Maoists plan economic blockade next week
16 June, 2007
KOLKATA: Nandigram has stoked the embers and Maoists plan to take this agitation to a new height. CPI (Maoist) is preparing to launch an "economic blockade on June 21 and 22 in the state.
But it will not take the Medha Patkar route or the parliamentary path that is the mainstay of the Opposition parties. The Maoists want people to launch a counter-offensive against the CPM-led "repressive police force" as the Maoist squads have done in Lalgarh in West Midnapore, in the first week of June.
In a recent press release, CPI (Maoist) state secretary Somen has owned up responsibility for the mine blasts in Lalgarh and Chhurimara on June 7.
"It's we who conducted the operations in Lalgarh and Chhurimara. The nine-member police team had a close shave that day. This was part of the democratic mass resistance against the police force," said Somen, hinting that more such blasts were in store.
The CPI (Maoist) leader is not ready for peace talks or any negotiation with the LF government. "CPM leaders — Buddha, Biman, Nirupam — do not understand any other language," he insisted. Explosion, he felt would pave the way for a protracted people's war.
"Narmada Bachao Andolan has failed to yield fruits for the masses. The armed resistance in Nandigram is the model," the Maoist release claimed.
Its militant stance has become a stumbling block for the Trinamul Congress to sit for peace talks. For the Maoists, in a limited way, have their presence in Nandigram and played a role in facilitating the armed offensive in the area.
CPM leaders are aware of the threat and have been campaigning against the Maoist hand in the Nandigram bloodbath.
Trinamul Congress leaders at the grass roots are in a fix. They can neither sever the informal understanding they had with the Maoists during the agitation, nor can they endorse the violent path in public.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
posted by Bimal 16.6.07,
