Click to play videoNew Delhi: From Kolkata to the Capital, the Left has been cornered. The violence in Nandigram has isolated the CPI-M not just in its bastion of West Bengal but in Parliament too.
With Nandigram on the boil, political animosities have been forgotten and the “enemy” is common – the CPI-M and specifically, West Bengal Chief Minister Budhadeb Bhattacharjee
From the NDA to the Congress to the Trinamool, the Left is feeling the heat from all quarters.
It’s not just bitter political foes like BJP and Congress talking the same language. The activists - who at different times have been opponents but never supporters of these parties – have also agreed on a common ground.
“Police is still stationed in Nandigram. Similar incident can take place again,” says activist Medha Patkar.
She found an echo in the BJP. “We have been raising the issue of farmer suicides, but now farmers are being killed,” said BJP leader, Sushma Swaraj.
So far the mantle of looking after the interests of the common man wrested with the left parties. For the first time perhaps, the left is being challenged on that very front."
So both Houses of Parliament had to be adjourned. The NDA now wants to meet President Kalam to ask him to intervene.
Almost all parties are sending delegations to Nandigram, and everyone is out to sympathise with the aam aadmi (common man).
The result – a divided Left, battered and bruised, and an Opposition putting all its rivalries on the back burner.
“Our Bengal unit members are very very upset,” said Union Information and Broadcasting Minister, Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi.
For once, firebrand Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee also spoke in the same tones.
“Why can’t this chief minister be arrested? He is playing the game of criminals. It doesn’t work in a democracy,” she said.
CPI-M went on a defensive. “There is no question of land in this, that’s being made clear not once, but many times by the chief minister,” said CPI-M leader Brinda Karat.
But will anyone really care for their defences?
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