The tailor of Nandigram, and his strong suit

Rezzak, former panchayat head who called the police to the village in 2007, recalls the tragic events that changed West Bengal politics

Following the violence of 2007, many residents of Nandigram left for safer places. The village is yet to regain its composure.—File photo: Arunangsu Roy Chowdhury

Inside cramped rooms in the narrow bylanes of Garden Reach in the western edge of Kolkata, hundreds of boys and men stitch pink-and-red salwar suits. Among the tailors is a man in his late 50s. Sheikh Abdur Rezzak is the master tailor in another of South Asia’s mega sweatshop hubs at Garden Reach.

As he quietly sips tea with his workmates, he appears to be one who was always a tailor, but he is not. Rather, he had a paramount role in changing the course of West Bengal’s politics. As a local committee member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the then head of the 9 Kalicharanpur gram panchayat, he called the police on January 3, 2007 to Nandigram, following a protest against land acquisition for a chemical hub. The forces opened fire, injuring five people.

The chain of events which started there with the killing of three persons on January 7 ended with the displacement of the Left from power in West Bengal in 2011. Mr. Rezzak too was displaced, unable to return to his village, Jadubari.

“I cannot go back to vote,” he said sitting in his tiny, unkempt room with a decrepit cot and a small television set. Mr. Rezzak said he was one of the more than 50 CPI(M) activists who had to leave Nandigram following the 2007 violence.

Fight for land

After notice was issued to acquire 27 mouzas (an area of land with habitation) to set up the chemical hub, Nandigram’s residents, predominantly Left supporters, initiated the movement against land acquisition.

Mr. Rezzak, a close confidant of Lakhman Seth, a now-expelled CPI(M) strongman and MP from the area, went silent when asked about the Left Front government’s decision to set up the chemical hub against the will of the people. After about two minutes, he gave an unconnected answer.

“It is not a question of Buddhadeb Bhattacharya or Lakhman Seth. A party is always above individuals. I have witnessed the good work the CPI(M) had done in Purba Medinipur over the decades, and I will remain with the party, even if others leave,” he said. Mr. Seth was expelled from the CPI(M) in 2014 for anti-party activity.

What happened in Nandigram may have been history, but the reality in 2016 is that a former panchayat chief lives in a one-room quarters in Kolkata, while scores of families could not forget the death or disappearance of their loved ones.

“I had been a CPI(M) supporter since the 1970s and they killed my son, and you are asking me if I will vote for the Left in Nandigram,” said Shekh Fazlur Rehman of Jalpai. The village unanimously said the Left may come to power in the State, but not in Purba Medinipur, which is going to the polls on Thursday.

Trinamool gains

“At the time of firing, the Left had an overwhelming majority in the Kalicharanpur panchayat. After 10 years, all the 13 seats are with the Trinamool Congress,” said Shekh Mussaraf Hossain, a tailor. A majority of the men in Nandigram — which declared independence from British rule before 1947 albeit for a brief period — are tailors.

Many of Nandigram’s men live in cramped rooms, next to Mr. Rezzak’s, in Garden Reach. But in a city which refers to Nandigram only in the context of the State’s belligerent politics, they are not hostile to one another. “I feel safe here,” Mr. Rezzak said. His wife, Samerun Begum, the CPI(M)’s panchayat head at the time of violence, feels so. She still lives in Jadubari. “The other day the local chaps asked me to attend a meeting of the Trinamool. Peace has returned to Nandigram,” she said.

Whether peace has finally returned to Nandigram would, however, be known once the election results are out on May 19.