Peasants Marching To West Bengal Secretariat Nabanna Face Brutal Police Repression
Thursday, August 27, 2015
The West Bengal Government of Trinamool Congress, led by Mamata Banerjee, unleashed a reign of terror on the peasants march towards the state secretariat, Nabanna, on the 27th of August 2015. Several peasant bodies attached with the parliamentary left block started a march against the anti peasant policies of the West Bengal government, which has witnessed a spurt in peasant suicides in the recent months.
The brutal action of the Trinamool police force against the struggling peasantry, demanding their rights, made us remember the 14th March 2007 Nandigram police firing. Mamata Banerjee, then the supremo of the main opposition party of the pseudo-left ruled West Bengal, vehemently opposed the firings upon the poor peasantry of Nandigram by the police and used the sentiment of the peasantry from then onward to change her own political fate, which was at the bottom at that time due to her party being dumped by the people of Bengal during the 2006 legislative elections.
The police atrocity on the peasantry today will act as a catalyst to transform the political landscape of Bengal, which is about to go to poll in the next year, and can be called the starting point of the fall of Mamata from the position of peasant's messiah in rural Bengal.
The Trinamool Supremo's order to contain the rallies of the peasants went down well with the police force, that did not only resorted with charging the protesting peasants and activists of the parliamentary left block with batons but also resorted to pelting stones at the rallies, which injured several participants.
As an example of a regime of tyranny and autocracy, the Trinamool led government has earned high repute in the reactionary camp. The brutality practiced by the police force against the peasant march makes people remember the horrible history of the massacre of numerous peasants on the streets of Calcutta in the 1950's by the then Congress government led by Bidhan Chandra Roy. Today, Mamata Banerjee ensured her place in the block of the credible successors of BC Roy's autocratic rule. The West Bengal Police and the Kolkata Police, which are known for their lackluster attitude in policing as well as in cracking down criminal syndicates and cartels that run the strong underworld, due to the political backing that the latter enjoys from the ruling parties patronage, has showed that it can apply all its forces and batons only at the wrong places, to please their political bosses.
At a time when the government is failing to deliver any durable solutions to the agony of the peasants, who are on one hand forced to sell their crops to the unscrupulous middlemen-trader nexus, and on the other hand to pay huge interests for agricultural loans, a problem that has further complicated the agrarian crisis of the province, the government could only employ force to dispel the rallies held against their policies.
The parliamentary left, known for its opportunist swings, will use these instances only for furthering their electoral gains and will not look at resolving the problems by initiating a strong anti feudal struggle of the peasantry against the evil forces of feudalism. The peasantry of Bengal must intensify a vigorous struggle for its rights and demands by uniting together and freeing themselves from the clutches of the opportunist left block.
The victory of the peasantry will depend upon how much the peasants are united by adopting a anti feudal agrarian policy by the progressive and democratic left forces. The struggle for land, livelihood and other rights must be combined with the broad scope of anti feudal struggle. Unless we can launch such a broad based struggle against the feudal forces, the very forces that owns the string of the purse funding the political parties of all hues, there can be no respite for the peasantry at large.
The brutal action of the Trinamool police force against the struggling peasantry, demanding their rights, made us remember the 14th March 2007 Nandigram police firing. Mamata Banerjee, then the supremo of the main opposition party of the pseudo-left ruled West Bengal, vehemently opposed the firings upon the poor peasantry of Nandigram by the police and used the sentiment of the peasantry from then onward to change her own political fate, which was at the bottom at that time due to her party being dumped by the people of Bengal during the 2006 legislative elections.
The police atrocity on the peasantry today will act as a catalyst to transform the political landscape of Bengal, which is about to go to poll in the next year, and can be called the starting point of the fall of Mamata from the position of peasant's messiah in rural Bengal.
The Trinamool Supremo's order to contain the rallies of the peasants went down well with the police force, that did not only resorted with charging the protesting peasants and activists of the parliamentary left block with batons but also resorted to pelting stones at the rallies, which injured several participants.
As an example of a regime of tyranny and autocracy, the Trinamool led government has earned high repute in the reactionary camp. The brutality practiced by the police force against the peasant march makes people remember the horrible history of the massacre of numerous peasants on the streets of Calcutta in the 1950's by the then Congress government led by Bidhan Chandra Roy. Today, Mamata Banerjee ensured her place in the block of the credible successors of BC Roy's autocratic rule. The West Bengal Police and the Kolkata Police, which are known for their lackluster attitude in policing as well as in cracking down criminal syndicates and cartels that run the strong underworld, due to the political backing that the latter enjoys from the ruling parties patronage, has showed that it can apply all its forces and batons only at the wrong places, to please their political bosses.
At a time when the government is failing to deliver any durable solutions to the agony of the peasants, who are on one hand forced to sell their crops to the unscrupulous middlemen-trader nexus, and on the other hand to pay huge interests for agricultural loans, a problem that has further complicated the agrarian crisis of the province, the government could only employ force to dispel the rallies held against their policies.
The parliamentary left, known for its opportunist swings, will use these instances only for furthering their electoral gains and will not look at resolving the problems by initiating a strong anti feudal struggle of the peasantry against the evil forces of feudalism. The peasantry of Bengal must intensify a vigorous struggle for its rights and demands by uniting together and freeing themselves from the clutches of the opportunist left block.
The victory of the peasantry will depend upon how much the peasants are united by adopting a anti feudal agrarian policy by the progressive and democratic left forces. The struggle for land, livelihood and other rights must be combined with the broad scope of anti feudal struggle. Unless we can launch such a broad based struggle against the feudal forces, the very forces that owns the string of the purse funding the political parties of all hues, there can be no respite for the peasantry at large.
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