Mamata walks out of meet on Nandigram

KOLKATA: Mamata Banerjee isn’t particularly impressive in English. But on Thursday, she chose a word that was disaster for the all-party meeting on Nandigram.

The CPM, she must have known before hand, would seethe at the very mention of “genocide” to describe the March 14 killings at Nandigram. And CPM did, providing the Trinamool leader the opportunity to stage a walkout and buy more time.

That in a nutshell was what Thurday’s all-party fiasco over the peace restoration issue was all about. In fact, Ms Bannerjee openly accused the CPM leadership of sabotaging the all-party meeting in its “attempts to justify the mass killings in Nandigram”.

She also warned that she would steer clear of all such peace initiatives if her demands were not met in toto. “CPM leaders present at the meeting were trying to justify the mass killings which took place in Nandigram on March 14,” claimed Mamata in a press conference right after the meeting was adjourned.

Subhash Chakraborty, who is a senior minister in the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government categorically tried to defend the excesses meted out to the people of Nandigram by the state police force. He claimed the police had gone inside Nandigram on March 14 to avenge the burning of a police jeep which took place on January 3rd. This kind of attitude on the part of the ruling party cannot be conducive for an all-party meet, thundered the Trinamool leader.

Unleashing a scathing attack on all the three CPM leaders present in the meeting she said: “While representatives of the Left Front allies like Ashok Ghosh and Kshiti Goswami were supportive of our views, CPIM made it a point to oppose everything we said and almost tried to gag us.”

“We had made it very clear from the beginning that members present in the all party meet would have to accept our charter of demands. We raised the issue of condemning the mass genocide that had taken place on March 14, `identification and punishment of the guilty and questioning the role of state government in releasing CPIM members from Khejuri who had earlier been arrested by the CBI,” continued the Trinamool leader.

In this backdrop, CPM members Subhash and Shyamal Chakraborty allegedly said, “All accusations raised by the opposition are baseless and have been proven wrong. Reports about women being raped and children missing in the Nandigram massacre are not true.”

Subhash Chakraborty also claimed the CBI enquiry was going on as usual and there was no attempt from the state government to thwart the investigation process.

Matters came to a head when CPM leaders claimed the action taken by police in Nandigram was an act of revenge. “None of the criminals have been arrested but cases have been registered against 1950 members of the Save Farmland Committee,” said Mamata.

“If the government in Kerala can give back farmland acquired for industrial purposes, why can’t the communist government in West Bengal do so,” demanded Mamata.