Shadow-boxing over Nandigram

CPI(M) wants CRPF, Cong dilly-dallies

NEW DELHI: The Union government is in no hurry to decide on the West Bengal government’s request to deploy central forces in troubled Nandigram.

The Union Ministry for Home Affairs is likely to make up its mind after its own assessment of the situation, sources said. While a company of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has been kept on standby, there is the political aspect to be considered, according to sources.

Violence erupted in Nandigram in January with protests against proposed land acquisition for a special economic zone (SEZ). The chemical hub planned there was finally scrapped by the state government but the region continues to be tense amid allegations that the rival groups were keeping the issue alive in the run-up to the panchayat elections next year.

Home Ministry sources said attributing the protests to Maoist influence was crediting the naxals with a clout they do not yet have. Maoists build up their cadres slowly in a region, fanning resentment against state authority and building a base before taking the armed route. In Nandigram, they could at best be fanning the protests.

The Trinamool Congress (TC) has been in the forefront of the protests with a number of violent clashes taking place between its cadres and those of the CPI(M). While the Left Front regime in West Bengal wants the TC reined in, the Congress is considering tying up with Trinamool leader Mamata Banerjee to improve its prospects in the state. The Congress-led UPA government at the Centre is thus reluctant to accept the state government’s arguments in a hurry.

The West Bengal government has claimed that armed naxal cadres had entered Nandigram and were active there. The state police was losing control over the area. Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya is reported to have named some armed naxal cadres present in the area.

TC leaders allege the CPI(M) is raising the bogey of Maoists to use central forces to suppress their cadres.

CPI(M) leaders say West Bengal has shared all information on this aspect with the Centre. They say there are about 200 armed persons in Nandigram and that naxals are shipping in arms and explosives using the canals leading in from the Bay of Bengal. Over 1500 families compelled to leave their homes are unable to get back to Nandigram, they say.

It is a declared aim of the Maoists to oppose the setting up of SEZs, which they see as benefiting industrial groups at the cost of people displaced by land acquisition.