‘The Working Class’ in its April 2007 carried a brief editorial on the developments in Nandigram.

The CITU has always disapproved any police firing, which leads to loss of human life. We have made no exception in the case of Nandigram.

The Chief Minister of the Left Front Government of West Bengal has publically admitted that the police firing was a mistake and it ought to have been avoided. In fact, he would have proceeded to order a judicial enquiry, if only the Kolkata High Court has not intervened to pass an order for a CBI enquiry.

But, a whole array of political rivals, individuals and NGOs had combined to unleash a slanderous attack on the Left Front Government, utilising the Nandigram happenings. The media, which till the other day sought to paint the Left Front Government in West Bengal also with the same reforms savvy brush with their ‘Brand Buddha’ epithet, had gone hammer and tong against the Left Front over this issue. The attempt is to wipe out in a single stroke the impressive achievements of the Left Front Government over the last three decades and promote those who had miserably failed in their past attempts to subvert it.

Facts have never before been such a casualty, as in the case of Nandigram.

First, there was no attempt by the Left Front Government to forcibly acquire land in the Nandigram villages. Months before the incident of police firing, the Chief Minister of West Bengal had publicly made this point clear.

Second, the police firing, though unfortunate, was not against peaceful villagers, as the case is made out.

Third, of the fourteen people who died in Nandigram on March 14, 2007, 8 were victims of police firing. Others died because of stab injury, stoning etc.

Fourth, it is the supporters of the Left Front – including those belonging to the CITU and other mass organisations- who had been at the receiving end of the violence for nearly three months.

Fifth, many among those who are ranged against the Left Front Government on the Nandigram issue had been aggressively resisting the land reforms agenda successfully carried out in West Bengal during the last three decades. West Bengal government is the pioneer in land reforms in the country. The Left Front government in West Bengal alone has distributed around 20% of the land distributed in the entire country. 83% of the land in the state is in the hands of small cultivators, a large number of them belonging to the SC, ST and other poorer sections. It is the height of hypocrisy for such elements to pose as kisan friendly and depict the Left Front Government as a demon out to grab the lands for handing over to corporates!

Sixth, even after the present Left Front Government assumed office for the seventh term, it has distributed 30,000 acres of land to the landless, whereas the agenda of land reforms had virtually been shelved elsewhere in the country in the extant phase of neo-liberal globalisation.

Seventh, it is the Left that has been vociferously raising and pursuing with the UPA Government at the Centre the demands for changes in the Special Economic Zone Act and its Rules, as also the Land Acquisition Act which is of 1894.

We can go on in this vein. But let’s pause to place certain other facts, which had served as a fodder to the mill of these detractors of the Left Front Government, its supporters, the CPI (M) and the CITU as well.

The Haldia Development Authority had issued a notice announcing the intention to acquire land in certain areas. The reactionary elements that had ganged up against the Left Front had utilised this to scare the people and the peasants in particular.

The displacement of around 2500 people from the Nandigram area, which was almost rendered in to a liberated zone by armed gangs, had almost gone unnoticed. The failure to campaign and create public awareness on the plight of these people helped those who plotted to use the issue for partisan ends.

In the backdrop of the enormous build up inside the Nandigram area by armed groups, who indulged at will in arson, extractions, loot and violence, the Left Front Government ought to have weighed the concomitant risks in handling the issue as had been done.

We are confident that the Left Front and its supporters will overcome this setback, resist the huge offensive mounted by the conspirators and win back the confidence of the people of the State, including those in Nandigram. The CITU in West Bengal has already unleashed a powerful campaign in this regard.

But, those who utilise this Nandigram issue, as a lever to tarnish the Left, should dispassionately ponder over the consequences of such Left bashing.

Only the Left forces in this country have steadfastly been defending secularism and fighting communal forces of all hues.

The Left in this country has been the consistent crusader against the disastrous policies of economic globalisation, which had heaped untold miseries on the common people in this country, demanding that the economic policies must focus on India’s poor.

The Left forces have emerged as outstanding champions of the cause of the poor and downtrodden in this country, be it the dalits, backward classes, minorities or the oppressed women.

It is these Left forces that had resisted the imperialist designs – be it the US nuclear deal or undermining of policies of non-alignment and fighting for an independent foreign policy.

Those who wield Nandigram as their arsenal against the Left want to weaken or collapse this resistance to communalism, economic and social oppression and imperialism.

Left has exhibited its ability to rectify mistakes, if any committed, through a process of unrelenting self-criticism, a trait that cannot be found anywhere else.

Hence, it is the urgent task before the working class in the whole country to defeat this conspiracy against the Left forces and to bring to light the real facts behind the Nandigram episode. The CITU must plunge into this task.