Communally cleaved Nandigram awaits titanic Mamata-Suvendu clash

A blood-soaked Nandigrammade Mamata Banerjee what she is today and underpins the hopesof the combustible West Bengal leader of clinching a thirdstraight term in office.

Nandigram was the springboard that catapulted her topower in politically volatile and often violent West Bengal adecade back, and there she is, invoking a battle she led andwon against an iron-fisted Communist regime.

This time, however, she is up against her formerNandigram general--the formidable Suvendu Adhikari-- who hasjoined the rival BJP, and declared he will quit politics if hefails to defeat Banerjee on his home turf.

It was a strife that had propelled the little knownagrarian agglomeration, where characteristics of rural andurban West Bengal merged seamlessly, into national limelight.

It's a looming strife again that threatens to break itsfragile peace as assembly elections approach.

The scene of one of the bloodiest and most traumaticmass movements against land acquisition by a government forindustrialisation, Nandigram of today stands polarised alongcommunal lines.

It has come a long way since the turbulent 2000s whenthe slogan ''Tomar naam amar naam, Nandigram, Nandigram'' (yourname, my name, Nandigram, Nandigram!'' suffused the agitatedair, reflecting a rare social and political convergence ofpublic opinion against ''forcible'' land acquisition by the thenLeft Front government for setting up a Special Economic Zone.

Today, the slogan ''Jai Shri Ram'' is etched firmly asgraffiti on the walls of Nandigram alongside the fading ''Tomarnaam amar naam, Nandigram, Nandigram''.

And the most important reason behind the heightenedcommunal polarisation is Adhikari's decision to join the BJPand Banerjee's surprise announcement that she will contest theseat.

Banerjee's announcement on Monday left the entireEast Midnapore district and adjoining areas on edge.

Both Banerjee and Adhikari were heroes of theNandigram movement. The feisty TMC boss was its guidingspirit, while Adhikari was her general on the ground,organising mass protests against the SEZ where Indonesia'sSalim group intended to set up a chemical hub.

Adhikari's father Sisir, currently a TMC Lok Sabhamember, was the convenor of the Bhumi Uchhed PratirodhCommittee (BUPC), which comprised people from disparatepolitical ideologies. The TMC, Congress, RSS and evendisgruntled members of the Left parties--all waged a unitedstruggle against the government.

With the Left and the Congress pushed to the marginsof West Bengal politics, a bitter and bloody political battlelooms over Nandigram between Banerjee's TMC and the BJP.

Political rallies of rival parties are being attackedand people injured almost every day.

With no industries having come up since the BUPCuprising that left an unspecified number of people dead,including 14 in a police firing, Nandigram's primarilyagricultural economy supplies rice, vegetables and fresh fishto adjoining areas, skirted as it is by the Ganga and Haldirivers.

Though the peace of Nandigram was shattered by theprotracted violence during 2007-11, leaving many dead inclashes between BUPC and CPI-M supporters, the area was neverbefore polarised along religious and communal lines, and thetussle was purely political.

''Nandigram has changed a lot in the last six-sevenyears. Earlier, all communities used to live in peacetogether. There were differences and violence, but all thatwas because of politics not religion.

''Now it all (conflict) stems from religion withmajority Hindus on one side and Muslim minority on another. Wenever saw such a situation in the past,'' Rasool Kazi, a localresident, who participated in the anti-land acquisitionmovement, told PTI.

Bamdev Mondal of Gokulpur village in Nandigram blamedthe TMC government for the communal divide.

''The TMC government went overboard with its policy of(Muslim) appeasement and that pitted one community against theother,'' Mondal said.

Mondal is also angry over the lack of development inthe area after the anti-land acquisition movement.

''Hindus and Muslims fought hand in hand but what didwe get? Except for a few new roads and to some extent thebenefits of the 100 days of work a year, we got nothing.

''Only a handful of leaders and members of a particularcommunity got all the benefits. Now the people are angry andwill teach TMC a lesson,'' he said.

A TMC panchayat samiti member, who did not want to benamed, alleged Muslims were getting preference even in studentscholarships.

''The CPI-M never discriminated between people on thebasis of religion. Tell me why Hindus should not go with theBJP. We cautioned the party leadership against thisdiscrimination but nothing came of it,'' he said.

Sheikh Sufiyan, a BUPC veteran and East MidnaporeZilla Parishad chairman, however, insisted such claims werepart of the BJP's ''disinformation campaign''.

Nandigram assembly constituency has around 70 per centHindus, while Muslims account for the rest, and their namesgive away their political preferences.

Local leaders of both the TMC and the BJP maintain theshoots of a communal divide became visible after the 2013panchayat polls when elected Muslim members were givenprominent roles in Zilla Parishads and the ruling party'sdistrict unit. The rift widened further after the 2018panchayat elections.

The disaffection prompted the Hindu right to assertitself with a massive Ram Navami rally in Nandigram in 2016.

Locals said many TMC workers and leaders actively participatedin it.

The results were quick for all to see. The BJP, withhardly any support base in the area dominated by the TMC,bagged over 1.96 lakh votes in the 2016 byelections to TamlukLok Sabha seat and finished third. In the 2019 Lok Sabhaelection, the BJP further consolidated it position, with itscandidate cinching over 5.34 lakh votes.

Dibyendu Adhikari, a younger brother of SuvenduAdhikari won both the elections. Dibyendu and the Adhikarifamily patriarch, Sisir Adhikari, are both TMC Lok Sabhamembers but had given Mamata Banerjee's Monday rally a miss.

''Nandigram is sitting on a tinderbox and only theTMC's appeasement politics is responsible for it. If you denythe majority community its rights, you will have to face theconsequences,'' Tamluk district BJP general secretary Gour HariMaity told a visiting PTI reporter.

A local former leader of the Congress Sabuj Pradhan,who recently joined the BJP, said sporadic communal clashesare taking place in the region for the last few weeks andthings could get worse as the elections approach.

TMC's Akhil Giri, a known detractor of SuvenduAdhikari who now calls the shots in the area for the TMC, isconfident that Nandigram will not lose its secular characterand rally behind Banerjee.

''Suvendu and his coterie of leaders say there arearound 2.12 lakh Hindu and 70,000 Muslim voters in Nandigramassembly seat. But we will defeat their communal designs.

Nandigram is the epitome of secularism and will always be,'' heasserted.