Despite strong opposition from some Left partners, CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat on Friday backed Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s decision to deploy central forces in Nandigram. He said there was nothing new in deployment of central security forces, West Bengal has done this in the past as well.“What the Chief Minister has said reflects our party’s opinion. That is what I have gathered from our state committee here,” Karat said. He echoed Bhattacharjee’s view that there was no relevance of the anti-land acquisition movement as the Government had withdrawn its plan to acquire land for a chemical hub. Karat said: “What is happening in Nandigram is no more an issue of land acquisition. There has been so such activity in the last few months and everybody knows that. Still there is no peace, no administration, there is continuing recurrence of violence, and a large number of people are not being able to go back to their homes.” “We can’t allow this to go on. If the state government feels they need the help of central security forces to intervene to bring normalcy — not for acquiring land — I think it should go ahead with the decision and act upon it. The deployment of CRPF is justified,” he added.
