Click to play videoNandigram: Fifty-year-old Suhasini Mali is baying for Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s blood.
And it is ironic as she has been an active supporter and a loyalist of the CPIM for the last 27 years.
An eyewitness to the police firing in Nandigram on March 14, Mali is now a member of the Trinamul Congress-led anti-land acquisition forum and encourages CPI (M) supporters to leave the red brigade.
“I have sworn to myself never to vote for the CPI (M) again. They run a bloodthirsty government,” says Mali.
Acquiring farmland even in CPI (M) strongholds is not easy. Intelligence reports from Nandigram had warned of large-scale defection from the CPI (M) and its allies.
The situation went out of control because the government ignored them. Top leaders of the CPI (M) now acknowledge the mistake and have suggested that compensation for farmland should be more generous.
"We need to pay them better compensation. We are also discussing rehabilitation,” says former chief minister, West Bengal, Jyoti Basu.
Land acquisition in Nandigram may now be a closed chapter, but it has caused the first major rift with its rural vote bank for the CPI (M).
And public memory might not be short enough for the party to undo the wrong done in Nandigram before panchayat elections next year.
The Left Front has lost Mali, a loyalist of 27 years. And just like her many other Left supporters from Nandigram are refusing to see red any longer.
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