'Should I laugh at the death of people'; Netai killings pained Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee

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Tathagata Roy in ‘Desires, Dreams and Powers’ pens ‘missteps’ of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee passed away on Thursday. Political leaders cutting across party lines paid rich tributes to the seventh chief minister of West Bengal. Bhattacharjee, 80, had sought to bring investment in West Bengal. But his aggressive courting of industries also hastened the downfall of the long rule of the CPI (M) in West Bengal. Bhattacharjee was at the helm of affairs of West Bengal from 2000 to 2011 until Mamata Banerjee led the Trinamool Congress to the Assembly poll victory.

Former West Bengal BJP president Tathagata Roy, who also served as Governor of Tripura, Meghalaya, and Arunachal Pradesh, has shared his recollections of the events from Bhattacharjee’s last years in power when Nandigram rocked the state.

An excerpt from Tathagata Roy’s book – Desires, Dreams and Powers – published by BluOne Ink.

Nandigram was the point from which CPI (M)’s downslide started. From that moment onwards, it would be an uninterrupted southward journey for the party until 2021 when the CPI (M) would not have a single seat in the state assembly.

Little did we realize that the downslide of the state of West Bengal would continue uninterrupted, even accelerate.

The final blow to the CPI (M), sealing their fate after thirty-four years of rule, was the violence at Netai. Netai is a small village near Lalgarh in Jhargram district.

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On 7 January 2011, nine people engaged in local agitation were killed in indiscriminate firing from CPM leader Rathin Dandapat’s house in Netai village.

The main accused, Anuj Pandey, former Binpur zonal committee secretary of the CPI (M), was arrested from Chandrapura in Bokaro district of Jharkhand on 6 May. Five more individuals accused in the case, all local CPI (M) leaders, were arrested in Hyderabad on 30 April.

Twelve persons had earlier been arrested in connection with the case. This incident became the proverbial last nail in the coffin of the CPI (M), leading to their ousting from power after continuous thirty-four-year rule.

Three years later, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee expressed regret over the incident, acknowledging it as a ‘grave mistake’ committed by the party workers: ‘It was an unfortunate incident. Our men had made a mistake, and I admit that. I am really sorry for that. Should I laugh at the death of people?’ Buddhadeb asked.

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An incident like Netai garnered immense unpopularity for the CPI (M). With the assembly elections so close, there was no way for them to regain the lost ground.

By this point, the media in West Bengal had caught wind of the situation and turned completely hostile to the CPI (M). The Election Commission had also heightened its vigilance and increased the deployment of central forces, thus preventing the CPI (M) from intimidating voters.

The anti-incumbency of thirty-four years, the negative baggage of Singur, Nandigram and Netai, internal dissensions within the party and above all, the absence of a party strategist like Jyoti Basu, Subhas Chakraborty or Anil Biswas, sealed the fate of the party.

They lost in the 2011 elections, securing only 40 seats against Mamata Banerjee’s 184, with even the Congress gaining 42 seats. The Left Front, as a whole, managed only 62 seats. The BJP drew a blank, though later in a by-election, they won one seat.

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