‘It’s a shame on actual Leftists’

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?clid=6&id=205779&usrsess=1

Statesman News Service
NANDIGRAM, Nov. 29: The manner in which the CPI-M recaptured Nandigram is “a matter of shame” for the “actual Leftists” who are fighting against US oppression on third world countries, said Mr Ramsey Clerk, former US attorney general and a human right activist.
Mr Clerk (79), a recipient of the Gandhi Peace Award, had come to the city recently to participate in a rally organised by the Anti Imperialist Forum on 27 November, today visited a relief camp run by the Bhumi Ucched Protirodh Committee at Nandigram Bazar.
Accompanied by some other human rights activists, Mr Clerk spoke with the homeless who were driven out of their houses by CPI-M cadres during the party’s Nandigram re-capture operation.
“I am shocked to see that ruling Communists of this state are not only physically beating up innocent protestors, but also destroying their shelter for challenging the government,” Mr Clerk said after, Mr Ajoy Das Adhikari, a BUPC member, narrated to him how “CPI-M cadres had ransacked” his house at Gokulnagar Adhikaripara village.
Mr Clerk, who played an active role in the anti-Vietnam war movement and later formed World Action Centre ~ a global forum of Anti Imperialist movement ~ met several homeless people and heard their tales of “terror unleashed by CPI-M cadres”.
Mr Clark told them that he would highlight the plight of Nandigram victims on the global anti-imperialist forum to encourage all those who are fighting against setting up of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in various countries.
“The CPI-M always raises its voice against US aggression, but when it comes to give capitalists a free access to land to set up Special Economic Zones (SEZs), the so-called Marxists of West Bengal unleash a reign of terror on farmers who had brought them in power. They (the CPI-M) did the same thing in Nandigram, what USA-led forces are doing in Iraq and other developing countries to capture market for the capitalists,” said Mr Clerk.
He saluted the BUPC, describing it as the first organisation in the world to have successfully forced a government to abandon a SEZ plan.
“The people of Nandigram have now become an example for others who are spearheading anti-imperialist movement across the globe,” said Mr Clerk.
Later in the day, Mr Clerk met some women at Adhikaripara village who alleged that CPI-M men had sexually harassed them for supporting BUPC. “I’m shocked to know that ruling communists here don’t even spare women for challenging the government,” Mr Clerk added.