The second day of the last month of the years always brings with it painful memories. Tears roll up in a corner of the eye automatically as those horrific images cloud any logical response. The National Conference of the Physiological Society of India was just 5 days away and we were engaged in last-minute rehearsals for cultural programmes.

It was lunch hour and I clearly remember I was munching on a dosa outside the gates of Presidency College when the news came. Kolkata TV (back then the only independent voice against the Left regime) was airing horrific footage from Singur.

It was a cursed morning. Blinded by their ego after winning 235 out of 294 seats in Bengal Assembly, the Left was determined in acquiring a multi-crop land in Singur for setting up a car factory for Buddhadeb’s comrade Ratan Tata (although alternative land was available not far away). December 2, 2006 was the day when fencing began.

Kolkata TV footage was scary for any democracy. Black fumes over the entire village as houses were burnt. Images of women running helter skelter as CPM harmads ran after them, tugging at their clothes. Footage of the police, acting at the behest of the government of the day, beating up men mercilessly for not parting with their land and standing up to a Bourgeois industrialist.

The students’ union at college, run by Independents’ Consolidation, decided to hold a protest rally immediately. A road blockade was planned at College Street-MG Road crossing. Several people, tired by then of the incessant Bandhs and rallies called by then Opposition parties, had extended their support to us, horrified and sickened to their core by state-sponsored terror.

Buddhadeb had imposed Section 144 on key locations in Kolkata by then. The party of the proletariat had by then refused to listen to the voice of the people.  Absolute power corrupts, Buddhadeb was a leading example. behind the garb of an intellectual, a fascist was presiding over the carnage of innocents! The white robe he wears is nothing but a shroud, hiding the skeletons of Singur, Nandigram, Netai, Bhangar in his closet!

2 December, 2006 – SFI goons tried to stop PCSU’s rally. Buddhadeb’s police detained students, beat them up for the right to protest. Few honest officers lamented, their hands were tied!

Eight years have gone by… The martyrs of Singur still demand justice soon. After all, the party of the people is in power now! Unlike 2006, we have full faith in the Leader of the State now.