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MR.SPEAKER: I have allowed you. I have noticed it.

… (Interruptions)

MR. SPEAKER: Mr. Advani, I said that you are entitled to refer it.

SHRI L.K. ADVANI : Thank you, very much.

MR. SPEAKER: I have already said it earlier.

… (Interruptions)

MR. SPEAKER: Please, hon. Members, you may also  have to refer some statements. Why are you doing this? Why are you interrupting him?

… (Interruptions)

SHRI L.K. ADVANI : Sir, I visited Nandigram, and many of the Press people, Media people accompanying me said that ‘this is the first time that we have been allowed  to go to Nandigram.  Otherwise, it was out of bounds for us.’  I was surprised to hear that ‘this is because Advani has friendship with the Chief Minister.’  This kind of a comment coming from the Ruling party surprised me.  I did not expect this because I have had and I have tried, as the Home Minister, to maintain   good relations with all the Chief Ministers in the country including many in the Congress party.  That does not matter anything. I have good relations with them.  Even now, I have good relations with him also.   And, I was happy to find that his response to the Prime Minister’s comment on Nandigram was different from the party’s response.  He said: “I appreciate what the Prime Minister  has said.”            So, these are matters about which I have only this to say that the CPI(M) must look back at the entire Nandigram episode.  How it happened?  When you try to convert the party into a substitute for Government, then things go out of hand.  I remember, when I first visited Nandigram, the same thing was again and again mentioned that it is his people who wore police uniforms.  I do not know.[r23]            An MP’s name was mentioned. It was said – ‘It is they who fired on us while we were doing Puja. The Muslim ladies there were reciting Quran’ At that time, firing took place on them and they said that they were not policemen really, they were party men, party cadres in police uniform. … (Interruptions)

          Violence took place in Nandigram on 3rd January. Try to understand Nandigram geographically. Nandigram comprises two blocks – Block 1 and Block 2. On the border of Nandigram is a Block called Khejuri. Advaniji has been there, he would know this. If anybody wants to enter Block 1 of Nandigram he has to go first through Nandigram Block 2 after which he can go either straight to Nandigram or reach Nandigram via Khejuri. So, the first point of entry to the town is at Nandigram 2 and then the second entry point is via Khejuri on the bridge.

          Sir, I begin my submission by saying that Nandigram is a great human tragedy.  Undoubtedly, it is a human tragedy.  Let us put our hands together to have a healing touch on the deep wound that has been inflicted on Nandigram.  Let us try to have a healing effect on the deep wound that Nandigram has suffered. 

          As far as my information goes – some of my friends might have a different information – Nandigram is limping back to normalcy.  I am deliberately using the words “limping back.”  When Nandigram is ‘limping back’ to normalcy, let us take a positive view to take the process forward.  Let us help Nandigram to come back to normalcy.  That is why there is a need for a voice of “sanity”, not a voice of “senility.”   I express my deep sympathy for the people of Nandigram, for all the victims of violence in Nandigram.  While saying so, I concede that there are different perceptions also.  It is all well-known.  There is a perception that more care and caution should have been exercised while tackling the situation.  There is a perception, according to which, all that happened in Nandigram should not have happened.  I agree that there is a great deal of disagreement on the issue.  Opinions can differ.  I believe it is true that public opinion has been hurt.  A number of our friends of the Left have been speaking in different voices.  This is all true.  But, as part of the Left, as part of the Left Front, I only say with humility that if we have lost anything, we are sure to retrieve it; if we have lost anything, we are sure to recover it.  It is only a passing phase.  But the passing phase is definitely extremely unfortunate. 

          It is true that there have been firings and there have been casualties. A number of people have died; more people were wounded; and houses have been burnt. It is all true. 

          There is also another picture which we should not lose sight of.  Nearly thousands of people have been driven out of Nandigram.  They had to take refuge in camps outside the boundaries of Nandigram.  They could not return to their homes for more than eleven months.  Nandigram became an isolated place;  no development work could take place there; panchayats could not work.  Even the police stations were under lock and key.  Police was not allowed to enter.  This was the situation in Nandigram for eleven months.[MSOffice51]  Therefore, I am constrained to say that Nandigram was under a siege.