On Nandigram: A TV interview with a Maoist leader

EXCLUSIVE
Rajesh Ramachandran
NDTV Transcript
Saturday, March 17, 2007 (Jharkhand):

West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya had claimed that cadres of the CPI-Maoists had organised the revolt against the police forces in Nandigram.

But in an exclusive interview with NDTV, West Bengal Secretary of CPI(Maoist) Somen, has an entirely different take on the events of Nandigram.

Somen laughs off the CPM’s allegation that Maoists are behind Nandigram violence.
“Maoist influence and involvement in Nandigram is extremely limited. We don’t have to use pipe guns now; we have automatic weapons. It’s people’s movement against land acquisition. Of course, we support the movement,” he said.

He also said that the Chhattisgarh attack was in retaliation to Salwajudam (local adivasi militia raised by the government to fight Naxalites).

“It was an attempt to fight the government. We want to convert the guerrilla war into mobile warfare,” he added.

He also expressed his opinion on JMM MP Sunil Mahato’s murder. “The decision to kill Mahato was taken at a very senior level in 2003. It was to stop Mahato from raising a Salwajudam-like militia,” he said.

The murder was more than a retaliation to Lango in which 14 Maoists were killed in 2003 by villagers. Lango is a village in the East Singhbhum district of Jharkhand. NDTV