In the last fortnight, the Chief Minister of West Bengal and other top leaders of CPM have been engaged in a desperate fire-fighting exercise to try and minimize the immense damage done to their reputation by the brutal killings and atrocities on villagers at Nandigram in March. Faced with the shock and horror expressed across the board by all sections of public opinion, including the anguish of many of their own supporters, the CPM leadership has decided to brazen it out in true social-fascist style.

The party has admitted nothing more than that the "regrettable" loss of life may have been due to "police excesses". Meanwhile, the entire propaganda machinery of the CPM is engaged in a high-pitched exercise to paint as black the villagers who fought tooth and nail to resist moves to acquire their land for the planned SEZ. It is the poor and landless peasants like these who have been the backbone of the militant tradition of resisting colonial, feudal and capitalist exploitation and oppression in West Bengal, and of the communist movement there. But now, when their anger is directed against the CPM and its government which have been acting as the capitalists' instrument for the takeover of their land, these same women and men have become villains! It is absurd to hear the "militant communist" leaders of CPM self-righteously charging the peasants of Nandigram with the 'crime' of carrying arms, of "using women as a shield", of "attacking the police", and "violating the rule of law".

Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya is doing his best to convince everyone that the issue is now over and done with, now that he has declared (after the bloodbath) that the planned SEZ will be relocated to some other place in West Bengal, and since his government has "agreed" with the Kolkata High Court order for a CBI inquiry into the violence. Not a word is being said about doing anything for the people who have been grievously hurt or bereaved through the attacks on them, not just in March, but also earlier in January. Not a word is being said about the need to punish those guilty of killing and attacking the people, whether they were policemen or their own party members. The attitude clearly is: those people brought it on themselves, they deserved what happened to them, because they dared to challenge us!

At the same time, great pressure is being brought to bear on those within the communist movement and those sympathetic to it not to pursue their criticism of the West Bengal government and the CPM on the Nandigram issue, in the name of "left unity" and not giving a handle to the enemies of the Left to attack it. This is the most pernicious plank of all. It is not the criticism of the CPM that is bringing discredit to the communist movement, but it is the line and policy of the CPM itself. This line and policy has not just now, but from its inception, been in the service of the reactionary state and social system, even while it has been cloaked in 'leftist' colours. It is this cloak that has now fallen off, revealing the fascism and the defence of bourgeois interests that lies underneath.

No communist, no person of conscience should swallow the blatant falsehoods and slander campaign being orchestrated by the CPM leadership to whitewash their crimes at Nandigram, and pretend that it is now 'business as usual'. The issue is not, as is being made out, only one of which policy to follow to bring "development" to West Bengal. It is a matter of taking a principled and consistent stand of opposition to all forms of state terrorism, no matter where it takes place. It is a matter of ensuring that the guilty are not let off and receive the punishment they deserve. Only such a stand is worthy of those who stand for the human and democratic rights of the workers and peasants and all oppressed people.