Condemn the Massacre at Nandigram!

No justification ever for state terrorism!

The brutal attack and cold blooded killing of men, women, and children in Nandigram on 14th March by the West Bengal Police and private goons of the ruling CPI(M) has torn the ‘progressive’ mask from the face of CPI(M) and the regime it heads in West Bengal. They stand exposed as instruments of the brutal dictatorship of the capitalist class. The CPI(M) has revealed itself as a party of the ruling bourgeois class, which uses the colonial laws and the state machinery to drown the struggle of the people in blood, in order to remain in power and continue to serve the imperialist bourgeoisie.

According to the report of the fact finding team sent by the Kolkata High Court, and corroborated by other independent investigations, it has become clear that the ruling CPI(M) launched a pre-planned massacre of the people of Nandigram on 14th March. According to the allied parties in the ruling coalition in West Bengal, they were kept in the dark about this.

Over 5000 armed personnel attacked men, women and children who had gathered in prayer meetings in a maidan. People were shot at in cold blood with intent to kill, as evident from the bullet wounds. It is reported that women were mutilated, children cut into pieces and dead bodies thrown into the nearby river. It is corroborated by many reports that leaders of CPI(M), including its Member of Parliament from Haldia, led the violent attack on protesters in Nandigram. In some respects, the massacre at Nandigram is reminiscent of the massacre of Sikhs in 1984 in Delhi and the massacre of Muslims in 2002 in Gujarat. It is an act of terror organised by the party in power.

Buddhadev Bhattacharya, Chief Minister of West Bengal, claimed in a statement to the state assembly on 15th March that “the police had to open fire in self-defence”. The basic premise of the justification he offered is that the developments in Nandigram posed a ‘law and order’ problem. The main party leaders of the CPI(M) have all argued that there was a need to “restore the rule of law” in Nandigram. They are acting in the style of the British colonialists and all the Indian bourgeois parties that defend the colonial legacy. They claim that anybody who tries to block the drive of the big capitalists for maximum profit poses a ‘law and order’ problem; and that it is allegedly justified to suppress them with force.

The Chief Minister argued that organized resistance in Nandigram was not justified as his government had not yet made the final decision on land acquisition. Just because people took pre-emptive action, to defend their land from being seized, he claims it was just fine to have sent the police and his party goons to “restore order”.

The nature of the problem in Nandigram is not different from the problems being encountered all over India, wherever the big capitalists are out to grab precious land and are having state governments acting in their interests. There is a clash taking place between the interests of the big capitalists, Indian and international, and the interests of the peasants and other working people whose livelihood is under threat. The CPI(M) is acting in the interests of the capitalists, and claiming that this is in the best interests of all classes! It is branding anyone who opposes this program as an enemy of the industrialisation of West Bengal. It is declaring, in George Bush style, that “either you are with us or you are a terrorist”!

The point is that the question of acquiring cultivable land for industrial use is a problem of economic and political nature. It must therefore be approached in a political manner. It cannot and must not be turned into a ‘law and order’ problem.

The British colonial rulers enacted the Land Acquisition Act to legitimize seizure of land from the peasantry. They too claimed that this was being done for the economic development (meaning plunder) of India. They unleashed brute force to crush anyone who dared to prevent their land from being grabbed by the colonial state.

The CPI(M) led Left Front Government is guilty of resorting to the use of force to deal with a problem of political and economic nature. It is guilty of state terrorism. It is guilty of threatening peasants with forcible alienation of their land, backed by the colonial Land Acquisition Act, and then unleashing brute force against those who blocked the way.

The leaders of CPI(M) are refusing to admit guilt. They are brazenly trying to justify what cannot be justified. They are also trying to create the false notion that the massacre in Nandigram was an ‘aberration’, which is ‘unfortunate’. Nothing can be farther from the truth.

The fascist conduct of the CPI(M) led West Bengal Government is the logical consequence of being a trusted party of the Indian big bourgeoisie, which is on an aggressive imperialist course at this time. The big bourgeoisie entrusts state power in the hands of CPI(M) precisely because it is a party that serves their interests, while deceiving workers and peasants into believing that it works for them. When deception fails to pacify the people, such a party inevitably resorts to brute force to crush their resistance.

The developments in Nandigram and the entire history of CPI (M) rule in West Bengal shows that this party is like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Its leaders say one thing and do the opposite. They keep repeating that no peasants will be deprived of land without their consent, and then unleash brute force against those who do not give their consent. They oppose the SEZ policy of the bourgeoisie wherever they are not in power, and champion the same policy where they are in power.

Most importantly, the developments in Nandigram reveal the fear that the CPI(M) has of the workers and peasants questioning the “law” and ”order” of the bourgeoisie, and taking steps towards deciding their own future. CPI(M) is deadly opposed to the workers and peasants coming to power, and is ever willing to drown the revolutionary struggle of the workers and peasants in rivers of blood. It cannot be trusted by the workers and peasants. This is the lesson of Nandigram.

Those guilty of the Nandigram massacre must be punished. Progressive forces cannot apply one standard to one party and another standard to another party. Those guilty of state terrorism must be punished – no matter to which party they belong and what label they wear.