“There is anarchy and everyone is taking the law into his own hands” said the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI (M)]. He is right!
So what is the state government, led by the CPI (M), going to do about it, in West Bengal? The state has witnessed a massacre sponsored by the law enforcement agencies and the CPI (M) cadres. This was fanned further by other political parties within the state. The High Court has ordered an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the incident. The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) wonders how the state government will assist the CBI in this.
Reports from human rights organisations in West Bengal expressed deep concern on the incident in Nandigram. Reports say that some villages like Adhikaripara and Gokulnagar are literally deserted. Fact finding teams report that both the police and the CPI (M) activists were terrorising the villagers. For instance, witnesses say that the local Member of Parliament, Mr. Lakshman Seth, had allegedly brought in criminals who were given police uniforms and country guns to shoot, kill, and plunder. These criminals, alongside the police force, had attacked the villagers.
Yet another witness says that he saw Mr. Naba Samanta, a CPI (M) cadre, repeatedly stabbing a child with a sharp weapon and when the child’s mother intervened she was killed. Their bodies were later removed by the CPI (M) cadres.
Will the CPI (M) led government suspend this MP from the party and advise criminal investigation against him? Will the government ensure that witnesses give evidence to the CBI over this dastardly act? If the witnesses are willing to give a graphic description of the incident to the human rights activists and newspaper reporters, confidentially, why are they afraid to speak to the investigating agency?
Several days after the incident and the mobilisation of hundreds of policemen to mount guard on the deserted villages why are there large numbers of CPI (M) activists stationed in Nandigram? What are they trying to prevent from being disclosed? Why did they not allow, even the Governor of the state from visiting the place? Why did the District Magistrates and the senior police officers with jurisdiction over the area refuse assistance to the human rights activists when they visited Nandigram? What is there to conceal?
Any elected government sworn into power has a constitutional obligation to its citizens. The Nandigram incident is a violation of this. However, this is not just a government using its power to cater to its vested interests. It is the external manifestation of a deeper problem; the failure in the justice mechanism in the country. If investigations into crimes takes years and prosecutors deliberately neglect their duties and the courts takes decades to decide a case, it is inevitable for a government to misuse this vacuum.
The only state government in India that has publicly justified the incident at West Bengal, is Kerala which is also led by the same party.
Mr. Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, the Home Minister of Kerala at a function held on the 19th of March said that what had happened was an attempt by the state government to restore rule of law. This was similar to the official stand taken by the West Bengal state government.
Mr. Balakrishnan made this remark in the presence of those who had publicly condemned the incident and who had insisted on writing to the CPI (M) party leadership expressing their condemnation.
Similar statements have been made by various persons and governments in the region; the dismissal of the Chief Justice of Pakistan by the military dictatorship in that country; the on going killings and disappearances in Sri Lanka partly sponsored by the Sri Lankan government; the excuse for the military junta in Myanmar to kill and terrorise its people; the reason given by the military in Thailand to throw away a democratically elected government; the ongoing extra judicial killings and disappearances in Philippines, all have the same excuse for their acts – restoration of rule of law. But none of these countries ever declared that it is the largest democracy in the world. They dont claim positions like a permanent membership in the UN Security Council, by arguing that it is a leader, promoting, protecting and fulfilling human rights, in comparison with others in the region.
Now that the CBI inquiry is on, the state government of West Bengal has a duty to make public the steps it has taken to ensure that the inquiry into the incident at Nandigram will be fair and impartial; that it will be discharged soon and that the witnesses will be given protection during the trial and until the perpetrators are convicted.
The prosecution department of the CBI and the courts must ensure that the investigation and trial are conducted without delay and a verdict passed.
Will the state government of West Bengal be courageous enough to take up this challenge?
