TMC used us to capture power, say Nandigram victims' kin
May 11, 2019 13:35
Government jobs and financial compensation by the Trinamool Congress government has failed to heal the wounds of the kin of those who perished in the 2007 police firing during an anti-land acquisition movement in Nandigram as the more than a dozen families are still waiting for the perpetrators to be brought to book.
Fourteen persons were killed in the firing on a demonstration against land acquisition on March 14, leading to a nationwide outrage and the Calcutta high court 'suo motu' ordering a CBI investigation.
The incident altered the state political landscape bringing an end to the 34-year-old Left regime and catapulting the firebrand Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee to power in West Bengal in 2011.
More than a decade later, the families are disenchanted with the TMC accusing it of giving promotions to the accused police officers and sheltering the guilty Communist Party of India-Marxist workers.
"The TMC government gave us jobs, compensation. Some of the family members even got government jobs. But compensation and jobs won't either bring back my father or peace of mind," said Rabin Mondal, a local who whose father Badal Mondal was killed in the police firing.
"What about justice, what about punishing the police officers and political leaders involved in the incident?" added Mondal, who has been visiting the martyrs memorial erected by the TMC government in the village every day, since the last ten years.
According to Bikas Das, cousin of Gobinda Das, who too was killed in the firing, none of the senior police officers were punished and some of the local CPI(M) leaders who were also behind the atrocities have either joined the ruling TMC or the main opposition BJP.
"It was promised that the accused police personnel would be brought to book, but nothing happened. The accused senior police personnel were not even touched rather they got promotions after TMC came to power," Das claimed.
"Senior CPI-M leaders are also roaming free. We don't know whether we will get justice or not?" he added.
Their views were corroborated by most of the family members of the 14 victims in the village.
"We have read reports that the CBI's efforts to name the guilty police officers in the charge sheet were initially thwarted by TMC government. Later on they gave in," said a relative of Rakhal Giri who was killed in the police firing. -- PTI
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