Calcutta protests Nandigram massacre

"Bhaater jonye gaan baanaabo
Bhaater jonye shob kobitaa."

“I’ll make songs for food
All poetry is for food.”

A citizens’ protest-demonstration against the barbaric, pre-planned, well-organised massacre in Nandigram was held in Calcutta today afternoon, at the Esplanade.







Students, academics, writers, poets, painters, singers, film-makers, actors, activists, and people from all walks of life, thronged the demonstration - to express their outrage against the atrocity in Nandigram and to call for the ousting of the murderous CPI(M) and the immoral Left Front.



Singer-activist Kabir Suman hailed democracy finally coming to Bengal. He urged the people to think especially about the women of Nandigram and their dire plight. He said the injured and all the affected families are in immediate need of food, medical attention and medical supplies.



A member of the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR) narrated her horrific experience from the fact-finding mission to Nandigram. She said a suckling babe had been snatched from the breast of the mother - who had been shot dead - and thrown into the river. She said that she had also gone to Bhopal in the aftermath of the gas-leak disaster (of Dec 1984); in Nandigram, the situation seemed worse, because of the unending reign of terror there. She urged people to go to Nandigram and and simply be with the hapless victims for as much time as they could, to give them solace. Immediate help is also needed to bring together all those have separated from their loved ones.



Another speaker reminded the audience that Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee's wife had called for the hanging of Dhananjoy, accused of rape and murder of school-girl Hetal Parekh. For the mass murder and rape of innocent women in Nandigram, as a woman, she now demanded the hanging of Buddhadev. Or else, she challenged them to come and rape her too.



The end of the rule of the power-crazed, corrupt, criminal, fascist thugs CPI(M) is nigh. Like rats abandoning a sinking ship, CPI(M)-groupies have started distancing themselves from their patrons and overlords. And like rats too, CPI(M) members and their spoils-partner supporters will have to scurry and burrow for cover as public ire and hatred boils towards explosion. The CPI(M) rats have proved a very efficacious vehicle of wealth-garnering for some worshippers of Lakshmi, especially real estate developers. They must be anxious indeed about the fate of their pet rats and the future of their Lakshmi blessing.

Pictures from the protest-demonstration in Calcutta are accessible here. (View the slideshow.)