CRPF personnel in Nandigram

Calcutta, Nov. 18: Three partners in the ruling Left Front today refused to participate in a peace rally lined up by the CPM youth and student wings, handing the party the first such rebuff ever.

A week after the Forward Bloc, RSP and the CPI held the CPM “responsible” for the bloodshed in Nandigram, their youth and student wings decided to skip Tuesday’s “peace procession” organised by the Democratic Youth Federation of India and the SFI.

“This is the first time in 30 years that we have decided to skip a DYFI and SFI rally in order to register our protest against the CPM’s armed recapture of Nandigram villages,” Rajiv Banerjee, the state secretary of the RSP-affiliated Progressive Students’ Union, said.

“In fact, we are left with no option but to review our future association with the DYFI and the SFI for joint programmes.”

Banerjee said the RSP’s student wing and the Revolutionary Youth Front, its youth arm, now had second thoughts on joining the DYFI’s anti-imperialism rally scheduled for the third week of December.

“Before the March 14 firing in Nandigram, we had joined a DYFI rally against imperialism. On several other occasions too, we have organised rallies and processions together,” he said.

The boycott decision was taken at a joint meeting held today “when they approached us for joining the peace rally”, state RSP youth wing secretary Swapan Maikap said.

The procession will start from Subodh Mullick Square and conclude on Rani Rash-moni Avenue where youth and student leaders are expected to address it.

A member of the Chhatra Bloc, affiliated to the Forward Bloc, said any joint rally would not only “bracket us with the CPM but also send a wrong message” to the people.

“We are not going to collaborate with the DYFI and the SFI on any programme. We shall take a final decision after a joint meeting on December 11,” Debu Roy said.

The CPI youth wing sang much the same tune, saying it too would stay away in protest against the “CPM’s highhandedness”.

“What the CPM has done in Nandigram with the help of its cadres goes against the Left’s avowed policy. So, we would not like to associate ourselves with it,” said Gautam Roy, the state secretary of the All India Youth Federation of India, affiliated to the CPI.

The DYFI and SFI leaders, however, put up a brave front. Asked why the rally was being shunned, DYFI state secreta-ry Abhas Roychowdhury said: “We have decided to organise it on our own.”