Perhaps, Bhattacharjee, a man known for his literary sensibility as much as his political conviction, would have preferred to use a kinder, gentler phrase had he been here watching Taslima Bibi, cradling her seven-month-old, desperately looking for her afternoon quota of khichri.

Taslima is one of the 5,000 villagers hounded out of their homes by CPM cadres over the last fortnight and now stranded in the sprawling playground of a local school, the Brojomohan Tiari Institute, which serves as the largest of the half a dozen relief camps across Nandigram that, in all, house an estimated 10,000 refugees.

“The food is so inadequate here,” says Taslima, “that it is almost like starving but we cannot complain, at least my husband and I are getting something to eat.” Food and care for the child, however, is her biggest worry. “Today is my eighth day in this relief camp and I don’t know when we will be able to return.”

She left her home in Jalpai village after an armed band of CPM cadres entered the village, assaulted residents and began firing. “All the men of the village fled, it was no more safe to be at home.”

When CPM leaders, beginning from general secretary Prakash Karat down, claim that their cadres are only reclaiming what is rightfully theirs, what they do not say is the plight of people like Taslima who have beenm evicted from their homes and are now huddled in relief camps.

At the Brojomohan camp, women are cramped into classrooms while men sit in open verandahs. Other than being a stop in a Nandigram tour by a visiting Opposition leaders — L K Advani was here today too — these hapless villagers have nowhere to turn to.

For Rabia Bibi of Garchakraberia, today was her 17th day in the camp after she fled her village when CPM cadres killed her husband Sheikh Qayum Qazi. She ran away with her three sons a daughter. “I have lost both my husband and my home.What’s the point of returning home now?” she says. “My husband’s only fault was that he joined the BUPC like hundreds others, participated in processions and meetings since he wasn’t sure of what would happen to his land.”

Aware that the relief camps in Nandigram with thousands of inmates are a veritable visible blot on the party’s image, the CPM has begun using “peace and safety” as the biggest inducements to make them return. Emissaries are being sent by CPM local leaders to the relief camps regularly asking the people to return. Maqsuda Bibi of Amgachia and Sushobhan Patra of Shyam Sundar Chawk, both inmates at the camp, said how messengers were sent from the village asking them to return. “We were assured by the CPM leaders that no harm will be done. There was one condition, though. Everyone has to follow the CPM line. Everyone will have to speak their language. I am yet to decide whether to accept such a humiliating return home. But what are the options?” asks Patra.

Not many. Badal Roy, a zonal committee member of CPM in Nandigram who had been out of his home for the past 11 months is a relieved man now having returned to his home in Sonachura. Asked what conditions the party has put for these villagers, he says: “We have issued a set of guidelines for returnees and one has to abide by that,” said Roy. These include formation of a joint committee in each village that will “oversee all village matters,” and a village protection force in which a member from each family has to be present and mandatory participation in processions.

So it isn’t surprising to see that overnight, people in Sonachura, Garchakreberia, Takapura, Adhikaripara, Maheshpur and Gokulnagar — BPUC strongholds all — are speaking the CPM’s language. Sheikh Anwar Ali of Amgachia, however, can barely disguise his anguish: “We are being used as coins. You toss it once and we are with the BPUC. You toss it again and we are with the CPM.”

Inside Nandigram villages, the scars of the past fortnight’s recapture are still fresh. At Amgachia where last Saturday CPM goons fired on a peace procession that killed two people, bullet marks are clearly evident in the palm trees that line the road. There are some trees that show entry and exit holes.

Even today, a day after the CRPF columns have moved in to Nandigram, in the deep interiors, fresh arson and looting was reported. The CRPF is mostly restricted to patrols on the main arterial roads and static pickets. Asked why they were not being asked to go inside the villages to check violence, Superintendent of Police S Panda said: “They are now at strategic points. We will send them inside the villages when we think that is necessary.” With CPM cadres having conquered Nandigram, that may not be a necessity.