The 100-strong intelligentsia sang We shall Overcome and a Bengali version of Bob Dylan's Blowing in the wind, when they were arrested. Incidentally, the Communist government in West Bengal has always promoted mass songs and revolutionary songs.
The two groups resorted to firing and hurled bombs from Satenganbari village and Takapura in Nandigram and from the adjacent CPI-M stronghold of Khejuri since Friday night, Superintendent of Police G A Srinivas said.
Continuing its probe in the Nandigram massacre of people on March 14, the CBI has registered four fresh cases against local CPI(M) leaders and police officers for allegedly raping women and holding them hostages.
Calcutta High Court on Thursday directed the CBI to immediately visit the troubled areas and collect all evidence of firing by the police.
The Central Bureau of Investigation has submitted a preliminary report on the March 14 police firing in Nandigram to the Calcutta High Court.
Bullets were recovered near the site of a grave in Nandigram on Tuesday. The grave was detected on Monday in Parulbari village, which is adjacent to Mahespur, a former stronghold of the Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee. "Over 23 spent bullets were found near the grave located in a paddy field," Satyeswar Panda, Superintendent of Police, said.
Even the police were yet to go to the trouble-torn Basulichak and Dinabhandupur villages although combat force personnel staged a route march at Narby Tekhali village.
The adjournment comes as no surprise as Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party had on Sunday hinting at going ballistic on the Centre's silence about the events in the area.
The happenings of the past 10 months in Nandigram -- that once obscure hamlet of the hinterland of West Bengal, which has now begun hitting headlines in world media -- do not lend themselves to any clear appraisal of the situation. Nobody knows for sure who did what there.
Why the common man doesn't matter to Communists.
The West Bengal government has denied before the Supreme Court all allegations regarding the reported excesses committed by the state administration in Nandigram where 14 people were killed in police firing in March last year.
3 women activists of the Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Commitee on Tuesday claimed they were beaten up and stripped by the CPM cadres in Nandigram for refusing to support them in the ensuing panchayat polls.
Das, the Trinamool worker and a prominent representative of Bhumi Uchched Pratirodh Committee was hit with sharp weapons by miscreants at Tengua bazar and died on the spot on Tuesday night.
About 30 CPI-M men at Riapara stopped Gouranga Deb Hazra, PTI's East Midnapore district correspondent, who was riding pillion on a motorcycle, on his way to Chandipur from Nandigram around noon.
The visit is being viewed as a politically significant event with Bhattacharjee being at the centre of a controversy, over the bloody recapture of Nandigram early last month by his party cadres, and the turmoil in the area since January over the state government's move to acquire land for a mega chemical hub project. The chief minister's visit has already created a great deal of enthusiasm among the Communist Party of India Marxist workers in Nandigram.
Standing by his denouncement of the ruling CPI(M)'s capture of Nandigram, West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi on Sunday visited the troubled area on Sunday and said wrong-doers must not be exonerated and pitched for presence of CRPF for some more time.
However, until any order from the Supreme Court was received with regard to the Nandigram cases, the matter would not be formally adjourned.
'Women are likely to have voted because of the numerous welfare schemes. The CAA consolidated minority votes and the BJP's booth-level organisation in Bengal is weak.'
Karat admits that creation of the Third Front was a wrong move.
Former West Bengal chief minister and a front-ranking Marxist leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will go down in the country's history as a pragmatic communist who kept aside his ideological convictions to woo capital for the industrialisation of his state.
The men in police clothes had ordered the demonstrators to go back but they had refused saying they would do so only after an assurance from Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee that the Special Economic Zone and chemical hub would not be set up at Nandigram, he said.
The state government's stand on land acquisition for industries and the Nandigram police firing on March 14 is understood to have figured at the meeting.
This is the sixth day that Parliament has been disrupted.
The police used lathis and fired teargas shells, one of which landed on the bonnet of the car of TC chief who was inside the hospital then.
Chief Secretary A K Deb said that the government was yet to decide on compensation to the families of the dead and injured in the police firing.
In a jolt to the Communist Party of India-Marxist-led Left Front in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress defeated its candidates in trouble-torn Nandigram in the three-tier panchayat elections. The front also faced rout in three zilla parishad seats in Singur to Trinamool Congress candidates. The polls are seen as a litmus test for the Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee government's farmland acquisition policy for industries.
In a fresh spurt of violence in Nandigram, seven persons were reportedly injured in adjacent Khejuri area as Communist Party of India-Marxist and Trinamool Congress activists opened fire at each other on Monday night. Trouble first began when two CPI-M supporters were reportedly thrashed with rods at Janka village in Khejuri area, a Marxist stronghold, following a minor altercation.
A supporter of the Communist Party of India Marxist was killed in an attack by Trinamool Congress activists at Hazrakata in Nandigram on Friday, in a fresh eruption of violence after results of Panchayat elections were declared. East Midnapore District Superintendent of Police S Panda said today that the CPI-M supporter was attacked by TC supporters while he was returning home to Hazrakata from Haldia on Thursday night. He was admitted to the Tamluk Hospital. t
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Monday claimed that a "blueprint" was being prepared to "rekindle violence" in Nandigram by relocating CRPF camps away from the areas where the anti-acquisition activists have taken shelter.
The opposition's hue and cry over Singur and Nandigram would not adversely affect investment prospects in West Bengal, state Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said on Saturday.
Also, the discussion on the India-United States nuclear deal is likely on November 27 or 29 subject to the availability of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
While Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee, her supporters and I&B minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi are expected to attend the memorial, the residents of Nandigram see the event as an attempt by political parties to gain sympathy ahead of the panchayat elections.
The notice for the adjournment motion was sent by BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi to the Rajya Sabha secretary general.
The Nandigram fracas is taking a toll on placements at the oldest Indian Institute of Management (IIM), in Kolkata, with top-notch recruiters like Goldman Sachs deciding not to visit the campus this year for summer placements.
Mamata, for her part, said, "I am happy that he listened to all the details from me about Nandigram and Singur. I will meet him again if he calls me after discussing the matter with the concerned people."
Farmers to whom the lands belong complain that they have been caught unaware by the acquisition process.
Both Houses of Parliament were adjourned till noon on Friday following uproar over Nandigram issue.
On Wednesday, a police party, including DIB's Sadhu Chatterjee, went to the area for routine enquiry. But soon they were surrounded by a large mob, which assaulted them.
Though the situation is returning to normal with schools, shops and markets reopening and people returning to their homes, the fear of violence is palpable among the locals.
He said throughout India the "name of Sonachura and Nandigram will be uttered whenever people will talk about brutalities committed by a state government."
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