LALGARH WAS GLARING AT THE GOVERNMENT

Lalgarh is the headquarters of Binpur block under the West Midnapore district of West Bengal .Most of the population consists of adivasis(indigenous tribal). For sometime past the CPI (Maoist) or naxalites were quite active here organizing the adivasis to rise against the oppressive local establishment.

It became the center of media attention since the beginning of November 2008 when West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee led a high-powered delegation including union steel minister Ram Vilas Paswan, Lok Sabha MPs Jitin Prasada, Naveen Jindal, industrialist Sajjan Jindal traveling in a convoy on their way to inaugurate a Rs 35,000 crore steel plant at Shalboni in West Medinipur which suddenly ran headlong into a deadly trap of ambush lying in wait among the lush fields by the side of the road.

The Maoists had struck. Bhattacharjee who was their target and the bigwigs escaped by a whisker. Three policemen died. The state police, preparing for the inauguration of the steel plant had inspected and cordoned off the area a day before. But it was found that a 1,200 metre long explosive wire ran from the bomb-pit, through the fields towards a mound near railway tracks. According to a report, "Investigators believe the bomb was ignited from the mound, helped by scouts who might have positioned themselves in the paddy fields and signaled their comrades near the railway tracks".

Functioning only and only by stealth, Maoists had vanished after the ambush, leaving tribals to face the wolves. Just a couple of days earlier they had killed a senior CPI-M leader in the neighbouring Banspahari area of Belpahari block.

Maoists were protesting against setting up the steel plant by JSW Bengal Steel in the Maoist-hit Shalboni area. JSW Steel signed a pact with West Bengal government on 11 January 2007 to set up a 10 million tone steel plant in Salboni. This would have been the largest single investment in Bengal ever. The plant will come up on a 5,000-acre plot in which two large populations of trbals would lose their land or be displaced.

Stung and badly outwitted by the ambush, the state police combed the villages, rounded up, as always, innocents. According to reports, seven people, including three school going children were arrested in the immediate aftermath of the blast. A large contingent of police force descended in Lalgarh and unleashed a reign of terror. Sparing not even women, young and old were trampled under their boots.

The tribals of Lalgarh launched a massive protest that engulfed the entire tribal belt in the surrounding districts. Roads were dug up and trees were uprooted to prevent the entry of police. Another Nandigram was in the make.

Although instigated by the Maoists,the movement sprang from the people and led by them without any conventional leaders. In fact the traditional tribal leaders like Majhi Baba (village elders) were disowned and relegated. The Bharat Jakat Majhi Marwa group who negotiated with the govt. and announced a partial lifting of the blockade was boycotted, its youth wing leaders beaten up and made to apologize. Later the resistance movement was given the name; Police Santrosh Birodhi Janashadharaner Committee (PSBJC) (People's Committee against Police Atrocities).

The happenings on last Sunday only show that the instigators are now emboldened by the success of their protégé, the PSBJC. Even though the latter denies having a hand in the razing of both the police outpost at Ramgarh and the attacks on a CPI (M) office at Dharampur and the house of a local leader of the party there on that day, they, however, were quick to claim that It was the result of a spontaneous expression of anger against the administration and local leadership of the CPI (M).

In a move to pacify the PSBJC at least four police camps were withdrawn from the area that has been rocked by intermittent gun battles between the PSBJC and the CPI (M) supporters over the past few days, forcing many to flee from their homes. Still on Monday a police outpost — recently vacated — was set ablaze, an office of the CPI (M) ransacked and torched and houses belonging to the party's leaders attacked allegedly by activists.

Operation Lalgarh, as the Maoists want it to be known, was staring the government in the face, but it chose to wait and watch. The governments did nothing — not even ban the insurgent outfit in Bengal.

As former police officials say, 'everything was happening right there and happening for a long time. Let's face it, the administration preferred not to take timely action,'

Buoyed by the success, the Maoists plan to replicate Operation Lalgarh in neighboring Jharkhand, say intelligence findings communicated to the state home department.

Now, with violence spiraling out of control, central forces are being rushed in. It was stated that five companies of CRPF, i.e. about 600 troops, will be on the ground in Lalgarh Wednesday morning to help contain the bloodshed. But the latest reports on Wednesday were that the mayhem contnues. Six unidentified gunmen riding motor cycles shot dead a local CPM leader Amal Mahato, the Shimly branch secretary and member of village resistance group assisting the police, and two party supporters.

Meanwhile, according to latest reports paramilitary and special force raised to combat left-wing extremists numbering 2100 men deployed could only reach Jhargram near Lalgarh as Maoists dug up the roads and blocked the ways by felling more than 100 trees. A squad of more than 100 hard core Maoists trained at Chaibasa in neighboring Jharkhand is said to have infiltrated in to the area. Armed with AK 47 rifles they manned the roads at belpahari, another naxal-infested area leading to Lalgarh and have erected a three-tier human shield using women and children.

There is a complete breakdown of the administrative machinery. Just 170 kms from Kolkata there is no one to stop them -- no administration, no police. More blood has been spilt in Lalgarh.

It seems that the Left front government has cautioned the police not to open fire or aggravate the situation given the political fallout of the police firing in Nandigram. So they've simply left. Police stations are routinely found empty. In the absence of any policing, Lalgarh is a lawless zone.