Citizens’ Research Collective on SEZ

Kolkota, May 11, 2008: ‘Free and fair’ Nandigram is still not within reach, Aparna Sen learnt on Saturday. A day after chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee rubbished Opposition claims of ‘Red terror’ in the region, Aparna and her entourage were stopped from going to Nandigram at Bagnan in Howrah, some 70 km away from their destination.

Not that the destination was peaceful. Bombs and bullets had a free run, with the warring sides — CPM and Trinamool Congress — clashing at several places, leaving at least three injured.

It was around 2.45 pm when the fleet of cars with Aparna, Saoli Mitra, Kaushik Sen, Bolan Gangopadhyay and others screeched to a halt on NH-6. Parked all over the road were police vehicles.

For the next hour and a half, Aparna and the others remained stranded on the highway, pleading with the administration to let them pass. Uluberia SDO Sanjay Basu and additional SP (rural) Deep Narayan Goswami stood firm: they couldn’t be allowed to go to Nandigram.

There had been a flurry of behind-the-scenes activity ever since the state election commission (SEC) allowed the intellectuals to visit Nandigram during Sunday’s panchayat elections. Sources said CPM state secretary Biman Bose sent a faxed message to the SEC on Friday, observing that “many people” wanted to go to Nandigram on election day. Shortly afterwards, the state administration informed the SEC that too many outsiders could create a law-and-order problem in Nandigram’s already trouble-torn villages.

The SEC, which had no problem granting the intellectuals permission on Thursday, did a volte-face 48 hours later. Just before Aparna and Saoli were to leave, a letter from the SEC reached them, saying the East Midnapore district administration could not provide them security as Nandigram was a “special situation”. Section 105 of the West Bengal Panchayat Act was invoked to stop them from going to Nandigram.

Undeterred, they decided to leave anyway. They started around 2 pm, an hour behind schedule. Some 45 minutes later, the entourage was stopped at Madhabpur.

“Section 105 is against any kind of campaigning. We were not going there to campaign. We expected CPM hooligans to stop us, not the administration,” Saoli said.

“They said they were requesting us to stop as there was a home secretary directive not to let us reach Nandigram and added they would have to detain us if we tried to force our way. We don’t come under any political banner. We wanted to stand by the hapless villagers, but weren’t allowed to,” said an indignant Aparna.

The home secretary refused to confirm or deny this.

Aparna’s convoy waited till 4.20 pm and returned to the city. When she and Saoli reached the SEC office, election commissioner Ashok Gupta had already left.

Source: Times of India