Nandigram Violence - November 2007 Violence

November 2007 Violence

A fresh round of violence came up in November 2007, as the villagers who were thrown out of Nandigram by the BUPC returned home. The return of the villagers was marred by violence unleashed by the ruling party cadres over the resisting BUPC cadre in Nandigram. The media termed this return as a "recapture" by the CPI(M). Evidence points to the operation being conducted entirely by the party keeping the state administration inactive. The party eulogised the operation with its state chairman describing it as 'a new dawn' and the chief minister as 'paying them back in their own coin'. The last comment was directed presumably primarily at the extreme-left Maoist activists who, the CPI(M) claims, were active at Nandigram. The government has however officially contradicted the claim. The situation was described as one of "Red Terror". Social activist Medha Patkar in a message to National Human Rights Commission of India said that war like situation prevailed in Nandigram due to presence of thousands of CPM cadres. Police officers were present in the area, but supported their programme to attack Nandigram.

The new offensive has resulted in protests throughout India. On 12 November 2007, the National Human Rights Commission has issued a notice to the West Bengal Government directing it to submit a factual report on the conditions prevailing in Nandigram. Film director Aparna Sen and Rituporno Ghosh decided to boycott the film festival in Kolkata in protest. Aparna Sen said, "Nandigram has become a slaughter house with blood being shed every day. CPM might be at the helm of affairs but the state still belongs to us."

The Parliament of India decided to discuss Nandigram with urgency, suspending the regular question hour sessions, on 21 November 2007 after two days of complete suspension of the proceedings owing to the heated debates between CPI(M) and opposition party members in both the houses. CPI(M) was alienated in the issue by all the other ruling United Progressive Alliance allies considering the fierce nationwide sentiments against the massacre