MillenniumPost
Bengal

Singur erupts in celebration after verdict

As soon as the news of the judgment reached the area on Wednesday afternoon followed by the announcement of the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee that Singur day would be observed in the blocks throughout the state on September 2 and she would hold the administrative meeting in the area on September 14, processions carrying her photographs were taken out in 17 Panchayat Samiti areas of Singur. The women blew conch shells and the men put green “abir” on each other’s face as a part of the celebration.

Rabindranath Bhattacharya, the MLA from Singur and one of the leaders of save farmland movement launched by Mamata Banerjee in 2006 said: “We are all celebrating the victory. It is surely a great victory for the farmers of Singur and defeat for the unholy power that had forcibly acquired farm land to set up a motor car factory. Singur has become history and the movement launched by the farmers led by Mamata Banerjee has become a milestone in the history of farmers’ movement in India.”

From Wednesday morning the farmers of Singur were anxiously waiting for the news of the Supreme Court judgment. At 2 pm when the news reached the area, hundreds of farmers came out of their homes with the women folk blowing conch shells. “I had spent two days in jail with my daughter as I took part in the movement. I was waiting for this day. It is our great victory,” said Anita Mallick, a housewife. Becharam Manna MLA said: “We were all waiting for the day. We will celebrate Singur day in befitting manner.”

There was celebration in Anandanagar, Bagdanga- Chinamore, Balarambati, Baruipara- Paltagarh, Basubati, Beraberi, Bighati, Bora, Gopalnagar, Kamarkundu, Nashibpur and Singur I and II. The parents of Tapashi Mallick took part in the celebration with tearful eyes. Mallick who was an active member of the movement was gang-raped and subsequently murdered. The police had refused to take complaints from her parents. CPI(M) circulated the canards that she had committed suicide and she had an illicit relation with her father. Later, CPI(M) zonal committee member Surhid Dutta and Debu Malik were arrested by CBI.

Criticising CPI(M), Becharam Manna said the leaders were so shameless that they organised a rally from Singur to Salboni demanding industrialisation. “Singur was CPI(M)’s beginning of the end. Even the proposal of alliance with Congress came up from here and it led to the virtual extinction of the party.”It may be recalled that in January, former Chief Minister Buddahadeb Bhattacharya, while flagging off the rally at Singur, first proposed electoral alliance with Congress. Later, the state CPI(M) supported the alliance and faced disaster in the 2016 Assembly election. The former Industry minister Nirupam Sen was also present at the meeting. However, the CPI(M) Central Committee and Politburo did not support the alliance and said that it was not in consonance with the party’s central committee decision.

TMC will observe Singur Day in every block on September 2. In Kolkata, the day will be celebrated in every ward. There will be cultural programme to pay respect to those who took part in the anti-farmland acquisition movement. Along with Tapasi Malik, 14 other local people died in the movement and programmes will be held to show respect to them.
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