Suvendu Vows to Reopen Nandigram Files, File Fresh FIRs Against Left Leaders

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Tuesday announced that his government would reopen cases relating to the alleged atrocities during the Left Front regime in Nandigram, promising fresh FIRs and stringent legal action against several former CPI(M) leaders, nearly two decades after the violence that scarred the region.

Addressing a gathering at Gokulnagar on the 19th anniversary of 'Operation Suryodaya', Adhikari said the investigation conducted by the CID during the erstwhile TMC regime into the incidents had failed to culminate in a complete judicial process, leaving those responsible unpunished.

The operation was a controversial, violently political and paramilitary-style offensive orchestrated on November 10, 2007, allegedly by CPI(M) cadres, to forcibly reclaim control of Nandigram, where the political footing of the then ruling party had waned on account of the land-grab resistance put up by the Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee (BUPC), a platform of affected farmers backed by the TMC and others.

"The CID conducted an investigation, but there was no trial. I have said that fresh FIRs will be filed and cases reopened against those responsible," Adhikari said, naming CPI(M) leaders Abhay Ghosh of Goghat, Manoranjan Patra of Taldangra, Tapan Ghosh of Garbeta and Himanshu Das of Khejuri, among others.

The announcement to reopen the Nandigram files marks a renewed political and legal push by the BJP government to revisit one of the most contentious chapters of the Left Front's 34-year rule in West Bengal.

Nandigram, which became one of the epicentres of a fierce anti-land acquisition movement in Purba Medinipur district, played a defining role in the political mobilisation that eventually ended the Left's uninterrupted rule in the state in 2011, catapulting Mamata Banerjee to state power.

Recalling the November 2007 violence, Adhikari alleged that 11 people were abducted, tied with their hands behind their backs and detained at a gram panchayat office in the Baratala area before being taken to Kamarda and brutally killed at a CPI(M) party office.

Their bodies were subsequently packed into bags and dumped in the sea, he claimed.

The chief minister said the 19-year-old tragedy had yet to receive justice. He said the subsequent CID investigation led to former MP Lakshman Seth spending 181 days in jail, but maintained that the judicial process remained incomplete.

Adhikari alleged that armed groups from outside the area, dressed in black, had been brought in to carry out "organised attacks" on villagers and warned that those involved would face stringent action.

The violence of November 2007 had followed a procession organised by the BUPC from Sonachura to Maheshpur in Nandigram.

The CPI(M) had faced allegations of orchestrating attacks against the supporters of the anti-land acquisition movement in the area. The operation along settlements near the Talpati canal came to be known as 'Operation Suryodaya'.

The events had triggered widespread outrage, sharply polarising West Bengal's political and cultural establishment. Civil society groups and intellectuals had hit the streets of Kolkata in protest against the Left Front government, while the CPI(M) organised counter-demonstrations to display its political strength.

At Tuesday's programme, Adhikari invoked a controversial remark by the then chief minister, late Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who had said, "They have been paid back by their own coin".

"Although the late chief minister was an honest person in his personal life, his party was in the wrong," Adhikari said.

He also recalled remarks by senior Left leaders, including Biman Bose, who had described the developments in Nandigram as the rise of a "new sun".

"It was a blood-soaked sunrise," Adhikari said.

Paying tribute to those who lost their lives during the prolonged agitation, Adhikari put the number of martyrs at 41.

"During Mamata Banerjee's rule, death certificates of the missing were not issued to the bereaved families. Though the former CM had described Nandigram as her second sister during poll campaigns in 2021, she never returned to stand beside the affected families," he alleged.

"My government has addressed the issue related to death certificates and gave jobs to nine members of the families of the deceased. We have provided Rs 4 lakh as compensation for the family of each victim," he said.

Adhikari had hinted at reopening the Nandigram cases about a week and a half ago, and reiterated the assurance on Tuesday at Gokulnagar, close to the site of the violence.

The proposed fresh FIRs and reopening of cases are likely to bring the events of 2007 back into the political spotlight, with the BJP seeking to foreground the legacy of the Nandigram movement and the alleged excesses of the previous Left regime.