We are extremely pleased to offer you this post from our new guest writer- Aditya Nigam. Aditya Nigam is currently a Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in Delhi. He has written and published on issues relating to Marxism, modernity, nationalism and identity. He is author of The Insurrection of Little Selves: The Crisis of Secular-Nationalism In India (2006). He is also part of Kafila- “a collaborative practice of radical political and media critique.” All those who’ve visited Kafila, would have come across his and other posts on Nandigram which all of us here have been following. For those who haven’t- this is the link.

The Paranoia of a Totalitarian Mind
- Aditya Nigam

While West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya adopted a misleadingly deceptive tone, apparently taking all the blame for the unfortunate events that took place in Nandigram (at the 29 March SFI-DYFI rally in Kolkata), the party’s lie-machine continues to overtime on its disinformation campaign. Bhattacharya’s plea for an end to violence and killings, virtually beseeching the ‘Opposition’ to stop killing Leftist (read CPM supporters), is meant to have a specific effect – that of making it appear as though it is really they who are the aggrieved party. It is a belated strategic move, aimed at the more gullible and the wider world outside, to convey the impression that they are at the receiving end. Suddenly all the belligerence seems to have disappeared and this reasonable man appears with folded hands to beg for the return of ‘normalcy’. But this is misleading because, at another level of discourse, this new pose is accompanied by continuous, ever new production of lies and insinuations, by other members and wings/ arms of his party.

His comrade-in-arms, Biman Bose, strikes a Christ-like pose: One day the people of Nandigram will realize that they have made a mistake. Christ was the Son of God, Bose is the offspring of History. How else could he be so sure about the correctness of his position so as to make such patronizing statements? ‘The people of Nandigram will realize’, ‘some well-meaning Left-wing intellectuals have been misled’, and such other assorted statements that have appeared over the past couple of weeks merely display this deep arrogance of those who think they have the monopoly of Truth (as in the metaphysical entity that gives access to logic of the Divine Order). However, our purpose in this piece is not to counter one rhetoric with another but to take a closer look at some of the things CPM the propaganda machine is churning out.

First, let us take the main thread of the campaign. CPM general secretary, Prakash Karat, has alleged that “many of the intellectuals who claim to be on the Left, have not said a word of condemnation about these cleansing operations which led to the brutal murder of Sankar Samanta, a CPI(M) panchayat member and Sunita Mondal, a school student”. This is a point that is being repeated ad nauseam in all propaganda statements and handouts of the party. Take the following quotes from SFI leaders in Kolkata:

“If the intellectuals are really concerned about the Nandigram killings, why did they keep quiet when a student Sushmita Mondol was raped and killed there?”
“Why didn’t they protest when the Trinamool Congress hooligans killed Abhijit Samanta and Shankar Samanta in broad daylight?” (For details see this)

So, one would imagine that others have really not said anything about Sankar Samanta. Here is an extract from an interim report of an investigation by a team consisting of Prof.Sumit Sarkar, historian; Colin Gonsalves, Senior Supreme Court Advocate; Sumit Chakravarty, senior journalist; Krishna Majumdar, Delhi University; Tanika Sarkar, historian, Jawaharlal Nehru University:

“A police camp was set up on the border between Nandigram and Khejuri. On 6 January, at around 5 PM, villagers saw the police vacating that camp. That night, a launch drew up on Haldi river at the ferryghat there. According to villagers of Sonachura and adjoining villages, a very large number of strangers, fully armed, disembarked, and occupied the police camp. At around 3 AM, villagers woke to the sound of bombs and gunfire, coming from the house of Sankar Samanta, a CPM activist. As they rushed towards the spot, they found the dead bodies of two village youths, Bharat Mondol and Sheikh Selim. When the body of thirteen year old Biswajit Mondol was found, villagers, in their fury, turned upon the Samanta residence and torched it, killing Sankar Samanta.” (see report).

This surely places the killing of Sankar Samanta in perspective – and Karat wants a condemnation of this killing but no acknowledgement of the fact that he was among the key local players of the diabolical plan hatched by the CPM bigwigs. The CPM campaign also talks of the gang-rape of a school girl (Sunita Mondal in Karat’s article and Sushmita Mondol according to the SFI leader cited above) and we hope soon enough the facts regarding that case too shall be brought to light. In the meanwhile, the APDR and PBKMS investigating team that visited the area and met the Nilanjana Dasgupta, SDO, Tamluk Subdivision, on 15th March at Tamluk hospital. She told the team that she “had heard that a gang rape had taken place there,” but was not able to say whether this was a confirmed report.

Secondly, it is being repeatedly alleged that “the Chief Minister made a categorical commitment in January that there would be no chemical hub and therefore no land acquisition without the consent of the people.” That should have been enough to call off the agitation, if that was what the agitation was really about. But no, they continued to keep up the heat in Nandigram. This is being repeatedly presented as proof of the mal-intent of the agitators connected with the Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee (BUPC), and has been argued once again in an article by politburo member Brinda Karat, (here). This is also proof, according to her that “a larger game plan being played out in West Bengal.” The CPM clearly seems to believe that it has the ultimate ownership of the grammar of political action and according to it, this movement was grammatically wrong. Thus Brinda K: “Normally when there is a struggle on a specific demand, in this case against land being taken over, if the demand is accepted it is claimed as a victory and the agitation is called off.” If this was not done in Nandigram, this was because the BPUC was actually not interested in the matter. Now, Ms Karat seems to really believe that simply saying that “there would be no acquisitions”’ by a party and a leader who have lost all credibility in the matter, especially after Singur and the forcible fencing off of the area for the Tatas, should be enough. She forgets – or maybe does not realize – that the credibility of the party has been eroded as never before – since the elections of May 2006 and the people are no longer to take their word for the truth of their real intentions. The people apprehend that once the matter cools down, the state and the party will move in and acquire the land. And they may not be very wrong in their assumption. At any rate, Nandigram movement has forced a fundamental reappraisal of the SEZ strategy all over the country – something that would not have happened if the experience of dispossession – from Narmada to CPM’s own Rajarhat – is any indicator. Courts, politicians, Left and Right and the institutions of international and demostic capital had all connived in this long and endless story of dispossession.

Ms Karat continues, in line with the party’s strategy, to accuse the Left-wing intellectuals who have taken an independent stand, in a tone and language that is allowed only to the CPM and its ilk: “Shockingly and sickeningly, the numerous reports of historians, human rights activists, and commentators have not mentioned their trauma at all, not even as a footnote, but on the contrary have almost celebrated their plight as “peoples anger” against the CPI(M). Houses of CPI(M) members or sympathisers were identified in an organised way and attacked. In one day - on January 3 - 34 homes were burnt, 41 houses were broken into and household goods smashed, 47 houses were looted.” Need we comment on this, any more?

Now we come to the most fantastic part of Brinda K’s paranoia. Before we treat you to it, just one comment. Ms Karat also alleges in her article that the real aim of the movement is to keep the heat alive till the panchayat elections 0f 2008. We all “know” that CPM has been sweeping panchayat elections for decades. What we do not know is that in the last panchayat elections, almost close to half the seats were “won” by the CPM because it simply did not allow others to file their nominations. Many other such details can be provided by those who live through days of silent terror in West Bengal. And now here are some choice bits of Ms Karat’s fantasy:

1. “The strategy of the Trinamool Congress-led campaign is to continuously provoke incidents of violence in the name of saving the interests of farmers, the openly stated goal being the panchayat elections scheduled for May 2008. On March 17, the Maoists wrote a letter to Mamta Banerjee extending support to her struggle, which stated “We were in Singur, we are in Nandigram and we will stay.” This should not be dismissed as political rhetoric. Already there are reports that the sea route through the Bay of Bengal is being used by the Maoists to come into Nandigram. The geographical location is crucial for the spread of the Maoists “liberated” belt to the east, in which West Bengal is the barrier. The lack of any administration or police in the area facilitates such a move.” Why the sea-route, Madame? So long you have been trying to tell us that they have taken over Nandigram. And in any case, is Nandigram cut off by the land route? By whom? Your story has so far been that it is the BUPC which has cut it off? Let us be enlightened, please.

2. “Nor is it coincidental that senior U.S. officials held a meeting with a leader involved in the mobilisations of the minority community in Nandigram. The categorical position of the CPI(M) against the strategic partnership with the U.S. is reason enough for support to anti-CPI(M) platforms. A widespread campaign is necessary to explain the context of the Nandigram developments and to meet the highly motivated campaign against the CPI(M) and the government it heads in West Bengal.” Hmmm…very interesting. The US is now using what one CPM paper in Kerala has called Muslim extremists, for their anti-CPM designs! If our reading of the world and Indian – indeed Bengal – situation is correct, the CPM does not exist on the US map; Islam and extremist Islam certainly does, as the new Evil. But let that pass.

In these two statements you have it all. The Right wing Trinamool Congress, the Muslims (Jamiat -ul-Ulema-e-Hind), the Maoists, US imperialism, and the sickening historians and human rights activists – all involved in a massive conspiracy to defeat the CPM in panchayat elections and eventually pave the way for the rule of Satan. The deep paranoia of a totalitarian mind is evident here for all to see. Some of these statements need to be seriously put alongside similar statements (in style and paranoia) of the RSS pracharaks, in order to unravel the profound unity of the totalitarian mind despite differing political positions.