In a statement issued on 29 March 2021, Comrade Chandidas Bhattacharjee, West Bengal State Secretary, SUCI(Communist) said –
“It has come to our notice that on the eve of election, the TMC, BJP and CPI(M) are repugnantly making confusing statements and distorting facts regarding the historic Nandigram movement. It is known to all that the movement started following the secret plan to create an ‘SEZ’ by the then CPI(M) led government in Nandigram with the help of the group ‘Salim’, big Indonesian corporate house, by evicting thousands of peasants from their land. To frustrate this conspiracy,
‘Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee’ (Committee for resisting eviction from land), a people’s struggle committee, launched a resistance movement. One of the prominent convenors of this committee was Comrade Nanda Patra, one of our local leaders. We would like to state unequivocally that in order to forcibly suppress the mass movement, the then CPI(M) led government, throwing the banner of leftism to the wind, deployed armed police and criminals to perpetrate an unprecedented genocide and mass rape on the protestors. Even today, many families in Nandigram are carrying the pain and agony of that torture and oppression.
We also want to state that it is completely unethical for any leader or any party to attempt to take the credit of the historic Nandigram movement. It was the people of Nandigram who had shed their blood and sacrificed their lives to resist the attack on their life and livelihood and finally gained victory because of their grit and determination. This was a victory of democratic mass movement.
We appeal to all, that it is not proper for any political party to exploit this glorious movement to buttress their petty- electoral interest.
We remind everybody that our Party is fighting this election on the basis of a correct Marxist outlook and correct line of militant leftism and mass movement. We are, on the one hand, fighting the fascist BJP government in the Centre for its rabid communalism and anti-people policies, and on the other hand, the corrupt, oppressive TMC government in the state as also against the opportunistic line of the CPI(M)-Congress-ISF alliance.”
