NAPM condemns CPI(M) insinuation at Medha

Kolkata, Jan 9 (UNI) National Alliance of People's Movement(NAPM), a social organisation, today condemned and described as a ''lie'' the allegation of CPI(M) state committee Secretary Biman Basu that Ms Medha Patkar had attended a private meeting at Nandigram that witnessed a bloody violence.

''The Chairman of the Left Front has stated that the violent events in Nandigram were planned on December 3, 2006 during a meeting at the four storied house of one Tapan Khatua in Nandigram in the presence of Medha Patkar...We condemn this malicious statement,'' a release issued by NAPM said.

Charging Mr Basu and his party, the CPI(M) with carrying out a ''Goebbelsian campaign'', the release said Ms Patkar, an important member of the organisation, was arrested from Singur on December two and spent the night and most of the next day in a police van at Hungerford Street in Kolkata.

She was in Kolkata on the night of December three and on the fourth left from Howrah in the morning to be arrested once again on her way to Singur, it said adding Medha Patkar was followed by the police all throughout her visit in Kolkata from the 2nd to the 10th of December 2006.

''Medha Patkar is known as a non violent Gandhian. This is one more instance where Mr Basu is using lies to cover up the autocratic and brutal actions of his party and their government to suppress people's movements,'' it said.

Alleging that the blueprint of the Nandigram violence was pre-planned, Mr Basu had said yesterday that people from Kolkata, Bihar and Orissa had been staying and holding meetings in a house in the area for more than a month and ''perhaps Ms Medha Patkar also attended a meeting on December three''.

Wondering what led so many people ''from outside'' to gather in a house in the area, Mr Basu said the police should probe ''what mystery is there''.

UNI