About 75 Indian-American academics and professionals filed a joint application under India's Right to Information Act at the Indian embassy in Washington, DC, demanding information from the West Bengal government on the violence in Nandigram.
The applicants said they were 'appalled by the recent spate of large scale displacement and violence in Nandigram.' They condemned the government for its 'total apathy to the repeated intimations of imminent violence' by the Bhoomi Uchhed Protirodh Committee, a group of people from Nandigram opposing the acquisition of agricultural land proposed by the state earlier this year.
The applicants also held the government responsible for its failure to protect the lives and rights of the villagers, and demanded information on the number of people killed or injured in the violence since November 4.
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The concerned non-resident Indians, many of them volunteers and supporters of the Association for India's Development, want information on the number of police personnel deployed and action taken by the government to book the criminals.
'The 'recapture' of Nandigram villages by Communist Party of India-Marxist party cadres for political assertion is completely illegal and undemocratic. On behalf of concerned NRIs we urge the government of West Bengal to respond to the crisis in Nandigram in a democratic and just manner and make sure that people's basic constitutional and legal rights are upheld and security, peace and justice in the area restored,' the statement said.
Responding to the CPI-M claim that the party's cadres were killed and one policeman burnt alive in Nandigram, Somasundaram Kumaresamuthusamy of AID said they wanted the state government to act as a protector of all citizens and not discriminate between people based on their stand on land issues or on their political inclinations.
"In democracy," Kumar told rediff India Abroad, "all voices have to be considered equally and the government cannot take an obnoxious stand of 'we' and 'them.' When there was continued violence beginning February 2007, rights groups have been demanding that the government act in an unbiased manner and bring the perpetrators to justice -- irrespective of whether they were CPI-M or BUPC -- and save the innocent caught in this crossfire.
"The state government," he continued, "is indifferent and is neither holding talks sincerely nor taking any concrete step to bring peace to the region. Obviously, the state government has more responsibility in maintaining peace than alleged Opposition and Naxalite cadres. The state government, the protector of the law of the land, cannot let its own cadres use violence against villagers illegally."
On whether criticism for the incidents in Nandigram has been selective and targeted against the ruling party -- as alleged by the CPI-M -- Kumar said there is a clear difference between the state government machinery and a political party.
"The West Bengal government is using its CPI-M cadres to do the work instead of the police forces," he said. "From the shooting incident in March where allegedly CPI-M men were present along with policemen until the recent 'recapture' of Nandigram -- it clearly shows that this government is more inclined to crush protests by sheer force," he added.
"The chief minister's claim of 'paid back in the same coin' is extremely disgusting and seems to condone violence," he said, referring to West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya's characteristion of the violence in Nandigram by party cadres as a retaliation to what was done to them in the past year by the BUPC.
Nandigram also drew flak from the Association of Indian Muslims of America. The organisation said the community in the US was very distressed to learn of the recent 'indiscriminate and senseless violence.'
'Media reports describe some cadres the Leftist parties running berserk in the region,' said an AIMA statement, 'destroying peoples' houses, raping women, brutalising and killing civilians and setting fire to their dwellings. In addition to much loss of property an atmosphere of fear has been induced by such mayhem and violence.'
"While we strongly support the programs of the Left Front government to establish modern industries," said Kaleem Kawaja, a NASA engineer, on behalf of the group, "such development should be implemented consistent with the laws of the land and the way of life of the people of the state. Non-sustainable industrial growth that does not integrate with local society should not be forced on the people.
"We condemn," he continued, "the recent coercive methods used by the government apparatus. We appeal to the West Bengal chief minister, the governor and the Left Front government to bring to justice the culprits, and make special efforts to restore peace and harmony in the Nandigram area."
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