SFI sweeps Singur but Nandigram jinx for SFI

Mou Chakraborty
Kolkata, January 12

The runaway victory at Singur turned out to be a flop show at Nandigram. This, however, is not a comment on the state government’s land acquisition process, but the plight of the Left Front-affiliated union Students Federation of India (SFI).
SFI, which managed to sweep through the colleges of Singur in Hooghly, failed to leave its mark at Nandigram in East Midnapore, according to results declared on Friday for the ongoing students’ union polls across 410 colleges of the states.
While Sukanta College, nearest to Singur, voted in a SFI students’ union after 17 years, the leftists lost in Nandigram College. While SFI is taking its loss at Nandigram gracefully and refuses to put the blame on the state government’s policy, at Singur, however, it is taking an upper hand and wants rival parties Chhatra Parishad (CP) and Trinamool Chhatra Parishad (TCP) to learn a lesson.
SFI state president Sudip Sengupta said the oppositions’ stand that Singur and Nandigram would be the turning point in the polls was not true. “The future citizens of the state have clearly stated they are with the government.”
Sengupta added, “ Last year we controlled unions of 340 colleges and this year we will add to this count. The verdict reveals that students are in favour of industrialisation and support the process initiated by chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.”
Talking about Nandigram, Sengupta preferred to expose the chinks in the organisation instead of the recent happenings. “It is because of the weakness of our organisation at Nandigram College, which resulted in our loss. The present land acquisition problem was never an issue,” he said. He also urged intellectuals to learn from the students’ verdict and stop campaigning against Bhattacharjee’s efforts at industrialisation at Singur and Nandigram. “No one can stop this progress. When Kolkata was expanded several acres of agricultural land around the city was converted for housing. There have been many other Special Economic Zones in the state. The only point of concern should be proper compensation and rehabilitation of the uprooted people, which is being done in this case,” Sengupta said.
mou.hindustantimes@yahoo.com