BJP leader S.S. Ahluwalia said the CPI(M) proved to be "worse than Hitler's group."
The BJP–led NDA has also demanded a judicial inquiry as they believe the West Bengal government is trying to forcibly suppress protests.
"The CPI(M) has brutally lathicharged and fired upon farmers in West Bengal," said BJP president Rajnath Singh. "We demand a probe."
CPI(M)'s Left allies also did not mince words as the violence has been an embarrassment for the communists in West Bengal, who have annoyed grassroots supporters by pressing for SEZs as part of their reform program.
The "unprecedented" police firing in Nandigram has created a deep crisis within West Bengal's ruling Left Front, CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan said.
Describing Wednesday's police action as the "most tragic and unprecedented" incident during the 30–year rule of the Left Front in the state, Bardhan, who rushed to Kolkata, West Bengal, to assess the situation and attend CPI's state secretariat meeting, said there should be transparency and consultations with partners in the coalition on government action.
"The kind of police action at Nandigram is unheard of in Left rule, which I condemn severely," Bardhan said.
"It is a deep crisis because of the way the people have been killed. The brutal police action is unprecedented under Left Front rule," the veteran Leftist leader said.
The decision to send the police to Nandigram was taken "unilaterally" and not discussed with allies, nor at the meeting of the core committee of Left Front ministers, Bardhan said, speaking to the media after holding a close door meeting with West Bengal party leaders.
Bardhan also expressed displeasure that a chemical hub was proposed to be set up in Nandigram. He said that, in a way, the chemical industry was being exported from developed countries like Japan and Germany to third world nations. "Why should they pollute our state?" he asked.
"Although we are working within a bourgeois set–up, but as leftists we should put up some model for others," he said.
"No industry can be developed on the basis of corpses of peasants" Bardhan said, taking a rare dig at his longtime ally.
Even Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Lalu Prasad Yadav, who is close to the Leftist alliance, has criticized the biggest Left party, and has sent a team to the site of violence to investigate into the matter.
"The government should not buy land for private companies, instead private companies should buy land directly from farmers," Lalu Prasad Yadav, Union Railway Minister, said, adding that UPA chairperson Ms. Sonia Gandhi would call a meeting of all the allies to discuss these pressing issues at an upcoming UPA meeting on March 23.
"The RJD told the chairperson that there should be a discussion on the SEZ policy to avoid Nandigram–type violence in other parts of the country," Lalu Prasad said.
Nation
Nandigram violence evokes nationwide protest, leaves WB Govt. red–faced
By: Jacob Chaterjee
Monday, 19 March 2007, 8:13 (IST)
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