As the joint operation of state and central forces to flush out Naxalites from Lalgarh and its adjoining areas entered into fourth day, a group of intellectuals appealed to both the Naxalites and the state administration to ceasefire and find a peaceful solution through negotiations. Kolkata-based intellectuals including Aparna Sen, Saonli Mitra, Jay Goswami visited Lalgarh today and spoke to villagers and Chhatradhar Mahato, the leader of the People’s Committee against Police Atrocities.
Aparna Sen appealed to both the government and the Naxalites to lay down their arms. On behalf of Swajan, a forum of intellectuals who became vocal against the Left Front government, Aparna Sen said, “We don’t believe in political violence, violence and counter violence”
They felt “the innocent villagers are caught in the cross fire.” Chhatradhar Mahato joined them in appealing to Naxalites and the state administration for an immediate ceasefire.
But her appeal failed to evoke favorable response from the warring sides. Kishenji, the Naxalite leader, said the question of laying down arms did not arise. He said the Naxalites did not have any intention of withdrawing their force from the area.
In Kolkata, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee held a meeting with senior bureaucrats and police officers to review the operation and decided to continue with it. After yesterday’s successful entry into Lalgarh, the joint force of state and central forces established their operational base at Lalgarh police station today.
The force has cleared some roads connecting Lalgarh with Binpur, Sarenga and Pirakata of road blocks. Bulldozers were pressed into service this morning for this.
All indications are there that police are planning for a long protracted campaign to weed out the Naxalites. Nine jawans of central force fell sick because of heat stroke. One of them had to be lifted by an air force chopper to Kalaikunda air force station. Yesterday, one of the jawans collapsed after marching in Lalgarh and died there because of the heat. Kishanji admitted that at least three ‘villagers’ died and another got seriously wounded in yesterday’s gun battle.
The police operation has forced thousands of villagers to flee their homes. Eyewitness accounts claim no human being is to be found village after village in Goaltor, Pirakata, Ramgarh. Villagers took shelter in Pirakata High School building, complained that the fear of torture at the hands of police forced them to flee their villages.
Some of them complained about the highhanded attitude of the People’s Committee. According to Sisir Adhikari, Union minister of state rural development, who has been touring the relief camps today, at least 20,000 villagers have become refugees in the last four days.
TMC is trying to establish some relief camps in the affected areas But when Sisir Adhikari and Mukul Roy, another Union minister, went to Salboni with relief materials, they were gheraoed by CPI(M) activists. The CPI(M) activists in this instance blocked roads with trees. Mukul Roy said, “If they do it in Lalgarh, you label them as Naxalites. Now, what do you call the CPI(M) workers when they do the same at Salboni?”
In Kolkata, the chief secretary Ashokmohan Chakrabarty said the administration was concerned about ordinary villagers. The district magistrate has been asked to provide rice and other relief materials to the villagers. Incidentally, today is the 32nd anniversary of the Left Front government in Bengal. The government is engaged in a conflict with the tribals who remained with the Left for three decades.
The CPI(M) state committee’s organ Ganashakti has brought out a four-page pull-out to commemorate the anniversary. But the leaders like Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee, Biman Bose, Nirupam Sen and Prakash Karat, Sitaram Yechuri are conspicuous by their absence in that issue.
The party has gone back to the past and reprinted articles written by Jyoti Basu, Pramod Dasgupta and Saroj Mukherjee.
