NANDIGRAM POLICE FIRINGS

The Nandigram episode seems to be getting snowballed into a major law and order problem not only for West Bengal but also for the rest of India. The unfortunate death of more than a dozen protesters in police firing in Nandigram 0n March 14^th has further sullied the already sagging image of the Communist Chief Minister who has been due to some queer reasons not fighting shy of adopting a confrontational approach unprecedented in the democratic history of the state. A small bonfire set by the opposition parties to derive political mileage seems to have acquired the proportions of a wild fire which can engulf more and more regions. The role of the Communist Parties is far from satisfactory. So is the reaction of their leadership which runs counter to their well-articulated socialist ideology on more ways than one.

May be the CM is seriously concerned about the industrial backwardness of the state which was once an industrially advanced state. May be he is not able to withdraw from the commitments he has already made to the industrialists in SEZs. May be he does not want to make a political surrender to his political bete noire Mamta Banerjee on this contentious issue which tantamount to yielding political space to her. May be he wants to send out a strong message to the investors as to who is in the drivers’ seat as far as the administration is concerned. But this is no time to waste time on such political thinking. This is the time to assuage the feelings of the real and assumed victims of the contentious SEZs issue which has triggered a volley of unrests and large public opprobrium and consternation.

These things apart, the posture so far adopted by the CM does not bode well for the investment climate of the state. Neither the Ruling Party nor the dogmatic opposition parties do not know or rather they choose not to acknowledge the quantum of the damage they have been inflicting on the investors’ confidence about the investment climate of the state. As the Chief Minister of the state the onus of responsibility of restoring normalcy in Nandigram and Singur rests with Shri Buddadeba Bhattacharya rather than on the TMC Chief who is known for her political tantrums when within the Congress and outside the Congress. The CM should not only make but also must be seen to be making sincere efforts to offer olive branch to the protesters by inviting them to the negotiating table for a mutually acceptable formula through negotiations. The immediate objective of the Government must be to bring all the warring parties to the negotiating tables before it is too late as the Ultra Maoists appear to be fishing in the troubled waters of Singur and Nandigram.

As the main protagonists of the SEZs drama the Centre ha moral duty to adjudicate on the matter and cannot seek to underplay this issue as a state law and order problem and adopt wait and watch policy as the time is running out. Some thing needs to be done before it is too late.