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the sunday indian 30 19 june 2011 the sunday indian 31 19 june 2011

l e t c o v e r s t o r y

photo :

TerrorunearthedCPM's 34-year-old regime of terror stands

exposed after the recovery of skeletonsnear a former minister’s residence in

West Midnapore

illustraio



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l e t

cpc -mp. A Ithank God-I really do though I don’tg p- I vhave always had the innate common sensenot to be ooled by the dogma riddendouble standards o the comrades. Frank-ly, I shudder to think what would havepp I Mx - m g 'P- P'. I w m c p w p craed, created and nurtured by Marxistsacross the world. Tey were the Soviet

Union, China and Cambodia-the nationswhere Comrades took their dreams andantasies to their logical conclusion andm. I Sv U, ‘G’ Stalin sent to death no less than 30 millionw cm b p.In China, that 'Great Helmsman', Mao

w pb w mthan 20 million deaths o Chinese citizensg m wp C -g G Lp Fw C- Rv. I Cmb, P-dise o the Proletariat reached its zenith 3 p c c’ pp-tion was exterminated to attain that para-dise. And that extermination happened in

just about ve years. Imagine what wouldv pp ‘c m’ k m, m, w w Cm w gv

a chance by Indian voters to do to Indiaw v W Bg. B-v m, gm.

I know Indian democracy is deeply awed and I know most o our politiciansand parties are venal and corrupt. But letsace it. Would you preer a ruling party that tries its best to ignore your protestsand continues plundering or a party whose goons will rape your wie, sisterand mother, kill your child and then danceon the dead enemies o ‘class enemies’ ?ruly, the Marxists in Bengal were in aclass by themselves. Even in the darkest Emgc, vCongress party goons systematically,

ruthlessly, efciently and chill-g g pp protestors. Tat is exactly what

happened with unailing regu- W Bg mp 34 . Adon’t or a moment believe thatthis Red reign o terror un-leashed by the comrades is arelatively new phenomenon. Itwas during the heyday o the‘bhadralok’ regime led by lateJyoti Basu that more than 3000Dalits were brutalised and 100plus killed in police ring atMarichjhapi. Te Red logic issimple: they know what is bestor the people. And i peoplebg g, w, and kill them till they accept v Gp. S,Mao and Pol Pot o Cambodiadid it successully in theircountries. Merciully, the In-dian Red Brigade had monop-oly power only over West Ben-gal to play out its Faustianantasies. Just one act here:more than 20 Enquiry Com-missions were set up duringthe Marxist regime in Bengal

to nd out details about unp justied and brutal policekilled hundreds and even thoone was able to submit its rmust be languishing in somW’ Bg Kk

O course, I haven’t heword o protest or revulsilikes o Arundhati Roy, whthe only person who has sethe Indian Republic even as its tragedies and brilliantly uo globalisation to carp abstructive and de-humanisigb. F kg c

p c b mpc c b C know that comrades have axc c mg

But here is a sobering lessus even as Mamata Banerjmonumental challenge o resrom the shambles create, g pists. Let us as citizens condemdemocracy that we have nowinals commit crimes with cause they know the even

c m ck But let us as citizens and vomember this: Marxists andtwo sides o the same coin. over power to the ascists, yoble. And i you hand over pc v Mxv bgg b.

I end by remembering Rizman who committed the cri v w g . H m w kwconcerned the Marxists the welare o Muslims. May pc.

MaMataBanerjeefaces theMonuMentachallengeof rescuingBengal froM

the shaMBle

Skeletonsfound from

a grave near

CPM ex-minister Su-

santa Ghosh's house; (Inset)Residents dig

the area

ShadeS of Red: Mrxism n Bl

I you hide skeletons in a cupboard,

v b mbgout. Even i you try and bury themsix eet under Mother Earth, they

have the mystically unnerving power tohaunt you later. Tat is what the Com-rades in West Bengal are discovering aerskeletons were unearthed rom near the

residence o ormer minister and CPM

leader Sushanta Ghosh just a ew daysback. Allegedly, they are the remains o pp w w kpp m-cred in cold blood by CPM goons or theiraudacity in raising their voices againstMarxist authoritarianism and thuggishbehaviour (read detailed story aer this

column). I am not at all surprised at the

cv. A I m pc pvc c m mgraves with many more bodies. Nor will Ibe surprised when the likes o ComradePk K Cm BbBhattacharya display utter brazenness, xc c gv c

sutanu guru on the blood thisty legacy o the red Bigade in Bengal

photos :sandipan kar



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I

t is certain that had the CPM-led LeFront government not been van-quished in the state assembly elec-, b cp

W Mp w v v cm g.On June 4, Madan Santra, a CPM ̀ har-

mad' or storm trooper and obviously aturncoat, inormed anyone who was in-terested, about the digging o several bod-ies at the Malikdanga eld nearby in thec.

More signicantly, the bodies were b c -c S G, m CPMm w kw p g-man's residence. Te new glasnost was thegg vg -g o the bushy eld and recover parts thebodies, which lay dismembered and mudk.

While the pro-working class mask o CPI (M) had long been unmasked withSingur and Nandigram, what appearedapparent with these skeletons was thepseudo-democratic character o the so-c p wc xp.

While the Stalinist intent o the party wc W Bg b po post-Independence, stood exposed, itmarked probably just the beginning o m c xp w.

, “I pc.” A m CPM , kw w taking. By all reliable accounts, CPMleader Sushanta Ghosh, who was the thenminister or development o the JungleMahal area, was regarded as strong arm `cv', b w CPM p c p w wp pw.

Te skeletons were suitably recoveredm g b Malikdanga, close to the minister's resi-

dence. According to police sources, theremains o those seven skeletons belongedto rinamool Congress whose activistsw w gg m Sp-tember 22, 2002, and murdered in coldblood. But this was 2002, nearly a decadebeore the party which held sway overmost parts o the B engal, were swept out fc.

Pc c – w m p- v b c 34years – say their b odies were transportedto Sushanta Ghosh’s residence at Benach-apra and dug there. Later, the corpseswere ̀ exhumed' and shied to anotherspot at Malikpara, a little away rom

Ghosh’s house and conned to theirm gv.

With CPM apparatchiks out o the way, pc w : g FIR g SG 3 cg CPMdistrict secretariat member arun Roy and district committee member Entaz Ali Kp.

Says a rinamool leader, ̀ `Assume thatS G, c m CPI(M) m-p ( Hm) w pc c Jg M,

pc Pcm Mp c,and the erstwhile minister or Paschiman-chal Unnayan (western regional develop-m), cvc w m-pm g w 3 gwhom an FIR has been lodged. Will theCPI(M) general secretary and the polit-b cmm xp G,AIKS R bgCPI(M) z cmm c EzA''? Q k, c.

Te killings could actually open up apandora's box o the CPM's misdeedsduring three decades o their rule and ex-pose chapters o their suppression o allthose who opposed them – by hook or by

ck, m bB CPM' c

c wor instance, remember CP m c 4convicted o involvement ino hal-a- dozen landless agbourers o Suchpur at Nanoodistrict. Te CPM did not thip g m pc kg

Nearly the same thing haptwo important CPM leadeex-Zonal committee secreDutta and his accomplice Dw g w

or rape and killing o teenMk. T S P mistically termed these twwealth’ and vowed to move hT, wv, v m

Te critical question here iJose Stalin's Lavrenti Beria, torganised the Soviet leader'political killings and was the do the secret police. Was Ghosh? Clearly, with the adc m Mm Bavowedly anti-Le policieswc b pcp, k g

rinamool members, or k gg vcides' that have occurred b . Ng

Tey have demanded thordered into unexplained lbeginning with the killings at Mp Sb 78.

When the ghastly Sanibaripc Mc 7, CPI(Mant leader and number one co Bw c Hksaid, addressing a mammoth

(Below)Locals dis-

play skulls;(Right) A

crowd at thesite where

skeletonswere found

SKeLeToNS in t r cupbrWith the CPM out o powe afe thee tubulent de-cades, otting copses and huge cache o illegal amsshow how Stalinist West Bengal had become, epotschandrasekhar bhattacharjee

Says senior pradesh Congress Commit-tee leader and All India Congress Com-mittee (AICC) member OmprakashMishra, “Tis is just one incident o theutterly Stalinist CPM. Tis can just be judged as a tip o the iceberg. Since the lateseventies, several such incidents have hap-p w mg pp btraced. A through probe into those inci- c k .''

Concurs Debasish Dutta, secretariatmember o CPI’s West Bengal Committee L F c, ``Obv those are gruesome incidents. Tose whoare responsible should be identied and w k w c.”

Avers RSP national secretariat mem-ber and ormer MP Manoj Bhattacharjee

the killingscould open u

a pandora'sBox of thecpM's Misdeeduring itsthree decade

of Misrule

p h o t o s

: s a n d i p a n k

a r

SushantaGhosh(inset)and his

house



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the Brigade Parade Ground – “ I eelp w pp Bww 7 Mc, 7”.

Little wonder then that Konar’s young-er brother threatened to strangle thepeaceul protesters o Nandigram. “Wewill surround Nandigram rom our sideswith cadres and make their lie hell”, he b, w kg ccthe public sentiments that have come to p v c .

Te CPM's record is something thateven the biggest Fascist - whom they

abuse - would be proud o: some, 250 cus-todial deaths; 450 in jail and 800 in policelock-ups; innumerable political assassina-tions during the 34 years o the Le Frontgm v c pp-, wc b b public. From all neutral accounts, theCPM's hit list does not start with this - nei-ther does it end here. It includesMarichjhanpi in the Sundarbans in 1978and the mass-burning o Anandamargis atKolkata in 1982.

T g cc c k- w c mb , w g pk b -revocably established at the Writers Build-ing in Kolkata. And a number o themc b m Sg.

Massacres at Singur and killings and

gg p Ngm 7 mvthe conscientious ex-governor o WestBg Gpk G cbthe killing o 14 unarmed villagers atNandigram on March 14, 2007 – ironi-c 4 v KMx – ‘c ’.

Despite the sage governor's very nu-anced criticism, chie minister BuddhadebBc, cg mdepartment, played the role o a merespectator, the question o tendering anpg w q.

Just how deep did the CPM writ run?Clearly, the latest recoveries in West Mid-napore are not the rst. On May 18 thisyear another set o human corpses werecv m pc c CPMparty ofce at Kankabati village in Mid-napore. Not surprisingly, this was theplace where the CPI (M) vowed to van-quish the Maoists in 2008. Under extremephysical threat, the Maoists were orced .

Te police is yet to establish the iden- cp Kkb pc-ulation abounds about their antecedents– were they Maoists or the rinamool

Congress supporters? Only a police inves-g, wv, b, c v.

I c Mkg, v a rinamool Congress activist, has beenidentied. In an earlier incident, two bod-ies were recovered, o which one was apc fc NGO.

Tough Maoists have denied any role kg, CPM p-c v c bm bpc .

A Maoist spokesman told SI, “Te twowere kidnapped by CPM and killed asthey had some squabbles regarding policecv, b w w bm.”

It would be worth recalling here that

despite all the apologies and good will, theCPM was unable to get its act togetherwhen it came to deal with the administra- pc.

With the change in power, people arevg g g . Nw m v cv huge illegal arms rom dierent CPM-c - G-beta, Salboni, Keshpur, Midnapore,Kharagpur, (in West Medinipur), Dantan,Patashpur (In East Medinipur), Joipur andKp ( Bk) v pco Arambag region (in Hooghly). opo-graphically, Garbeta is situated at the cen- cc.

T pm cmm CPI (M)’

m gg – cmm kw H-mad Vahini – widely recognised to beSusanto Ghosh – as reerred by P CChidambaram in his letters to ex-CMBb Bc, c w bg m . T m-mind is also the main accused o Chhoto-Angaria mass killings in 2002 where 11rinamool Congress activists were slaugh- Bk M’ .

I cm g ck b v p wg g, c, gb p g p gv cgNow with a new government in place, cg c b criminal investigations should MamataB k p

Accg , Sk A minister’s brother apan Ghosh led thatattack. Te CBI could not establish charg-

g , pcb, w-

‘ p’.Nw, c D M-hammad, one o the main accused inChhoto Angaria case and Baktar Mondal’sopen statements, the CBI – with a newgovernment in tow – has restarted thevg.

As is typical with such investigations, gc w v pb p w w w c vv. A cbe expected, arriving at the scene o thecm v c taken place, is a challenge that even thecountry's premier investigative agency hasound difcult to unearth aer decades o prevarication. Interestingly, it was thesame apan Ghosh and Shukur Ali whowere arrested on `public demand' whileg m Ngm.

According to Justice B P Banerjee,ormer judge o Calcutta high court, the

CPM has met all criterion t

politically. Te changed sicompelled some unwilling S G’ bg truth and help the villagers, dg b p v.

Clearly, the Stalinist ideaCPM cultivated so careull, w cmg p Its actual impact is now, just ning to be elt. In the daysc w cc

Also, it would be interew L mg is that aer their historic power, many o their cadr cc g g w k g mmb A w b W Bnew government that has co c w.

ill now the new chie min B w mg xpv gvm cc

viding good governance. m cm.

(Above) CPMHarmad's quar-

ter in JangalMahal; (Right)

Members of Harmad group

Tapan andSukur Ali; (Far

right) Police look at arms

found by peoplefrom CPM's

hideouts inJangal Mahal

the stalinist ideal which the cpMcultivated over Many years, is nowcoMing apart at the seaMs

photos :sandipan kar



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Nothing is more illustrative o the manner in whichmcc w g 34 CPMrule than the human skeletons ound in Garbeta. Tose

w Cmm g w vcm g CPM cadres not only in Garbeta but all across the statecg P, W Mp L G.

It is the law o the nature that when oppression breaches thelimits o tolerance, those who have put up with it or long yearsbg v. H b m cc, CPM’reign o terror would have continued or 34 more years. It's thebeauty o democracy that it places the ultimate power in the cmm m.

Te electorate o West Bengal has made good use o itselectoral rights and saved itsel rom uture massacres by booting out the CPM. People have voted or a clean, t ransparentgvm w w p .

Other political parties, including the Congress, haverepeatedly complained about CPM excesses in the state but theBuddhadeb Bhattacharya led government paid no heed. Tegvm cv p g mp democracy by the party workers. Te result was that CPMg, bg m wp, w c c m pc mc.

When the state government did not pay heed to ourcomplaints, we sent a written protest to the Centre. Along withMamata Banerjee we met the Prime Minister and the HomeM m C' v. W Centre did step in, no real changes could be made or CPMhoodlums continued to enjoy the patronage o the districtadministration and the police. Te government was committedto protecting its cadres while democracy was repeatedly assaulted. Parties which reposed aith in democracy were pc.

W m gvm MmBanerjee, we have taken the initiative to investigate the atrocitieso the CPM cadres. When the human skeletons in Garbetasuraced, the government ordered a resh investigation into allsuch cases in the state. Te chie minister has expressly orderedthat transparency and impartiality be maintained in all such

vg.It is noteworthy that when CID reached Garbeta to investigate c, c pc cp. B CM’stern warnings, the hopes o the aected amilies o Garbetahave revived that justice will be done. Te Centre has alsopm pb p m DNA m bg w.

Our priority is to bring the guilty to justice, no matter how highly placed or . I w mp cktaking meetings, the chie minister reiteratedher commitment to a transparentgvm pg w the highest democratic ideals. Tegvm w k p pp’ b mcc. W kw g cg. B w w best to ulll all the promises that we hadmade to the voters during the highly chargedmb c.

People o West Bengal voted us as they were ed up with the misrule o theCmm. T v gtask to clean up the rotten system that was leby the Communists. Our pledge is that wew v w c.

(As told to Pramod Kumar)

CPM excessesout in the open

Manas Ranjan Bhuiyan MLA and president WBPCC

Had the voters not booted out the L ef governmentin West Bengal, it would have continued with itsundemocratic ways and reign o terror

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