Ha! Hoo! India!

Palash Biswas

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

Hoo! Ha! India! Come on Boys in the Blue!

It is after all a Revolution Blue. Human Blood is RED. Hate the RED. Masses Bleed. Bleed the Humanity who cares? They are disturbed to see that the market is on a shaky ground, and this week, it could trend down, if the ground gives way.
p lsee:http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1085574

After nandigram Massacre Bengali Cricket Fans shouted in processions celebrating World cup defying the mourning of the masses. in Burdwan, Home of the Bengal Industry ministers Cricket Fans were on motorbikes in hundreds.
It is Obscene!

And what is it? What is the diference you feel in a state ruled by Left for thirty years?

Two women have filed a formal complaint with police alleging that some of its personnel raped them during the Nandigram violence last week, police said on Sunday.The two women, who are under treatment at the Tamluk hospital presently, have recorded their statement before a police officer, they said.

The victims, both housewives aged 27 years and 25 years, alleged that some police personnel cornered them during the melee after the firing at Sonachura village on March 14 and raped them.

The formal complaint was filed after they narrated their ordeal before a NDA delegation led by Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha L K Advani on Saturday.

The women were earlier under treatment at Nandigram block hospital but later shifted to Tamluk Hospital. The doctors have already examined the two women and confirmed that they have some injury marks on their body.

Resign Buddha!

Demanding arrest of West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya for Wednesday's Nandigram carnage, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee Sunday said people would have the last word on the communists and not the power that flows from the barrel of guns.

'Buddhadeb Bhattacharya should be arrested,' Banerjee said at a rally near the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in central Kolkata after leading a procession of Krishijami Raksha Committee (Save Farmland Committee).

Genocide in the name of development unimaginable: Medha
Kolkata, March 18 (IANS) As the ruling communist top brass kept to their safe refuge of Kolkata, social activist Medha Patkar visited hospitals and villages in Nandigram offering a much-needed healing touch to the victims of the March 14 police firing.
Read more:
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/india/news/article_1279100.php/Genocide_in_the_name_of_development_unimaginable_Medha

Nandigram - an embarrassment to CPI-M
Pl read:
http://www.indiaenews.com/politics/20070316/43302.htm

The big question is: Do our industrialists want to set up their industrial units on the soil soaked with the blood of innocent farmers? Do they want to build an empire over the graveyard of hundreds of farmers?

It is Cricket carnival. India is defeated by Bangladesh and Pakistan ousted in the first round itself.
See:http://www.cricketnext.com/

The craze for Cricket is like Fire spreading in Jungles irrespective of victory and defeat. Ad campaign and betting, live shows and gluing to TV and computors are the trends of the days. It is Joy unbound and it is Anger venomous. The Market blooms alround.

Two men allegedly involved in betting during India-Bangladesh World Cup cricket match were arrested in East Delhi, police said today.Manish Bagga and Neeraj Sehgal had accepted bets of up to Rs 8 lakhs when police raided the house of the former and arrested them last night, they said.
The duo were running a betting racket from Bagga's house in Shiv Puri area near Preet Vihar in East Delhi, they said.Police also seized a recording machine, five mobile phones and a colour television from Bagga's residence.

Pakista is Out but Musharraf: LBW, but not out!

Pl see: http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1085450

We are in the Global World!
The Globe is not the Earth inhibited by mankind and Human Civilisation.
Thus, we never seem to be worried of Man and Nature!
Cops remove protesting Bhopal gas leak survivors

Resistance in nandigram and Singur could not send any Alert to the Ruling Classes. Basuji is there like the Bhisma Pitamaha. He sees everything and says nothing. He is the Krishna in the Mahabharat who ensures victory for the Pandavas and it is the Ultimate Truth.

Truth is that India defeated.
Truth is that Buddha remains.
No hate may touch the hearts there in the power zone!

The real Truth is that the CPI-M wants to expand their political empire by force and that has been questioned by the local people. “In Bengal, we need industry, but we don’t want industry without a rehabilitation package,"

The Left Front has begun to distance itself from West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and and say they feel let down. The opposition parties, on their part, have called for his dismissal. The violence over SEZs has also surfaced the queer political equations — Congress is an ally of the Left Front at the Centre but in West Bengal, the Congress opposes the CPI-M. On the other hand, Congress opposes the BJP all across the India, but in West Bengal, it is an ally of the BJP.On the issue of opposing an economic reform-oriented Chief Minister, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Information and Broadcasting, Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi said that Nandigram is not the outcry of economic reform.
Communism has failed everywhere in the world except in West Bengal. What we see of course is only a façade, not existing actualities.
The Soviet Union disintegrated and Marxism was buried deep. What they wanted to achieve was the dictatorship of the proletariat. What happened was the dictatorship of a few who were in the top establishment. The few grabbed power and money and the proletariat was forgotten. Marxism has failed. The system collapsed. In West Bengal too, a myth has been successfully perpetrated. For 15 years, the Marxists have been in power. They have been claiming theirs is the party of workers and peasants.What is shocking is that the party has justified the police firing. They do not seem to be bothered about the killings. Instead of at least offering an apology – that was the least they could have done – they have angered the people all the more by their callous observations.

Read Chandan Mitra
Poet as Bengal's prophet
Pl see:
http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnist1.asp?main_variable=Columnist&file_name=mitra%2Fmitra238.txt&writer=mitra

Cops remove protesting Bhopal gas leak survivors!

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh):Five fasting survivors of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy have been forcibly removed to hospital by police here for refusing to take medical aid till Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan accepted their various long-pending demands. They were picked up while on the 14th day of their fast Saturday and have been lodged in the Hamidia Hospital here where they are not being allowed to meet anyone.

Bhopal District Collector S.K. Mishra has admitted to having issued the orders to remove the hunger strikers to the hospital, adding that charges of attempted suicide may be pressed on them.

The survivors have been staging strikes for the past month under the campaign 'Jeene Ka Haq' (Right to Live) to mark the first anniversary of their 800-km protest march from the city to New Delhi in support of their demands.

Coalition In Crises: PM Invites Mufti, Azad Rushes to Delhi
Pl see:http://www.kashmirobserver.com/index.php?id=2072

JAMMU, MAR 18 : (KONS) | Amid speculations of a possible pull out by Peoples Democratic Party from the coalition government, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has once again intervened and called former chief minister and party's chief patron Mufti Muhammad Sayeed to New Delhi for holding one to one talks on the issue of reduction of troops and revocation of infamous Armed Forces Special Power Act (AFSPA) from the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

India`s new alliances

India, Japan and the United States are to hold joint naval exercises in the Pacific Ocean, a marked increase in the range and extent of India`s fast-changing strategic re-alignment toward the West.

The exercises are to be held around Japan`s Yokosuka naval base on April 16, following a 4-day goodwill visit to Japanese ports by the Indian navy. The exercises, for which Japan will contribute a destroyer squadron and helicopters, are to focus on rescue operations, including training to cope with a future tsunami, and intelligence cooperation, to include code-breaking.

Maoist party calls for 4-state bandh

See:http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/B550496.htm

New Delhi: After 14 people were killed in police violence in Nandigram, West Bengal is simmering and the heat is catching on in other states as well.The CPI (Maoist) has called a bandh across four states — West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa — on March 20.

"People in these states should realise that agents of imperialist forces have perpetuated the incidents at Nandigram and they should unitedly oppose displacement," PTI quoted the outfit as saying. Security was being increased across eastern India on Sunday after Maoist rebels called for a strike to protest the killing of several peasants in a West Bengal village, police said.

In its statement, the CPI (Maoist) alleged that the Congress, BJP and the Left parties were supporters of SEZs so that foreign and domestic companies could loot the country's natural resources.
Voices of protest over the police brutality in Nandigram are being heard from across party lines.

The left claims it is a party of workers and peasants. The savage unleashing of state terror in Nandigram exposes the hollowness of this claim. And does anyone want to build their industrial houses on soil soaked with the blood of innocent farmers?

"We are on high alert as the Maoists could try to disrupt law and order especially after recent events," A.K. Maliwal, a senior police official, told Reuters in Kolkata.

Maoist rebels distributed leaflets and sent notices to village council offices in Orissa, Jharkhand and West Bengal, urging everyone to join the strike, police said.

The communists are killing peasants in Nandigram and Singur. They are not one bit worried about the grim goings-on in these places. The party claims it is working for the welfare of peasants and workers. The Marxist chief minister sent a huge contingent of police to Nandigram to restore law and order.”
They opened fire and killed the peasants. It was an act of sheer cruelty. While the nation was appalled by the savagery of the police, the party’s politbureau justified the police firing.
They fired on unarmed farmers.
The peasants do not want to send their land – agricultural land.
The chief minister had an interview to a TV channel had stated that the land would be taken by the government only if there was consent by the villagers. And he had claimed that 99 per cent of the villagers were willing to go away.
When the police arrived at Nandigram to accomplish their bloody mission, there were 5000 protesting villagers. They opened fire indiscriminately and killed and injured the helpless villagers. And the next they fired tear gas at a hospital where the injured were getting treatment.
What sort of treatment could the injured villagers have got in the village hospital.
All of them had sustained bullet injuries.
They should have got prompt blood transfusions; the bullets must have been surgically removed. There would have been more survivors if they had got timely treatment.
It looks like there is no democracy in West Bengal. The state cares a damn for the opinions, preferences and sentiments of peasants and workers. The bosses rule with an iron hand.
Even after all political parties condemned the brutality of the West Bengal police, the state government went ahead with its one-track objective. It is clear it does not mind if hundreds of poor people are killed. It is not going to give up the SEZ project. Political leaders are not allowed to go into Nandigram. There are restrictions on the press as well.

Cricket Carnival

Bangladeshis celebrate victory over India andJolted India gear up for debutants Bermuda .India will have no time to ponder their shock World Cup defeat against Bangladesh when they face debutants Bermuda in a must-win Group B clash on Monday. Rated among title contenders, the 1983 champions will have barely 48 hours to shake off the effects of Saturday's five-wicket loss to Bangladesh after their embarrassing batting.They are now one defeat away from making a first-round exit and joining sub-continent compatriots Pakistan on the sidelines. The toughest first-round group has now turned into a three-horse race with India also needing to win their final group clash against Sri Lanka to take one of the two qualifying spots for the Super Eights.Their meeting against group favourites Sri Lanka on March 23 would be a virtual semi-final if they get past Bermuda unscathed.

Thousands of elated fans poured onto the streets of the capital on Sunday morning to celebrate Bangladesh's shock five-wicket victory over India in their opening World Cup Group 'B' match at Port of Spain in Trinidad.Bangladesh beat Scotland and Pakistan in their first World Cup in 1999, but failed to win a match in 2003. Flag-waving students from the sprawling campus of the Dhaka University danced and sang in jubilation as others chanted "Bangladesh Bangladesh."The long day of celebration was sparked when Mushfiqur Rahim hit the winning boundary to steer Bangladesh to victory at 3 a.m. on Sunday.The joyful scenes continued unabated, despite a ban on marches and gatherings that was imposed on January 11 following political violence that killed 45 people.

Former India players have called for Sehwag to be dropped and the team management will be under pressure despite the 28-year-old batsman's ability to provide quick starts.

While in India, Cricket fans, angry over the Indian team's loss to minnows Bangladesh in the World Cup, damaged wicketkeeper-batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni's under-construction house in Ranchi. Around two hundred fans under the banner of the Jharkhand Yuva Morcha (JYM) attacked the house in the Harmu housing colony. JYM is the youth wing of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), which is part of Jharkhand's ruling alliance.The house was being built on 4,000 square feet of land, costing around Rs.5 million, gifted to the dashing player by former Jharkhand chief minister Arjun Munda. The angry protesters burnt an effigy of the dashing player and shouted slogans "Dhoni Murdabad" (Down with Dhoni) and demanded that the land gifted to him be taken back.

Cricket fans burn posters of Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag in Amritsar after the India's shock three-wicket loss to Bangladesh at the World Cup on Saturday.Similar protests were carried out in Jalandhar and Ahmedabad on Sunday as the country woke up with the bitter taste of defeat.

In Jalandhar, cricket lovers gathered at local Company Bagh Chowk and raised slogans against the national team before burning posters of city boy Harbhajan Singh, Sehwag, Rahul Dravid and Tendulkar.

The protestors in Ahmedabad said the team "betrayed the hopes of an entire nation" but were full of praise for Sourav Ganguly, who stood his ground and top-scored with 66.

"Dada (Sourav) is the real champ. He was put down by the team management and many people. But given a chance he has risen to the occassion," said Hardik, another protestor.

In a rather ironic incident in Allahbad, cricket fans, who had stoned and blackened Mohammed Kaif's house after India's disappointing performance against Holland in the 2003 opener, gathered to demand the middle-order batsman's inclusion in place of the out-of-form Sehwag.

The CPI(M) today ruled out replacing Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee as the Chief Minister of West Bengal even though he faced intense criticism for the violence at Nandigram. By ordering police to open fire on peasants trying to protect their land from being acquired for a Special Economic Zone (SEZ), the communist government of West Bengal state has indicated the crumbling away of the last bulwark in India against neo-liberal and free market policies. West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee met Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi who had voiced his anguish over the March 14 police firing at Nandigram. On the other hand,Bhattacharjee drove to the Raj Bhavan after a function at Salt Lake and remained closeted with the Governor for about 35 minutes. The Chief Minister is understood to have briefed the Governor about the situation in Nandigram.

In a statement following the Nandigram incident, the Governor had expressed 'a sense of cold terror' and said, "Was this spilling of human blood not avoidable? What is the public purpose served by the use of force that we have witnessed?"

Earlier in the day, social activist Medha Patkar also met the Governor and demanded a judicial inquiry into the incident in addition to the ongoing CBI probe. Patkar also sought the Governor's intervention in compensating and rehabilitating the survivors of the firing.

Stealth appears to be the key to how the UPA government functions. So, despite the missive on the impact of foreign retail on the small kirana shops in the country written by Congress President Sonia Gandhi to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, everyone in the government knows that it was never to be taken seriously.Why else do you think the commerce ministry shot off the kind of reply it did saying there was little evidence that large retailers caused smaller ones to close down. The fact is that the government opened up retail to foreigners in a very deliberate manner, and key functionaries of the government have admitted as much in private -- it allowed foreign investment in the back-end or the cash-and-carry segment, and then let foreign retailers appoint Indians as franchisees for the front-end, making the Wal-Mart entry into the country very very legal.The ultimate in the sophistry, of course, is the government appointing ICRIER to do an impact study when the same organisation did a similar study (though it wasn't particularly thorough) just last year!

ColumnsMorePathetic display by India

Surinder Khanna

I think most of the Indian fielders are liabilities anyway and Laxman certainly has it in ...
Pitch mystery deepens

Trevor Chesterfield

When he was coach of South Africa Bob Woolmer would fix you with a twinkle and ...
Hall of FameMore

Aravinda de Silva

Sri Lanka

Imran Khan

Pakistan

Clive Lloyd

West Indies

Steve Waugh

Australia
Specials WC heroes: walking the sunlit path

For a cricketer, one moment in the World Cup is the shortest route to the highest acclaim.
2003: SA exit after second WC tie

A game that bore stark resemblance to South Africa's earlier World Cup exits.

Imran blames Inzamam for early exit in World Cup

Former Pakistan captain Imran Khan squarely blamed skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq for the team's shock defeat to Ireland and its early exit from the World Cup, saying he failed to provide an inspirational leadership. "I think this was one of the worst performances of the team I have ever seen in my career. It is unthinkable we should lose to Ireland," Imran said. The cricketer-turned-politician, who led Pakistan to title win in the 1992 World Cup, said the way Inzamam, Woolmer and the selectors had approached the preparations for the tournament was a recipe for disaster.

Cricket fan dies while watching India-Bangla match

Ahmedabad: A forty-five-year-old man died in Gujarat's Jamnagar district while watching the cricket World Cup match between India and Bangladesh, a family member of the deceased said here.
However, the family was not sure if the man died due to the shock triggered by India's poor display in its opening match. Vinod Koetcha, a fruit vendor, listened to radio commentary to keep a tab on the match in the evening and closed his shop after dark to watch the remaining action on television with his family members.

"But as the game progressed he suddenly stopped responding to my questions and when I called him he was motionless," Pravin, brother of Koetcha said.

Vinod's wife, four children and brother rushed him to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

He Will Remain So!
"The people of West Bengal elected a Left Front Government. Bhattacharjee is the Chief Minister. He will remain so," CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat told reporters after a meeting with the party's state leadership. Karat, who air-dashed here today, took stock of the situation at a meeting with the CPI(M) state leadership, including Bhattacharjee and party State Secretary Biman Bose.

"I have met the state leaders and collected all the reports relating to the incident. I will place the reports before the Polit Bureau for discussion," he said.

He later left for the Salt Lake residence of former Chief Minister Jyoti Basu to discuss the issue with him. Basu has been critical of the manner in which the police had fired indiscriminately on the villagers at Nandigram.

Singur explosion

A crude bomb exploded on Sunday near the Tata Motors' small car project site in Singur.However, there were no casualties in the explosion which caused panic among the workers there, police said.
The explosion occurred in the early hours of the day at Gopalnagar-Bosepukur area adjacent to the boundary wall of the controversial project site. The blast damaged a part of the wall.The workers and locals immediately informed the police which rushed to the spot with bomb disposal squad and found seven "bomb-like" objects, Hooghly Superintendent of Police Supratim Sarkar said.He said the entire area has been cordoned off to avoid any untoward incident.

IGP (law and order) Raj Kanojia said that initial investigation revealed that an explosion of a crude bomb damaged a part of the wall of the project site and caused panic among workers.

CBI Gets CPIM Flag

Meanwhile,the CBI found a CPM flag, several CPM leaflets, a handdrawn map of the Sonachura area and six helmets similar to those worn by the police in Nandigram.These were among the seizures made by the CBI during the arrest of ten persons on Saturday at Khejuri area.

The CPM has so far denied any connection with those arrested but the seizures point increasingly to some party workers being involved in the police firing of March 14.

East Midnapore's Superintendent of Police G A Srinivas said 14 improvised firearms, 500 rounds of assorted ammunition, binoculars and cellphones were seized by the CBI team from a brick kiln.
Earlier on Saturday, CBI sleuths from Delhi accompanied by local officers and forensic experts inspected several areas at Gokulnagar village near Nandigram.

They also dug up the earth at some places to ascertain whether arms and bodies had been buried there as was claimed by local people.

The CBI team had also visited Sonachura village and collected evidence on Saturday. The team began probing the police firing in Nandigram, which has witnessed protests against the acquisition of land for a SEZ. (With PTI inputs)

No one can handle issues like Jyoti Basu: Yechury

New Delhi, March 18 (IANS) No one should expect West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya to handle issues the way his predecessor Jyoti Basu did during his decades-long rein in the state, says Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Sitaram Yechury, referring to the recent violence and subsequent police action in Nandigram.

'Jyoti Basu was a larger than life figure. He still is,' Yechury told IANS editors at a special interaction here. He was responding to a question on Bhattacharya's handling of the Nandigram violence - where 14 people, protesting the acquisition of agricultural land in Midnapore district for an industrial complex, were killed in police firing.

'It is really impossible for anybody to handle the situation like Jyoti babu did,' he said. 'He's been there for more than 60 years now. That personality itself has contributed a lot to the Left. Nobody can fill his space.

'So compared to Jyoti babu, anybody's handling would have a lot of inadequacies,' he said, seemingly upset over the West Bengal government's handling of the troubles in the state.

The CPI-M politburo member also pointed out that the nonagenarian Basu had played a 'major role' in Saturday's Left Front meeting in Kolkata.

The CPI-M leadership was red-faced last week as its own allies in the Left Front came down heavily on the party over the Nandigram situation and threatened to pull out of the coalition if they were not consulted.

Later, however, the allies agreed on an eight-point resolution to save the unity of the Front, which has ruled West Bengal since 1977, and ease the situation in Nandigram.

Govt. to ensure safe return of homeless in Nandigram

With the CBI at work to make a list of missing persons in Nandigram following Wednesday's violence there, the West Bengal Government has initiated a move to ensure that those who fled their homes could return safely.

"We have asked the administration of East Midnapore district to ensure that those who are either missing or left their homes in panic after the violence could return safely," State Home Secretary Prasad Ranjan Roy told PTI here today.

The directive came in the wake of yesterday's crucial meeting of the ruling Left Front that decided to restore normalcy in Nandigram and withdraw police from the area in phases.

Admitting that the state government was aware that many people are missing in Nandigram, Roy said the matter was being looked into and the district administration had been told to prepare detailed lists of the missing persons.

On the issue of seizure of arms by the CBI, Roy said the agency was investigating the matter in coordination with the state police.

A directive has been issued to the district administration to cooperate fully with the CBI in accordance with the order of the Calcutta High Court.

Roy said the situation in Nandigram was yet to return to normal and the administration is trying its best to restore peace through political and administrative means in coordination with the local people.

Concern over missing people in Nandigram

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mohuya Chaudhuri

Watch story

Sunday, March 18, 2007 (Nandigram):

There is a wave of disappearances in Sonachura and Adhikaripara, two pockets in Nandigram where 14 people died in the police firing on Wednesday.

These include men, women and children who cannot be traced.

While the police say they may have run away during the incident to save their lives, villagers who are now tracking those who have disappeared, say as many as 400 people could be missing.

Sreemati Mondal has been waiting for her son, Gautam Mondal for three days. He went missing on Wednesday when police opened fire on hundreds of people who were trying to prevent the forces from entering the village.

"My son has disappeared for three days. I have no information about him," she said.

Loss of lives?

At the district hospital in Tamluk, Anubha Khara is worried about her children as well. She has a bullet wound on her leg.

Her husband, who was shot in the stomach, is critical after undergoing surgery in Calcutta. Both her children disappeared after the stampede.

Anubha: I have two small children. They are not at home.

NDTV: Where are they?

Anubha: I don't know where they are. They are missing.

Villagers say when the police fired indiscriminately at them, many people died. Several of them were women and children, whose bodies were taken away.

Those who could, ran into the nearby jungle, but scores of them are still missing.

"Several women told me they were worried about their children, that they did not know about their whereabouts. This is another aspect. It is still not clear how many people have lost their lives," said BJP leader L K Advani.

Head count

At a medical camp in Adhikaripara, a headcount is finally being done. Thirty-five names of those who went missing from three villages are on the list so far. But the numbers will be far more.

"We could not find 35 people. People have fled from four to five villages. So we are unable to trace how many are missing. We think about 400 to 500 people cannot be found," said Sheikh Moidul Hussain, Convenor, Bhumi Ucched Protirodh Committee.

The police have its hands full, trying to control the situation and providing security to VIPs.

"After such a huge incident, many people ran away. Whatever I formation we are receiving, we are taking action," said N Ramesh Babu, DIG Midnapore Range.

The picture is far from clear. Even now, there are reports of bodies being discovered far from the site where the incident took place.

In the next few days, once the villagers return home, will the actual contours of the tragedy emerge - how many lives were lost on that bloody Wednesday.

Equating the police firing in Nandigram to the 1919 Jallianwalah Bagh massacre, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani on Saturday said the method adopted by West Bengal in acquiring land for industries is not right. He said industries could not be set up on the bodies of peasants. "I am aware of the brutalities committed by the British, now I find CPI-M is behaving as brutally as the British," Advani, who along with eight other National Democratic Alliance leaders visited Sonachura where the police firing took place, told reporters. "In Sonachura village the police is asked to hit the people on chest and abdomen like Jallianwalla Bagh. History will never forget the incident and forgive those who committed the brutality," the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha said.

Uncle Sam`s Diktat and Indian Gorbachev

Palash Biswas

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

The finance ministry had projected that it would lose close to Rs 100,000 crore (Rs 1000 billion) in revenues between 2004-05 to 2010 due to the mushrooming of SEZs all over India. It was also feared that in order to take 15-year tax holidays, many units would shift to SEZs by closing down their existing units.But Indian people have to tolerate the Special Economic Zones created with Nandigram like Bloodbath and singur like Eviction drive. Brahminical Zionist Ruling Classes adopt different Ideological disguise needed for enslavement od different nationalities. Hindutva prevails all over. The non vilent Hindutva which completed the task of Shudrayan of native Moolnivasies with surgical precision. Backed by Manusmirit and Holy Religious scripture it has brainwashed the masses. Middle classes, the major parts of Shudras other than Brahmin and Rajpoot feel hightened glory to dehumanise sub castes and dalits, minorities and tribals. It naver lacks spirit or ideals, values and truth which justifies the classification of castes by birth, the Great indian varnashram. namboodaripad or Mahatma Gandhi, Govalkar or Karat, Buddhadev or Narendr Modi, all of them are magnificent incarnation of Hitler and preach purity of blood and birth based on KARMA. Bhagvat Gita has been the opium to restrain the revolt. Ramcharit Manas and startellers have well destined us as we may not resist any way.

Thus, any uprising against exploitation and repression, against feudal Brhminical system represented by State Power, is crushed mercilessly.

We follow Uncle Sam`s Diktates in foreign as well as internal affairs!
Just feel the heat and the dust of a US agreession all out.
The result is Vidarbha!
Singur!
Nandigram!
Haripur!
Deganga!
Kharagpur!
Noida!
Gurgaon!
Branala!
And so on!
So On!

Nepal's Maoists, with whom the Indian party has “fraternal” links, are a model of how a strategy can work. Having managed to exclude the state from virtually all the countryside, and waged war for a decade, the Maoists in Nepal are now negotiating, from a position of some strength, their share in government—a decision their Indian comrades quietly deplore, despite a pretence of solidarity. We know well how the Government of India tried its best to defend the monarch and Hidutva in Rule there. Stopping th maoists may have been the US interests, but the ruling classes were keen to save the King citing the risk of Chinese Intervention. Apart from the border dispute, China never interfered in internal matters of India as US has been doing from the beginning.

Let us remeber the Nepal visit of the Ex presdient of Vishwa hindu Parishad Dr Karna Singh as an envoyee of Government of India, his failure, fall of the monarchy and finally the Maoist role there.

Has China interfered?

Salwa Judum, too, is accused of intimidation, extortion, rape and murder. Its thugs have been manning roadblocks, supposedly to hunt for Maoists, but also to demand money. Some SPOs—like some Naxalites—may be local hoodlums, who have signed up for the money on offer, and the shiny new bicycles and motorbikes still wrapped in plastic at the Dornapal police station. Some families refusing to join Salwa Judum on its “combing” operations—rampages of arson, thuggery and pillage—have been “fined” or beaten. A report on Salwa Judum produced in April by a number of civil-liberties groups concluded that its formation had “escalated violence on all sides...Salwa Judum and the paramilitary operate with complete impunity. The rule of law has completely broken down.”

There is no difference in between Jalianwala Bag and Nandigram.

No Difference at all between Naxal Bari and repression of nationalities.

Mahatma Gandhi described Bhagat singh as a Terrorist.

Manmohan Singh as well as Sangh Pariwar and the Communists in India, always led by Brahmin and Zamindar General secretaries, thus justify Gujrat Genocide, Babri Mosque demolition and Police firing in Nandigram!

Gujrat and Bengal are not different cases, but are the same ingrediants of a Mass in different geopolitics and different cultural base tamed with different Ideologies.

Gorbachev destroyed Soviet union with Glasnost and Perostroica, undermining the National Integration achieved with addressing the nationalities in equal terms.

The history of Communist Movement and Peasants uprising, brave fights by dalits and tribals against imperialists has to be destroyed first to ensure the ultimate victory of US interests in this sub continent which are no different from the class interests of the Brahminical system in India.

So Nandigram and Singur Have to be repeated again and again!
Thus , Naxalbari is always alive as the war is not over as yet!

Rural India is not going to surrender.
Rural India, underclasses, dalits and minorities in India never surrendered.
The fight continues for thousands of years.
THE FIGHT HAS TO CONTINUE FOR EVER.
NO BAGDAD, NO KABUL, NO DARFUR, NO DHAKA, NO LAOS MAY BE TAMED FOR EVER.
HIROSIMA AND NAGASAKI ARE STILL ALIVE!

ALIVE ARE NANDIGRAM AND SINGUR!
ALIVE IS KOLKATA!
ALIVE IS BENGAL!
AND ALIVE IS INDIA!

ALL THOSE BASTARDS OF HISTORY HAVE NEVER BEEN ABLE TO ANNIHILATE FREEDOM, FRATERNITYAND SOVEREIGNITY OF PEOPLE!

The single spark that lit this prairie fire was the formation a year ago of Salwa Judum, an anti-Maoist movement, whose name in Gondi, the language spoken by local tribes, means something like “peace hunt”. Its origins are disputed. K.R. Pisda, the district collector, or senior official, in Dantewada, dates it to a meeting in June 2005 of local villagers fed up with Naxalite intimidation and extortion. Others say that the Maoists were enforcing a boycott of trade in one of the main local forest products: tendu patta, the leaves used to wrap bidis (hand-rolled cigarettes). Similar boycotts in the past had succeeded in forcing up prices and had earned the Naxalites some kudos. This one, the story goes, backfired. If it ever was a spontaneous movement, Salwa Judum soon became an arm of government policy—and a paramilitary force. Some 5,000 of its members have been inducted as “special police officers” (SPOs) and given some training and arms.

Hence,GANESH UEIKE, secretary of the West Bastar Divisional Committee of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), seems a gentle, rather academic, man, who does not suit his green combat fatigues or clenched-fist “red salute”. He shuffles dog-eared bits of paper from a shabby file in his knapsack and writes down the questions he is asked. He answers them in slogans that he gives every appearance of believing. He wants to “liberate India from the clutches of feudalism and imperialism”.For local officials in Dantewada, and the state government in Raipur, the Naxalites are just bandits: extortionists who hold sway through terror alone. Their ideology, they say, long ago imploded in a welter of violence. There is little doubt that they do use terror and extortion. Himanshu Kumar, who runs aid projects in the district, says he used to respect the Naxalites as working “for the betterment of the masses”. But he now found “people supporting them out of fear of their guns, or to gain power to loot others.”

When the Chhattisgarh government's home minister, Ramvichar Netam, visited Errabore the day after the massacre, he was surrounded by angry survivors. They pelted his helicopter with stones. Some of the bereaved even refused the money he was handing out as compensation. The Salwa Judum campaign, however, has important backers. Raman Singh, Chhattisgarh's chief minister, calls it “a success story”, a “non-violent movement against exploitation”.The same tune is sung by the leader of the opposition in the state, Mahendra Karma of the Congress party, who is, in effect, Salwa Judum's leading light. A native of Dantewada itself, Mr Karma, like Mr Singh, sits under a portrait of Mahatma Gandhi and stresses the movement's “peaceful” origins. But he also links it to the global fight against terrorism and asks: “Are we not supposed to protect ourselves in our homeland?” Even the central government seemed at one time to endorse the campaign. In a statement in March the home ministry promised to “promote local resistance groups” against Naxalites.

Now, however, V.K. Duggal, the home ministry's top civil servant, who, like state officials, calls Salwa Judum “spontaneous”, says that at a meeting last week the central government advised the Chhattisgarh government not to extend the movement to other areas. Delhi is offering assistance: an extra paramilitary battalion; armoured vehicles; minesweeping equipment; and imaging technology to help locate remote Naxalite camps. It draws the line at helicopters for offensive operations. Its emphasis is on persuading the Maoists to join mainstream politics. In his speech this week, the prime minister said he wanted Naxalites to understand that “real power flows from the ballot box”.

The rare interview took place last month, in a thatched shelter in a clearing in the Bastar forest in southern Chhattisgarh. The spot was some seven hours' walk from the nearest road, and there had been a day-and-a-half's wait for such a “big leader” to emerge from a hideout even deeper in the jungle. His party, he said, was facing renewed suppression, because “the resources of finance capitalism are facing sluggishness in their development, and are looking for new routes,” such as the mineral riches of this forest.

Mr Ueike did not mention that, just a few hours beforehand, at the edge of the forest, in a place called Errabore, his comrades had fought back. Several hundred had mounted a co-ordinated attack on a police station, a paramilitary base and a relief camp for displaced people. They killed more than 30 of the camp's residents, mostly by hacking them to death with axes. The scholarly Mr Ueike did boast that his army relied on “low-tech weapons”.

This was the latest battle in a year-long civil war in Dantewada district, in which more than 350 people have been killed, and nearly 50,000 moved into camps such as the one at Errabore. It is a remote, sparsely populated, under-developed region bordering three neighbouring states, and nine hours' drive from Chhattisgarh's capital, Raipur (see map). It is here that India's widespread Maoist rebellion is most intense.

On August 15th, in his National Day speech in Delhi, India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh, linked Naxalism with terrorism as the two big threats to India's internal security. The terrorism is all too familiar. India's cities have endured repeated atrocities—culminating in July's bomb attacks in Mumbai, which killed nearly 200 people. But many are surprised that Mr Singh accords Naxalism such a high priority. A primitive peasant rebellion based on an outmoded ideology is out of keeping with the modern India of soaring growth, Bollywood dreams and call-centres. Moreover, India has fought many better-known wars. A violent insurgency in Indian-administered Kashmir has claimed tens of thousands of lives. Its north-eastern states are wracked by dozens of secessionist movements.

But Mr Singh may be right about the Maoists. Known as “Naxalites”, after the district of Naxalbari in West Bengal where they staged an uprising in 1967, they are these days almost a nationwide force. Greeted by China's People's Daily at the height of the Cultural Revolution as “a peal of spring thunder”, they were almost wiped out in the 1970s, as the Indian government repressed them, and Maoism went out of fashion, even in its homeland.

In India they splintered into various armed factions, of which the biggest were the People's War Group and the Maoist Communist Centre. These merged and formed the CPI (Maoist) party in September 2004. P.V. Ramana, of the Observer Research Foundation in Delhi, estimates the Naxalites now have 9,000-10,000 armed fighters, with access to about 6,500 firearms. There are perhaps a further 40,000 full-time cadres.

In nearly 1,600 violent incidents involving Naxalites last year, 669 people died. There have been spectacular attacks across a big area: a train hold-up last month involving 250 armed fighters, a jailbreak freeing 350 prisoners, a near-miss assassination attempt in 2004 against a leading politician. “Naxalism” now affects some 170 of India's 602 districts—a “red corridor” down a swathe of central India from the border with Nepal in the north to Karnataka in the south and covering more than a quarter of India's land mass.

This statistic overstates Naxalite power, since in most places they are an underground, hit-and-run force. But in the Bastar forest they are well-entrenched, controlling a large chunk of territory and staging operations across state borders into Andhra Pradesh and Orissa. In the tiny, dirt-poor villages scattered through the forest, the Indian state is almost invisible.

SEZ Revenue

In an effort to prevent any revenue leakage, the government has introduced anti-Special Economic Zones abuse provisions in the Budget 2007, which would prevent any existing businesses to migrate to the SEZs from other parts of the country. The SEZ Act enacted last year did have any anti-SEZ abuse provisions. The Budget 2007 has now introduced two measures to curb any tax avoidance: The existing units will not be allowed to split up or reconstruct an existing business and they will not allowed to transfer old plant and machinery with the threshold limit being 20 percent of total assets.

"When the SEZ Act was enacted there was no anti-SEZ abuse provisions," says Mukesh Butani, Partner of BMR and Associates. "With this, the government is encouraging genuine SEZs and preventing misuse of SEZs," he adds.The new provisions say only a new unit or an enterprise in a SEZ can claim tax benefits under the Section 10A and Section 10B (which deals with tax holidays) of the I-T Act

Says Rohan Phatarphekar, Partner & Head of Tax & Regulatory Services in Grant Thornton, "This would stop to a large extent the movement of assets/business from the existing units, for instance migration from the Software Technology parks of India to the SEZs."

"But if a company having a unit in a STPI decides to move the unit/business to a SEZ, just because its tax holidays are coming to an end, then it would not get tax exemption," says Phatarphekar.

India's eastern communist-ruled state of West Bengal saw scattered incidents of violence and a total shutdown Friday in response to a 24-hour strike called by opposition parties over the shooting of protesting farmers by the police.Fourteen people were killed Wednesday when the police fired on protestors in Nandigram, about 140 kilometres south of state capital, Kolkata. The farmers were protesting the government's proposal to set up a chemical hub and industrial zone on cropland.

Chinese caution!

India should not become a pawn of the United States in its attempt to 'contain' China's rise, a leading Chinese expert on South Asian affairs has said.Though Chinese scholars believe that Beijing should not be overly concerned about the possible dependence of Indian foreign policy by toeing the US line of thinking in the long run, especially since India's current multi-party political system will not allow the government to be subservient to Uncle Sam's diktat.

"I hope India would continue to follow an independent foreign policy and not become a pawn in the sophisticated US strategic calculations to contain China," Professor Ma Jiali, Senior Research Fellow with the Chinese Institute for Contemporary International Relations told PTI.

He noted that since 2001, the US has often stated that it would shift its strategic pivot to the Asia-Pacific region, and considered China as its main rival and threat. Since the second term of presidency, George W Bush's intent of making use of India to contain China has become "more obvious", Ma said, noting that from the angle of the United States, to promote the relations with India can fully serve its global strategy, the Asian strategy and South Asia policy.

"Obviously, the unusual enthusiasm shown by the US for promoting the relations with India can reflect that the US has its own strategic calculations. And making use of India to constrain China is one of them," Ma said.

Although Sino-Indian relations have obviously improved in recent years, New Delhi still has some misgivings about Beijing due to lack of mutual political trust and the estrangement left from history, Ma said. He said a number of Chinese scholars believe that the US is determined to undermine progress in Sino-Indian relations, adding that Washington is using all means at its disposal to influence India's foreign policy.

For example, some scholars note that US Congressional debates over US-India civilian nuclear deal have highlighted American attempts to link cooperation in the nuclear field to New Delhi's position on the Iranian nuclear deal.

Chinese scholars also believe that US interference in Central Asia has negative implications for regional stability and for China. Beijing is concerned about Washington's attempts to deepen its influence in Central Asia, one expert said.

He cited the US-backed regime changes or "colour revolutions" in former Soviet Republics like Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan as events that could have an impact on China's security calculations.

They hope India, which has always had the ambition to be a 'big power' will demonstrate its independent foreign policy and safeguard its own national interest by forging better relations with countries like China, Russia, Iran and energy-rich Central Asian states. They also hoped that India would work more closely within the trilateral mechanism with China and Russia to ensure regional and global peace, security and development.

Moreover, New Delhi could step up cooperation with the members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in which the country is already has an observer status. Apart from trying to cooperate with Pakistan within the SCO, India could use the SCO platform to enhance cooperation on key issues like energy security, counter- terrorism, drug trafficking and trans-border crimes, he said.

Government on Friday said it was determined to combat the challenge posed by Naxalites and promised all assistance to state governments plagued by the menace.

"The government views the Naxalite menace as an area of serious concern and remains fully determined to combat the challenge posed by it in association with state governments," Home Minister Shivraj Patil told the Lok Sabha.Making a statement on the Naxal attack on the police force in Bijapur district in Chhattisgarh early on Thursday, Patil said 55 people, including 16 personnel of State Armed Police and 39 special police officers, had been reportedly killed.

An internal security report has admitted to the Left-wing extremism gaining momentum in states bordering Nepal. According to the report, Left-wing extremism has spread from 162 to 182 districts.
Sources said the security forces engaged in anti-Maoist operations in the states have been apprised of the situation.The report had also expressed concern over Maoist-related violence escalating in Orissa and Jharkhand. According to Intelligence Bureau reports, the Maoists' firepower has increased dramatically as the rebels have raised about 750 dedicated armed cadre and possess technology and materials to make sophisticated bombs and landmines.

Recently, the Maoists suffered a blow when security forces wrested key positions on their safe corridor between the state and Jharkhand.

Ungrateful M.K. Gandhi condemns revolutionaries who died for India
DR. M.M. KOTHARI, RETD. HEAD, PHILOSOPHY DEPT., JODHPUR UNIVERSITY, 87 - AJIT COLONY, JODHPUR - 342 001
It is said M.K. Gandhi like many others worked for the freedom of the counry, but he had a great passion to achieve this end through non-violence. He always taught that non-violence must supersede all other values of life including nationalism and patriotism. In his system of nonviolence, formulated in his book, The Hind Swaraj, there is no need for physical protection of the individual as well as the state because “bravery consists in dying and not killing”.1. Laying down the criterion of national greatness, Gandhi said “that nation is great which rests its head upon death as its pillow” 2.

Upto this time, states have been maintaining vast defence organisations for physical protection of the people against internal and external threats. Gandhi demanded the abolition of the warrior class itself. Love for the enemy could change his heart. He advised the allied powers to face Hitler without arms. He condemned the heroes who fought against aggressors and tyrants. He taught women (and also men) that they should be the ideal examples of suffering like Sita and Draupadi and warned against the example of the sword-wielding Rani of Jhansi.3.

Gandhi denounced the revolutionaries and freedom fighters of the slave countries who fought against foreign rulers and tyrants, for examples Washington, Garibaldi, Lenin, Kamal Pasha, De Valera and so on. In the same breath, he condemned Guru Gobind Singh, Shivaji and Maharana Pratap. In his own words, “had I lived as their contemporary... I would have called everyone of them as misguided patriot. They cannot be my guides in life.” 4

Gandhi hurled a very derogatory abuse against Maharana Pratap when he said: “even the biographies of kings like Pratap do not inspire me. They were only giant bandits”.5

Gandhi was also severe in his criticism of contemporary Indian martyrs of the revolutionary school who fought the British rule in India. Long before Gandhi came on the political scene in India, the revolutionary school had aroused Bengal and Maharashtra by their “bombs and bullets”. Gandhi knew about it. In his Hindi Swaraj, he condemned Madan Lal Dhingra and all those who praised his sacrifice.7 He accused B.G. Tilak (who gave the slogan that freedom is my birthright) as a man who did not understand the meaning of freedom. Rejecting Tilak’s approach, Gandhi said that it showed “the want of proper understanding of what swaraj really means. He (Tilak) has not imbibed the true spirit of Mother India.”8

Gandhi was also very remorseful for the conduct of his followers who with his name on their lips committed deeds of violence during his call for strike in 1919. He refused to secure their release as it was against his religion. He said: “I have no desire that.. should be saved from the gallows if they have incited violence.”9

In 1924 Gopinath Saha faced his death sentence bravely. But the Congress condemned him “as all such acts were inconsistent with the non-violent policy of the Congress.. that such acts retard the progress towards swaraj”. Gandhi got this condolence resolution passed but there was a bitter exchange. Gandhi was disappointed to see that some of his close devotees voted against this condemnation resolution and he wept over it.10

Jaindas died on Sept.13, 1929, the 64th day of his hunger-strike in jail. He was hailed as a great martyr and the entire country was moved by his sacrifice. But Gandhi kept quiet as he said he would have written something favourable against this martyr11. About the heroes of Chittagong Armoury Raid, he repeated the charge that they were misguided in my eyes.12

BHAGAT SINGH CONDEMNED
The entire country was shaken by the execution of Bhagat Singh Rajguru and Sukhdeo on March 23, 1931. Gandhi forced the Congress to condemn these martyrs even in its condolence resolution. Further, he insulted the intelligence of these non-gandhian martyrs for whom he said that they had “not the same wisdom that I would claim for myself”13. The mass-wave generated for these martyrs did not exist for the Mahatma.

Gandhi did his best and also worst to get Subhas defeated when he felt that he could not tame Subhas. He could not reconcile to his victory for the second term and used all fair and foul means to get rid of him.

Later when Subhas marched towards India with his INA, the whole of India stood electrified by the tales of his heroic venture. Pattabhi admits that “there was not a soul in India (except that of the Mahatma) that was not stirred by and elated with their soul-stirring tales...”14.

Gandhi was a silent spectator of the warm applause showered on Subhas from all sides. Within himself, he was perhaps cursing the hero who had by this time been admitted as a more deserving candidate for the award of the title of the “Father of the Nation” than the ungrateful Mahatma. Later, Gandhi could not refrain from pouring out his venom against Subhas in his statement to L. Fisher that “I do not encourage the Bose legend” 15.

Gandhi argued that the revolutionaries were harming the country. They fought for “a bad cause”.. “being ignorant and misguided, do and have done more harm to the country than any other activity.. the revolutionaries have retarded the progress of the country 16. I must refuse to fall into hysterics over their sacrifices, however great they may be.. Those who give praise to the revolutionaries for their sacrifices do harm to them and the cause they have at heart 17. Gandhi had no polite word for any of them and condemned them all in “unmeasured terms” 18.

Gandhi used his influence to throw cold water on the spirit generated in the country by the revolutionaries. He declared that I must “endeavour to neutralise in all the ways accessible to me the poison of the revolutionary activity” 19. He repeated this claim several times. He assured the viceroy that it was his purpose to set in motion a force against the growing party of violence in India 20.

The British statesmen admitted that Gandhi was the best policeman that the British had in India who could prevent or suppress open revolutionary uprising in the country 21.

EXPERIMENTS WITH UNTRUTH
Gandhi prophesied that “free India can have no enemy. No country would bother to invade India after the departure of the British. To the question what shall India do with her army after the withdrawal of the British, Gandhi laid down that army should be used for cleaning latrines.22

However, in October, 1947 when the GOI air-lifted troops to Kashmir, this step was not meant to clean the latrines of Kashmir or to demonstrate the efficacy of his satyagraha methodology or to teach the doctrine of turning the other cheek to his disciples in GOI, but to use physical force against the invaders.

The apostle of truth was not honest enough to acknowledge the truth that he was performing the funeral of his special brand of non-violence when he defended that step.

He also talked about the possibility of war between India and Pakistan with the addition of his usual “ifs” (Sept.16, 1947). The period of his “experiments with truth” was already over. T.K. Mahadevan, a one-time ardent devotee of Gandhi, dubbed his ways as “experiments in untruth”23.

Gandhi learnt without acknowledgment a different brand of non-violence which believed in the use of force, muscular or mechanical, taught by Krishna in the Gita, advocating “destruction of the wicked” (IV.7) and also practised by the revolutionaries.

He indulged in falsification of history when he claimed that “India has fought for its freedom since 1920 deliberately by truth and non-violence as its only weapons24.

By denying the contribution of the revolutionaries to the political awakening in India which led to eventual British withdrawal from India, Gandhi insulted the memory of the thousands of martyrs in India.

References:

1. See Critique of Gandhi, p.18, 138 2. Ibid p.135

3. Ibid p.22 4. Collected Works, Vol XXVI, pp 491, Y.I. 9-4-25.

5. Desai: Day to Day With Gandhi, Vol.1 p.145 7. Hind Swaraj, p.50

8. Desai, Id. Vol.1, pp.65, 218. 9. Jan.9, 1920, To Hunter Commission

10. Pattabhi; History of Congress, Vol.1, p.312 11. Subhas: Indian Struggle, p. 163

12. Communal Unity, p.447 13. Pattabhi; History, I, 447

14. Ibid, Vol.I, p.457 15. Life of Gandhi, p. 474

16. Collected Works, Vol. XXVI, p.487 17. Ibid p.487

18. Pattabhi: Vol.1, p.513. 19. CW, XXVI p. 286

20. Pattabhi, p.375 21. Ibid, C.611, 1.611

22. Non-violence in Peace & War-II, p.79 23. His Article in Mirror, Oct.1981

24. Pattabhi, Vol.1 p.684

SHOOT-TO-KILL SHOCKER , Telegraph Kolkata Lead story on 17th March,2007
- One bullet for every four
SIMI KAMBOJ AND IMRAN AHMED SIDDIQUI

March 16: Bullet marks on those gunned down in Nandigram suggest police “lost their head” and shot to kill, flouting guidelines for controlling and dispersing mobs, senior officials conceded today.

All the 14 confirmed killed had been shot either in the chest or in the stomach, and a woman was hit in the back, a list compiled by The Telegraph shows (see chart below).

The seven unidentified bodies are that of six men and a woman, aged between 20 and 30 — all with bullet injuries in the stomach or in the chest.

A preliminary probe carried out by the state police has shown that between 400 and 500 rounds were fired to disperse a group of around 2,000 people assembled at the Bhangabera bridge on Wednesday morning.

The cold statistic translates into one bullet for every four persons, an “astronomical figure”, according to veteran officers.

“The police guidelines clearly state the purpose of firing is to disperse the crowd and not to kill,” a senior police official said. “The term that we use is ‘controlled firing’ — to deter and disperse the crowd.”

Quoting from the manual, an official said the police can open fire only if baton-charge fails and non-lethal options like tear gas shells and rubber bullets are exhausted.

“The guidelines state that you have to hit one person in the leg if the situation becomes violent and then watch to see if the crowd is deterred,” an official said. “If the situation still does not improve, some more people should be shot at, but always in the leg where the possibility of death is minimal.”

All the 10 bullet-hit patients admitted to Calcutta’s SSKM hospital have been struck above the waist. Many of the 23 patients with bullet injuries in the Tamluk and Nandigram hospitals have also been hit above the waist.

Even the non-lethal options were not used as they should have been. Allowing modern tools of crowd management to idle, the police lobbed metal-cased tear gas shells.

Such shells, with a limited range of less than 100 metres, force the police to go closer to the crowd — a recipe for snapping taut nerves and triggering panic reactions on both sides. Besides, the flaming-hot shells themselves can cause grievous injuries if they make body contact, unlike smoke grenades whose plastic canisters melt during explosion.

Bhumi Jana, the husband of Supriya who was shot in the back, said: “My wife was not trying to harm the police, she was simply trying to run away in fear and they shot her in the back, the bullet pierced her heart and she died.”

The officers The Telegraph spoke to said “something must have gone wrong” for the police to have fired with “such vengeance”. “It all seemed pretty indiscriminate,” said a senior official. “It seems that the leadership must have lost control over their men who shot deliberately to kill.”

Sheikh Raja’s brother-in-law Shamsher Khan, too, believes that the 18-year-old, who was to have appeared for the Higher Secondary exams in a few days, had been deliberately killed by a “police gone mad”.
Mamata pat on Basu back
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
Calcutta, March 16: Mamata Banerjee today showered praise on Jyoti Basu for condemning the Nandigram “massacre” and for ticking off the CPM.

“Jyoti Basu is a fatherly figure and a senior politician. He has spoken his mind over the unjustified police firing and correctly chastised the party for its arrogance and indecent behaviour,” the Trinamul Congress chief told a news conference at her Kalighat home this afternoon.

A Left Front leader had yesterday quoted the former chief minister as saying at a meeting that he had heard some people were shot from the back while they were fleeing. “Where was the need for so much firing when none of the policemen sustained any bullet injury?” he reportedly asked.

Basu today clarified that he had not said the police fired on the villagers without any provocation.

If Basu got a pat on the back, his successor was dubbed a “killer chief minister”. Mamata said the Trinamul would spearhead a movement involving all political parties to demand Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s resignation. He should o