December 2007 Edition
WELL known writer and activist Mahasweta Devi has been a fearless voice for denotified tribals and other disenfranchised people in West Bengal. She has been closely involved with communities in the Nandigram area and has been instrumental in having a medical team visit the victims of the March 14 violence. She spoke to Civil Society on her impressions of the recent developments.
You have followed many people’s movements. What is your reaction to the happenings in Nandigram?
I am aged enough to remember the British times, the Partition, the Bengal Famine. After I married B Bhattacharya of IPTA I came close to the CPI and I witnessed many movements. I remember the days of Marichjhapi eventually followed by the gunning down of seven women in Naxalbari and the genocide in Kashipur-Baranagar. But never did I dream that Buddhadeb and his Left Front will join the band of SEZ wallahs and start killing unarmed men, women and children and encouraging gang rape and arson on a war- footing.
The CPI(M) says there are no plans now for an SEZ in Nandigram?
Nandigram is very much a part of the government’s SEZ plans. The idea is to make a gift of a chemical hub to Laxman Seth, the MP and CPI(M)’s supremo in Haldia. He will extract his pound of flesh from the enterprises that come to the SEZ and chemical hub. The CPI(M) also wants to make a gift of a nuclear plant at Haripur to the US. The government is ready to surrender the very freedom of its people for the interest of the party. I can’t express how shocked I am. But at the same time I see the faces of common people from the remotest areas. They are surging up daily and it makes me believe that change will come and people will assert themselves.
Was the recent violence in Nandigram between CPI(M) cadres and followers of the Trinamool?
In Nandigram, the CPI (M) has been amassing arms on a very large scale and recruiting goons and killers as their cadres. In Nandigram I find that the Trinamool and the Maoists are named again and again. The ground reality is that Nandigram Block 1 and Block 2 were largely dominated by the CPI (M) and other Left parties. Panchayats and other local bodies consisted mostly of Left Front supporters. As far as my experience goes, between March and November this year, every night CPI (M) recruits would throw bombs and fire bullets from the Khejuri side. Nandigram retaliated on a much lesser degree. Last week I learnt about a fresh big stock of bullets and bombs being stored in Khejuri. Groups of anti-social elements and ruthless killers were recruited from other parts of the state and from outside the state like Bihar and Jharkhand. They were seen loitering openly in the locality. On November 8 evening the CPI(M) leader, Biman Bose, declared in front of the media: ‘From tomorrow our boys will take charge. We shall surround them from all sides.’
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