New Delhi, March 15
Congress president Sonia Gandhi is faced with a dilemma on the party’s handling of the violence at Nandigram in Left-ruled West Bengal, having come under increasing pressure from party men to take a tough position on this issue.
The party is, however, constrained from criticising the Buddhadev Bhattacharya dispensation too strongly given that the ruling coalition at the Centre survives on the support of the Left parties.
A meeting of the UPA coordination committee has been slated for March 23 to take a coordinated stance on Nandigram, SEZ and price rise.
However, the Congress rank and file, especially the West Bengal unit which is battling the Left Front in the state, wants the leadership to come out with a strong condemnation of the West Bengal Government for the police firing in which 14 persons have been killed. It also wants the party to send a delegation to Nandigram or else, they feel, they will cede the opposition space in the state to other political parties like the Trinamool Congress and the BJP.
This issue has acquired further urgency as the NDA as well as its own alliance partner, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), have decided to send separate delegations to Nandigram for an on-the-spot assessment of the situation there.
The party’s sentiments were conveyed by West Bengal MPs - Dawa Narbula, Abu Hasnath Khan Chaudhary and Manan Hussien - who met Congress president and external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee today and urged the central party leadership to come out strongly against the firing incident. They also made a strong case for sending a party delegation to Nandigram.
There is a strong view in the party that the Congress should not shy away from taking a tough position in this case as coalition dharma has never stopped the CPM from addressing is constituency even if it is at the cost of the Congress.’’If CPM leaders can go to Gurgaon when factory workers were beaten up by the police there, what is stopping the Congress from sending a team to Nandigram,” said an angry West Bengal Congress leader.
This issue figured prominently at party’s political affairs committee meeting, convened this evening by Sonia Gandhi where it was decided that the party would take a final view on sending its delegation to Nandigram after it received a report from its state unit. The Congress cannot afford to take any step which could add to the tensions and become a problem for the UPA Government.
Mindful of the sentiments in the state, the Congress stepped up its attack on the West Bengal Government today. “We view Nandigram violence very seriously and condemn the loss of lives there. There is no justification for the kind of violence witnessed there,” Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said today, adding that the party is yet to take a view on sending a delegation to Nandigram.
