KOLKATA: Nearly two decades after the violence that scarred Nandigram, West Bengal chief minister Suvendu Adhikari on Tuesday said his government would reopen cases linked to the alleged atrocities committed during the Left Front regime, with fresh FIRs and stringent legal action promised against several former CPI(M) leaders, news agency PTI reported.Speaking at Gokulnagar on the 19th anniversary of ‘Operation Suryodaya’, Adhikari said the CID probe conducted under the erstwhile TMC regime never reached a complete judicial process, so those responsible went unpunished.“The CID conducted a probe, but there was no trial. I have said that fresh FIRs will be filed and cases reopened against those responsible,” Adhikari said. He named CPI(M) leaders Abhay Ghosh of Goghat, Manoranjan Patra of Taldangra, Tapan Ghosh of Garbeta and Himanshu Das of Khejuri, among others.The move marks a renewed political and legal push by the BJP government to revisit one of the most contentious chapters of the Left Front’s 34-year rule in West Bengal, according to PTI.
What was ‘Operation Suryodaya’
Carried out on November 10, 2007, the operation was a controversial, violently political and paramilitary-style offensive allegedly orchestrated by CPI(M) cadres. Its aim was to forcibly reclaim control of Nandigram, where the then ruling party’s political footing had weakened because of resistance to land grabbing by the Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee (BUPC), a platform of affected farmers backed by the TMC and others.The violence followed a BUPC procession from Sonachura to Maheshpur in Nandigram. The CPI(M) faced allegations of orchestrating attacks on supporters of the anti-land acquisition movement, and the operation along settlements near the Talpati canal came to be known as ‘Operation Suryodaya’.Nandigram, in Purba Medinipur district, became one of the epicentres of a fierce anti-land acquisition movement. That movement played a defining role in the political mobilisation that ended the Left’s uninterrupted rule in the state in 2011, catapulting Mamata Banerjee to state power.
‘Bodies dumped in the sea’
Recalling the November 2007 violence, Adhikari alleged that 11 people were abducted, had their hands tied behind their backs and were detained at a gram panchayat office in the Baratala area. They were then taken to Kamarda and brutally killed at a CPI(M) party office, he said. He claimed their bodies were subsequently packed into bags and dumped in the sea.The chief minister said the 19-year-old tragedy had yet to receive justice. He noted that the subsequent CID investigation led to former MP Lakshman Seth spending 181 days in jail, but maintained the judicial process remained incomplete.Adhikari also alleged that armed groups from outside the area, dressed in black, were brought in to carry out “organised attacks” on villagers. He warned that those involved would face stringent action.
‘Blood-soaked sunrise’
The events had triggered widespread outrage and sharply polarised West Bengal’s political and cultural establishment. Civil society groups and intellectuals hit the streets of Kolkata in protest against the Left Front government, while the CPI(M) held counter-demonstrations to display its political strength, PTI said.At Tuesday’s programme, Adhikari invoked a controversial remark by the then chief minister, late Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who had said, “They have been paid back by their own coin”.“Although the late chief minister was an honest person in his personal life, his party was in the wrong,” Adhikari said.He also recalled remarks by senior Left leaders, including Biman Bose, who had described the developments in Nandigram as the rise of a “new sun”.“It was a blood-soaked sunrise,” Adhikari said.Paying tribute to those who lost their lives during the prolonged agitation, Adhikari put the number of martyrs at 41.“During Mamata Banerjee’s rule, death certificates of the missing were not issued to the bereaved families. Though the former CM had described Nandigram as her second sister during poll campaigns in 2021, she never returned to stand beside the affected families,” he alleged.“My government has addressed the issue related to death certificates and gave jobs to nine members of the families of the deceased. We have provided Rs 4 lakh as compensation for the family of each victim,” he said.Adhikari had hinted at reopening the Nandigram cases about a week and a half ago, and he reiterated the assurance on Tuesday at Gokulnagar, close to the site of the violence.The proposed fresh FIRs and reopening of cases are likely to bring the events of 2007 back into the political spotlight, as the BJP seeks to foreground the legacy of the Nandigram movement and the alleged excesses of the previous Left regime, PTI added.(With agency inputs)
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