. And in March police tried to enter Nandigram using force. 14 people were killed in firing after which Nandigram remained on the boil. The administration did nothing to restore calm.
For both the CPM and the Trinamool Congress, the issue turned into a turf war for supremacy. Voices of protest echoed on the streets of Kolkata also in Parliament. A spate of bandhs followed, Nandigram became a national issue.
The Calcutta High court condemned the firing and ordered a CBI probe. And in November when the CPM tried to recapture its lost base four people died in clashes.
But the Chief Minister visited Nandigram only last week, almost a year after trouble first broke out to attend a district level conference of the CPM, where he handed out compensation to the 29 party workers, who were killed last year.
Paramilitary forces are present in the area but the general worry is, what happens after they are gone.
Both the CPM and the Trinamool who have lined up meetings to mark the first anniversary of the violence claim many of their supporters are still missing.
Life is desperately trying to return to normal here in Nandigram as an uneasy calm shadows the shattered peace.
The controversial land acquisition issue was hijacked by an intense political battle for turf between the CPI(M) and the Trinamool Congress, crippling life for an entire year.
It is not difficult to guess what the people here will be longing for in the New Year, peace that will last.
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