The CPI(M) brooks no comparison between the post-Godhra pogrom in Gujarat and the recent incidents of bloodshed, rape and looting by CPI(M) militia in Nandigram in West Bengal. For the CPI(M) which always pretends to occupy the high moral ground on all issues, the comparison is nothing less than preposterous. I happened to accost a local CPI(M) apparatchik the other day and as I broached the comparison when our talk predictably touched Nandigram, he was outraged. I presented my arguments: a) both the post-Godhra violence and and the violent recapture of Nandigram were acts of revenge, one by the Saffron Brigade and the other by the Red Brigade; b) in both cases, respective State administrations chose to look the other way when armed men went around killing people, raping women and looting; c) the intelligentsia, including pro-Left writers and artistes, was outspoken in their condemnation of bloodshed in Gujarat and Nandigram. In the case of Nandigram, the CPI(M)'s partners in the goverment RSP and CPI openly criticised the CPI(M)'s highhandedness there.
You can imagine how the guy responded to my argument. He said that the media was giving biased reports about the incidents in Nandigram. I told him that the BJP leadershp's take on the Gujarat violence was no different. Was he saying that I should not believe what the newspapers were saying? That I should listen to what Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechuri were lecturing on the issue? Of course, the guy did not care to answer my questions. Rather, he was saying something which I could not understand.
I know there is difference between Gujarat and Nandigram. The one was more a carnival of violence, while the other betrays signs of militarisation of political activities. Nandigram is more disturbing because the State administration termed it as a war zone with the West Bengal CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee defending the Red Brigade's action with his `paid-in-the-same-coin' comment. There is also difference in degree. Phew! I have survived the argument with the comrade. But I did not try to convince him that his belief that his party and its ideology were infallible was but a shortcut to the road to totalitarian systems that have failed elsewhere in the world.
You can imagine how the guy responded to my argument. He said that the media was giving biased reports about the incidents in Nandigram. I told him that the BJP leadershp's take on the Gujarat violence was no different. Was he saying that I should not believe what the newspapers were saying? That I should listen to what Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechuri were lecturing on the issue? Of course, the guy did not care to answer my questions. Rather, he was saying something which I could not understand.
I know there is difference between Gujarat and Nandigram. The one was more a carnival of violence, while the other betrays signs of militarisation of political activities. Nandigram is more disturbing because the State administration termed it as a war zone with the West Bengal CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee defending the Red Brigade's action with his `paid-in-the-same-coin' comment. There is also difference in degree. Phew! I have survived the argument with the comrade. But I did not try to convince him that his belief that his party and its ideology were infallible was but a shortcut to the road to totalitarian systems that have failed elsewhere in the world.
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