Didi: Gaddar, dad colluded with CPM, leading to Nandigram mass killings
Times of India | 17 May 2024
Kolkata/Haldia: CM Mamata Banerjee on Thursday tore into the ‘gaddars’ (traitors) on Adhikari turf and, without naming them even once, alleged that both father and son (Sisir and Suvendu Adhikari) had colluded with CPM, leading to the unfortunate loss of lives in Nandigram on March 14, 2007.
“One day, the truth will come out,” Banerjee said, addressing a rally at Haldia in East Midnapore.“I am telling you even now, there was an understanding with CPM that led to the mass killings in Nandigram… they were in cahoots with CPM. You can ask those who are still there from CPM,” she said.
Fourteen people were killed in police firing on anti-land acquisition protesters in Nandigram on March 14, 2007.
Banerjee said if she was not there, Nandigram would not have survived. “I say with conviction that I stayed awake night after night… as long as the father and son were there, they tried to hide the truth. I am not opening their account… it is for you to decide. But they were not there when TMC was formed. Both were in Congress. Akhil Giri had contested, and they came third,” she said.
Scaling up the East Midnapore elections into a personal battle, Banerjee called her 2021 Nandigram defeat “a betrayal of people’s mandate” and said the May 25 polls in Tamluk and Contai Lok Sabha would be an opportunity to “avenge” that.
Haldia, like Nandigram, are assembly segments under Tamluk constituency.
“I was deceived and defrauded. There was forceful rigging and votes were looted. That day the DM, SP and IC were changed. BJP was in office and with the help of Election Commission, they changed these officers. After the end of elections, load shedding was done to change the results. I will take revenge against this, either today or tomorrow,” she said.
Nandigram featured in most parts of Banerjee’s speech, especially in the first 20 minutes, as she asserted that she was seeking “justice” legally for her assembly poll loss through “unfair means”. “Just because they are in office they loot (votes) forcefully. I have moved court in this regard. I am telling you today that I will seek my revenge as that (Nandigram verdict) was not the mandate of the people of Nandigram,” she alleged.
The CM hinted that the leader of opposition, too, was not above scrutiny in the SSC scam. “A few days before teachers lost their jobs, one ‘babu’ said he would detonate a bomb. What he actually meant was that the jobs of 26,000 boys and girls had been terminated. I said on that very day that I am with them, will fight legally and do whatever it takes,” Banerjee said.
“These 26,000 boys and girls are not opening their mouth...lest the truth comes out. Who has taken how much money and from whom. The number in Midnapore is the highest. It will come out someday. You can quietly tell me. No one’s job will go, no one will be harmed. Have you seen a man-eating tiger, a job-eating tiger? He’s there in your district,” she alleged.
Banerjee warned that Tamluk was one constituency where cash might get distributed to voters. “In the darkness of the night, packets get exchanged. Be alert. They do not spare even religious places…We help religious places in our own way. But I have never seen such a distribution of cash for votes in such a manner,” she said.