Cold Horror

Palash Biswas

In a virtual indictment of the state government for the police firing Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi today said the use of force against the villagers could have been avoided. "Was this spilling of human blood not avoidable? What I advised government over the last two days, as I received inputs of rising tension in Nandigram, government knows. It is not my intention to enter into blame-fixing. But I cannot be so casual to the oath I have taken as to restrict my reaction to a pious expression of anguish and outrage.. But I also expect the government to do what it thinks is necessary to mitigate the effects of this bitter 14 March," he said.
But as Buddhadeb Bhattacharya metamorphosed from being an arrogant communist immersed in the verses of revolutionary Russian poet Mayakovski to the benign darling of capitalist investments, many of the intellectuals clapped.When this lover of avant-garde movies and Garbriel Garcia Marquez went to seek the seventh term at the hustings for the Left Front last year, many of the intellectuals were actually cheerleaders.
Hours after the Calcutta High Court directed a CBI probe into Nandigram violence, the investigating agency today sent a three-member team headed by a Joint Director to investigate the circumstances that led to the police firing. In Nandigram, the CBI team would go into circumstances leading to the firing by security forces after nearly 5,000 villagers fought pitched battles with them on Wednesday morning, CBI sources said here.Earlier in the day, a Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court comprising Chief Justice S S Nijjar and Justice P C Ghosh passed the order for a CBI probe on a petition by the National Alliance of People's Movement and some lawyers.
Singur was a beginning but Nandigram perhaps changed all that.Now the Bengal intellectuals are in a soul-searching mode.
The Statesman Kolkata reports,Cops take their toll on Nandigram: At least 20 people fell to police bullets and more than 60 others, including 14 police personnel, were injured in the bloodiest ever clash between police and supporters of anti-land acquisition movement at violence-scarred Nan-digram today. Trouble erupted when police tried to enter strife-torn Nandigram.
Defending the police action the West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today (March 15) blamed the villagers in Nandigram from the violence that ensued on Wednesday (March 14) and left 12 dead and scores injured. Buddhadeb has said that if the farmers had been wiser and composed the police would not have had to open fire. Buddhadeb has also justified the police entry into Nandigram on the grounds that for almost three months there was no rule of law in Nandigram.
Questioning the use of police force, West Bengal Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi said he was 'shocked and outraged' by the events at Nandigram where police firing killed 14 villagers Wednesday after cops clashed with protestors resisting land acquisition for a special economic zone (SEZ).
'The news of deaths by police firing in Nandigram this morning has filled me with a sense of cold horror. We will soon know more details of the sequence of events that led to this tragedy,' he said in a statement.He said the 'point uppermost in my mind is not who started it but who provoked it or whether there were agent provocateurs behind it,' he said.
'Investigations will reveal the thought in my mind - and of all sensitive people - about whether this spilling of human blood is not avoidable? What is the public purpose served by the use of force that we have witnessed today?' he said.
'Force against anti-national elements, terrorists, extremists, insurgents, is one thing. The receiving end of the force used today does not belong to that order,' he added.
'What I advised the government over the last two days, as I received inputs of rising tension in Nandigram, government knows. It is not my intention to enter into blame-fixing,' Gandhi said, making it clear that he had warned of such a situation.
'But I cannot be so casual to the oath I have taken as to restrict my reaction to a pious expression of anguish and outrage. I trust the government will not only go into the whys and wherefores of this tragic occurrence but will also ensure that it leaves no room for a repetition of the kind of trauma witnessed today,' he said.
'I leave it to the conscience of officials responsible to atone for the event in the manner they deem fit. But I also expect the government to do what it thinks is necessary to mitigate the effects of this bitter March 14, and to do it visible and fast,' he said.
A large number of Kolkatans expressed outrage at the police atrocities committed against innocent villagers in Nandigram today. Many of them said the incident had shaken their faith in the state government. Well-known theatre personality Bibhas Chakraborty today resigned from Paschimbanga Natya Academy in protest against the “barbaric attack on innocent people by police.” Bibhas Chakraborty, an executive committee member of the academy, submitted his resignation today. He said his colleagues, including Mr Kausik Sen, Mr Asok Mukhopadhyay, Mr Manoj Mitra and Mr Suman Mukhopadhyay, Bratya Basu and meghnad Bhattacharya have also resigned from the academy for the same reason. With three decades of Left Front rule in West Bengal, the actors, singers, playwrights, litterateurs - both the left and right minded - have come to master the art of flattering the communists on the hot seat and have even campaigned for them in elections.As the controversy in Singur broke out over farmland acquisition for industry, most intellectuals remained either fence sitters or have lodged muted protests.But Black Wednesday might witness a shift in their attitude as the fabled Bengali intellectuals gather some courage to criticise and condemn.
The chief minister, known for his love for cultural activities, films, books and theatres, had become a centre of attraction for Bengali celebrities as they doted over his love for things culture. Suddenly, Nandigram has made him a target of intellectual ire.
The newspaer and TV channel offices was today flooded with phone calls from citizens who could not contain their anger at the atrocities. An individual called on Kolkata TV and said: The ministers should be shot as the mad dogs. Some others insisted for Armed Uprising, speaking in Naxalite tone.
Mahawheta devi, Tarun Sanyal, Shaoli Mitra, Rudra prasad sengupta, Bibhas Chakrabarti, Nabneeta Deb sen, Meeratul Nahar, Kabir Suman, Rituparno Ghosh and a galaxiy of Kolkata cultural icons addressed an unprecedented press conference and led a procession in protest. A new cultural forum `SHILPEE SANSKRITIKARMEE BUDDHIJEEVI MANCH’ has been floated to mobilse a large scale mass movement.
Pl sign the petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/nandigra/petition.html To: The Governor, Government of West Bengal We are writing this to register our strongest protest against the police firing in Nandigram, on 14th March 2007, killing around 20 villagers and injuring hundreds.
In the name of industrialisation, the CPI(M) led government has embarked on a policy of forcibly acquiring agricultural land, using a colonial land acquisition law. Because of this, thousands of farmers and landless labourers have been robbed of their livelihood and thousand more await such a fate.
Faced with strong resistance in the villages, the state has unleashed the barbaric police force and the cadres of CPI(M), on the protesting villages, with a license to injure or even kill. This happened at Singur in December 2006, Nandigram in January and February 2007. We strongly condemn these incidents of state repression.
Today, peace has disappeared from all such areas of West Bengal where the government is adamant on procuring land on behalf of the industrial houses. The "leftist" government has become aggressive partners in the neoliberal agenda of profits for a few at the cost of lives of millions of helpless people.
As a group of people committed to uphold the democratic aspirations of the people of West Bengal and elsewhere, we urge you to immediately take steps such that -
1. A judicial enquiry is conducted regarding the police firing in Nandigram so that the guilty are punished
2. All police forces are withdrawn from the affected villages and the media and other concerned people are allowed to have free access to these places
3. Plans of forced acquisition of agricultural lands are put on hold and the land acquired in Singur is returned to the owners
4. A democratic process is initiated for a healthy debate on the path of development to be followed
Sincerely,
The Undersigned
View Current Signatures
Pl red my article ` brahminical zamindari’ published in Dalit Voice, !st march Issue.
Expressing anguish over violent incidents in West Bengal's Nandigram Wednesday, Minister for External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee described them as 'unfortunate'.'It is very, very unfortunate. A number of lives have been lost,' Mukherjee told reporters, referring to the police action in the Nandigram constituency leading to at least 14 deaths during the day. Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi, another central minister from Bengal is also monitoring Cong protest as all Cong MLAs and leaders left for Nandigram today. but the crude fact is thatCongress is scarcely in a position to raise the ante against the events in Nandigram. And not just for the fear of annoying CPM, which holds the key to the survival of the UPA government.
Being the principal author of the SEZ edition of reforms leaves it with little option but to helplessly watch Mamata Banerjee run away with the protest banner. Sonia Gandhi's response made that pretty clear.
BJP raised the issue aggressively in Parliament and will enjoy the sight of Marxists squirming in their seats when Mamata accuses them of killing kisans for the sake of foreign capitalists.But there are limits to what it can do. It has styled itself as the co-author of SEZ policy, which has been enthusiastically embraced by its own state governments.
By refusing to get off the FDI bandwagon, CPM also risks attracting a full-scale blast from the powerful Left intelligentsia. The affection for the Marxists had, in any case, simmered down to indifference.
After Wednesday, it may give way to hostility that the Arundhati Roys had so far reserved for those on the right. This will be a big loss, which will not be compensated by the grudging admiration that they may get from the right-wingers.
Ms Kasturi Basu, employee in a publishing house, said: “The government had a definite purpose in sending police into the village. The reasons being cited for the attack are lame excuses.” Mrs Mita Ghosh, a housewife, said: “Just a few days back, the chief minister assured no land acquisition would take place without the consent of the villagers. Then why did police kill innocent villagers there today? The CM should take the responsibility for the entire episode.”
The West Bengal Higher Secondary Examination to begin from March 16 was deferred to April 18 following a 12-hour general strike called by the Trinamool Congress in protest against the police firing at Nandigram.The examinations for the papers scheduled to be held on March 16 would now be held on April 18, the West Bengal Council for Higher Secondary Examination announced after an emergency meeting. The rest of the examination schedule would remain unchanged. Bengal, where Naxalism (Maoism) originated in the 1960s and a repressive Congress regime turned the tide for the communists that came to power in 1977, is slowly turning into a state of servile intellectuals and dispassionate youths. At public functions the poets, writers, actors are seen swooning over the cultural leanings of Bhattacharya who gifted Kolkata a state-organised film festival year after year, despite several financial odds.So the intellectuals' reaction against the government was too late and insignificant.
Chief Minister, Your Hand Is Full Of Blood
Buddhadeb Bhattacharya will try hard to wash off the bloods on his hands during the night. But like Lady Macbeth, he would continue to hallucinate that his hands are covered in blood, despite the obsessive washing.The voice of Bibhas Chakraborty trembled and trailed off as the veteran theatre personality uttered the words against his 'friend' in a live programme on television Wednesday night, while details of the violence at Nandigram kept pouring in, in bits and pieces.
'I was shaking and agitated. I could not take it and then my nine-year-old grandson watched television for a while and asked me: 'You know Buddhadeb Bhattacharya. Why don't you ask him to stop,' said Chakraborty, who won high acclaim for his play 'Madhav Malanchi Kanya', adding that he has decided to resign from the state-run Natya Academy (Theatre Academy) in protest.
'I am shocked, heart-broken and frightened about the state of democracy. This government is keen to hold briefs for (industrialists) Tatas and Salims than for the poor people. What kind of democracy is this where poor people have no choice,' asked eminent writer Nabaneeta Dev Sen.
'It seems that we are back in the British period. Is this development? This is a kind of mechanisation devoid of humanity,' said the writer, who had been penning columns against the policies of the Buddhadeb Bhattacharya government.
'I knew him as a sensitive person and so I could not believe that he could do this,' Sen told IANS.
'We are not activists and protest through our writings. There are a handful of people among intellectuals who are, what you call, cozying up to the chief minister,' Sen said defending herself, as the intellectuals became a target of the common people.

'When we first approached many of the intellectuals for support over the Singur issue they told us that they are now too close to the man (Buddhadeb) to protest against his policies,' said eminent playwright Saoli Mitra.
Daughter of the late legendary theatre couple Sambhu Mitra and Tripti Mitra, Saoli was protesting Singur acquisition with her play 'Pashukhamar', a stage adaptation of George Orwell's famous book 'Animal Farm'.
'If the intellectuals had reacted a little earlier then perhaps they could have been protesting now with a much cleaner conscience,' Mitra said.
'Today I don't have any language to express my reaction. I am glued to the TV set whole day and watching the horror unfold,' said Mitra.
'I want to cry out,' she said.
Medha Speaks
Social activist Medha Patkar today termed Nandigram violence in which 14 villagers died as a "pre-planned" and "deliberate" attempt of the West Bengal Government to foil the genuine people's movement against land acquisition for building Special Economic Zones (SEZs).
"From the kind of force deployment and the earlier statements of the government, it is clear that yesterday's attack on the villagers was pre-determined and deliberate. It shows that the West Bengal Government has turned violent," she said at a demonstration held here to protest the violence.
"The local people have decided not to give their land. But despite that the government is trying to go ahead with the project. The government itself is responsible for the law and order situation," she said.
Patkar welcomed the Calcutta High Court's direction to the CBI to probe the incident.
"Till now it is not clear how many people have died. The CBI inquiry will bring out the actual picture," she said.
Jaya Protests
In Chennai, terming yesterday's police firing at Nandigram as a "shameful blot" on the West Bengal government, AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa today demanded action against the officers and personnel responsible for the incident.
"None of them should be spared on the excuse that they were trying to establish rule of law. The West Bengal government should take all steps to make amends and mitigate the sufferings of the farmers, although it may take a long time to assuage the deeply wounded farmers," she said in a statement here.Jayalalithaa said this was the first time in the country that a "perfectly justified agitation" by affected farmers was brutally suppressed.
The four deceased have been identified as Ratan Das (28) from Gangra, Imadul Khan (24) and Gobinda Das (22), residents of Saat Nambar Jalpai and Supriya Jana (39) from Sonachura village. Sambhu Das (33) from Sonachura village later died in hospital. All had died from bullet injuries. At least 46 people were taken to Nandigram Block Hospital, while the critically injured were sent to Tamluk Sadar Hospital. Five of the critically injured ~ Rasbehari Khara, Abhijeet Samanto, Swapan Giri and two women, Haimabati Haldar and Kanchan Mal ~ are being treated at SSKM Hospital in Kolkata.
Abu Taher, member of the committee, alleged that CPI-M goons, using police as cover, fired at the villagers without any provocation. The CPI-M state secretary, Mr Biman Bose, denied the allegation. Tapasi Das, a resident of Gokulnagar who was injured, said : “Armed CPI-M cadres entered the village close on the heels of the police and went on the rampage.” According to Mr N Ramesh Babu, DIG Midnapore range, there was a large gathering when police tried to enter the area. “Before opening fire we urged the villagers to lift the blockade. When the mob didn’t disperse, we fired teargas shells. But the villagers retaliated by throwing bombs at us and we had to open fire,” he said. Finding the villages deserted CPI-M supporters allegedly looted houses and shops. Villagers alleged that at least five women protestors were raped by CPI-M goons. BUPC members complained a few bodies were dragged towards Khejuri and some were thrown into the Hooghly river by CPI-M cadres.
Since 1971, the fascism in West Bengal has continued. It is time to not only sack the Government but also bring to justice these fascists who has been stealing land from poor farmers over the last forty-five years. It is well known in West Bengal villages, if you do not take your orders from the communists, you may lose your land and also your life. They have stolen land from any one they find weak. Demanding Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's resignation for "creating unrest" in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said that she would continue the agitation against farmland acquisition in the state.
The Brigade connection, Front page story in The statesman, Kolkata, 15th March
Uday Basu KOLKATA, March 14: The second instalment of deaths at Nandigram today once again showed what a political novice can understand is beyond the ken of the muddle-headed Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee-government. The industrialisation hype has so much clouded the vision of the Marxists that they are now incapable of thinking of even the basics. The seeds of today’s mayhem at Nandigram were actually sown at the Brigade Parade Ground on 12 March when the two ‘B’s marshalling the forces for implementing industrialisation through acquiring farm land ~ Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Mr Benoy Konar, Alimuddin Street’s backroom player ~ threatened that the state of affairs at Nandigram “won’t be tolerated any longer”. The chief minister blew hot and cold at the CPI-M peasant wing’s rally, while Mr Konar used the uncouth language that the “nose” of the opponents of the farm land acquisition policy would be “rubbed down the drains.” Mr Konar even said his party had, so long, showed restraint at Nandigram and didn’t finish his sentence which was completed today when bullets from police rifles flew thick and fast to snuff out lives that wouldn’t have in any case survived if they were forced to part with their land. The chief minister sounded unusually belligerent at the Brigade which was a tell-tale indication of the change in the CPI-M’s thinking. First, the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee administration set Nandigram on fire by craftily letting the Haldia Development Authority slap a notice on acquisition of farm land for the mega chemical hub project. Then fierce resistance forced Mr Bhattacharjee to retreat and he ordered “tearing” up the notice. Since then he went on harping that no land would be acquired without the farmers’ consent. The change of tack seemed to have convinced the Marxists that it was a sign of weakness. Then suddenly at Brigade they went on the offensive to show they are not weaklings and won’t yield an inch of political space to the Opposition. What went wrong at Nandigram was the mistake that it was a law and order problem to be tackled with police and armed CPI-M cadres, while the real problem is dispossessing the have-nots of the little land they have. And the prospect of going without food in the absence of land gives the poor incredible fire power.
KOVENA writes in Dalit Voice,March 16th-31st March 2007:The upper castes worship an inhuman ideology called Brahminism. Its prostituted name is Hinduism.The basic principle of Brahminism is permanent enslavement of the natives and their progeny. So we should not expect from them except obstruction and violence.
While we grow inch by inch and organize from the grass-root level, the upper caste rulers will increase their attacks on us. To protect ourselves, our women, our little property from the upper castes we must have a well-knit organsiation. Hence the need for Bahujan Union. Most of the existing unions and associations are under the control of our enemy.
There were several movements in India in the last 80 years — all of them were “begging” movements. It is proved that the begging movements cannot give lasting rights.
The upper caste economic ideology is: “If you want super profits create artificial scarcity”. That is why the MNCs are clearing a Rs. 1000-crore profit on drinking water. They want scarcity of everything everywhere.
The first demand of the natives is “land to the illiterate and jobs to the literate” (other demand will surface after the first demand is met).
Look at the land holdings of the upper caste super rich:
Lord Balaji, Tirupati 60,000 acres, Reliance Industries 1,00,000 acres; DLF Universal 50,000 acres; Tatas 30,000 acres; Unitech 30,000 acres; Baba Kalyan Group 27,000 aces; Sahara 20,000 acres; Mahindra 10,000 acres; AMR Group 10,000 acres.
There is enough land but in the custody of non-agriculturalists like landlords, temples, big business and government.
As the Govt. in India is “their” govt. they will not give land to the natives.
Dalits, Muslims, Christians under great pain in Brahminical India B. SHYAM SUNDER Whether one is proud of the fact or ashamed of it, there is no gainsaying that religion has always been and continues to be the main line of demarcation and the main basis of discrimination in India. Minorities, therefore, connotes groups classified thereunder. They are:- (1) the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (in the Harijan dated 21-10-1939, Gandhi has admitted that the Scheduled Castes are a minority), (2) Muslims, (3) Christians and Anglo-Indian, (4) Sikhs and (5) Parsis. Together, the population of non-Hindu minorities in India is about 200 millions or 20 crores. Thirteen years of life under Hindu domination has demonstrated that none of them is happy though all of them have not suffered in the same way and to the same extent. The main grievance, however, is that they do not have equality of status and opportunities with the major community. Even peaceful co-existence is denied to them. “Merge or vanish” is the silent demand; any resistance is suppressed with an iron hand beneath velvet gloves.
The nation has remained un-integrated because the biggest religious group in the country, having elected its own candidates to Parliament and Legislatures, regards itself a political majority, entitled to rule over the land. Having formed Governments, both at the centre and the states, it resorts, according to its age-long tradition, to discrimination on religious grounds and seeks to establish a convention that since Hindus are in a majority, non-Hindus should agree to be ruled over by them.
Mamta Hospitolised
Just minutes after Buddhadeb’s statement, Mamata Banerjee took ill and had to be rushed to a local hospital in Nandigram where she was put on respiratory support. Meanwhile, the West Bengal government has ordered a CBI probe into the Nandigram violence. Tension has been brewing between CPI(M) cadre and Trinamool activists after Mamata Banerjee wasn't allowed to enter the village twice since Wednesday. Nandigram has been in the news since the government announced to make it the venue for a multi million dollar SEZ which the locals are protesting against. Meanwhile, Lok Sabha was adjourned for the day on the issue. Faced with strong resistance from Communist Party of India-Marxist supporters, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee Thursday returned to Kolkata without entering villages in Nandigram where violent clashes left 14 dead after being briefly treated at a hospital here when she complained of chest pain.
Banerjee, who could not enter the troubled areas last night as her convoy ran into road blocks set up by CPI-M activists, reached Nandigram Sadar Hospital this morning to meet some of those injured in Wednesday's violence. But she complained of chest pain and had to be admitted to the hospital, where she was administered oxygen and saline.
Trinamool Congress leader Anuradha Putatunda alleged that Banerjee experienced the chest pain after she was hit by a stone hurled at her while she was on her way to Nandigram.
After Banerjee's condition stablised, Trinamool leaders decided to take her back to Kolkata. Putatunda alleged that Banerjee's convoy was repeatedly blocked and attacked by CPI-M supporters en route to Nandigram and at one place she was hit by a stone.
Banerjee had recently been discharged from a private nursing home where she was treated for nearly a month following a 25-day fast in December to protest the acquisition of 1,000 acres at Singur in Hoogly district for the Tata Motors' small car project.
Mamata Banerjee hospitalised in Nandigram and the violence at Nandigram in Left-ruled West Bengal would figure prominently at the UPA meeting scheduled here on March 23. A clear indication to this effect was given by the RJD supremo Lalu Prasad stating that his party would raise the issue of land acquisiton for SEZs at the meet. Prasad told reporters that his party favoured setting up of Special Economic Zones on barren and unproductive land and not on cultivable land. He said a delegation of three party MPs would soon go to Nandigram for an on-the-spot study of the situation, and would demand a compensation of Rs 10 lakh each to the next of those killed in violence. INDIA'S attempt to imitate the Chinese economic boom by handing farmland to big business has turned violent again.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee was hospitalised here today when she complained of chest pain after allegedly being hit by a stone while on her way to areas affected by violence yesterday.She rushed to Nandigram immediately after the police firing there yesterday. Banerjee was recently discharged from a private nursing home where she was treated for nearly a month after her 25-day fast in December to protest the acquisition of 1,000 acres at Singur in Hoogly district for the Tata Motors' small car project.
"Mamata had to be admitted to Nandigram hospital after she complained of chest pain when she was hit by a stone on her way to Nandigram," Anuradha Putatunda, a Trinamool Congress leader who was accompanying Banerjee, told reporters.She said Banerjee was given saline and oxygen immediately after being admitted to the hospital, which she was visiting to meet those injured in yesterday's police firing that claimed 14 lives. Putatunda alleged that Banerjee's convoy was repeatedly blocked and attacked by CPI(M) supporters en route to Nandigram and that she was hit by a stone.
Congress workers burn an effigy of the West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, to protest the police firing and the death of farmers in Nandigram on Thursday. Farmers angry over plans to build an industrial park on their land torched a g overnment office on Thursday. Naxals Under pressure from the US and European Union, India on Wednesday hinted that it was open to the idea of reducing customs duties on wines and spirits.
“India wants to avoid the matter going to the WTO’s dispute settlement body. I hope a solution can be found as the matter is being discussed at the highest level,” Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said after meeting EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel.
Both the EU and US have threatened to move the dispute settlement mechanism of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) over customs duties India imposes on imported wine and distilled spirits. The effective duty on imported wine and distilled spirits such as whisky range from approximately 150 per cent to 550 per cent.
The US has said in the WTO, India has committed that its tariffs on wine and spirits will not exceed 150 per cent.
Naxalite s Kill Police MenOn the other hand, At least fifty security personnel were feared killed and as many as 13 others were injured when Naxalites attacked a police outpost located in Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh during the wee hours of Thursday. The armed Maoists fled after looting weapons.According to the police sources, the Naxals came in large numbers and hurled grenades and petrol bombs besides opening indiscriminate fire on the security forces in the base camp at around 2 am.
“There were around eighty security personnel in the Rani Bodli base camp including 26 Chhattisgarh Armed Forces personnel and 55 Special Police Officers (SPOs) at the time of attack,” the source stated.The security personnel retaliated the Naxal attack, resulting in the death of nearly six of the extremists, a senior police official said.
Speaking to Hindustan Times, the state's home minister, Ram Vichar Netam, expressed fear that the casualty figures could be high. Senior police officials and paramilitary forces rushed to the spot following the massacre.Dantewada District Collector KR Pisda informed that around fifty dead bodies were recovered but they were yet to be identified.
Organising Bahujan unions on “caste identity” to destroy Brahminism KOVENA, 7-141, MITTAPALEM STREET, GUDUR, NELLORE DT., AP - 524 101 We do not appear to have given much importance to Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Third Commandment, “Organize”. India is a subcontinent of many nationalities and sub-nationalities with all sorts of diversities — physical, linguistic, caste, social and cultural. Unity among such diverse nationalities is impossible for any concerted movement/action. It can only be done caste-wise and state-wise. No doubt our Editor, V.T. Rajshekar, has offered a wonderful solution: caste (Caste — A Nation Within the Nation, Books for Change, Bangalore, 2002). Even the Caste solution offered by him has nothing to say on “organize”. The problem is even the caste system is different in different states. The Telugu castes are not there in any other state. So also Kannada and Tamil castes. Taking these realities and the essence of Editor Rajshekar’s Caste book into consideration, I have prepared a proforma union for each caste in each linguistic state. In AP, it will be “Telugu Bahujan Union” differing from state to state. DV should call for debate before we start organising.
Huge Muslim turn-out, A Dalit Voice report OUR CORRESPONDENT Bangalore: The city on Feb.17, 2007 witnessed a huge Muslim conference. What marked the massive turn-out (over one lakh) was that it comprised young, energetic, disciplined and yet angry Muslims. Politicians were scrupulously kept out. It was a gathering of revolutionary youth from the three Southern states of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. As expected the Brahminical papers blackedout the whole event. Nor was there any TV coverage. The Hindu terrorists from the RSS however were shocked by the discipline of the crowd which hardly had a person over 50. A person close to the Hindu terrorists said he was simply shocked by the military-discipline. How could the idli-sambar chaddi boys face such a motivated Muslim youth, he said. The police said the three-day meet in the sprawling Palace Grounds was incident free. However, some upper caste anti-Muslim elements did infiltrate in the name of secularism, a meaningless word in “Hindu India”

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(Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata -&00110, India. Phone: 91-33-25659551)Email: palashchandrabiswas@gmail.com