Mamata remembers Nandigram 'martyrs'

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday remembered those who she claimed became "victims" of the CPI-M's "violent politics" in the state during the Left Front (LF) rule.

Banerjee's Trinamool Congress (TMC) is observing the day as "Nandigram Divas", accusing the Communist Party of India-Marxist of letting loose "barbaric atrocities" in the rural belt of East Midnapur district on November 10, 2007.

"Today is Nandigram Divas. The barbaric atrocities the CPI-M let loose on the people of Nandigram. Ten years since, the memories are still fresh.

"Today I remember the martyrs in various areas of Bengal including Nandigram, Singur, Keshpur, Nanur, who died following the violence unleashed by the CPI-M," Banerjee tweeted.

Trouble sparked off in Nandigram over the LF regime's bid to acquire farmland for setting up a petrochemical hub.

The peasants began a violent protest led by TMC, then the principal opposition party.

The flare up led to killings, police firing, and other disturbances, prompting the state government to declare that the land would not be acquired for setting up the project.

However, the Nandigram movement, coupled with peasant unrest in Hooghly district's Singur led to a constant rise in Trinamool's political graph and it won the state assembly polls in 2011, ending the LF's 34 year rule.

--IANS

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