On the Reservation for Backward Muslims in West Bengal

Moinul Hassan

8th February, 2010 is going to be regarded as a red letter day in the socio-economic history of West Bengal. On this very day Sri Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, chief minister of West Bengal, announced 10% reservation in the field of job for minority Muslims who remain economically, educationally and socially backward.

What is the government announcement?

Religion cannot be the basis of this reservation. The sole criterion is backwardness. From now on 10% job is reserved for Muslims who remain economically, educationally and socially backward. Already there is 7% reservation for other backward classes which reaches 17% with the addition of this 10%. This privilege is only for those Muslims who have been lagging behind. The leading Muslim population will not be under the ambit of reservations. Muslims having a yearly income of Rs.4.5 lakh or above are out of this reservation. Presently reservation will be provided in the job sector. The questions of providing reservations for backward Muslims in education are being discussed and will be finalised later.

What is the process for the identification of the backward Muslims? A commission has been working in West Bengal on this regard. After receiving application from relevant person the commission will investigate the case, summon the applicant as witness, visit the area if needed and will take the decision. 12 sections of Muslims are already in the O.B.C. list. 3/4 new sections are going to be included. Another 10/12 new applications are with the commission for consideration. Our honourable Chief Minister has declared to accelerate the total process.

The total process will consist of three stages. Firstly, identifying the backward section; secondly keeping aside the rich section among them whose yearly income is Rs.4.5 lakh or above; thirdly supplying the identified persons with certificates by the respective Govt. office at the earliest.

What will be the process of implementation? Whether it will be through a bill in the assembly or by an ordinance or by an administrative order—that will be finalised later after thorough observation. The Chief Minister himself has announced the formation of a committee that will look upon the entire situation Representatives from the state Minority Development, OBC Welfare Department and two commissions—Minority Commission and West Bengal Commission for Backward Classes would be engaged in this matter.

Who will benefit?

Muslim population in West Bengal is more than 2 crore. In percentage it is 25. 8.3% of the total Muslim population belong to the OBC list which numbers 16 lacs 38 thousand. In this state the OBC list comprises of 66 communities which include both Hindus and Muslims. Among them 12 communities are Muslim. These are – Jola, Fakir, Hawari, Dhuniya, Kasai, Nasya Sekh, Paharia Muslim, Sershabadi, Bayan, Hazam Choudhury and Pratidar. Apart from these applications from Khotta, Sardar, Beshdar are also under consideration. The number of ‘Khotta’s is greater in Murshidabad and Maldah amounting to about 10 lakhs. The number of these later three communities are as high as 10.5 lakh. In addition to these hearing is going on the basis of prayers from Mahaldar, Abdal, Basni and Kankhalifa. Presently, the number of persons who might be included in the OBC List other than those who already belong to the List is already 12-15 lakh. Apart from this there is a chance of three more communities to be included in the list.

A few examples in this case might be helpful. There is a community among Muslims named ‘Guri.’ Theyare basically fishermen.. Actually they are called so because they catch tiny (Guro) fishes. In my village only, there was a ‘Guripara’. Berhampore has a road named Gurimahal Road. Non-Muslims who catch fish enjoy reservations as schedule castes. The question is that why the Muslims doing the same work will be left out of reservation? In my village only, there was ‘Kolupara’. The Kolus make oil that means they produce mustard oil in wooden machine using cattle power. The number of Muslim ‘Patuas’ can not be neglected. They live in Midnapore and are inside reservation. But ‘Lodha’ Muslims in that same Midnapore are not under the ambit of reservation. The ‘Lodhas’ live on primitive hunting system and their behavior – custom are almost like tirbals but they are Muslims in their religious belief. In Midnapore there are also the ‘Kelas’ and ‘Kherias’ who have many things in common with the Hindu tribes. As Hindu the tribes are enjoying reservation but ‘Kherias’ miss it only on the ground of being Muslims. There is the ‘Ghoshi’ community in Barrackpore and Kharagpur who once came there from North India. They raise animals. ‘Tantias’ live at different places in Midnapore. They are connected with sericulture. There is a community named ‘Dhakuri’ at Amdanga a place very near to Kolkata. They are very few in number and very poor in status. They recycle old clothes by making ‘Dhokra’ (heavy bedspread). There is a community called ‘Penchi’ at Aurangabad in Murshidabad. Their number is considerable. Some Muslims earn their livelihood as cobblers. Hindu cobblers are inside the periphery of reservation but Muslim cobblers are left out of it.

These are the specific reasons for expansion of the OBC list. Presently there are 66 communities. The number will increase. When any community applies for inclusion in the OBC list, a hearing is taken to determine its status. The commission can also take initiative to do so. Today, some people question that number of applicants in this case will not be of a substantial amount and thus will include a negligible portion of the two crore Muslim population. But the reality is different. If all the backward Muslims are enlisted accordingly to the Chief Ministers announcement then the number will not be a small one. In this connection I am going to use some words of Dr. B.R.Ambedkar – Someone will get the advantage of reservation and some others will not as they have different worshipping process, it cannot be so. That means reservation is to be done on the basis of profession. If a fisherman or a cobbler gets the privilege of reservation, it will be so because he is a fisherman or a cobbler by profession, not that he is a Hindu or a Muslim.

The Perspective of Reservation

The first and foremost perspective for reservation is the constitution of India. The constitution makes it very clear that religion cannot be the basis for providing reservations as far as education and job are concerned. This very belief is the manifestation of modern society. Expansion and strengthening of this value stands to be one of the main pillars of modern state polity. But some questions still remain unanswered – what will happen to them who are socio-economically backward due to various historical reasons? The Constitution itself provides the answer.” “Nothing in this article or in clause (2) of article 29 shall prevent the state from making any special provision for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes. “– [Art. 15(4)] It is again stated “Nothing in this article shall prevent the state from making any provision of appointments or posts in favour of any backward class of citizens which, in the opinion of the state is not adequately represented in the services under the state.” – [Art. 16(4)]. I would like to present the relevance of article 29(2) in this case, – “No citizens shall be denied admission into any educational institution maintained by the state or receiving aid out of state funds on grounds only of religion, race, caste, language or any of them.” So it is clear that the Constitution provides enough imperative to the subject of reservation for economic, educational and social backward classes. The second cause is the actual situation of Muslims. A careful observation of the Indian Muslims clearly reveals the intensity of their backwardness. However this backwardness varies from states to states. Rich cultural diversities are integral part of the concept of India. It has many different languages and opinions and as far as the concentration of Muslims habitats is concerned those remains to be scattered regionally. The socio-economic status of Muslims in West Bengal and Kerala varies. But this is a fact that the Muslims overall could not achieve equality as far as job and education is concerned. One cannot find Muslims in sectors like banking service and private educational institutions. Muslims are lagging behind in getting govt. loans. A ‘Fearless’ Bengali Daily has brought out its editorial column ridiculing the CM’s declaration about reservation. It is titled as ‘Love for Interest’. If I humbly ask, how many Muslims work in that particular daily, I am sure of receiving a number which will be microscopic.. The practical situation of today has become the prime force behind reservation. Although it cannot be denied that mere reservation can never be the gateway of development – political and social honesty is needed. If it is not there all facilities are going to leak out through the gaps of law.

A third reason behind reservation is the report of Justice Ranganath Mishra Commission. In 2004 a national commission was constituted under Justice Ranganath Mishra to identify the socially and economically backward people among religious and linguistic minorities. The commission was meant to recommend about the reservation and other development-oriented matters in the fields of job and education for this portion of the Indian citizens. The commission submitted its report to the Prime Minister in 2007. After that no proceedings and movements were seen in this regard. The leftists repeatedly pressurized to bring out the report before the Parliament. Some part of the report got leaked and was published in the Hindu newspaper. Later it was produced in the winter session of the Parliament in December, 2009. The commission has given suggestion on many issues like education, job, administration and legislative system. I am not going very deeply in this matter. Our friend comrade Sk. Saidul Haque has already discussed it on the pages of Ganashakti. I am going to mention the job oriented matter. The recommendations are made considering the 16(4) of the Constitution. While the recommendations were made, the provisions of article 16(4) were kept in mind. I have mentioned about the article earlier. Two recommendations are made. Firstly, 15% post in every Central and State Government department must be reserved for minorities. 10% would be for Muslims and 5% would be for other minorities. If Muslim candidates are not found for the above mentioned 10% posts, then those would be filled with candidate from other minority communities. By any means it must not be done with candidate from the majority part. Secondly, if it becomes a judicial deadlock with the situation which cannot be avoided, the recommendation is that among the total population of other backward classer 8.4% is minority. For that reason from the total 27% reservation for OBC’s 8.4% seat must be kept aside for minorities. This 8.4% would be divided into two parts – 6% for Muslims and 2.4% for other minorities.

Two things are also attached with this issue. One is that in the 3rd paragraph of 1950’sdirective principles of the Constitution, only the backward part of Hindu population was considered and they were recognized as Scheduled Caste. Sikhs and Buddhists were included later. It was done clearly on religious basis. Muslims, Christians and Parsees were not included and the reason behind that was an also religious consideration. Then how does reservation remain a secular process. The commission justly recommended abolishing the directive principles of the Constitution of 1950’s. The recognition of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes should be done secularly. That means, the manner in which a portion of the Hindu population namely Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are given recognition and reservation, Muslims and other minorities should also be given the same privilege of reservation like them.

The Chief Minister of our state welcomed the Justice Ranganath Mishra Commission’s Report on the very next day of its submission to the parliament. West Bengal Government has taken the recommendation and started to work on this matter not bothering about what the Central Government wants to do with the report or about the ‘Action Taken Report’ which has to deliver. The commitment of Left Front Government for the all round development of minorities has been proved once again.

SOME OTHER CONTEXTS

Leftists do not support reservation based upon religion. The Constitution of the country also carries the same essence. But for the upliftment of the backward classes the left has been constantly waging struggles in and out of the parliament and will also continue to do so as far as the fight for ensuring social justice are concerned. But to our greatest surprise we are watching those people are making the highest form of opposition who till yesterday believed reservation to be the only solution for upliftment of the minorities. The basic reason behind this has been envy of the ugliest order. They are actually scared about the reality. They are realizing that their existence will be at stake. The so called movements they were spearheading will now be blunt. The Left Front Government has excluded the ‘creamy layer’ from the ambit of reservation. Two or three days back a traditional organization of Muslims (led by incompetent leaders) has suddenly come up with a war cry-“we want reservations for all Muslims”. The Ranganath Mishra Commission however, has suggested for the exclusion of the creamy layer. If owners of Pataka Industries, Howrah Biri or Wipro start demanding reservations it is going to be an absurd thing. Alas! Many people are forgetting that a minimum level of common sense is required even when you are blindly opposing something. The Left Front Government is committed to ensure the forward march of backward Muslims. The commitment is not only limited to the sphere of providing jobs; it also covers the basic and important questions of expansion of modern scientific education. The entire process is integrally associated with the overall development of West Bengal. And the present decisions of the Government will be recognized in that very spirit.

West Bengal LF Govt’s 10 % Reservation for Muslims

Affirmative Action Must Be Welcomed

THE decision of the Left Front government in West Bengal to give a reservation of 10 per cent in government jobs for socially and educationally backward Muslims announced by the Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, is predictably being dismissed cynically as an election gimmick by the Congress party which cannot afford to openly oppose this move. It is, as expected, outrightly denounced by the communal outfits particularly their political arm, the BJP.

The decision of the West Bengal government is based on the recommendations of Justice Ranganath Mishra Commission established on October 23, 2004 to recommend measures for the welfare of religious and linguistic minorities in the country. The CPI(M) had broadly welcomed the Commission and its recommendations.

Though the Commission submitted its report to the prime minister in May 2007, it was tabled in the parliament only in December, 2009. The Congress party's prevarication on this issue is clearly established by this delay. The UPA-2 government is yet to come with an action taken report on these recommendations. It is the normal practice that any report of a Commission constituted by the government of India must be brought to the parliament alongwith an action taken report. This lapse, hopefully, should be corrected in the forthcoming budget session. Only then will the country and the people know how the government intends to implement the recommendations of the Commission.

The Ranganath Mishra Commission, amongst others, recommended that the criteria for identifying backward classes should be uniform without any discrimination between the majority community and the religious and linguistic minorities. It, therefore, suggested that the criteria now applied to determine the OBC status amongst the majority community must be unreservedly applied also to all the minorities. It is in this light that the Commission has recommended reservations to the religious minorities on the lines of the OBC reservation. It has recommended 15 per cent reservation in employment under the central and state governments on this basis. Within this 15 per cent, 10 per cent is earmarked for the Muslim minorities commensurate with their 73 per cent share in the total minority population at the national level. The rest, ie, 5 per cent, must be earmarked for other minorities.

It is on the basis of this recommendation that the West Bengal government has announced its decision. These recommendations are in tune with Article 16 (4) of the Indian constitution which states: “Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making any provision for the reservation of appointments or posts in favour of any backward class of citizens which, in the opinion of the State, is not adequately represented in the services under the State.”

The acceptance of the Ranganath Mishra Commission recommendations will necessarily take the percentage of reservations beyond the 50 per cent ceiling set by the Supreme Court. Since the reservations for the SC/STs and the OBCs at the state level are based on their proportion of population, in some states, the full quota of 27 per cent for the OBCs has not been utilised. West Bengal is one such state where currently there is only a 7 per cent reservation of seats for the OBCS based on those identified as backward classes and their proportion in the state's population. With the current decision, the percentage of reservations under the OBC category will increase to 17 per cent with 10 per cent of this being earmarked for the backward Muslims.

Amongst all other recommendations of the Commission, reservation for backward Muslims was first chosen as they comprise 25 per cent of Bengal's population. Further, in keeping with the longstanding understanding of the CPI(M), the creamy layer will not benefit from this reservation. The West Bengal government has announced that the families with an annual income of Rs 4. 5 lakh or more cannot avail of this.

Inclusion of backward Muslim sub-groups in the state's OBC list is nothing new in West Bengal. At present, there are 12 Muslim sub-groups in the OBC list representing 16.83 lakh people. The state government has now identified another 37 Muslim sub-groups. All these categories come under the category of backward Muslims as identified by the Sachar Committee report. These are the Ajlaf and Arzal categories. The West Bengal proposal excludes the advanced Ashrafs who are considered as the creamy layer amongst the Muslims. The state government has announced the setting up of a committee to identify and firm up the inclusion of sub-groups under the OBC category in order to ensure that the benefits reach those who most deserve.

Ignoring this reality of backward Muslim sub-groups already being part of the state's OBC list, the BJP has, once again, mounted its communal offensive by charging the CPI(M) and the Left Front of appeasing the Muslims. Their anti-minority stance and the vituperative communal poison that they spread is too well known to need any repetition here. Such rabid communal politics is, in fact, the worst expression of vote bank politics in our country which seeks to consolidate the Hindu vote bank based on spreading hatred against the religious minorities. While thundering that reservations cannot be based on religion, they conveniently forget that they continuously promote and defend reservations for the Scheduled Castes and the OBCs strictly within the Hindu religious fold only. It is precisely this logic that the Ranganath Mishra Commission has busted by saying that the criteria for identification of backwardness must be uniform across religions.

The Congress party first needs to explain to the people its procrastination on this report for so long before mounting attacks against the CPI(M) for implementing what is widely recognised today as necessary for the integration of the minorities into the process of building of modern India.

The yardstick of any modern democracy in measuring its success is the status and welfare of the smallest of minorities. The efficacy of any government in a modern democracy is to be measured by its success in ensuring equality of opportunity to all accompanied by proactive measures of affirmative action to bridge the gaps of social and economic inequality. The West Bengal government's decision is correct from this perspective and thus deserves to be welcomed by all Indian secular democrats and patriots.

EDITORIAL,
PEOPLE’S DEMOCRACY
14th February, 2010

Maoism at Its Nadir:The Killings in Bengal

By VIJAY PRASHAD

Violence in West Bengal’s western districts has reached crisis proportions. Each day, one or more cadre member or sympathizer of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPM] is killed either by Maoists or the Trinamul Congress (TMC). The Maoists have found common cause with the TMC, a breakaway from the Congress Party in Bengal. Mamata Banerjee, whose authoritarian populism draws from both Juan and Evita Peron, leads the TMC. Backed by the dominant class, Banerjee nonetheless drapes herself in mystical radicalism (didi, or sister, as she is known, becomes durga, the embodiment of shakti, female power). In October 2009, the Maoists declared that they would rather have Banerjee’s right-wing TMC rule Bengal than the Left Front.

The Maoists-TMC has now killed over two hundred people since late 2007 (most are members and supporters of the CPM, with just a few being members of other political parties that are either in the Left Front or else affiliated with it). Ordinary political workers are beheaded and burnt, shot in the head and raped. In early January, Maoists entered the village of Joynagar and killed four CPM supporters; they beheaded two of them, Anath Singh and Hiteshwar Singh, sons of Gopal Singh who the Maoists killed in 2007. Ten days later, TMC members attacked a group of CPM supporters who had just filed their nomination papers for a local election. Dinesh Haldar, Khairul Jamadar, Biswanath Gayen and Salim Jamadar were killed, two of them with revolvers fired into their mouths. These monstrous acts are ongoing, and systematic.

Defenders of the Maoists suggest that the guerrillas only channel the anger of the poor, that this is the politics of rage against a system that has not delivered any goods. In the midst of this bloodbath, the writer Arundhati Roy told IBN-CNN’s Karan Thapar that the Maoists are justified in their armed path. “You have an army of very poor people being faced down by an army of rich that are corporate-backed,” she said. The suggestion is that the Maoists are the army of and for the poor, whose actions are motivated by the failure of the Indian State to deliver on its Constitutional promises. But this is not only simplistic; it is also disingenuous.

About half of India’s population falls into the World Bank’s category of poverty; that’s about 500 million people. Most of them have grievances and aspirations, but these do not lead them to the gun. The poor can be found in one of the many political organizations that seek to widen and deepen the current legal dispensation in India, fighting for the rights of the people through the courts and in the streets. Or else, the poor can be found in and around the NGOs and social service agencies that serve their needs; as well, the poor can be found in one of the many Rural Employment Guarantee schemes set up by the government. The Indian government’s obsession with growth rates for the wealthy diverts the nation’s wealth away from the workers who produce it. Anger and frustration at the system does not necessarily turn to anomic violence of the kind practiced by the Maoists and the TMC in western Bengal.

Poverty does not lead to Maoism. It certainly contributes to it, but it does not produce it. What produces Maoism is the act of making political violence legitimate (even glorifying it). Rather than make the case that there is space within the (however limited) democratic institutions, people like Arundhati Roy trumpet the armed road. Patient work through the democratic institutions produced the important developments for the Dalit [oppressed caste] movement and the working-class movement. For example, Reservations for underprivileged castes did not come from the armed struggle. It was a direct beneficiary of the use of the democratic institutions. The gun is an anthem for the deracinated middle class romantic, but not the glory song for the dispossessed, for whom only suffering comes at the gun’s mouth. It is the dispossessed who die in these armed struggles, both from the guns of the revolutionaries and those of the State.

In South Asia, the recent examples of organizations that thrive on the cult of violence include the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA). The Maoists glorify both of these groups – they have recently procured the arms that ULFA was to send to LTTE. When the Sri Lankan army killed LTTE’s leader Prabhakaran, the Maoist leadership conducted a strike on his behalf (when the LTTE was decimated in Sri Lanka, the Indian Maoists claimed that this would have “a negative effect on the revolutionary movement in India as well as South Asia and the world at large”). To glorify violence, as the Maoists do, does not open the kind of political space necessary for the end to the poverty-making machine that has afflicted many parts of rural India. Their slogan is borrowed from the Italian ultra-left, ni mai piú sin fucile, Never Again Without a Rifle.

The Maoists have taken advantage of poverty, but they have nothing to offer by way of a salve. In the largely tribal areas of interior India, the various extractive mafias are at work drawing out the wealth of the region and providing little for the residents. Raw materials of all kinds, from timber to dolomite, routinely leave the tribal zone with little recompense for the people themselves. The Maoists have entered this highly exploitative and oppressive situation with no plans to immediately assist the grievances of the various tribal communities. Indian Maoist leader Koteshwar Rao (Kishenji) told the press, “We collect taxes from the corporates and big bourgeoisie, but it’s not any different from the corporate sector funding the political parties.” The mafias continue to operate; indeed the extortion payments to the Maoists give them permission to work with license. One estimate suggests that the Maoists make off with Rs. 20,000 million per year, money used, among other things, for the purchase of arms.

If the government attempts to provide any sops toward development (such as schools and medical centers), the Maoists simply blow them up (this is clearly documented by Human Rights Watch in Sabotaged Schooling. Naxalite Attacks and Police Occupation of Schools in India’s Bihar and Jharkhand States, December 2009). It is to their interest to allow matters to remain in stasis within the “liberated zones.” It is specious to talk of the Maoists as liberators: they are infected with the virus of extortion and power.

This brings us back to a central unasked question: why are the CPM members and supporters the target of the Maoist-TMC violence in Bengal? The Maoists and their TMC allies do not kill the mafia, for that is their cash cow. Nor do they turn their guns on local landowners or dominant classes. In Bengal, they reserve their ammunition for schoolteachers and agricultural workers, workers in the mines and workers in the panchayats [institutions of local self-government]; all of whom have one thing in common, an affiliation of some kind in the Communist Party of India (Marxist). This assault on the CPM is not new. In 1983, journalist Praful Bidwai wrote, “Often the affirmation of the revolutionary identity of naxalism [Indian Maoism] means singling out the CPM and the CPI for an onslaught because, according to their theory, those parties can be nothing but obstacles to the popular movement,” viz. the growth of the Maoist parties, which stand in for a genuine mass movement. “The anti-CPM and CPI aspect of naxalism is not new. The point is that it has become increasingly more important over the recent past as the naxalite survival has been threatened.” The Maoists do not fear for their survival any longer; rather, they want to use the weapon of violence in Bengal to enter into a state where they have had limited traction.

The Maoist-TMC conduct most of their assassination and political terror in the region of the Jhargram parliamentary constituency. This is a constituency reserved for tribal candidates. In 2009, the CPM and its Left Front allies suffered a setback across West Bengal during the parliamentary elections. Jhargram was another story. Here, the CPM’s Pulin Behari Baske won the election by almost 60 per cent of the vote. One reason Baske won is that the region’s tribals have been a beneficiary of the long struggle for land reforms spearheaded by the CPM and its Left Front allies. This is not a prosperous region, but it is nothing like the devastated areas in Central India where the Maoists have established themselves. Unable to secure a political victory, the Maoists-TMC has turned to the gun. They assassinate the CPM workers and supporters to terrorize the population against the Left Front.

Vijay Prashad is the George and Martha Kellner Chair of South Asian History and Director of International Studies at Trinity College. His most recent book, The Darker Nations, won the Muzaffar Ahmed Book Prize in 2009, and is now available in French as Les Nations Obscures(Les Editions Écosociété). He is an editor of Naked Punch. He can be reached at vijay.prashad@trincoll.edu.

Weekend Edition

COUNTERPUNCH, January 22 - 24, 2010

POLITICS OF TERROR IN WEST BENGAL

Defeat This Diabolical Agenda

13th January, 2010: AS we go to press, a massive peaceful bandh is being observed in the South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal at the call of the Left Front in protest against the gruesome killing of four CPI(M) activists in Narayanpur on January 11, 2010 (details are carried in the Polit Bureau statement). All the seven others grievously injured are currently battling for their life in a critical condition. The politics of terror unleashed by the Trinamul Congress continues to claim the lives of CPI(M) activists and other progressive elements in the state.

While Trinamul Congress is unleashing this politics of terror in its aim to capture power in the state, it is continuing to provide patronage and cover to the Maoists, who, in turn, continue their rampage against CPI(M) activists. Since the Lok Sabha elections, nearly 200 CPI(M) leaders and activists have been martyred by these TMC and Maoist marauders acting in concert. In the districts of West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia, the Maoists are continuing to target the CPI(M). On January 7, Haren Baske, a member of the Jhilimili CPI(M) local committee, was murdered by the Maoists in Bankura district. Earlier, Rameshwar Murmu, branch secretary of Bhuladara was shot dead on December 25, 2009. Three days later, on December 28, Comrade Kalidas Hembram was hacked to death. In the neighbouring Purulia district, CPI(M) leader Dhanu Rajak, local committee secretary in the Dhadka village was shot dead on January 9.

In the meanwhile, police operations in the Lalgarh area have yielded a large haul of weapons that had been amassed by the Maoists in the past for their murderous attacks on the CPI(M). The joint operations by the centre and the state government against the Maoists had to be reduced due to the elections to the state assembly in Jharkhand where the central forces were deployed. With these now completed, central and the state forces have now re-launched the operations.

This has earned a sharp rebuke from the TMC supremo. Confirming the connection between the TMC and the Maoists and, in a way, also confirming that the TMC had patronised and facilitated the entry of the Maoists into West Bengal in order to use the terror that they unleash to facilitate the TMC's electoral fortunes, Ms. Mamata Banerjee came out strongly against the central government and the union home minister. On January 9, she said: “The centre has surrendered to the CPI(M) by agreeing to launch the anti-Maoist offensive by the joint forces”. She went on to accuse the centre of “surrendering to the CPI(M)” by sending central forces to Lalgarh. She went to the extent of announcing an agitation to highlight the “ineffectiveness” of anti-Maoist offensive.

Once again, the TMC, in its urge to reap electoral benefit in West Bengal, is openly protecting and facilitating Maoist terror and violence in the state. This is a stand that runs into direct contradiction with the prime minister and the union home minister's repeated articulation that Maoist violence constitutes the gravest threat to India's internal security. How can the Congress continue with this untenable situation of having TMC members in the very same cabinet presided over by prime minister? This is a question whose answer the country and the people need to know.

In a brazen display of anti-democratic attitude, the central ministers belonging to the TMC continue to boycott public functions where the chief minister and other ministers of West Bengal are present. This is, in fact, anti-constitutional. The Indian constitution provides for legitimate authority to both the central and state governments and in the discharge of their responsibilities, the central ministers are bound to interact with the state government and its ministers. The railway minister has announced that she will be boycotting two important functions – the 150th anniversary of St. Xavier's College and a union culture ministry function at the Science City Auditorium – that the prime minister will be attending in Kolkata on January 16 since the state chief minister will also be present.

Such brazen anti-democratic stance coupled with the politics of terror, in their desperate bid to capture power in the state, is leading to situation where innocent people suffer and innocent life consumed. On January 9, a blazing fire broke out at noon in a slum of 450 shanties on railway land (as claimed by the railway minister) in Ultadanga in Kolkata. The TMC had called for a bandh that afternoon from 2 pm. Despite the raging fire that destroyed all the shanties and claimed one life, the TMC refused to allow the fire engines to reach the spot to protect the life and property of the slum dwellers. Such is their concern for the poor! Speculation is rife that there is more in this incident than that which meets the eye. A few days earlier, railway officials had conducted a survey exploring the possibilities for constructing a multi-purpose complex on this land as a follow-up of the fanciful announcement made in the railway budget. This fire and the Trinamul Congress's bandh preventing the fire engines from protecting the shanties has made the task much easier for the railway authorities, who, otherwise would have had to make a great deal of effort for clearing the slum. Only time will tell the truth.

As 2010 begins, these developments are, indeed, very ominous signs not only for West Bengal but for the very democratic polity in our country. Such cynical and anti-human methods of unleashing terror, violence and callousness in the pursuit of electoral benefits is not only irresponsible but gravely injurious to the health of Indian democracy and democratic institutions. The people of Bengal had, four decades ago, courageously faced and defeated such anti-democratic anarchic forces and the politics of terror unleashed by an earlier avatar of the Maoists – the naxalites. The people of Bengal had to pay a very heavy price. Unfortunately, Bengal is being pushed into such a direction, once again! For the sake of protecting and strengthening Indian democracy and social harmony, such a diabolical agenda should not be allowed to succeed.

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) issued the following statement on January 12, 2010:

THE Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) strongly condemns the killing of four CPI(M) activists in Narayanpur under the Canning police station of South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal.

In a dastardly incident anti-social and criminal elements of the Trinamul Congress launched a murderous assault on a peaceful and unarmed group of CPI(M) supporters who were returning after filing nomination papers for the elections to the managing committee of a local madrasa. CPI(M) activists Dinesh Haldar, Khairul Jamadar, Biswanath Gayen and Salim Jamadar were killed on the spot. The gruesome nature of the killings is revealed by the fact that two of them were killed after being fired with the revolver placed inside their mouths. Seven other CPI(M) activists were grievously injured in the attack and are in critical condition and are fighting for their lives.

This incident shows the extent of violence that is being unleashed against the CPI(M) and the Left in West Bengal while the Trinamul Congress and its leader Mamata Banerjee campaigns that there is no law and order in the state of West Bengal. The CPI(M) along with other Left parties had earlier presented a memorandum to the prime minister listing out the more than 150 CPI(M) leaders and activists who had been killed by the opposition since the Lok Sabha election results. Hardly a day passes in Junglemahal area especially in West Midnapur district when CPI(M) activists are not killed by Maoist marauders. In the rest of the state it is the Trinamul which carries on the campaign of violence.

Yesterday's incident is a major development in this continued spree of violence. The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) calls upon all peace loving people in West Bengal and elsewhere in the country to join in condemnation of these murders. The PB calls upon all its Party units to redouble their efforts in expressing solidarity with the struggle for defence of peace and democracy that the CPI(M) and the Left is conducting in such trying circumstances in West Bengal.

PEOPLE'S DEMOCRACY

In Defence of the Struggle for Democracy in West Bengal

AIKS CONFERENCE RESOLUTION

THE 32nd conference of All India Kisan Sabha condemns the semi-fascist attack on Left and democratic forces and the Left Front government of West Bengal let loose by the Trinamool Congress-led alliance of reactionary forces, comprising extreme rightists and pseudo-Left terrorists, that is, the self-styled Maoists. Between May 16, 2006, i.e., after the Left Front government was returned to office with well above three-fourths majority for a seventh consecutive term, and January 10, 2010, 371 comrades have been killed. Of them, 146 were murdered after the last parliamentary elections. A large number of them are from the poorest and socially deprived sections. Of these victims, 28 are tribal comrades, 42 OBCs and scheduled castes and 22 are from the Muslim minority community. Thousands of Left Front supporters were forced to leave their villages, their houses torched to ashes or demolished to dust. Hundreds of sharecroppers and patta holders were evicted from their lands and even peasants were forced to transfer their rayyati land free of cost by means of registered deeds with the stamp duties paid from their own pockets.

It may be recalled that these attacks started from Nandigram and then Singur, followed by the so-called mass resistance against police atrocities in Lalgarh. According to the twisted reasoning of these criminals, to plant mines designed to carry out the “death penalty” against the chief minister is “democratic” and attempts to apprehend these criminals is “anti-democratic.” They received overt and covert support from the hired hands of the right wing bourgeois media and from assorted self-styled “intellectuals.” The demand of the TMC chief and union railway minister that president’s rule be promulgated by invoking article 356 in West Bengal and for withdrawal of central paramilitary forces from Lalgarh is designed to make it a liberated zone for Kishanji alias Koteswar Rao and his mercenaries. “Kishanji” himself is not ashamed to take the name of Mao Zedong and then ask people to boycott elections in which they want the TMC supremo to get elected and become the chief minister of West Bengal. For her part, the railway minister, like her double-speaking counterparts among her “Maoist” allies, refuses to recognise the Maoist hand in blowing up railway lines and stations. Although the prime minister and the union home minister have declared that they consider the Maoists to be the single biggest threat to internal security, responsible for around 4,000 killings in the last five years, they do not, of course, utter a word against their new-found ally in the UPA-2 government. They kept such silence in order to get rid of their dependence on the Left during the UPA-1 government, a dependence that was much to the dislike of their imperialist mentor and strategic partner in Washington.

The union home minister has, of late, written a long letter to express his dismay in public at the “inability” of the chief minister of West Bengal to contain the insurgency in Lalgarh. Where the TMC or their past allies are not a major force, his partymen in West Bengal in some districts have themselves joined the killing spree directed against Left Front workers. The TMC has also joined hands and gone for electoral alliance with the separatist forces in Darjeeling and the Kamtapuris in the districts of North Bengal.

Such are the diabolical designs of this unprincipled alliance. However, as history has proved time and again, these allies have contradictions among themselves and their alliance therefore cannot be a permanent phenomenon. Fissures have already started appearing here and there.

The AIKS takes pride in the fact that it is the Kisan Sabha that has made most of the sacrifices in the brave mass resistance put up by its West Bengal detachment. It has done so along with its fraternal mass organisations and the Left and democratic forces by organising movements and struggles and mobilising millions of peasants under its banner.

The 32nd conference also takes note of the fact that it is the mighty movement of the peasantry and the political will of the Left Front government that has made it possible to distribute 1.97 lakh acres of land among 1.76 lakh tribal families in West Medinipur district. This district alone accounts for about half of the martyrs in the state in the post-Lok Sabha election period. The Left Front won all the parliament seats in the three districts bordering Jharkhand, which has been the main target of attack. In the Jhargram parliamentary seat, the main focus of attack, the CPI(M) candidate won over 59 per cent of the votes, and won in all assembly segments with massive margins, including the Binpur assembly constituency, in which Lalgarh is located.

The 32nd conference of the AIKS, which is being held in the land of the mightiest movement of peasantry in the country, resolves to extend its solidarity and all possible support to the heroic struggle of the peasantry and all democratic forces in West Bengal against the heinous attacks of the reactionary combine. The AIKS resolves to take up a countrywide campaign in February 2010 to mobilise the working masses and all democratic and patriotic forces in defence of this advanced outpost of democracy in order that democracy, secularism, national integration, self reliance and sovereignty of our country are defended at all costs. This conference firmly believes that, as in the seventies of the last century --- when the semi-fascist terror in West Bengal culminated in the proclamation of Emergency all over the country --- reaction will not have the final say. It is the movement of the working people and democratic forces that will become victorious, in the battle for democracy, and emerge ever stronger than before.

An Exercise in Malice and Slander

By Sakshi Sen

D BANDYOPADHYAY, a former secretary of revenue and erstwhile secretary of rural development in the government of India, fills an entire article with slander in a recent piece titled, "Citizens Beware! Killer Convicts at Large!" in the Mainstream magazine dated December 4-10, 2009. What is surprising is that there is total lack of editorial due diligence in publishing this malicious piece written by the former bureaucrat, whose motive is clear - demonising serving ministers and senior leaders of the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) - CPI(M) in West Bengal. The context that provides the author to make such a willful character assassination and deliberate falsification of facts is the Sainbari incident in March 1970, where two brothers - sympathisers of the Congress party were killed.

These murders were made the pretext to falsely implicate the entire leadership of the CPI(M) in Burdwan district. It must be noted that this was done when West Bengal was under President's rule and the Congress party was going all out to target the CPI(M) and its cadres.

A SPURIOUS PREMISE

The premise of Bandyopadhyay's article is that 17 of the miscreants who were responsible for the murder of the Sain brothers - the author does not care to mention their names - Pronob and Moloy Sain - were named as "accused" and eight of them, were "convicted" and life imprisonment was imposed upon them by the District and Sessions Judge of Burdwan in 1971. Of the eight thus convicted- he names Benoy Konar (who is current Central Committee member of the CPI[M]), Politburo Member and West Bengal industries minister Nirupam Sen, Manik Roy (mentioned as "absconding"), Amal Haldar and Paltoo Bandyopadhyay.

Bandyopadhyay also asserts that the "convicts went on appeal before the Calcutta High Court twice. On both occasions their appeal was rejected." He then goes on to say that the convicts did not "curiously" prefer to appeal before the Supreme Court and instead "waited for an opportunity to get them out of the prison by foul means". Later, when the CPI(M) came to power, "all the convicts of the Sai murder case were released on "parole"". Bandyopadhyay's premise is that the "convicts" were released on "parole" by political means, after getting to "power". He then makes a further assertion that the "records of the case" were "pilfered" from the "archives of the Calcutta High Court through their [the CPI(M)'s] committed members of the "Coordination Committee" among the employees of the High Court".

Thus framing his case for the article's headline that "killer convicts are at large", Bandyopadhyay then goes on to construct an elaborate pack of cards bringing the Singur and Nandigram "incidents" into the picture as he makes scurrilous after scandalous claim about the persons in question.

HOW THE PREMISE IS FALSE

A cursory look at the facts at hand would be enough to dismiss Bandyopadhyay's entire article as a pack of lies, wrapped in a monument of malice intended to deliberately attack whom he perceives as his political enemy (Bandyopadhyay's current political inclinations are well known - he is an advisor to the maverick and obstructionist Trinamul Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee).

Firstly, Bandyopadhyay gets it wrong about the procedural cases since the incident. As the case order of the "State v Ajit Mukherjee and 83 others" also known as the "Sainbari case" in the court of the 3rd Additional Sessions Judge (Shri R K Kar), Alipore points out clearly –

"On 17.3.70 at 12:30 PM, one Dilip Kumar Bhattacharya lodged an FIR at Burdwan Police Station...".

"On the basis of the said FIR the Burdwan Police Station started P.S Case no 50 dt. 17.3.70 and took up investigation of the case. After completion of the investigation the police submitted a chargesheet against 111 persons on 8.2.71 under various sections of the Penal code including sections 148, 149/302 and 149/436 I.P.C. before the S.D.J.M Burdwan. "..

"the accd. persons made a prayer before the Sessions Judge, Burdwan for the transfer of the case outside the Burdwan town".

"The ld. Sessions judge rejected the prayer of the accd. persons and so they moved the Hon'ble High Court. On 21.2.71 the Hon'ble High Court transferred the case to Alipore and the S.D.J.M Alipore commited the case to the court of Sessions on 13.6.74."

"Charges were framed against the accd. persons on 13.8.77 and on 20.9.77, the ld. Public Prosecutor filed an application u/s 321 Cr.P.C seeking the court's consent for withdrawal from the prosecution of the accd. persons".

The order in the "State vs Ajit Mukherjee and 83 others case" - passed by the Third Court of Additional Sessions Judge, Alipore dated 30 September 1977 and another dated 6 May 1978 - eventually acquitted the 83 accused persons from the charges framed against them. But we are going ahead of the story. As the case records points out, the Bandyopadhyay claim that "eight" of the "17 accused" were convicted and "life imprisonment" was imposed upon them is a fairy tale. Whatever follows - that the "convicts" went on appeal against their "sentence" to the High Court and that eventually they were released on "parole" are thus completely false and flows from the rather flowing imagination of the said author. It also appears very clearly that the numbers 8 and 17 are discretely chosen to make a scurrilous point. Amal Haldar's name for example is not part of the 83 accused in the "State vs Ajit Mukherjee..." case.

How could someone who has not been convicted appeal for "parole"? And from where did Bandyopadhyay make his claim that eight persons were convicted and sentenced to "life imprisonment"? And why would anyone who has not been "convicted" appeal to the Supreme Court to overturn a judgement of "conviction" if that never happened? These are questions that deserve legitimate answers from the obviously deranged former bureaucrat.

That Bandyopadhyay's later assertions on the CPI(M) using its "power" to grant "parole" to the "convicted" and that the records of the case archive were destroyed are nonsense is proved from the "State vs Ajit Mukherjee..." case records. Curiously, Bandyopadhyay also makes other assertions that the Registrar General, Calcutta High Court had "shockingly" reported to the Supreme Court that the High Court had no paper relating to the Sainbari case, when no appeal to the non-existing conviction was ever filed in the High Court! The author continues in his nonsensical vein claiming that the "CPI(M) government had granted unconditional and unlimited parole" and hopes that the "Supreme Court gave an order revoking the parole of the convicts". It is mentioned in the article that one Joydeep Mukherjee has filed a writ petition before the Supreme Court to find out how the "convicts" have been "enjoying unrestricted and unconditional parole for the last 32 years". As established before, these are all false premises and one wonders how the Supreme Court could admit the petition which is certainly a false affidavit - a sure case of contempt of Court.

So what essentially is the truth about the trials that followed the Sainbari murder incidents? We should again take recourse to the same "State vs Ajit Mukherjee.." case order. Here is the timeline as events happened.

FACTS OF THE CASE AND ORDER

Following the transfer of the case to the Sessions court on 13.6.74, "Charges with Five Heads" were filed against 83 people, seven of whom are mentioned by Bandyopadhyay. The charges were that the 83 mentioned in the chargesheet were part of "about 1500" people engaging in "unlawful assembly" at Protapswar Sibtala, Burdwan and accused of participating in the murder of Malay Sain, his brother Pranab Sen and family tutor Jiten Roy, in rioting and looting and setting the house on fire etc.

The case order in "State vs Ajit Mukherjee.." dismissed the charges. It heard out a statement by the Public Prosecutor who had filed an application u/s 321 Cr.P.C for withdrawal from the prosecution of the accused persons with the consent of the court, on following grounds -

The Public Prosecutor stated that he is convinced that there was an occurence on the relevant date and relevant time in the house of the Sains, but the accused persons did not participate in that occurence. That most of the accused belonged to one political party and most of the witnesses belonged to a rival political party, and that the accused persons had been falsely implicated in the case. That the investigation had not been fair and impartial and that the rival political party directed the course of the investigation and the evidence collected by the investigation agency was grossly tainted.

That, as two major political parties were involved in the case, if instant prosecution was carried to its logical end, it is almost certain that feelings or acrimony and hatred would be engineered between the local workers of the said two political parties, and that the current (then) situation in Burdwan town is quite peaceful and the trial is bound to disturb the peaceful atmosphere that is prevailing in the town.

That, the then State government (of the Left Front) had effected a policy of "Forgive and Forget" which was directed at putting an end to all political and ideological bitterness of the past.
The judge in his order, examined the grounds of withdrawal by looking at similar judicial precedents and on the basis of principles laid down by the Supreme Court in considering such grounds.

Vis-a-vis the first ground, the judge observed that there was a case of recantation of testimony by the person who filed the FIR; that he was unsure of the numbers mentioned in the chargesheet and that following the incident, leaders of the rival political party had colluded with the investigating officer in getting statements recorded from various witnesses. There were several discrepancies with the statements given by the witnesses, in the manner the FIR was filed and in the way the investigation was done. These facts and circumstances supported the Public Prosecutor's submission that the investigation had not been impartial and that he would not be able to lead cogent and convincing evidence to warrant a conviction of the accused was not without basis.

Plus the general political atmosphere in Burdwan Town at that time, featuring political murders and attacks on rival political parties, the general inaction of the police during the incident - either to halt the miscreants' attack on the Sain house as a retaliation to an alleged bomb attack on them or to apprehend them after the incident. The judge also referred to other precedents on incidents arising out of rivalry between different associations and dismissal of charges owing to the need to continue to maintain harmony post such incidents. In the light of prevalence of relative calm and peace eight years since the Sainbari incident, the judge mentions that the Public Prosecutor's submission of withdrawal on such grounds deserved consideration.

However on the third ground of the Left Front government's policy of "forgive and forget", the judge clearly mentions that "the policy of Government is no consideration for giving consent for withdrawal" citing other precedents.

In sum, the judge considered the other two grounds enough to not find sufficient reason to withhold consent for withdrawal. Thus, the accused were acquitted of the offences under Cr.PC section 321(b). All these facts and details are available in the court order.

Coming back to Bandyopadhyay's article, it is clear that the article was written to throw mud on CPI(M) functionaries by building a monument of falsehood about "conviction", "release on parole" and "destruction of records". In doing so and by using expressions such as "black mamba", "killer convicts", "nasty killer" to describe a serving and elected minister and other public functionaries, the author only further sullies his already discredited image. What is striking is the absolute lack of editorial due diligence as well on this article. Any editor worth her/his salt would have taken pains to check the veracity of the claims as well as been tempted to use editorial standards to vet some of the abominable language used. But alas, so consumed is the editor in buying the spurious monument of lies, there is none of that necessary editorial work.

That this deranged writer is a trusted advisor of the leader of the chief party in the opposition in the state is a testament to the state of affairs that exists in the anti-Left Front alliance in West Bengal. Considering the track record of the leader in question - in the sheer mindlessness, in the nonsensical obstructionism, in the poverty of logic and reason in the Trinamul's politics, it is not a surprise that she keeps such abominable company to advise her.

'Change' for Better or Worse?

By C P Krishnan

BENGAL SOLIDARITY MEETING IN CHENNAI

CONDEMNING the ongoing murderous violence of the Trinamool and 'Maoists' against CPI(M) and Left parties cadre in West Bengal and expressing solidarity with the democratic sections of that state who are resisting these forces of anarchy, hundreds of people assembled at Kerala Samaj, Chennai, at the call of the North and South Chennai district committees of the CPI(M) on December 17, 2009. Surya Kanta Mishra, Party central committee member and minister for health and family welfare, government of West Bengal, was the main speaker in the meeting.

The meeting was presided over by S K Mahendran, MLA and among the speakers included G Ramakrishnan, central committee member of CPI(M), A Soundararajan, state secretariat member of the Party, T K Shanmugam and Beema Rao, state committee members of the Party.

Addressing the packed gathering, Surya Kant Misra thanked the Tamilnadu state committee of the Party for organising this meeting not only to condemn the violence of TMC and Maoists but also to express solidarity with the democratic forces resisting such violence. He underlined that this is not the first time that such violence has been let loose on the Left and democratic forces in Bengal. In 1967, the first United Front government was formed in the state with CPI(M) emerging as a big force with 40-plus MLAs. That government was dismissed using Article 356 of the Constitution. Within two years elections were held again by which time CPI(M) doubled its strength in the state assembly. Even this government was once again dismissed within a year, in 1970, and in the elections held in 1971 CPI(M) won more than 110 seats in the state assembly. From 1972 onwards, semi-fascist terror was unleashed by the then Congress rulers, which lasted for nearly four years and in which around 1400 CPI(M) cadres were brutally killed; 20,000 people were driven out of their homes; 300 offices of the Left trade unions were forcibly occupied by the Congress goons; 70,000 false cases were registered against thousands of Party cadres. The 9th Party Congress, held at Madurai in Tamilnadu in 1972, sent a warning to the whole nation that what was happening then in West Bengal would not stop there and it would not be against the CPI(M) and the Left parties' cadres alone. It would spread to the whole nation and against all the democratic forces if left unchecked. This warning came true within the next three years as Emergency was proclaimed in the country by the Congress government in 1975. Lakhs of people were arrested; the freedom of press was banned; the democratic voices were stifled. Even the songs of a famous singer like Kishore Kumar were banned to be aired on All India Radio. Violence was let loose throughout the country. The elected MLAs of the CPI(M) boycotted the assembly throughout the session to register their protest against the indiscriminate rigging of the elections. After the lifting of Emergency, in the subsequent elections held in 1977, the Left Front came to power with a clear two-thirds majority.

“A question is posed to us”, said Misra, “that why this magnitude of violence is unleashed on the Left cadres even after the continuous 32 year rule of the Left in the state. During the seventh tenure of Left Front government alone, 344 Party cadres were killed. In the year 2009 alone 159 cadres were done to death, out of which 120 comrades were killed after the 15th Lok Sabha elections”, he said.

Misra elaborated further that “the Left Front government has been voted to power consecutively for seven times and has been in power for the past 32 years uninterruptedly due to the support of the people. In 2004, 61 Left MPs were elected, of which a major portion was from West Bengal. This was the highest ever number of Left MPs in independent India. The Congress Party depended on the Left parties and the CPI(M) for survival of its government at the centre. But the CPI(M) and the Left parties were vociferously opposing the neo-liberal policies of the Congress-led UPA government at the centre. The CPI(M) was firmly opposing the imperialist hegemony, particularly the India-US nuclear deal which was very much detrimental to the interest of the people. That is the reason why concerted attacks have been unleashed on the Left parties and particularly the CPI(M)”, said Misra. He asserted that CPI(M) came into existence neither for running state governments nor for making its members/leaders MLAs or ministers. It participates in the parliamentary democratic system as it has deep roots among the people of India and shall continue to do so. But the aim of the Party is to usher in a People’s Democratic Revolution and to establish a People’s Democratic Front government.

He narrated that since 1977 varied tactics were adopted by the ruling class parties to dislodge the Left Front government from power in West Bengal. Several conspiracies were hatched but nothing could be done due to the support it enjoyed from the people. Therefore this time new tactics have been adopted. The forces ranging from the Right extreme to the Left extreme have joined hands against the CPI(M) and the Left parties in the form of a grand alliance. They use money, media and muscle power against the Left. With these three Ms, joined the 'Maoists', making it four Ms. The 'Maoists' leader, so-called Kishanji, appeared before some television channels with a mask and gave an interview exhorting the people of Bengal to vote for Trinamool Congress and make Mamata Banerjee the next chief minister. “These people who proclaim to boycott elections, want people of West Bengal to elect her as their CM. The nexus between these two forces can be easily understood. Earlier they unleashed terror in Singur, Nandigram and now they unleash violence in Lalgarh. The secret alliance between TMC and the 'Maoists' has now been exposed to the whole world. Their only aim is to capture power in the state by hook or crook. But we are very sure that that these four Ms will be defeated with one M, namely Marxism”, asserted the CPI(M) leader.

The Trinamool, along with the Left and Right extremists, has is now chanting the slogan of ‘Change’. “We also want change. The question is whether the change is for better or worse. In the 32 years of the Left Front rule, 84 per cent of the land holding is in the possession of the small and marginal farmers with a land holding of two or less acres of land. When compared to the landholding of the small and marginal farmers of all the non Left-ruled states put together, this is double the size. What change they want? Do they want to reverse this? The SC/ST population of the state constitutes 28 per cent of the total population whereas their land holding constitutes 54 per cent of the total land holding in the state. Is there any parallel to this in our country? This is not our statistics but those released by the union rural development ministry of the central government. Do they want to reverse this and hand over the land back to landlords? Is this the change they advocate?” he questioned.

The Left Front rule in West Bengal has ensured distribution of land to the landless; development of the tribal people and dalits; empowerment of women; decentralisation of powers and finance to gram panchayats; democratisation of co-operative sector etc. All these achievements are being sought to be undone by these reactionary forces in favour of big capitalists and landlords. That is why the question whether change is for better or worse is being raised, he said.

The CPI(M) leader appealed to the people who voted against the Left parties in the recent elections to consider the present situation. The number of the seats in Lok Sabha for Congress party has increased in the UPA-II government compared to what they had in the previous Lok Sabha even though there is not much increase in the percentage of votes polled. The Left parties which had the highest ever number of MPs in the last Lok Sabha have presently the lowest number of MPs in the last 40 years. He asked the people to consider what has been the impact of this on their lives. The prices of essential commodities are sky-rocketing; there is no food security; there is no job security or guarantee; the universalisation of foodgrains through ration shops has been given a go-bye; the situation in Andhra Pradesh has been mishandled; the central government is kneeling down before US imperialism on the nuclear deal and its implementation; the insurance sector is going to be thrown open for Foreign Direct Investment; the shares of Public Sector Undertakings are going to be sold in the share markets; the adverse New Pension Scheme is being thrust on the working class; the pension funds are thrown open for the private players; the Patents Act is going to be changed affecting the interest of the common man etc.

These are some of the changes that are being contemplated by the UPA-II government at the centre. The people must reflect whether these changes are in their interest or against them. As these changes are definitely against the interest of the general public, the Left parties and the CPI(M) are determined to fight against these both inside and outside the parliament. He sought the support of people in this fight.

“As the CPI(M) has been a stumbling block to the anti-people polices of the central government, a concerted attack is being waged against the Party. As has been warned by us in 1972, even this attack, if left unchecked, will spread to the rest of India. Let us reach out to the people who have not been with us and who left us in between; let us mobilise the people of India in this fight for democracy. The Left parties are ready to make any sacrifice in this fight. We will continue this fight till the last drop of blood and till our last breath. Our blood will further redden the Red flag. Our heads may be rolled down but we will not bow our head to these inimical forces; Senior leader of the CPI(M), Comrade M Basavapunniah used to say ‘if there is any confusion about whether the stand taken by you is right or wrong, see where Imperialism is and take a stand opposite to that’. Now, Mamatha and 'Maoists' combine are acting as the stooges of Imperialism. Their target of attack is CPI(M) and the Left parties. In this fight against Imperialism, we are happy to note that the Tamilnadu state committee is fully with us in all respects”, so saying Surya Kanta Misra concluded his speech.

This speech enthused the gathering and made them realise the seriousness of the danger and the necessity of a serious fight to save democracy and the Left Front in West Bengal, whatever may the cost be.

Defence the Democratic Rights in West Bengal: AIDWA

ON the December 19, Susheela Gopalan Memorial Day, AIDWA organized a meeting “In Defence of the Democratic Rights of the People of West Bengal” at the Constitution Club, New Delhi. This convention was held in the backdrop of the murder of over 160 supporters and activists of the Left and democratic movement in the state over the past few months, including children and women. While political violence in West Bengal has assumed alarming proportions, the devastating impact of gruesome violence on the next of kin of each victim as well as on the overall political and democratic culture of the state, has received insufficient attention in the mainstream media as well as among human rights activists. The unholy gang-up of a mainstream political party like the TMC with the ‘outlawed’ Maoists in order to unleash a reign of terror has also not been sufficiently exposed or held to task. As a women’s organization, the AIDWA has consistently maintained that women are ultimately the worst sufferers in an atmosphere of violence. In this instance too women have seen their children being killed, have lost their husbands, have been brutally assaulted and have had to abandon their homes and villages or face a future filled with uncertainty. Twenty women victims of political violence in different parts of West Bengal participated in the convention.

Subhashini Ali, president AIDWA, presided over the convention and started the proceedings by introducing all the participants from West Bengal. The participants included family members of martyrs namely Sarathi Roy, Anjali Mondol, Aloka Tudu, Kamala Mandal, Noorjahan Mondol, Anjura Begum, Manwara Begum, Jaleshwari Mahato and Mahima Bibi. Women who have faced attacks like Anjali Maity, Maya Khati, Padma Santra, Fullara Mondol, Shikha Aditya, Jharna Garudas, Indrani Mukherjee and Mina Khamuri and also three women MLAs who have faced physical attacks and abuse, Aloka Burman, Chandana Ghosh Dastidar and Mafuja Khatoon.

Then Dr. Vina Mazumdar, an eminent academic and women’s rights activists released a booklet The Truth Behind the Violence in West Bengal cataloguing real-life instances of the one-sided political violence that has affected women in many ways. Its analysis reveals that the political violence in Bengal far from being spontaneous represents the coming together of politically reactionary and undemocratic forces to dislodge a popularly elected Left Front government and to decimate the cadres of the CPI (M). The Congress on its part refuses to acknowledge this unholy covert alliance between its ally and partner in Government, the Trinamool Congress, and the Maoists whom it never tires of calling ‘the biggest internal threat faced by the country today’.

The fact that the Left forces still command the support and commitment of large sections of the poor is what is responsible for the attacks on its cadres, supporters and on elected bodies at all levels. Had the Left been alienated from the people as is often alleged by those who justify this violence in one way or another, these attacks and acts of coercion that its supporters are facing in such large numbers would not have been necessary. These are being resorted to precisely to terrorize people into abandoning the Left.

The booklet gives details of the suffering inflicted on the victims, specially women and children, by this political violence. Methods of political violence have resulted in subjecting women and other vulnerable sections of society to a great deal of misery. They have become “internally displaced” as they have been forced to leave home and hearth to save themselves and their families. They have lost even their meager assets or low-paid work. Their access to health, education, and government supported schemes has been severely eroded. And the plight of the widows, and fatherless children, whose numbers are growing by the day, is a stark reminder that the fallout of this merciless killing is being borne by the women and children.

While releasing the booklet, Dr Vina Mazumdar strongly condemned this violence saying that it is ‘semi-fascistic in nature and a travesty of politics’. She asked all citizens to stand in defense of democracy and to oppose such barbaric and violent acts. She urged upon all democratic minded people to apprise themselves of the true facts and decide upon the direction that our democracy must take in the 21st century.

This was followed by three sessions in which nine women spoke of their experiences. The themes of these sessions were ‘Democratic and Livelihood Rights Under Threat’, ‘Women Victims of Violence’, and ‘Family Members of those Killed in Attacks’. The sessions were introduced by AIDWA leadership from West Bengal, namely, Rekha Goswami, Shyamali Gupta and Minoti Ghosh who made an impassioned plea to all present to understand that the CPI (M) is not the cause but the target of political violence. They explained that the struggle of AIDWA supporters and activists in West Bengal to defend their right to basic safety and security, earn a livelihood, and engage in political activism needs to be supported and strengthened. Opinion needs to be built all over the country against the TMC-Maoist alliance that is attacking these hard earned rights through violence and intimidation.

Mahfooza Khatoon, a three time MLA from Kumargunj, South Dinajpur spoke of her efforts to protest against the illegal extortion of money by the TMC, which was met with physical attack, gherao, abuse and threat by Trinamool goons. Padma Santra, a panchayat member spoke of how she was asked to resign and dissociate from the CPI (M), but she refused because the people of the area had elected her and no one else could ask her to resign. She lodged a complaint against this incident but was forced to flee the area for some time under life threat. She has now returned home, but still faces danger. The Maoists attacked Maya Khati, a cook in the Mid-day-Meal scheme in Howrah and an AIDWA activist, in front of her school children. She escaped the attack with the help of other women who rushed to her aid by combating the attackers. She however has lost her means of livelihood. She subsequently faced another attack at home in the night and has been forced to live in a relief camp.

Fullara Mondal, AIDWA secretary of West Midnapore, who belongs to a landless peasant family and is a resident of Lalgarh was attacked and driven out from her residence on June 14, this year by Maoist-TMC goons. She said that in her area women are forced to join the processions of PCPA under the threat of their children being harmed. Those who resist are tried by kangaroo courts and attacked, even paraded with garlands of shoes. Women SHGs, ICDS workers, teachers, doctors are all compelled to give a share of their earning to the PCPA. It is difficult for people in the area to defy the dictat of the PCPA. Anjali Maity from Nandigram spoke of how her husband had to leave the village when he was given a dictat by the TMC-Maoists to give them 3 bighas of land and 2 lakhs of rupees. She was then attacked, abducted, physically and sexually abused for several days until her brother managed to rescue her. She had to be hospitalized for 22 days to recover from her injuries. Indrani Mukherjee an AIDWA leader from Bankura has faced several attacks over the last year. In 2008 her hand was broken in an attack by the TMC after panchayat elections. On September 21, 2009 her brother was abducted and asked to sign on a stamped paper to stop the political activities of his sister. Indrani opposed this and her house was gheraoed and attacked till she was rescued by agricultural workers. Recently, when she went in aid of families in Amla whose houses were burnt by TMC activists, her car was gheraoed and attacked, but again she managed to escape.

Aloka Tudu, a tribal woman from Bankura gave the account of how her father was killed in front of her eyes by the Maoists disguised as policemen on the day of a marriage in the family. Her hands were tied to prevent her from intervening in the attack on both her father and uncle. Given up for dead, her uncle survived but was hospitalized for eight months. Her father Gotilal Tudu was a CPI(M) leader in her area. Today, Aloka is a member of the Zilla Parishad and actively working in her area. Anjali Mondal from Barasat described her double tragedy: first her husband Sanjoy Mondal was murdered; then, when she was attacked and abducted by TMC goons, her 18 year-old son Asit Mondal committed suicide because of his helplessness. Anjali, a member of zonal committee of the CPI (M) has been forced to flee her home due to the danger to her life. Manwara Begum, spoke of the tragedies that have forced her to live with her father: first, her husband’s brother Manwar Sheikh was brutally murdered by TMC goons; after two years of struggle to obtain justice from the courts, her husband, Anwar Sheikh, a poor peasant from Bardwan, was murdered in a similar manner.

All the speakers made spirited assertions about continuing their fight against the violent and undemocratic Maoist-TMC combine, even in the face of all odds. They argued that in order to ensure the right to livelihood, security and political participation for the women of West Bengal, it was essential to politically expose as well as combat this politics of violence. The determination and resolve of these women was a source of inspiration for all those present in the audience.

The concluding speech of the convention was made by Rajya Sabha MP and CPI (M) Politburo member Brinda Karat who questioned the role of Cabinet Minister, Mamata Bannerjee, who is refusing to condemn Maoist activities and is in fact providing protection to the Maoists in West Bengal. She said that the Left Front of West Bengal has stood by people’s rights and provided an alternative politics to the people of this country. It has provided remarkable rights to the women of West Bengal in the form of land pattas and participation in politics through panchayat elections. Tribal as well as minority women have earned land pattas in large numbers and comprise a larger proportion of elected representatives much above their reserved quota. This is what has made West Bengal the epicenter of the Left and democratic movement of the entire country. The TMC-Maoist gang-up is seeking to attack precisely this heart and head of the Left movement of our country. Since the base of the Left is among the poor and the downtrodden, it is this base which is facing the brunt of the attack. She commended the women victims for their heroic resistance and for the strength of their commitment that has only been strengthened by the violence and sorrow that they face every day. She also congratulated the AIDWA leadership of West Bengal for their unflinching struggle and intervention. Brinda said that the defence of the democratic rights of the people of Bengal was essential for preserving and strengthening democratic forces, particularly the women’s movement.

The meeting ended with a vote of thanks by Sudha Sundararaman, the general secretary of AIDWA, who pledged to intensify efforts to take the truth about the ongoing diabolic political violence in West Bengal to the people of the country. She applauded the unwavering struggle of the women in West Bengal to safeguard the Left movement in their state and vowed to strengthen this political struggle further. She thanked all those who attended the day-long programme from different walks of like including intellectuals, media persons, representatives from CITU, DYFI, AIKS, SFI, cultural groups like Janam and SAHMAT, womens’ organizations like JWP, NFIW, AIDMAM, NACDOR, YWCA etc.

Unholy ‘Mahajot’ in West Bengal

Nilotpal Basu

THE process of political cohabitation between disparate forces to forge the `grand alliance' in West Bengal is coming out in the open. And it is a truly sordid story of systematic targeted killing and bloodbath. Many in the corporate media can hardly conceal their glee over the electoral reverses that the Left has come to suffer in its bastion. While many of these sections who highlight the commissions and omissions of the Left Front government and the weaknesses of the CPI (M), maintain a studied silence on the nature of the comprehensive anti-Left project that is clearly being played out in West Bengal. It is in this context that there is a genuine need to understand and comprehend the various strands of this overarching convergence of various forces and processes which is at work to successfully meet the central direction of this project – that of seriously undermining and dislodging the Left in West Bengal.

Since the late sixties the growth of the Left movement and the CPI (M) has faced severe attacks from the ruling classes. The premature removal of the United Front from office twice in the late sixties by the imposition of the president's rule with blatant abuse of Article 356 is part of the political history which was primarily aimed to thwart the rising tide of the movement of the workers and peasants. The most significant development during that phase of politics of the state was the unprecedented mobilisation of the landless, marginal and small peasants for land rights. The big land owning elements opposed the United Front government's thrust to identify ceiling surplus land, its vesting and redistribution among the rural poor. The popular struggle to ensure such a direction of the government was spearheaded by the CPI (M) during those troubled times. What is important to note is the decidedly rightist character of the platform which was forged to oppose the Left and dubbed efforts to ensure agrarian reform as one which caused ‘law and order’ problem and provoked anarchy.

But it was also clear that such a blatant rightwing thrust of the opposition to check the rising tide of the militant peasant movement was proving to be futile. It is in that context that the ultra-Left movement surfaced in the tiny hamlet of Naxalbari in the Darjeeling district of West Bengal. Later on, as a sequel to the essentially agrarian nature of the protest, it degenerated into largely armed activities of urban groups of youth and students. That these activities were almost exclusively directed against the CPI (M) and the Left was a foregone conclusion given the experience of the ultra Left anywhere in the world. It was also in the background of such a course of development that the 9th Congress of the CPI (M) noted “…petty-bourgeois adventurism must degenerate into an anti-working class, anti-revolutionary line and its inevitable destiny was to serve the interests of the ruling classes”. Finally, the movement that started with pronouncement of ushering in a `revolutionary transformation' got completely hijacked by the Congress and paved the way for the period of semi-fascist terror of the seventies.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

For the last thirty years since the Left Front government has been in office in West Bengal, the Naxalite movement has generally faded into oblivion. The reasons were obvious. What proved decisive in the isolation of the naxalites was the successful and widespread land reform that was led by the organised Left. This process got statutory backing when the Left Front government came to power. So the combination of socio-economic development, political and ideological interventions by the CPI (M) and the organised Left led to the situation that prevailed in West Bengal during the last three decades.

The reappearance of the sporadic actions of the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) and the CPI (ML)-(People's War Group) in the beginning of this decade were however not based on any sustained work of the ultra Left in the largely tribal dominated areas of West Medinipur, Bankura and Purulia -loosely referred to as the Jangalmahal. These activities which again were mostly limited to carrying out ‘hit and run’ armed attacks against the CPI (M) killing its cadre. These activities were carried out with their bases in Jharkhand which had a long border with these districts. Subsequent to the formation of the CPI (Maoist) these forays increased. But what has really ensured the scaling up of the Maoist activities and violence with CPI (M) as its principal target has been the open support that they have come to enjoy from the Trinamul Congress.

The Trinamul Congress suffered a major electoral drubbing in the 2006 assembly elections. Apart from the positive support of the people to the policies of the Left Front government a major instrumental factor in the electoral outcome was the TMC's association with the BJP which by the time had come to face increasing political isolation following the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. In fact the Left movement in the country based on the strength of the support it enjoyed of the people of West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura against the communal-fascist politics of the saffron brigade and its aggressive neo-liberal promotion of the ‘Shining India’ paradigm contributed largely to the BJP's electoral predicament. The 2006 assembly elections were also an endorsement of the people to the Left Front's call for setting up new industries.

It had become apparent to the Indian ruling classes and particularly to the most die-hard political opponents of the Left -epitomised by the Trinamul Congress -that the Left in West Bengal cannot be undermined by the traditional rightwing platform which had been repeatedly attempted and failed in the past. Therefore, the need for an image makeover and refashioning the formal thrust of the opposition platform was initiated. The Trinamul Congress rallied some of the fringe naxalite groups and the SUCI around it on the question of opposition to use of agricultural land per se for setting up industry and infrastructure.

It is this background which saw many disparate forces coming together for their own reasons to undermine the Left Front government. The CPI (M)'s opposition to the pro-US imperialist shift in our foreign policy provided great impetus to both the forces of imperialism and the domestic ruling elite who preferred such a shift to engage more actively to lend support to this political project of launching a fresh political offensive. These sections were oblivious of the Left wing pretensions and avowed defence of the rights of small and marginal farmers who had come to overwhelmingly own agricultural land in the state. Incidentally, during the Left Front tenure an unprecedented 84 per cent of the cultivable land in the state was under the ownership of the small and marginal farmers. These advocates of neo-liberal globalisation had no confusion about the real nature of the Left sounding verbiage that the Trinamul Congress and its voluble supremo Mamata Banerjee were spitting. They knew right away that the pathological hatred that the Trinamul Congress harboured towards the CPI(M) and the Left can hardly result in anything but ultimately secure the most favourable atmosphere for the Right once the Left could be undermined.

Since the developments in Nandigram, this sinister nexus was becoming increasingly apparent. The methods which were employed in Nandigram pointed towards the involvement of political forces which were unlike the traditional anti-Left forces. The digging up of roads, the blowing up of bridges and the targeted killing of the CPI (M) activists in Nandigram created that situation where the entire area was out of bounds for the administration much before the unfortunate police firing of March 14, 2007. Later on, the Maoists themselves have revealed details about their involvement in Nandigram. In fact, a document of the West Bengal-Jharkhand Committee of the Maoists had pointed out that there is a growing opportunity for them to unite with different anti-Left political forces and forge an ‘all-in unity’ against the CPI (M) which according to them was a `social fascist' force. It is important to note that as is wont with the ultra Left, they did not find it necessary to elaborate economic, social or political factors leading to such a characterisation. The type of ammunitions that were unearthed, the eyewitness accounts of training given to the Trinamul led Bhoomi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee, the umbrella organisation which spearheaded the Nandigram agitation were tell tale signs of Maoist presence. Of course, subsequently, it did not require any formal investigation to establish such a connection. The Maoist leaders themselves, notably Koteswar Rao, alias Kishanji has made that explicit. Claiming the support that the Maoists had provided to the Trinamul in Nandigram they urged a quid pro quo from Mamata Banerjee vis a vis Lalgarh and Jangalmahal. That the Maoists were there and continue to have operational contacts is clear from the manner in which Nishikanta Mondal -the pradhan of Sonachura gram panchayat – the epicentre of the Nandigram agitation was eliminated by the Maoists. Mamata Banejree and the Trinamul Congress leadership had tried to shift the onus of the assassination of Mondal on the CPI (M). The Maoists came out with a strong rebuttal claiming responsibility for the murder. The Maoists further claimed that elimination of Mondal was the result of his attempt to shrug off the Maoists.

The Maoists have actually rubbished Mamata's claim. In a report published by the Telegraph on November 27, 2009, (which by no means can be faulted for its Left sympathies!)

A statement purportedly by Selim, head of the Maoists’ Nandigram zonal committee, said: “You (Mamata) had said at a rally at Sonachura recently that it was the CPM who brought us to Nandigram in 2007 and provided us with safe passage to flee. You know it was a lie.”

Selim invited the railway minister to an open debate at Sonachura. “If you believe what you said in your speech was a fact, please come to Sonachura and we will prove who is right, you or us.”

The statement also criticised Mamata’s proposal for engaging the army in Lalgarh.

It said: “We appointed Narayan to lead the Nandigram movement against CPM cadres. Trinamul MP Subhendu Adhikary knows how many times Narayan visited Nandigram and how he worked among the people of the area.

“You had delivered a speech from a place in Sonachura after the death of Nishikanta Mandal, the local (Trinamul) gram panchayat pradhan. It was the same place where Adhikary had shared a stage with Narayan and our state committee member Sukumar to address the people of Nandigram.”

The Maoist leader explained why Mandal was killed by his men: “After Trinamul achieved political success in Nandigram, it wanted to drive us out of the area. Mandal was planning to hand over Narayan to police. He had to pay for his betrayal. We are still active in Nandigram and we will be there in future.”

The Lalgarh episode was sparked off following police actions in the area in the wake of a mine blast which was intended to kill the West Bengal chief minister on 2 November 2008, when he was returning from a programme in Salboni to inaugurate a steel plant. Incidentally there was no agitation on land acquisition in the proposed site of the plant neither was any SEZ proposal involved. The so-called People’s Committee against Police Atrocities (PCAPA) which had been created in the wake of the attempted assassination was not interested in anything else but disallowing the entry of the state administration and the police personnel into the area. Subsequently, it became clear that they were acting as the front of the Maoists demanding withdrawal of cases against the Maoist squad leader Sasadhar Mahato who had carried out the assassination attempt on the West Bengal chief minister.

Trinamul Congress And Maoists

The link between the PCAPA and the Trinamul Congress was also clear from the very beginning. The PCAPA spokesperson Chhatradhar Mahato, Sashadhar's brother, had been a former Trinamul Congress local leader. Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and other Trinamul leaders had also attended events organised by the PCAPA in Lalgarh during this phase though these areas were otherwise out of bounds of the administration. Now even the home minister has admitted in the Rajya Sabha (on 2 December) that the PCAPA is “only a front organisation to the CPI (Maoist)”.

In February 2009, Mamata Banerjee and other leaders of the Trinamul Congress attended political events of the PCAPA in Kantapahari the Maoist stronghold. The Trinamul Congress refused to accept that the committee was a Maoist front and did their level best to legitimise them as a genuine mouthpiece for `spontaneous unrest' of tribals who were `suffering under the 32 years of Left Front misrule'. The Trinamul Congress has spared no efforts to oppose the joint operation of central and state police in Lalgarh and adjoining areas and call for the withdrawal of those forces. Mamata Banerjee in her inimical style had claimed time and again that the assassination attempt of the chief minister was `stage managed' by the CPI (M) and Maoist presence in Lalgarh and Jangalmahal is a figment of the CPI (M)'s imagination.

But as and how the Maoist involvement in Lalgarh became impossible to deny, the task became all the more onerous given the overall stand of the central government on the Maoist question highlighted by the prime minister's observation `Maoist violence is the single largest threat to the country's internal security'. Meanwhile, the Maoist leadership was also making it impossible for Trinamul and Mamata to deny the complicity. Kishanji on 4 October 2009 clearly stated that Mamata was their preferred choice for becoming the next chief minister of the state. Of course, the Maoist leader Kishanji justified that with weird argument that Mamata being an all important individual with the sole proprietorship of her party – could be manipulated in favour of the people and insulated from the overall ruling class policy framework. The Maoists are real dreamers! They can bring themselves to ignore the fact that Trinamul Congress is a part of the central government which pursues a pro-imperialist neo-liberal policy. But on the other hand Kisanji's claims to Ananda Bazar Patrika- the spearhead of the media offensive against the Left-underlines the danger that democracy and the people face from such an obnoxious combination.

Undeterred by the failure of Trinamul and Mamata to call off the joint operation, Maoists have time and again repeated their pleas – at times even assuming a cajoling tone to pursue their goal. The Trinamul Congress of course has repeated its opposition to the joint operation and Trinamul leaders not only at the grass root level but also central ministers and other leading functionaries have visited Lalgarh to provide with specific assurances for operational support. The infiltration of Trinamul ranks by Maoist elements is a fact which has been confirmed by security experts and also substantiated by official intelligence received by both the central and the state governments.

Instances of Trinamul-Maoist nexus are almost unlimited. But the most explicit of these was played out around the siege of Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express near Jhargram. That the siege was the handiwork of the Maoists was apparent from the very outset given the demands of those who perpetrated this crime. Neatly scribbled demand for the release of Chatradhar Mahato who had admitted that he was appointed the spokesman for the PCAPA by the Maoist operatives was a clear proof of the Maoist involvement. In fact the Maoists have given call for bandhs in the area demanding his release. But the railway minister refused to accept the truth and tried initially to blame it on the CPI(M). Later, the railway FIR did not even mention the Maoists.

The unsatiable thirst for power has landed the Trinamul Congress and its supremo in the company of all kinds of forces who are inimical to the interests of the people, democracy and development. This has happened in the past as well. Otherwise, how can one forget the ganging up with the BJP-- from the very day the Trinamul was born. Today, it seems that notwithstanding the broad political consensus in the country over the disastrous course that the Maoists have embarked upon – the Trinamul Congress and its leader is acting as if they are in siege. This sinister political course has to be defeated. Peace, democracy and people's welfare face an unprecedented challenge in West Bengal. It is a challenge which does not only affect the Left. For all patriots and well meaning people it calls for action. The central government also has a responsibility. The lessons of the Bhindranwale phenomenon cannot be lost on us.