Parash Pathar

Parash Pathar

Indian Holocaust My Father`s Life and Time- One Hundred FORTY


Palash Biswas


Pl See:India's great rush for SEZs
http://www.rediff.com/money/sez.html?zcc=rl

Www.worldofray.com, one the largest of the portals on Satyajit Ray, has been updated and given a new name - www.satyajitrayworld.com - to mark the birth anniversary.

The website was launched by the Kolkata-based Society for the Preservation of Satyajit Ray Films, better known as the Satyajit Ray Society, on Aug 26, 2006. The date was chosen to celebrate the 51st year of the release in Kolkata of "Pather Panchali", Ray's debut film that marked the emergence of an all-time great of world cinema

As the 86th birth anniversary of Satyajit Ray is celebrated Wednesday, perhaps the most befitting tribute will come from his son who is planning sequels of two of the master filmmaker's best-known works.A stronger cyber world presence of the works of Ray, who was not only a filmmaker but also a writer of repute, is on the cards as well.But what will perhaps most delight his fans is the return of the detective character Feluda and the musician duo Goopy-Bagha on screen.

Kolkata celebrates 86th birth anniversary of Satyajit Ray amidst the news: On Tuesday evening, a group of intellectuals from Kolkata that had gone to Nandigram with relief material said it was attacked by CPI-M men.Issues pertaining to women and children appear to rank low among the government's priorities, with a parliamentary panel pulling up the Women and Child Development Ministry for under-utilisation of funds.The Indian IT and ITES sector is projected to become a USD 100 billion plus industry at an 18 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the next five years to cross an estimated Rs 4,58228 crore of revenue in 2011

Theatre personality Shaoli Mitra, who was among the intellectuals who visited Nandigram, dubbed their experience on Tuesday night as horrifying. The group was attacked by CPI-M men and its vehicles damaged. Some members were assaulted too.

What a irony that the only daughter of Shambhu Mitra and tripti Mitara is being attacked as she is leading The Artist`s Forum against indiscriminate land aquisition and annihilation campaaign. Whoever is against CPIM`s suicidal policy is treated as people`s enemy.
West Bengal has become a killing fields full of mines and you never know where lies the trap!


It is quite funny that as part of the damage control exercise, the chief minister had expressed regret for the Nandigram incident triggered by plans to set up a chemical hub there. The chemical hub would be located elsewhere, he stated. But the Cadre Power is the ultimate truth in Bengal which even don`t spare the Cast Hindu Intellectual! Despite categorical statement by West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee that the proposed chemical hub would be located elsewhere, Nandigram issue continued to haunt the lf government even after one and half month with Trinamool Congress demanding an enquiry by a sitting Supreme Court judge into the police firing there. CPIM sees no escape route this time. Thus it does not hesitate to target the intellectuals!Bhattacharjee however made it clear that there was no going back on the industrialisation of the state.

Shootouts, bombings and arson between rival groups continued in parts of Nandigram Wednesday, three days after the death of a person plunged the trouble-torn area in West Bengal into fresh turmoil.
Eyewitnesses said women and children were fleeing villages in large numbers to escape death and brutality. TV footage from the area showed people leaving villages while masked men fired at each other.

'We have heard that some people entered a village called Takapura, an area so far unaffected. We have sent our forces there,' Inspector General of Police Raj Kanojia told IANS in Kolkata.

There have been reports of arson, heavy firing and exodus of women and children from villages in East Midnapore district's Nandigram area, which has been on the boil since January over land acquisition for a special economic zone (SEZ).

Incidents of violence have been reported from the Ranichawk area as well.

The two warring groups are the Bhumi Uchched Pratirodh Committee (BUPC), which is opposing land acquisition for the SEZ, and the CPI-M, whose masked men are launching attacks from the side of Khejuri, an area adjoining Nandigram on the other side of a canal.

With police not playing an active role in Nandigram after clashes with protestors on March 14 that left 14 people dead, over a hundred injured and several women raped or brutalised, the situation has deteriorated with the two sides engaged in a fierce gun battle and bombings.

Not only West Bengal, the entire country is after the Parash Pathar: (The Philosopher's Stone)! Every one is after first money! This is the life style in vogue! The fans of Jyoti Basu, Utpal dutt, Manik Bandopadhyaya, Ghatak and Ray have to see these days while the role of the Intellectuals is so controversial. CPIM minister justifies the attack terming the artists as TMC workers! Not many days past, entire Bengali intelligentsia supporte the Left and pro left activism of the artists helped the progressive image of the left so much! With a revolt against Buddha`s gestapo, the scenerio changed. CPIM termed and identified all untamed intellectuals as the enemies of people. These enemies of people were attacked in Nandigram and the party justifies it! It is the marxist version of democracy. It is the commitment expressed and dedicated to the Communist Menifesto!


The Calcutta High Court, which on Wednesday opened a CBI report on the police action in Nandigram in which 14 persons were killed, directed the West Bengal government to place before it a status report on the troubled area by tomorrow. A division bench comprising Chief Justice S S Nijjar and Justice P C Ghose, after going through the CBI report, said the central investigating agency had given its report on the basis of its findings till March 23 and was inconclusive. The bench quoted a paragraph of the report which said the CBI could not come to any definite conclusion yet. he court directed State Advocate General Balai Roy to submit a status report on the situation in Nandigram till date to get a clear picture.

Advocate Kalyan Banerjee, appearing for one of the several petitioners in the case, submitted that situation in Nandigram was very volatile and that one person was killed and some others injured in fresh clashes last Sunday, while some artistes and intellectuals who had gone to the troubled area to distribute relief were assaulted yesterday.

The court directed that the CBI report, except for the one paragraph that it read out, would remain in sealed cover till further direction. The matter would be heard again tomorrow.

The Chief Justice had, just a day after the police action on march 14, directed the CBI to enquire into the police firing at Nandigram and to submit a report before it.
http://www.zeenews.com/articles.asp?aid=369102&sid=NAT

HC asks state to file fresh affidavit on Singur acquisition

Not satisfied with an affidavit by the West Bengal Government on land acquisition in Singur for the Tatamotors small car project, the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday directed the West Bengal government to submit a detailed affidavit within two weeks.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice S S Nijjar and Justice P C Ghose asked the state Advocate General to incorporate details of land acquisition under different sections of the Land Acquisition Act 1894 and also the payment details for such acquisition as per an earlier order by a division bench headed by the then Acting Chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharjee.

Appearing for petitioner Joydip Mukherjee in a PIL, counsel M P Raju submitted that the affidavit was not in accordance with the court's direction and that there was disparity in the government's submission in the court and the affidavit it placed.

Advocate General Balai Roy in his submission questioned the maintainability of the petitions as PILs claiming that only an affected party can seek redressal from courts.

Several PILs have been filed challenging the acquisition of 997 acres of land for setting up of the Tatamotors small car factory at Singur in Hoogly district of West Bengal.

Hearing both the parties, the court directed the state to file a fresh affidavit disclosing details of the acquisition. The question of maintainability would be taken up after that.

The matter would come up for hearing again on June 12.


Films directed by Satyajit Ray[hide]
Pather Panchali (1955) • Aparajito (1957) • Parash Pathar (1958) • Jalsaghar (1958) • Apur Sansar (1959) • Devi (1960) • Teen Kanya (1961) • Rabindranath Tagore (1961) • Kanchenjungha (1962) • Abhijan (1962) • Mahanagar (1963) • Charulata (1964) • Two (1965) • Kapurush (1965) • Mahapurush (1966) • Nayak (1966) • Chiriyakhana (1967) • Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne (1969) • Aranyer Din Ratri (1970) • Pratidwandi (1971) • Seemabaddha (1971) • Sikkim (1971) • The Inner Eye (1972) • Ashani Sanket (1973) • Sonar Kella (1974) • Jana Aranya (1976) • Bala (1976) • Shatranj Ke Khiladi (1977) • Joi Baba Felunath (1978) • Hirak Rajar Deshe (1980) • Pikoor Diary (1981) • Sadgati (1981) • Ghare Baire (1984) • Sukumar Ray (1987) • Ganashatru (1989) • Shakha Proshakha (1990) • Agantuk (1991)

Parash Pathar: (The Philosopher's Stone)
In this satirical film, Paresh, an unimportant clerk at a bank, sees his life transformed one day when a neighbor child shows him a stone which he claims is capable of instantly changing any piece of metal into gold. Incredulous at first, Paresh becomes convinced by a demonstration of the stone's power and manages to make off with it. Soon he is wealthy and takes pains to preserve the secret of his riches until, drunkenly loquacious, he reveals it during a party at the home of an industrial magnate. The industrialist covets the stone and demands to be let in on its magic formula. This causes a series of calamities that make Paresh regret his acquisition.
Parash Pathar
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Parash Pathar
Directed by Satyajit Ray
Produced by Pramod Lahiri
Written by Satyajit Ray, from a story by Parasuram
Starring Tulsi Chakraborty,
Ranibala Devi,
Kali Bannerjee,
Haridhan Chatterjee,
Moni Srimani,
Jahar Roy
Distributed by Edward Harrison
Release date(s) 1958
Running time 111 min
Language Bengali
IMDb profile
Parash Pathar (The Philosopher's Stone, 1958) was Satyajit Ray's first film apart from the Apu trilogy. It was also his first comedy and first magical realist film. Adapted from a short story of the same name by Parasuram (Rajsekhar Bose), the film offered an early glimpse of Ray's sense of humor, centered on a middle-class clerk who accidentally discovers a stone that can turn other objects into gold.

Contents [hide]
1 Plot
2 Critical reception
3 Trivia
4 Notes
5 External link



[edit] Plot
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Paresh Chandra Dutt (Tulsi Chakraborty), a middle-class bank clerk in Kolkata, attends a charity match on a rainy day rather reluctantly. At Curzon Park (modern-day Surendranath Park), where the match is apparently to be held, he finds a small, round stone. Thinking it is a marble, he gives it to his son. The child discovers that it turns metal into gold (i.e. it is the Philosopher's stone).

Dutt "buys" the stone from the child with sweets and witnesses the stone's power himself. He decides to take a few old cannonballs from the city dump, turn them into gold, and sell them. This scheme makes him rich; as a chauffeur drives him home from the dump, the car pulls into the driveway of a mansion (his new home). He now has a young secretary named Priyatosh Henry Biswas (Kali Banerjee) who, among other things, mentions that Dutt is invited to a cocktail party (his first).

At the party, Dutt acts slightly unnatural before engaging in drunken revelry. When another guest orders him to get out, he turns an iron figurine into gold (thus partially revealing how he became successful). It is not long before this incident is posted as a headline in the papers, causing a panic in Bengal. Paresh Dutt flees with his wife, Giribala (Ranibala Devi), leaving nearly everything (including the stone) with Priyatosh but cautioning him to hand it over if the police arrive.

Soon, Mr. and Mrs. Dutt are taken to a police station for interrogation, and the police discover that the desperate Priyatosh has swallowed the stone. Dr. Nandi (Moni Srimani), a medical specialist, informs the inspector (Haridhan Chatterjee) that Priyatosh is digesting the stone. Soon after Paresh and Giribala Dutt hear of this, they notice the golden objects turning back into iron. The Dutts happily rejoin their servant (Jahar Roy) and Priyatosh.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parash_Pathar



The Trinamool Congress today demanded immediate arrest of the persons behind the attack on theatre artistes and intellectuals who had gone to distribute relief material among the homeless at Nandigram yesteday.

"Even intellectuals are not being spared from the Marxists' onslaught. This was the result of the police inaction. We demand immediate arrest of the culprits," Trinamool Congress General Secretary Partha Chatterjee said today. Chatterjee, who is now in Nandigram, told PTI over the phone that on his party chief Mamata Banerjee's advice he rang up the West Bengal Governor G K Gandhi today and expressed concern over the attack.

"I told the Governor that this was the glaring example of the police not taking action to prevent CPI(M) supporters from carrying out attacks like the one on the artistes and intellectuals who had gone there to distribute relief materials".

"If the artistes become the target of attacks by CPI(M) cadres, do we have to believe that the administration is serious enough to bring the situation under control?" he said.

East Midnapore District Superintendent of Police G A Srinivas told PTI yesterday that the CPI(M) supporters had attacked the group after an altercation at Chandipur, about 25 km from Nandigram.

The marxist supporters also smashed the rear window of the vehicle in which the group was travelling. None was hurt in the incident, he said, adding the police was looking for the attackers.


Signs of economic development are becoming more visible even in rural India with the number of households owning cars, motorcycles and television sets increasing significantly in recent years.
The number of rural households possessing cars or jeeps has grown four times between 1993-94 and 2004-05, according to the 61st survey conducted by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO). Similarly, the number of people owning motorcycles or scooters recorded a three-fold jump during the 11-year period. In urban areas, households possessing cars or jeeps have gone up from 1.2 per cent in 1993-94 to 4.6 per cent in 2004-05. Similarly, motorcycle or scooter owners have increased from 11.6 per cent to 26.0 per cent. The survey results reflect the country's expanding economy, which has been growing over eight per cent in last three years and more than five per cent in the last decade.

The limited affluent middle class upsurge is the focal point of Indian Economy. The Sensex is its climax. Who cares for the masses and Rural India?

The left government which boasts of land reforms is not ashamed of Rural Annihilation.

And we get this news from a reactionary state:

Continuing its pro-farmers stand, the JDS-BJP government in Karnataka today announced waiver of short, medium and long term loans upto Rs 25,000 to all farmers and extended the deadline for availing the benefits of the scheme to May 31 from the earlier April 30. The fresh announcement by Deputy Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa of BJP has virtually come following intense pressure mounted by his coalition partner JDS, which insisted that all farmers get crop loan waiver of upto Rs 25,000 irrespective of the borrowing. The measure would impose Rs 300 crore additional burden on the state exchequer, taking the total financial burden to Rs 2300 crore on account of waiver of loans availed during 2006-07.

President George W Bush on Tuesday night vetoed legislation to pull US troops out of Iraq in a historic showdown with Congress over whether the unpopular war should end or escalate.

It was a day of high political drama, falling on the fourth anniversary of Bush's ''Mission Accomplished'' speech declaring that major combat operations had ended in Iraq.

In only the second veto of his presidency, Bush rejected legislation pushed by Democratic leaders that would require the first US combat troops to be withdrawn by October 1 with a goal of a complete pullout six months later.

Afghanistan: NATO attack kills 75. Carrying bundles and driving donkeys, villagers trickled back to damaged farmsteads on Tuesday after a lightning NATO attack estimated to have killed 75 suspected Taliban, including some local men.The latest salvo in the alliance's campaign to win control of southern Afghanistan chalked up a clear military victory. However, the outcome of the tougher battle for the hearts and minds of ordinary Afghans remains open.

Why do you oppose these acts of Imperialism while you happen to be the comradors of the Global Government? See what you do!

The United States and India made extensive progress during two days of talks aimed at salvaging their nuclear cooperation agreement and hope to complete the deal this month, the State Department said.

The Union government has tied itself in knots with its much-publicised intent to restrict states from acquiring land for private players and SEZ developers, with a strong view that such a policy would discourage industrialisation. There are reservations about the draft R&R policy which gives a partial role to government in land acquisition, allowing it a maximum of 10 per cent if the private players can acquire up to 90 per cent.

The second thoughts on the contentious provision have led the Prime Minister to order a review of the policy by a GoM. It comes after business houses mounted pressure, protesting that ‘absolute’ withdrawal of government role would be inimical to industry’s interests. While government seems to have got the message, it has to reconcile the industry’s stake with the scepticism of farmers over forcible takeover of fertile land.

Industry apart, it has not found favour with a few ministries which feel the clause would impede the growth of SEZ, a reason for the PM to discuss it with stakeholding ministers. While the vacillation is baffling, sources said the hesitation was not out of place as any statute change on the sensitive issue may prove difficult.

Sources said the minimal role of government in land acquisition has triggered concerns that it would discourage industrialisation as corporates would be at the mercy of landowners. Government, on the other hand, has power to acquire any land for “public purpose” and thereby play the supreme facilitator.

The concern, however, marks a U-turn since UPA chose to embark on a radically “pro-farmer” policy of banning government from land appropriation. It was at the PMO’s behest that the R&R draft was revised to include an amendment to the Land Acquisition Act for redefining “public purpose.” It barred states from buying land for private parties with the 10 per cent caveat.

JeM investing in legal businesses: US report
Express News ServicePosted online: Wednesday, May 02, 2007 at 0000 hrs Print Email
NEW DELHI, MAY 1: In what seems to be a confirmation of fears that militant groups have begun using unconventional routes to finance their activities, a US report on terrorism has said that the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) has invested in commodity trading and real estate. The group had also invested in other legal businesses, like production of consumer goods, says the Country Terrorism Report, 2006 prepared by the US State Department.

“In anticipation of asset seizures by the Pakistani government, JeM withdrew funds from bank accounts and invested in legal businesses,” the report has noted. The group is suspected of funding by the al Qaeda.

At a conference in Munich in February, National Security Advisor M K Narayanan had said “manipulation” of stock exchanges was a new modus operandi used by terrorist groups. They were also involved in legitimate businesses like restaurants, real estate and shipping, using part of the proceeds to fund their activities, he had warned.
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/29851.html


Satyajit Ray
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Jump to: navigation, search
Satyajit Ray

Satyajit Ray on the set of Two, 1964
Born May 2, 1921
Kolkata, India
Died April 23, 1992
Kolkata, India
Occupation Film maker, writer
Spouse Bijoya Ray
Satyajit Ray (help·info) (Bengali: ??????? ???? Shottojit Rae) (May 2, 1921–April 23, 1992) was an Indian filmmaker regarded as one of the greatest film directors of the twentieth century.[1] Born in the city of Kolkata (then Calcutta) into a Bengali family prominent in the world of arts and letters, Ray studied at Presidency College and at the Visva-Bharati University, at the poet Rabindranath Tagore's Santiniketan. Starting his career as a commercial artist, Ray was drawn into filmmaking after meeting French filmmaker Jean Renoir and viewing the Italian neorealist film Bicycle Thieves during a visit to London.

Ray directed thirty-seven films, including feature films, documentaries and shorts. Ray's first film, Pather Panchali, won eleven international prizes, including Best Human Document at Cannes. Along with Aparajito and Apur Sansar, the film forms the Apu trilogy. Ray worked on an array of tasks, including scripting, casting, scoring, cinematography, art direction, editing and designing his own credit titles and publicity material. Apart from making films, he was a fiction writer, publisher, illustrator, graphic designer and film critic. Ray received many major awards in his career, including an Academy Honorary Award in 1992.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyajit_Ray

Nandigram’s live bombs
IMRAN AHMED SIDDIQUI


(Top) A man, who claims to be a CPM supporter, poses with a gun and a wireless phone in Khejuri; (below) A man from the
rival camp, the Bhoomi Uchchhed Pratirodh Committee, patrols with a machete in Satengabari. Pictures by Pradip Sanyal
Nandigram, April 30: Pistol in one hand and cellphone in the other, Rabiul Hasan sits under a tree in Khejuri, barking orders to one of his lieutenants.

“Watch for any movement on their side. Don’t give up the fight. We must use any means to regain control of our turf. It’s do-or-die,” the local CPM leader’s message is unambiguous.

He turns to this correspondent. “We were driven back yesterday, but there’s always a next time.”

Rabiul is one of the many CPM members and supporters who made an attempt yesterday to return to their homes in Nandigram before being beaten back by the Bhoomi Uchchhed Pratirodh Committee.

He admits that the foray, confined to Nandigram II block, was ill-conceived. Today, he is finalising a “much better strategy” for the next attempt.

The plan, Rabiul says, is simple. His “60 to 70” armed cadre will provide covering fire while scores of others rush in to reoccupy their homes — and the party’s “territory” — across Nandigram I and II.

“I’ve posted my men in small groups at all the entry points. As you can see, I’m in constant touch with them. Let’s see how they can stop us this time.”

Some 20 young men, most of them carrying country-made pistols, rifles and cellphones, listen intently. A large polythene bag lies nearby, bulging with crude bombs.

This patch of land in Khejuri is the local CPM’s “control room”. Beyond the Tekhali bridge lies “enemy-occupied territory” — Bhangabera, Garchakraberia, Sonachura.
Read full Story:
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070501/asp/frontpage/story_7721464.asp


The relentless tragedy of Ritwik
Nearly quarter of a century after his death, Ritwik Ghatak’s films show the power of creativity of a people’s artist who authored an Indian/SouthAsian language of cinema. If only we knew…

by Partha Chatterjee


Ritwik Ghatak: prescient, plastic and rich with under-stated possibility.
An artiste, even in this age of mindless greed and hurry, captures the public imagination, if only for a moment or two, should he or she answer to type, that is, of being a romantic idealist. Ritwik Ghatak, the Bengali filmmaker and short story writer, was such an individual and an alcoholic to boot, like the Urdu poet of romance and revolution, Majaz Lucknawi; or Sailoz Mookerjea, the painter whose soul made a daily creative journey across continents—from the French countryside of the Impressionists to the verdant green Bengal of his childhood and youth, and austere, dusty Delhi where he finally settled down. Like them, Ghatak died young – in his fifty-first year, on 6 February 1976. His send-off was perfunctory, like the ones accorded to Majaz and Sailoz, and it took a long time for a larger public to gauge the worth of the three of them. The reason for this neglect was probably the lack of access to their work.

In retrospect, Ghatak stands a better chance of being in the public gaze because of the nature of his medium—cinema—which has a far greater reach than either poetry or painting. He had problems finding finance for his films because of his inability to suffer fools, especially in the film world, and this compounded with a talent for insulting hypocrites, including would-be producers, when drunk, made his own life and that of his family completely miserable.

He forgot that he lived in a country that was simultaneously half-feudal and half-capitalist and was still emerging from the shadow of colonialism. Directness and honesty in private and professional life were qualities lauded in the abstract but viewed with suspicion, even fear, in the real world. In Ghatak’s case, it was inevitable that alienation and unemployment would lead to alcoholism, bankruptcy and an early death. His worldly failure was somehow seen as the touchstone of ‘artistic worth’ by a certain section of the Indian elite and he was claimed by them as one of their own some ten years ago. This is all the more ironic for they have neither knowledge nor intuition of the language or the culture that made a genius like him possible.
http://www.himalmag.com/2003/november/essay.htm


'Political culture of violence continues in Bengal': Karat
http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/may/02karat.htm

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta

May 02, 2007
Is the Communist Party of India-Marxist willing to acknowledge that its cadres were involved in the violent incidents in Nandigram that resulted in the deaths of at least 14 people on March 14? What CPI-M General Secretary Prakash Karat concedes is that a "political culture and practice" of violence continues in a state that has been ruled by the CPI-M-led Left Front continuously for the last three decades.
Karat's statement came during an exclusive interview with this correspondent lasting over 50 minutes that was broadcast on the Lok Sabha television channel.

A verbatim excerpt from this section of the interview:

If in Singur, you really had the support of the people over there, why then did you need to impose Section 144? Why did the police have to intervene? I mean this was the issue...

Because bombs are used. The reality of Bengal is that bombs are thrown, pipe guns are used and I am not saying...

Your political opponents are saying that your party is also responsible...

Maybe. Whichever party, the police intervenes because of that?

You are saying yourself that your party also had bombs and pipe guns and...

I am saying that there is a political culture and practice in Bengal. You can't ignore that. That's what happened in Nandigram. The fourteen people who have died. Why don't people mention how many have died in police firing and how many have died due to non- police firing?

This is being inquired (into) by the Central Bureau of Investigation...

That's why we can't tell the truth, because the CBI has been handed over the thing. Our charge and the counter-charge is that we say that it was those people who were prepared when the police came, who fired, who threw bombs on the police and people died...

Okay, the counter-argument is that the police fired, fired above the torso, above... their shoulders...

No. no. The charges are that the CPI-M went with the police... We didn't have to go. If we had to go with our own strength, we could have gone. The party decided we should not intervene. It should be left to the police. That is why we are being accused...

***

While drawing a distinction between the events in Singur and Nandigram, Karat said that in Singur land was acquired voluntarily whereas in Nandigram, no land was sought to be acquired. The party and the state government "made mistakes" because "we couldn't understand the ground situation."

"We couldn't understand the depth of the fears about the land being taken away and when the police went in, we didn't expect this sort of confrontation and clashes," he said.

The CPI-M general secretary added that the events of March 14 should not be seen in isolation but were a consequence of what happened in the Nandigram area from January 3 onwards. "There was a political struggle going on," he said, adding that the anti-CPI-M forces should have declared "victory" after the state government categorically stated that it would not acquire land for a chemicals manufacturing SEZ if the local people did not want it. One incident of police firing could not symbolise or become an expression of the entire record of the Left Front government, he argued.

He recalled that the first Communist state government in India that was elected in 1957 in Kerala had been toppled after a series of incidents of police firing in the state. At that time, it was said that the Communists were conducting a "liberation struggle" by attacking police stations and a campaign was started against the party for allegedly killing people. "So today Nandigram is to be declared a liberated area and we cannot enter Nandigram," he said.

Karat said there was nothing wrong in doing business with Indonesia's Selim group merely because the anti-Communist Suharto regime had supported the business conglomerate. "By that consideration, no multinational company from the United States should be investing anywhere in India because most of them have been associated with anti-Communist regimes..." He said the "real issue" was that the Left Front was currently being accused by the same people who had earlier said that it had "driven all capital from Bengal" of being "partial" towards any corporate group that wanted to invest in the state.

He added that Medha Patkar was opposed to the establishment of any industrial project in West Bengal and that individuals like historian Sumit Sarkar have "always been opposed to the CPI-M." "There's the Left and there's the Left," Karat said, when asked why many traditionally Left individuals had turned against his party after Singur and Nandigram.

During the wide-ranging interview, Karat disagreed with the view that government intervention was not desirable when land is being acquired for setting up industrial ventures. The intervention of the State was necessary to ensure that farmers received a fair deal and were not left to the mercy of real estate sharks. He said his party was in the process of preparing a detailed note opposing the entry of the entire organised sector -- and not just multinationals like Walmart -- in retail trade.

Karat was of the view that there was considerable political space in the country for a third "alternative" -- he preferred this term to "front" -- that was opposed to both the Congress and the BJP. He said it was incorrect to believe the CPI-M had exercised considerable influence on the economic policies of the UPA government, except on issues that required Parliamentary approval. On hindsight, it was correct on the part of the party not to have joined the government, he believed, because that could have been a major destabilising factor.

"You can't have a revolution by being in a minority in the government," he said.