Desperate Unity Of reactionary forces
A grand alliance of Maoists, Islamic fundamentalists, communal forces headed by BJP, their reactionary allies like the Trinamul to the civil society NGOs and their hanger-on intellectuals, has been forged to try and destablise an elected government
The CPI(M) has, since day one of this winter session of parliament, declared its readiness to have a debate on the developments in Nandigram. However, the CPI(M), consistent with its own positions and that delineated by the federal structure of our Constitution, stated that law and order issues in any particular state cannot be a subject matter of discussion in the parliament. This is so because the Constitution places law and order excl he state’s list and, hence, within the domain of the state legislature and the executive. Therefore, the CPI(M) had suggested that the Nandigram developments could be discussed in connection with the proposals concerning the establishment of special economic zones (SEZs) which came into being as a result of a central legislation. Alternatively, this issue could be discussed in connection with the growing Maoist/naxalite violence that cuts across various states. In the event, the discussion is taking place in connection with the SEZ policy.
The All India Minority Front, a conglomeration of various Islamic fundamentalist forces, announced a protest ostensibly to demand that the Bangladeshi author, Taslima Nasreen, must not be allowed to continue to stay in Kolkata. The fundamentalist forces have been ranged against the author’s views for a long time now. Anybody who knows the Indian system knows that the permission granted to any foreign national to visit or stay in India is on the basis of a visa granted by the central government, which alone has the exclusive right to do so. Hence, it is meaningless to target any state government on this count. The real reason for the protest, therefore, was obviously to highlight the Nandigram issues and, thus, unleash a fresh round of violence.
These attempts come in the midst of a 48-hour bandh call given by the Maoists on the Nandigram developments in the states of West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and Orissa. A CPI(M) local committee member, Sufal Mandi, was murdered in the Purulia district of West Bengal, as the incendiary bandh began. The police have claimed to recover over half a dozen landmines, rifles and other ammunition alongwith naxalite leaflets in the village. A railway track was blown up on the Sainthia–Andal section of eastern railways leading to the suspension of train services. There was an exchange of fire between Maoists and the police in various parts of Jharkhand and a huge cache of explosives and detonators were recovered.
Hundreds of passengers narrowly escaped death when Maoists triggered a landmine blast on a railway track in West Bengal’s Birbhum area, minutes before a passenger train, Mayurkashi fast passenger, was to pass through. Similar reports are coming in from various parts of the affected areas. As reported in these columns last week, the National Security Advisor has confirmed the involvement of Maoists in Nandigram and its aftermath violence.
Therefore, the grand alliance, from the Maoists, Islamic fundamentalists, communal forces headed by the BJP, their reactionary allies like the Trinamul to the civil society NGOs and their hanger on intellectuals, has been forged in an anti-communist attempt to try and destablise the democratically-elected government through violent means in West Bengal. This, in a way, echoes the resounding opening salvo of the Communist Manifesto where Marx and Engels described the desperate unity of all reactionary forces against the growing communist advance.
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Anti-national CPM pays for its past sins
The CPM has a long history of treacherously supporting Muslim communalism and betraying the national cause. That is why it is music and poetic justice when the fanatic lot turns against the party and its government
The mayhem and anarchy that engulfed the city of joy on November 21, was the most brazen display of Muslim frenzy against a CPM government in many decades.
The CPM has always treated the community as its political jagir. By pandering to all the obnoxious claims and demands of the most fanatic segment of the community the CPM has always tried to pretend as the sole votary of Muslim interest in the country. By systematically promoting a sense of alienation and victimhood, the CPM tried to keep the Muslims at least in West Bengal and Kerala its captive vote bank.
In the process they made them believe that they are above the law of the land and that they can always take a religious stand running counter to the emergence of an enlightened common nationality in modern India. Even the freedom of expression of progressive, educated leaders of the community was stifled in this and such innocuous apex court suggestions as officially registering all marriages in the country were challenged with impunity in the name of religious freedom. In all this the comrades found common cause with the clergy. In the violence on Wednesday, the CPM has at last met its comeuppance with the Muslims returning a dose of the red hooliganism to their own mentors.
The Kolkata violence, which was unleashed by the All India Minorities Forum, a Muslim outfit, really stunned the authorities and the police proved totally ineffective. The state government called in the army in panic fearing communal riots. The victims of the Muslim protest were innocent bystanders and the police. The attack on people, public property, including a school bus was totally unjustified. The reasons given were atrocities on Muslims in Nandigram and allowing the stay of Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen. It is not clear how the two are related. Muslim leaders allege that in Nandigram over 30,000 Muslim families were rendered homeless. Many of the people killed, wounded and women gang-raped by CPM hoodlums belonged to that community. These leaders also accuse the thirty-year-rule of the Left Front as exploitative, tyrannical and abysmally callous to Muslim interests. That on providing employment and education and ensuring better living conditions to the minority community the CPM record is unpardonably poor. The state lags behind all the states considered the most backward in all these parametres. But unabashedly the CPM clamours for more for the Muslims at the national level, accusing even the UPA of insincerity in implementing various communal awards. It is the Left Front that provided land, shelter and fake ration cards to millions of illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators to keep them as readymade permanent vote bank to perpetuate its regime in West Bengal. It is the same party that allowed mushrooming of madrasas along the border though they have proved hatcheries of terrorist and communal virus.
When Muslim fanatics launched a murderous attack on Taslima in Hyderabad two months ago the Left justified it. Similarly, it justified the bloody Muslim protests over the Danish cartoons and it organised Muslim demonstrations against Saddam hanging, Bush’s India visit and the US invasion of Iraq.
The CPM has a long history of treacherously supporting Muslim communalism and betraying the national cause. That is why it is music and poetic justice when the fanatic lot turns against the party and its government. This may not mean the end of the CPM villainy in the company of crass communal elements. Nor that the Muslims have finally seen through the cynical power game of the comrades.
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