Genocide in the name of development unimaginable: Medha

Mar 18, 2007, 12:45 GMT

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.

'Such a genocide in the name of development is unimaginable. Jallianwala Bagh was in British era while here the barbarism was planned and carried out by the government, the police and the CPI-M (Communist Party of India-Marxist),' said Medha Patkar after visiting the victims since Saturday.

'Worse still we have no idea about the actual death or the fate of the missing. I have met women who were molested and raped,' she said.

'If this is what you call development, we don't want it,' she said, alleging that the Haldia Development Authority (HAD - headed by CPI-M MP Laxman Seth who is widely held responsible for the first violence) was exerting its power to terrorise people.

'We have written to the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court, Sonia Gandhi (Congress president), Pranab Mukherjee (external affairs minister), West Bengal Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi and even Left Front partners,' she said.

Patkar Saturday reached Nandigram in East Midnapore district, about 150 km southwest of Kolkata, where 14 people were killed Wednesday in police firing on villagers protesting takeover of farmland for a special economic zone (SEZ).

On Jan 10, the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader was arrested in Kolkata for her attempt to visit Singur, another focal point of mass protests against farmland takeover for a Tata Motors car project.

After Patkar was freed on bail, she visited Nandigram to address people resisting land acquisition for a special economic zone (SEZ) to be set up by Indonesia's Salim group.

Patkar had also filed a petition against the West Bengal police for her arrest besides a defamation suit against Left Front leader Biman Bose for falsely linking her to the Nandigram flare-up in January.

Bose later apologised for his mistake on a live television programme.

The Left Front in West Bengal Saturday decided to withdraw police from Nandigram in phases and scrap the idea of a SEZ there. A huge cache of arms and ammunition was recovered and 10 suspected CPI-M men arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from Khejuri, an adjacent area and base of the left party.

© 2007 Indo-Asian News Service