Citizens’ Research Collective on SEZ

Ujjwal K Chowdhury, Editorial, Assam Tribune
November 20, 2007

“This is an illegal, uncalled for, irresponsible and almost inhuman battle to capture the troubled areas in Nandigram by ruling party forces, and cannot be allowed to continue,” said West Bengal Governor, Gopal Krishna Gandhi, also the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi.

“This is virtually a people’s battle against organized terror backed by the rulers calling themselves leftists,” says the frail octogenarian Jnyanpith and Magsasay Award winning writer and social activist Mahashweta Devi, while leading a silent protest rally of intellectuals in the Golf Green area of Kolkata.

“No language is enough to condemn what CPI(M) is doing today to the most marginalized people in rural Bengal, be it the land or the ration issue. Democracy is virtually strangled. It is akin to the Gujarat situation of state-sponsored rioting. However, unlike Gujarat, I am encouraged by the protests of the intellectuals and youth cutting across parties, and the undaunted struggles of the affected people in the Nandigram block villages. I also consider the Governor of West Bengal as the real voice of conscience in the Bengal government,” said renowned historian, Sumit Sarkar.

“This is a sad saga of pre-meditated continuing atrocities on the unarmed poor people at the grassroots, and not just a local aberration. It is now not becoming of us in having a film fest in Kolkata just when such a situation is continuing in the villages,” said film director and actor Aparna Sen, while refusing to inaugurate the Film Bazaar of the fest.

Interestingly, in spite of the annual Kolkata Film Fest, organized by the state government, being one of the leading cultural event of the intelligentsia here, so far several known names have boycotted it in protest and film directors Rituparno Ghosh and Nabyendu Chatterjee, theatre personalities Rudraprasad, Bibhas Chakraborty, Kaushik Sen and Kumar Roy, poets Joy Goswami and Sankha Ghosh, painter Samir Aich, writers Suchitra Bhattacharya and Shirshendu Mukherjee, cultural activist Manik Mukherjee and academic Tarun Naskar.

“CPI(M) has not only mobilised its cadres from all across the state to take control of the protesting villages of Nandigram, it has also brought in hired mercenaries from neighbouring states to terrorise and chase away the protesters and resort to widespread arson and violence in the area” : SUCI State Secretary, Pravas Ghosh.

“Nandigram is speechless in front of Red Terror. There is a fragile uneasy calm forced on the people there, and every one else, including central security forces, medical and relief workers, political opponents, media teams, and myself are being prevented from entering the area,” : social worker Medha Patkar.

And this is contrasted by what Left Front State chief and CPI(M) Bengal Secretary Biman Basu has to say, “No national social worker or politicians from outside need to interfere in the issues here and incite violence in Nandigram. This is a forced bandh which more than half the people of the State have rejected.”

However, the very ruling front is not united on this. RSP Minister Kshiti Goswami has expressed his desire to resign in protest and has asked his party to allow him to do so. RSP, Forward Bloc and CPI have come together to create a Mini Front within Left Front and issued a statement noting that only the CPI(M) is responsible for the violence in Nandigram area, and they will not take any blame of the same, in spite of being in the government.

Even while virtually the entire non-CPI(M) civil society is protesting against the so-called Red Terror of the party cadres to silence all protests and capture deserted houses and land in around 14 villages in Nandigram legislative constituency area, the police and administration of Bengal stand either mute spectators or demoralised. Home Secretary Prasad Ranjan Roy says it all when he notes, “There is virtually a war zone in the area and needs strong action by the state administration.” A senior police officer, on condition of anonymity, notes that there has been a blatant misuse of police in both in its inaction and in action, and now the government must leave administration to work professionally if it needs to pacify the situation.

As is expected in such a situation in every society, the media was not spared either. Star Anand channel got threatening calls from Midnapore district CPI(M) leaders (two of them) instructing them to rectify their “uncivilized language” or their ground reporters in the area “shall have to face grim consequences”. Times Now and several local news channel crew (as of Tara News and Kolkata TV) have been beaten and chased out of the area, and anyone with a camera is being stopped and questioned.

Opposition leader Mamata Banerjee and social worker Medha Patkar, apart from jeeploads of lawyers, have been stopped twice at Kolaghat and Tamluk, less than 25 kilometres away from the troubled areas, preventing them from entering into Nandigram area. This is also to be noted that all private and almost all government educational institutes remained closed on November 12, and the entire private transport system remained off the roads. For the first time, WIPRO has declared an off-day for its BPO employees, and three BPOs has transferred its emergency operations to Noida, albeit temporarily. The casualty of the so-called development initiatives is the ongoing development process itself.

While a silence of the graveyard is being forced upon the protesters there, it is important to note why this impasse and why is even the left sympathizing civil society protesting against the Left Front government so vociferously. And, where do we go from here.

The most marginalised people’s fight to protect their land from being given forcibly to the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and private corporate houses is already a common battle across India, and Nandigram is a flashpoint. And, in this, there is virtually no difference in role of the Left government in Bengal, with Congress government in Maharashtra and BJP government in Gujarat. The difference here is that while the other States are trying to bribe and compensate the affected people to silence and acceptance, and at times, trying to find alternative less problematic lands, the Bengal government is taking a stance of using its organised well-oiled battalion of cadres to force silence and meek submission at gun-point taking advantage of a divided opposition and absolute power of over three decades in the state.

Interestingly, all protests against the Left Front in Bengal have been stronger in the areas which have been historically their political strongholds and virtually vote-banks, whether the Nandigram and Singur areas on SEZ issue, or in North Bengal on the issue of corruption in public distribution systems. The signs are more ominous for the rulers than what seem on the face: the other politically weaker areas will be giving tougher resistance in such cases of land acquisition, PDS corruption, breakdown of the public health system, corruption in the panchayat fund allocations, silencing political opposition, et al.

The Left Front needs to go back to its basics. There cannot be any development without involving the people and keeping their rights to life, home and livelihood protected. The nation as a whole needs to cognizance of the fact that we are now at a historic juncture in the journey as a nation where we need to move from representative democracy to participative democracy. We need to distance from an elitist capital-intensive polluting urban-centric development, and move towards a people-oriented, sustainable, greener, grassroots development which engages the huge youth potential of the nation, rather than antagonizing them. The above 9 per cent GDP growth, which is a great Indian story, needs to move to the lower 60 per cent of the people and become a national story in the real sense.

Source: The Assam Tribune