Work for Everyone and Amartya Sen

By Dipanjan Rai Chaudhuri. Translated by Kuver Sinha, Sanhati
Amartya Sen has written an article in two parts ( Developments in West Bengal, The Telegraph, 28-29 December, 2007) on industrialisation in West Bengal. He has supported the general direction of the method of industrialisation. Even then, it is heartening to see that he has put caveats in place – “My support for the general economic strategy of industrialization of the government of West Bengal cannot but be combined with questions about the importance of democratic values. I believe I am right in claiming that more practice of “government by discussion” would have not only enriched and improved the process of economic decision-making, it would have actually led to better economic plans and better translation of the general strategy of industrializing - or re-industrializing - West Bengal.” Sen has also said that these caveats are relevant not only for past policies, but for the future as well. He is to be thanked for at least such an implicit criticism of the state government.
Further, Sen feels that “very serious consideration” is required for the following points: “the possibility that taking land from agriculture would impoverish the agriculturalists who live on that land, no matter how large an income the new enterprises may actually produce for other people.” and “concerns about entitlement failures of specific occupation groups and the effects that this might have on starvation of those groups (no matter what happens to the totality of incomes).”
Of course, in terms of solutions, he asks “is it really essential for the government to acquire the land that is needed, rather than allowing the industrial firm involved to buy it?” It is not clear to us how this would make a difference to erosion of the basic capabilities of the people who depend on the land for livelihood without being owners themselves (10,000 in Singur).
Even then, his concern for the lives and livelihoods of displaced people can only be welcome.
On the issue of SEZs too, his stance, while not that of an opponent, is at least that of a critic. He says “the wholesale forgoing of public revenue in SEZs as a general policy certainly demands much closer examination and more critical scrutiny.”
On the whole, Sen has distanced his support from the West Bengal government’s disregard for peoples’ suffering and the protest that has emerged in its wake, its shameless espousal of SEZs and its brokering of land for big business. At a time when people of the state are registering their dissatisfaction and protest in the face of daily harrassment from the biggest party of the government, even such indirect criticism from Sen is helpful.
But the fact remains that Amartya Sen is a supporter of the West Bengal government’s basic industrial policy. If we strip away all the embellishment, the logic is “to remove poverty, we must increase income”. This “income”, however, is the neo-liberal economist’s “income” – comprising, in the example of the Singur factory, the Tatas’ profits, bank interest, government revenue, and, only as a fourth component, the wages of the employees. In an unequal society like India, an increase in this “income” may leave poverty unaffected or even in an enhanced state (an idea of the magnitude of inequality can be gleaned from the UN’s 2004 Human Development Report: 42 % of India’s national income is enjoyed by the richest 20 %, while the poorest 20 % get only 9 %).
Amit Bhaduri has constructed an example of a society with an annual “income” of Rs.23,000 per head, composed of 99 slaves earning Rs.100 annually per head, and 1 owner whose annual income is Rs.2,290,100. Now, if the net income of the slaves does not increase at all, but the owner’s income increases to Rs.2,520,100, then the annual increase of GDP will be recorded as 10% ! So, in an unequal society, an increase of “income” or GDP does not automatically mean a decrease in poverty.
Sen knows that there will be criticism along these lines. He anticipates this with the remark “It is often said that the country is not getting anything substantial, because of the inequality of the generated income, from India’s high rate of growth of gross domestic product.” Very true. What do Singur’s residents and the common man in West Bengal have to gain from Tata’s huge profits and the respectable wages of a handful of employees?
Sen mentions this criticism, but does not offer answers. He speaks instead of other benefits of increasing “income” . “…Public revenue is going up much faster than even the GDP growth that is generating this revenue expansion”, which thus “creates a wonderful opportunity to make much larger investments in public education, healthcare, public transport, environmental protection, and other public goods.”
Really? The opportunity may be there, does that necessarily lead to investment? Or investment to correct targets? Won’t a government with a neo-liberal mindset see what it is that the market wants? Market looks at purchasing power. People who do not purchase are outside the market. If the government has money, it will make malls and flyovers. Let’s see what it won’t make.
In 2002, 31% of the people between 15 and 35 in this state were illiterate. All these people have lived under the Left Front government’s thirty year rule, since, at most, the age of ten. In the Left Front government’s 24th year of rule, 12,085 primary schools had two classrooms, 12,054 had one, and 1384 had none. (In a primary school, there are 4 grades.) Let’s not judge education by quantity. Let’s examine quality. Sample surveys have revealed that among third and fourth graders, only 7% of those who do not have private tutors (outside school) can spell their names correctly. The corresponding figure among those who have private tutors is 80%.
Let us look at a sample survey in the field of healthcare, from 2002-2003. On the day of the survey, 7 of 18 health sub-centers were not working. Of 3 Block level health centers, one did not have facilities for testing blood, urine, or stool. 29% of the patients spoke of being treated by quacks. In Birbhum district, only 45% infants had been completely vaccinated, and 53% births had taken place outside any healthcare institution. The back cover of the survey has a telling summary: “Even our survey’s limited scope carries the message that the government’s health system needs massive overhauling…the failure of the government’s healthcare system and the paucity of its services have resulted in the growth of private healthcare. Even extremely poor people have no alternative but to fall back on private healthcare…the root of the problem lies in the scarcity of government centers and their dysfunctional nature.”
Who said this after 25 years of the Left Front’s rule? Amartya Sen himself. Both education and health surveys were conducted by the Pratichi Trust he created.
(Source: (1) The Pratichi Education report : a study in West Bengal. New Delhi: TLM Books, 2002. Introduction by Amartya Sen. (2) Pratichi (India) Trust (2005), Pratichi Health Report, TLM Books, New Delhi.)
Public transport? The state government has adopted a scheme of restructuring publicly-owned enterprises. “Restructuring” means the right of the government to divest up to 74% of the shareholding to private investors. In the second phase of this scheme, the State Electricity Board and the state transport agencies are due for “restructuring”.
“To reduce poverty, income has to be increased” – correct, provided that, along with the increase in income, its distribution benefits the poor. Not through charity, but through employment. Since it is not hugely incorrect to view GDP as a product of the number of working people and the productivity per worker, it can increase if employment increases without reducing productivity. In fact, if distribution is to benefit the working people, this is the best way to increase GDP.
Why is there opposition to “industrialization” based on investment by big capitalists, national and international? Sen views the issue in the context of a debate over “communism” and “anti-capitalist high theory against private investment”. So, he has found it necessary to compare Cuba, with its preference for the public sector, and the newly privatization-loving China. In actual fact, however, the reason for the opposition is not theoretical but rooted eminently in reality. Big private capital (especially in its concern over foreign markets) wants continuously to reduce wages to remain competitive. Thus, it wants a contraction of employment, not creation of employment. Investment by big capital will increase GDP by increasing unemployment, with a distribution skewed against the poor. It thus becomes necessary to look for alternatives to this kind of big capital based “industrialization”.
And what comes of the comparison between China and Cuba? Before the “reforms”, China had assured healthcare for all. Afterwards, almost 20% of the population has no such assurance. On the other hand, Cuba’s healthcare system is so good that the life expectancy of Cubans is almost equal to that of Americans. School education for all has been a success in Cuba. Amartya Sen has himself written all this. Besides, the UN Human Development Report of 2005 places Cuba at number 51 (human development index value 0.838), China at 81 (0.777) and India at 118 (0.619). It is from the work of Amartya Sen and Mahbub ul Haq that we have learnt the importance of the Human Development Index (HDI). What has Cuba to learn from China’s way of increasing GDP at the cost of human development? Or has Amartya Sen revised himself: GDP is more important than HDI?
If we set aside conservative neo-classical / neo-liberal fundamentalism and stare at the reality confronting our country today, it will be evident that the unemployment problem will not be solved in this way.
What is the annual increase in the number of people capable of work?
If we take people between 15 and 59 to be capable of work, then we have to calculate the annual increase of population in this bracket. According to the 2001 census, there were 4,81,84,000 people in West Bengal in this age bracket. According to a Planning Commission report, in 1998-1999, there were 51.9 crores of people in India in that category, and the projected figure in 20 years stands at 80 crores. Taking this compound rate of increase (2.187%), the number of such people in West Bengal in 2007 is 5,48,62,646. Thus, in 2007, an estimate of the yearly increase in this bracket is 11,99,846. We are looking at around 12 lakh new job-seekers every year in West Bengal.
The Tatas have promised 10,000 jobs (in an unmentioned number of years) and the Haldia Petrochemical Company (already realized) has provided 670 jobs (+ 1200 jobs for contract labourers in the company + 3200 in five years in the Haldia complex + 8-10 thousand in five years in the downstream plastic industry). [Source: Haldia Petrochemicals – a lesson in (non)-development, www.sanhati.com, and the 2007 report of the WB Vidhan Sabha Select Committee on Industry and Commerce.] The stark reality of the unemployment problem is 60 lakh workers in five years, a figure beside which the previous figures for employment generation by big capital are insignificant.
What is needed is a different path of development which will ensure that nobody remains unemployed. We want jobs. If not today, then tomorrow, or at least next year. Not in ten years. Because people cannot survive without food for ten years.
Amit Bhaduri has proposals about an industrialization which will create jobs (Development with Dignity, and a series of articles). At the core of his thesis is full employment through the construction of infrastructure (not relief work – but productive work in keeping with real needs) and labour-intensive industrialization overseen by local self-governing bodies (like Panchayets). Let big capital invest as it will. But let the government pay attention to methods of building employment-generating industries.
We want the state government to consider alternative modes of industrialization which will ensure adequate job creation. We are sad to note that Amartya Sen has instead encouraged

CPM threat to CBI witnesses

Statesman News Service KOLKATA, Jan. 2: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) asked the state government to take steps against some CPI-M leaders of Nandigram who allegedly threatened villagers who agreed to be the CBI's witnesses in court to depose on the 14 March police firing incident in which 14 people died. In response to the letter, the state government has decided to file cases against the culprits. State home secretary Mr Prasad Ranjan Roy confirmed this at the Writers’ Buildings today. In his letter to the state government, DIG (CBI) Mr Alok Ranjan mentioned three instances of villagers, who had consented to depose for the CBI, being threatened by local CPI-M leaders. It bears recall that the Bhumi Uchched Protirodh Committee (BUPC) repeatedly alleged that CPI-M cadres were threatening their supporters once they had left relief camps and moved back to their homes. Even the CRPF said that police were refusing to register cases against criminals allegedly backed by the CPI-M after the jawans had turned them over to the officers. The letter from the CBI ~ another pointer to the fact that all was not well on the law and order front in Nandigram ~ came as a major embarrassment for the state government. This came at a time when the state government was trying to establish that the local administration was not working under any kind of political pressure. That the state home secretary announced so fast the government’s decision to act, indicated that the it did not want to let its image get tarnished, especially at a time when panchayat polls were approaching.

14 March shameful matter for LF: Ashok Ghosh

Kajari Bhattacharya
NANDIGRAM, Dec. 23: Causing major embarrassment to chief minister Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Forward Bloc state president, Mr Ashok Ghosh, said at a public meeting held here today that the 14 March carnage was a “very shameful matter for the Left Front” and that it had caused Forward Bloc to “hang their heads in shame; that this is the Left Front we belong to.” FB leaders also said they support anyone who fought against the CPI-M’s atrocities in Nandigram. Concurrently, BUPC leaders today said they would welcome any party that broke the LF ranks to join the BUPC in their fight against “state-sponsored terror”.The veteran Forward Bloc leader strongly criticised Left Front chairman Mr Biman Basu for ignoring the FB’s request to hold a joint peace meeting in Nandigram after the Left Front meeting at Alimuddin Street on 17 March. “We have been forced to call this public meeting only at the initiative of the Forward Bloc, to save the Left Front.”At a well-attended public meeting, which was, surprisingly, even attended by a large number of BUPC supporters, Mr Ghosh slammed the Buddha-Nirupam-led government for not including smaller Left Front partners in deciding upon the state government’s industrialisation plans, and compared the industrialisation-friendly duo, unfavourably, with former chief minister Mr Jyoti Basu’s consideration for the LF partners’ concerns.“We were able to negotiate with the Jyoti Basu-led LF government in 1994 in deciding on how to bring foreign investment to the state, but unfortunately, we were not able to do anything to protect the state from Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Mr Nirupam Sen’s industrialisation plans,” said Mr Ghosh at the meeting held in front of Sitananda College in Nandigram today.For the first time in the Left Front’s 30-year history, Forward Bloc will contest the panchayat election in April-May 2008 alone, Mr Ghosh reiterated.BUPC leader Mr Abu Taher said he welcomed any Front partner that broke away from the LF to join the BUPC’s movement against the “CPI-M’s atrocities” in the troubled area.“The chief minister on 17 March had even claimed responsibility for giving the order for police opening fire on Nandigram villagers and had promised that peace would return with the joint efforts of the LF partners. But now, the Left Front in the state has completely lost its Leftist character,” Mr Ghosh said

Dankuni is different

Rajib Chatterjee
KOLKATA, Dec. 22: The CPI-M’s Hooghly district committee has asked its leaders to learn from the land acquisition problems in Nandigram and Singur and ensure that no trouble takes place during land acquisition for the proposed township and industrial hub at Dankuni. Real estate major DLF is set to build a township and industrial park at Dankuni on 4,840 acres. Opposition parties led by the Trinamul Congress have threatened to protest on the lines of Singur and Nandigram to oppose the project. In its secretarial reports, placed before the delegates who attended the CPI-M’s recently held district conference at Chanditola, the Hooghly district CPI-M leadership cautioned about possible disruptive activities by the Opposition, once the land acquisition process begins. The party found that lack of communication between people and local committee members at Singur was one of the reasons that led to the trouble there. In page 14 of the secretarial report (a copy of which is with The Statesman), the CPI-M states there was misunderstanding among party leaders in Singur during the land acquisition controversy. The Singur zonal committee was formed after the party’s previous zonal meeting “in an atmosphere of distrust”. The division in the party in Singur “widened” during the controversy and ultimately, the party district committee had to intervene to sort out the dispute. The party has asked its members to bridge the gap between the party and the people in the interest of the Dankuni township and industrial hub project. In page 18, the CPI-M states: “Neighbouring local committees ~ Chanditola, Singur, Rishra, Dakshin Rajyadharpur and Sheoraphuli ~ should act seriously to defeat forces opposing development in the state.” The party’s district leadership has instructed the delegates to organise their junior party colleagues and cadres to keep a close watch on anti-CPI-M forces hatching a conspiracy against the state government’s drive to set up industries in the district.Here, unlike Nandigram, CPI-M members have been instructed to maintain close ties with the people and make them aware of the necessity for industrialisation.During the party's district meeting, the CPI-M also sounded an alert, saying that Maoist insurgents are becoming active in certain pockets of the Hooghly district.

Fear of the Unfamiliar – Responding to Patnaik

By Partho Sarathi Ray, Sanhati
A spectre is haunting the CPI(M)- the spectre of the People. All the powers of the old Left (or to borrow their term, the “organized Left”) have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Prakash Karat, Prabhat Patnaik and N. Ram, party cadres and state police.
The first step in the process of exorcism is delegitimization. The resistance of the people of Singur and Nandigram has long been attempted to be delegitimized by attributing it to the so-called unholy alliance of the Trinamool Congress, Jamaat and the Maoists. That is familiar terrain, to brand all opposition as the handiwork of right wing or ultra Left forces, and hence deny it’s political legitimacy. However, what was unfamiliar for the CPI(M) was “so many intellectuals suddenly turn(ing) against the Party with such amazing fury on this issue”. That tens of thousands of common people would accompany these intellectuals, many of them long time fellow-travellers and supporters of the Left Front, out on the streets in a spontaneous show of outrage and protest was something totally unfamiliar to the CPI(M), which has converted “the people” into a fetish. And, Prabhat Patnaik’s essay seems to have been born out of a fear of this unfamiliar.
The problem for the CPI(M), and for Prof. Patnaik, has been the category in which these intellectuals could be included in order to rationalize this unfamiliar phenomenon, and to delegitimize their protest. Here they were, marching under no party banners, vociferously opposing the party with which several of them were associated till “yesterday”. Prof. Patnaik, in his essay, first tries to suggest that these intellectuals were basically “anti-organized Left, especially anti-Communist (and in particular anti-CPI(M)), belonging as they do to the erstwhile ”socialist” groups, to NGOs, to the ranks of Naxalite sympathizers, to the community of “Free Thinkers”, and to various shades of “populism””. But he himself finds this explanation wanting, in his black and white world of “either you are with us or against us”, as “they did make common cause with it (the CPIM) on several issues till recently”. So he opens up a new line of attack, the ultimate rationalization, of accusing these intellectuals of not just being anti-”organized Left”, but being anti-political. He thinks that once it is possible to attribute their opposition to a “withdrawal from politics”, to a “messianic moralization”, it can be proved to be devoid of any political content, and correspondingly attributing the resistance of the peasants to the handiwork of Trinamool Congress, the Jamaat and Maoists, the spectre of the people rising up can be firmly put to rest. This is a dangerous stratagem of denying all legitimacy to the opposition from the intellectuals, of making it “smug, self-righteous, self-adulatory, and, above all, empty”.
Why is this cunning rationalization required? I would be presumptuous to remind Prof. Patnaik the etymology of the word “political”. It derives from the Greek politikos, “of the citizens or the state”, which in ancient Greece was the “polis”. By actively playing their role as citizens, coming out on the streets and organizing to publicly oppose actions of the state, are the intellectuals not doing exactly what Prof. Patnaik accuses them of doing, of demonstrating “disdain for politics, this contempt for the political process”? Or does the “political process” for Prof. Patnaik just mean the dutiful casting of votes during elections, of docile participation in meetings organized or sanctioned by the Party, or of indulging in “friendly criticism, articles, and open letters”? Or is it that the intellectuals are really making a political statement by their protest, a statement of their involvement in the affairs of the state, which makes Prof. Patnaik so uncomfortable? Would he have been more comfortable if they marched under the banner of the Trinamool Congress or the Maoists, as that would have placed them in his comfortable dualistic world where their protest could be attributed to the opportunistic or anarchist “politics” of the opposition?
I understand that Prof. Patnaik finds it hard to believe that “the people” can start organizing outside the auspices of a political party, that such organization can, and has become in the past, the nucleus of a very political movement, and rather than being a process of “destruction of politics” it is the very affirmation of the “political”. Or maybe it’s just that what unnerves him, and the CPI(M) bosses, that “the people” have finally refused to just being a fetish which can be invoked according to convenience, and have decided to mobilize politically, to actively assert their role in the affairs of the “polis”. This would put into serious jeopardy the mantle of the “organized Left”, which Prof. Patnaik claims for the CPI(M). It is a surprising mantle of monopoly, considering the fact that several Left political parties have been actively involved in the people’s resistance and the protests. Does Prof. Patnaik consider them to be “disorganized Left” or “organized non-Left”? Or does “organized Left” for Prof. Patnaik just means the Left entrenched in power, the Left which can use the contrivances available in an electoral democracy to regularly churn up votes during elections. It is evidently unfamiliar for Prof. Patnaik that hundreds of struggles are breaking out in India, where the people have correctly identified imperialism to be the “principal contradiction” of the times - imperialism that is equally represented by the nuclear deal between the USA and India and the attempts to take over their lands and livelihoods for the profits of corporations like the Tatas and the Salims - and have therefore consciously distanced themselves from the ”organized left” in their struggles against imperialism. It is the fear of this unfamiliar that has shaken the “organized Left” or rather the “un-Left”, a description inspired by the mythical “un-dead”, like which it has the appearance of life but is actually dead, ensconced in its grave of power for the last thirty years, now busily hammering the last nail of neo-liberalism into its own coffin.

Rape and its proof – And that’s how life is

By SuvarSaha, Sanhati. Translated from an op-ed by Jagori Bandyopadhyay in Anandabazar Patrika dated December 13, 2007.
We need proof. The government does not take any action until there is sufficient evidence to prove the crime. This is how it should be; this is how it is. Plain words. Plain, yet not so simple. The government will act once it has enough evidence to justify its action. Very good. But the journey from accusations to establishment of crime in the eyes of the law is not a trivial process. Can the Government shrug off its responsibility in ensuring that this process, the journey itself, is executed in a free, fair and lawful manner?
These thoughts occurred to me as I was listening to the charges and counter-charges that accompanied the accusations of mass rapes in Nandigram. “.. Eight people raped me. They raped my two daughters also, in front of my eyes. I don’t know where they are now…” – These words of a ravaged mother from Satengabari, under treatment in Tamluk Hospital, appeared in the news-papers on 16th November, 2007. The official report confirmed that there was evidence of rape, or so was the statement of the officer-in-charge of Nandigram Police Station Champak Choudhury, the Tamluk Hospital Superintendent, Sabitendra Patra.
During the recapture of Nandigram, two cases of mass-rape came to news on 10th November itself. The charges were leveled by two women from Satengabari and Sonachura.
On 17th of November, another woman from Gokulnagar registered a complaint at the Nandigram Police Station that she had been successively raped on 14th and 15th November by members of the recapture brigade. She was too terrified to get out of her home immediately. Finally, on Saturday (17th Nov.) she managed to flee to her husband, at the relief camp. Her Medical Examination was carried out at the Nandigram Hospital. She specified the names of Kalipada Das and Sagar Das as her rapists. A few hours later, Anup Karan, alias, Bachchu was arrested. He was identified as rapist by the ‘rape-victim’ from Satengabari. All this came out in the newspapers – that’s where we got to know.
On 18th November, we see Brinda Karat of the CPI(M) speaking to the TV Cameras. ‘If any incident of rape is proved, Government will take stringent action’. Her statement also appeared in the next day’s newspapers.
The very next day, i.e. 19th November, the State Women’s Commission visited Tamluk Hospital. They couldn’t talk to the woman from Gokulnagar. However, they talk to the mother from Satengabari. Having taken stock of the ground reality, of the members of the delegation commented ‘There is no evidence of Rape’. She further added, ‘The woman had given birth to 6-7 babies. So it is difficult to prove rape technically. Also, the incident happened on 6th November and she reported it on 10th. And before coming to the Hospital, she even washed that day’s clothes. Nothing can be proved like this!’
So, what does all this sum up to? Brinda describes the role of news media as biased. If rape is proved, Government will take action. Women’s Commission says there is no evidence of rape; it is very difficult to prove rape in these cases. Hence, if there is no evidence, then it is yet more difficult for the Government to take action. Virtually, impossible.
Every one, from Brinda Karat to the State Women’s Commission, knows all this very well. They know something else as well. Due to the fact that medical examination is not at all full-proof and conclusive in establishing rape, it is not considered to be the final word in such cases. On 2nd October, 2005, the Supreme Court bench of Justice H.K. Shoma and Justice G. P. Mathur clearly stated that if the testimony of the rape victim and the circumstantial evidence is sufficiently strong, then the crime can be established even without medical evidence.
This year, on 27th July, the bench of R. V. Ravindran and L. S. Panta upheld the life sentence of the accused, based solely on the testimony of the victim. And this is not only about Supreme Court. B. C. Deba was accused of raping a teen age girl inside a coffee plantation in Athur, Karnataka. This was in 1991. The raped girl tried to commit suicide by jumping into river. Subsequent medical examinations failed to establish rape. But right from the lower courts to the Supreme Court, her testimony was ‘coherent, logical, dependable and believable’. Consequently, all the three courts sentenced Deba to life imprisonment.
In rape cases, it is hard to establish the crime by depending only on medical evidence. This is because medical examination is reliable only if it is carried out within 24 hours of the incident, which is not the case in majority of such incidents. If the victim is married or is a mother, then it is many times more difficult to ‘prove’ rape. Even taking bath or washing of clothes destroys evidences. All these practical aspects of a rape case are known to every one, Brinda Karat, Women’s Commission or the Supreme Court. That is why, two years ago, the State Women’s Commission had welcomed the Supreme Court verdict.
Is it because of this knowledge that Brinda and the Commission are unanimously harping on the necessity of medical evidence in the rape cases? By concentrating on this one aspect of rape, are they somehow trying to confine the general idea of ‘evidence in rape case’ to a mere medical report?
It is not being implied that any complaint of rape coming from Nandigram needs to be considered true in its face value. Just as, we should not forget to look into the alleged rape of a woman from Kalicharanpur, on 5th March 2007. She was the wife of a local CPI(M) leader.
But at the same time, we can hardly forget what the Women’s Commission had to say after the Dhantala Rape in 2003 – ‘all concocted lies’. Going back to the 1990 Birati mass-rape case, we hear the ‘Democratic Women’s Association’ leader Shyamali Gupta saying ‘Those girls don’t have good character’. The association is not above the party regimen. So, may be, this is expected. But, on pen and paper, State Women’s Commission is an independent body!

On The Significance Of Nandigram

By Ramsey Clark
15 December, 2007
Countercurrents.org
(Ramsey Clark, former US Attorney General, anti-imperialist campaigner and President of the US-based International Action Center, was in Kolkata to attend the Anti-Imperialist International Conference and rally organised by the All India Anti-Imperialist Forum from 27th to 29th November. On 29th November, he visited Nandigram for a first-hand experience of the situation there. Returning to the closing session of the Conference, he made the following brief speech on the significance of Nandigram.)
I had an extremely moving and enlightening experience at Nandigram today. What happened in Nandigram reveals most aspects of the crisis facing all people in the planet today, something that is not quite understood by merely reading about it. People who have lived on the lands of their ancestors going back 1500 years, a beautiful people, attacked by their own Government, killed, injured, their homes burnt- 119 homes in one part of Nandigram, we saw the homes and talked to the survivors, their property taken or destroyed, many still missing. I saw a boy hit by a bullet in the front forehead, I could also see the exit wound. He was able to stand up, but was unable to talk. The death toll is far greater than what we are told. In one small area that we visited, people were sure of a hundred.
Why? Why is the Government doing this to its people? It is doing it so that powerful foreign interests can come on to the lands of the Indian people to exploit not only people of India, but people of the whole world. In the SEZ they are planning, you will find chemical companies, perhaps Dow Chemicals again. Can you imagine Dow Chemicals returning to India after Bhopal? That's exactly what's being planned, to pollute life, to exploit resources. One plan is to manufacture munitions there. To kill Iraqis, perhaps? What nations will be assaulted with these munitions?
We have to be united if we hope to stop the march of imperialism. The concentration of power that comes from imperialism becomes so dramatically clear in Nandigram. People utterly impoverished have lost all they had, their loved ones, their homes, so that wealth can come in, poison the environment there, exploit the rest of the country, concentrating wealth in fewer hands, while the masses get poorer and poorer.
How incredibly courageous the movement has been! As of this moment, they have successfully defied enormous power, at tragic cost to themselves. They say they can't make it without our help. We can't make it without the help of each other and without reaching out to more and more people. During our civil rights movement in the US, the oppressed African-Americans said, `Power to the people'. They had it wrong. Power is in the people. The people must have the will and the intelligence to exercise that power. Who can defy the people? In the winter of 1978, I was in Teheran. The people shut down the city- the factories, markets, transport, colleges – the people were out on the streets, 4 to 5 million of them, marching. The Shah of Iran had 68 million dollars worth of arms from the US, the Shah had more tanks than the British Army. But with all his power, his soldiers, his tanks, he could kill only 48,000 people, he could not kill all the people. So as the people shut down the whole country, the Shah finally got up and left on his plane.
I am not sure we will find a better battle cry today that bringseverything together than Nandigram- a struggle against power that destroys people and places for its own enrichment while impoverishing others. I hope we can carry the banner of these people, not just to help them, but to save ourselves from the march of imperialism which is at its most dangerous today... I am sure we will find ways to unite our action and our energies, and we then shall overcome.

Laughing Buddha

By Sushmita

Did you see the smile on Buddhadev’s face when he announced the recapture of Nandigram? Did it not look similar to that of George Bush when he announced his capture on Iraq and Afghanistan? The only difference is that Bush was happy by killing the people of some other country while Buddha’s hands are dripping with the blood of his own people. It will not be wrong on your part if Buddha’s smile looked similar also to that of Narendra Modi’s when he justified the Genocide of Gujarat by saying that ‘every action has equal and opposite reaction ‘. Faces have amalgamated.At last Nandigram has been captured. A deadly dance that took away hundreds of lives and hundreds are still missing. Dozens of women have been raped beneath the CPM flag. Houses have been reduced to ashes. Life will never be the same for the women and children there. The villagers say that the second round of violence has claimed about 150 lives, 2000 are missing. That day around 550 people were roped and taken to Khejuri where the CPM used them as shields against any retaliation. Sources say that criminals and goons were mobilized for the deadly operation. The genocide went on successfully under the leadership of four of CPM’s MPs. Tapan Ghosh and Shakur Ali who are wanted by the CBI in Choto angariya massacre case were amongst the goons who played the death game. It is being said that preparations were going on for months in Khejuri. For this, goons were hired from Raniganj-Assansol- Coal Belt, Gorbeta, and Keshpur.We heard that the people of Nandigram have got a taste of there own medicine.We heard that socialism would be brought if ladies showed their backs to Medha Patekar.We also heard that CPM flags were put inside the bodies of women of Nandigram. We heard and were shamed. We heard about those who sold the ray of hope to the guardians of darkness. We heard about a CM who after killing 150 people washed his hands with rose water and started preparing for film festival.The air is filled with the victory songs and slogans…Nandigram has been captured. Terrified …. Deserted… Burnt…. Burnt Nandigram. That Nandigram which is a sign of hope for us. That Nandigram which is the hottest blood amongst the great struggles of Paris commune Russia, China, Vietnam, and Naxalbari.The plot of seizure was prepared a year ago. The people of Nandigram had already taken lessons from the Singur episode. On July 2006 the word spread that 28000 acres of land would be acquired for a chemical hub. People started resisting the land grab. In the march 2007 CPM tried its best to capture land from the peasants. But they failed. It became a question of prestige for them. They couldn’t bare the challenge posed by the people of Nandigram so this time they conspired and organized this butchery. First they came to negotiating terms with the Bhumi Uchched Pratirodh Committee and then attacked them so that they were not ready for this attack.CPM’s Lakshman Seth said “Maaro, na maro”. Vinay Konar addressed the women asking them to pull up their saaris and show their backs to Medha Patekar. Viman Bose was continuously saying, “The people of Nandigram were not feeding us rosogullas”.Amongst these killer slogans could be heard the laughter in writer’s building were the inhabitants congratulated each other saying that the people of Nandigram have been paid back in there own coin.The deployment of CRPF was also a very shrewd act. First the killing operation was conducted and then despite of the strong protests by the masses and other democrats of West Bengal, CRPF was deployed to gain control over the area. The center’s gesture of sending a CRPF battalion is like bribing the CPI(M) not to push their demand of de operationalising of the Indo-US Nuclear agreement. The CPI(M) will now stage a ‘mock opposition’ in the impending parliamentary debate on nuclear deal. This act shows how the party is licking the feet of imperialist forces.Buddhadev says that peace has been restored in Nandigram but the fact is that there is silence. A silence that can be found at the cremation ground. Silence combined with ashes. Only the hangman is shouting. He is advising the people of Nandigram to behave. He is enlightening the whole country with what is democracy.We are being told that this step has been taken by an elected govt. therefore it is justified. We are being told that any question arising on the Nandigram issue is a conspiracy against an elected govt. Narendra Modi spoke the same language in 2002. Do we have the right to remember this ‘comrades’? Does George Bush speak any different language while attacking the weak and resisting countries in the name of democracy?D.Raja of CPI and Prakash Karat of CPI(M) say that a democratically elected govt. was not allowed to function in Nandigram. In other words their democracy was in danger. Is democracy only a tool in the hands of ruling class to justify state sponsored killings? Does the govt. have the right to chase the people out of there homes only because the govt. is so called democratically elected? If democracy has a threat from the people of Nandigram then why don’t the people have a right to say that they are scared of this kind of democracy? This democracy is banning there right to live. The truth is that the people are fighting for there right to live which ultimately is a fight to save their motherland.Nandigram is not the only witness of this kind of state oppression. Imperialist forces have carried over this kind of campaign all over the globe.The tribes of Latin America and Vietnam have been displaced or killed to gain control over resources. At some places not even a single person was spared. Whole tribe was butchered. The comparadors of imperialists in India are applying the same tactics. Years back the state had taken similar steps in Muthanga (Kerela) where the state crushed the brave resistance of the tribes in a bloody campaign. The story follows in Chattisgarh. Disputes were created amongst the tribes and some were taken to relief camps. The rest were frequently attacked and hence displaced. The govt. is planning to turn the relief camps to villages. All of them were displaced from there land and the land was handed over to the MNCs. A similar process is to be started in Orissa, Jharkhand and west Bengal. That is by hook or by crook remove indigenous people from their land and then surrender the land at the feet of imperialists. In Nandigram the resisting villagers have been chased out. It is being said that they can come back only on CPM’s will.We feel that we are in peace because unrest is somewhere in Muthanga, Chattisgarh or Nandigram. But suddenly we find the green snake beneath our seats. It is hidden amongst the green grass so we are unable to see it. In such case we are compelled to leave our seats. The snake is crawling amongst the grasses. From Muthanga to Chattisgarh, Kalingnagar, Jharkhand, Singur, Nandigram and no one knows where.The CPI and CPM assert that the opponents are against development. But statistics reveal the fact that already 55,000 factories are closed in West Bengal due to various reasons. Sick industries account to 1,13,846 i.e. 45.60% of the total sick industries in India. 15 lakh workers have lost jobs in the past 15 years. Where as only 43,888 people got employment. In 1980, employment in organized sector (both public and private) was 26,64,000. In the wave of industrialization the level came down to 22,30,000. In 1977(when left front came to power) registered unemployed were 22,27,000. It increased to 72,27,117 in 2005. Here it is necessary to point out that people above 35 years of age are not considered. Agricultural backwardness has created a more devastating situation. The CPM leaders never stop boasting about land reforms in West Bengal. They also assert that agriculture in West Bengal has created a strong base for industries in the state. But the veil is removed when actual situation comes to the front. After 1983, operation bargha and an attempt to make barren lands cultivable was stopped. The Human Rights Development Report 2004, state that 14.31% bargadars were displaced. The rate differed in different places i.e. in 31.60% in Jalpaiguri, 30.2% in Kuchbihar, 31.42 in North Dinajpur and 30.75 in South Dinajpur. Not only this, around 13.23% people who were given land on lease (patta) were displaced. From 1992-2000, 48.9% village households became landless.As far as food grain production is concerned, in 1976 the per capita food grain availability for the nation was 402 gms. Where as for West Bengal it was 412 gms. In 1999 all India per capita food grain availability was 502 gms whereas for West Bengal it was 444 gms which fell down to 413 gms in 2001 (source-Ajith Narayan Basu,’Pashchim Bengal ki Arthniti Avam Rajniti). The above stated facts clear the crisis in agriculture.The development models propounded by the western economists and borrowed by Buddhadev, mainly stress on increasing GNP and industrialization as the base of development. After the Second World War, in the age of neo-colonialism, this development model was imposed in the Less Developed Countries. The western model negated the alternative of a socialist model arising in Russia and China. Marx in his development theory had talked about industrialization on the debris of feudalism and pre-capitalist relationships. The modern theory failed in almost all the poor countries after 1970’s. To solve the internal crisis, the imperialist countries now preached the western model with the help of World bank, IMF, and other imperialist agencies. As said before Buddhadev borrowed this theory when he said in Indonesia that agriculture is a sign of backwardness where as industry is a sign of growth. This is nothing but buttering up the imperialists.Agriculture is neither a sign of backwardness nor a problem. Problem arises when there is inequality in distribution, increase in number of middlemen, making space for MNCs, large number of shopping malls and fertile lands are destroyed for making highways. And this is what the CPM has been doing all these years.The CPM’s notion for development basically suits the interest of imperialists and goes against the peasants. This approach to development would create chaos in the state. Conversion of vast fertile lands for other purposes will lead to further fall in the production of food grains and many more people will live in a state of despair.Events in Nandigram have proved that this government with its sharp claws can crush any voice arising against the imperialist techniques used by them. The CPM has applied this technique to all its political opponents. Any force arising against the CPM had to face armed oppression. The CPM never allowed the opposition to develop more than a fetus. This is why the CPM could exist there for such a long period. But the areas where people continued powerful resistance till date, there CPM is fighting for existence. Gorbeta is an example of such an area. The goons of Gorbeta are now being used in Singur and Nandigram. The leaders of CPM have accepted that they cannot let go of places like Nandigram (tehelka). We can conclude from this that the opposition to survive in West Bengal will have to be prepared and well equipped to resist the henchmen of CPM. Therefore may be they are afraid of the Maoists. They say that violence in Nandigram was due to the presence of Maoists. That is the CPM would have completed its work peacefully if the Maoists had not been there.From 1970s CPM has been charged of social fascism. Social fascism and communal fascism are two faces of the same coin. And Nandigram has cleared this. There are also communal charges against the CPM in the Nandigram issue concerning the minorities. What is important is that Nandigram has played a true role of opposition. It has continued the resistance struggle for almost one whole year.Nandigram has been recaptured. Just like the victory of capitalism over the proletariats in Paris commune, China and other countries. Triumphantly they are celebrating as the State has celebrated after every victory over the mass rebellion.So, will we not get a glimpse of hope even in the last lines of a poem? Will the laughter of children be made impossible in the climax of a film? Will the sky never be fragrant with the flights of birds? Will the earth filled with dreams come to an end? Has the spring gone forever to never come back?We heard that the fields in Nandigram could not be cultivated this season. We heard that stones and bodies of the dead are lying in the fields. But have you not heard of the yield of hope that has ripened there? In the war front moving ahead and back is a part of the war. Moving back does not mean to surrender. The dreams of masses are still alive.Masses will write the history of all Karats and Buddhadevs. Dreams haven’t ended for the masses of Nandigram. They have retreated from the front but they have not surrendered. They will again rise to take their front back. Masses from Muthanga, Chattisgarh, Kalingnagar, Singur and Nandigram and all other places are joining in this front. They won’t leave their seats. They are searching for the green snake and preparing to chase it far off. Are you listening Buddhadev ji?
Translated by lalima from hindi.

Nandigram says 'No!' to Dow's chemical hub

By Stevan Kirschbaum

Nandigram, West Bengal, India

For 11 months the people’s movement of Nandigram has defied the full power of the Indian state, military, police and armed death squads in a struggle to halt a planned “chemical hub” that would destroy their district.
IAC delegation about attacks onNandigram. " Women tell reporters who accompaniedIAC delegation about attacks onNandigram.
Nandigram comprises 38 villages in the East Midnapore district of West Bengal, located 60 miles southwest of Kolkata (formerly called Calcutta). Its population of 250,000 consists mostly of peasant farmers, laborers and fishers.
The people of Nandigram trace their history back nearly 2,000 years. They take great pride in their heritage of fighting to defend their land. One village is named Pichabani—“We shall not step back”—in memory of their successful struggle in 1942 to drive the British colonialists out of the area.
In December 2006, the people of Nandigram were given notice that nearly one quarter of their land would be seized and 70,000 people be evicted from their homes. Some 127 primary schools, four secondary schools, three high schools, 112 temples, 42 masjids and countless houses, markets, shops and sacred burial grounds were to be destroyed and the land given to the Salim Indonesia group—a real estate “developer.”
burned-out home.. "
Mother and children in front ofburned-out home..
WW photos: Sara Flounders
Salim is part of a growing number of dirty middlemen who develop the infrastructure—roads, bridges and so on—to literally pave the way for corporate special economic zones. In Nandigram the SEZ was to be a chemical hub led by Dow Chemical, infamous for the development of napalm used against the Vietnamese people.
Dow is also hated in India since it bought up Union Carbide. On the night of Dec. 3, 1984, a pesticide plant of Union Carbide released 40 tons of methyl isocyanate gas in the city of Bhopal, killing upwards of 5,000 people. The disaster is ranked as one of the world’s worst industrial catastrophes due to negligence.
The people of Nandigram are also aware of the fate of Singur, a nearby area where lands were taken away and the peasants brutalized to make way for the Tata Small automobile project. They were determined not to accept a similar fate.
They immediately organized to fight back. On Jan. 3 of this year, 15,000 people assembled at the village governing office to protest. Police opened fire and many were injured. Three days later, over 50,000 people gathered and announced the formation of the Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee (BUPC)—Committee Against Land Grabbing and Eviction. This highly disciplined, representative body has led the struggle. The next day, state authorities fired into a crowd of protesters, killing three, including a 14-year-old boy.
The people then escalated to direct action in defense of their land. For the next three months, house-by-house and village-by-village, BUPC organized to establish effective people’s power. Roads were dug up, bridges blocked and barricades set up to defend Nandigram by any means necessary. By March 2007 the people had effective control of Nandigram and the state could not move forward on the SEZ.
It was at this point that the state unleashed a vicious terror campaign.
On March 14, in the village of Gokul Nagar, police, soldiers and armed civilian thugs fired into a crowd of protesters who were worshipping to a goddess to save their homes. State forces employed the most cruel and savage of tactics, killing at least 14 and injuring hundreds with beatings and shootings. Rape was an organized police tactic, with hundreds of documented cases of gang rapes. Many people were “disappeared.”
But the people would not be defeated. They regrouped, reorganized and continued to hold Nandigram. News of their inspiring battle spread and they received solidarity and support from labor unionists, social justice activists, the urban poor from Kolkata and beyond, cultural workers and actors. All came to lend their support.
As part of the campaign to inflict maximum punishment and also cover up their atrocities against the people, state authorities attempted to deny them medical care and falsified the medical documentation of deaths, injuries and treatment. A courageous group of doctors and medical workers, the Medical Service Center, nevertheless went to Nandigram to set up a people’s clinic. They ministered to the people’s medical needs and have been steadfast advocates for their rights.
The MSC has produced a documented, detailed report on the deaths and injuries—Health Spectra, Vol. 17, Special Nandigram Issue. This horrifying catalog of atrocities is available through msc_cc@rediffmail.com. (The International Action Center has posted this video on YouTube—type in “Nandigram.”)
Unable to go forward with its plans, the government announced it would scrap the SEZ. The people’s movement, however, vowed to remain vigilant. Faced with a full-scale state coverup, the movement demanded justice, a full inquiry into the state’s atrocities, prosecution of those responsible for heinous crimes, and reparations and restitution for damages.
The breadth of the solidarity movement forced the Kolkata High Court to take up the case, but it remained silent on its findings for months.
On Nov. 6 and 12, 2007, the government unleashed yet another terrible assault on Nandigram. Nearly 100 people were killed, 652 houses were ransacked, 119 homes were burned to the ground, 9,205 people were left homeless and more than 200 rapes were reported. Many people are missing to this day. Villagers state that they witnessed government forces and their paid thugs carrying away bodies to be burned in the nearby Janani brick field, in the town of Kahejuree.
On Dec. 6, authorities discovered the charred bone and skull remains of bodies believed to be those killed in November. Notwithstanding all these odds, the people refuse to give in and continue to return to their burned-out homes, staying with neighbors and fashioning makeshift tents.
Solidarity campaign escalates
The movement in India, and in Kolkata in particular, has organized exemplary solidarity. On Nov. 14, a massive solidarity protest of 100,000 people took to the streets of Kolkata in support of Nandigram. Political activists, jurists, trade unionists, professors, “Bollywood” directors and actors, college students, youth workers, environmentalists and doctors are raising one voice to demand justice for Nandigram and the truth about the state’s criminal actions.
On Nov. 16, the High Court finally released its findings declaring that the state’s actions in Nandigram were “unconstitutional.” However, instead of taking action against those responsible, the court ordered further investigation.
Now the press are carrying daily stories that support the claims of the BUPC and the people of Nandigram. Witnesses have come forward with video and still photos of the rapes committed. (The Statesman, Dec. 1) Missing bodies have been discovered. (Press Trust of India, Dec. 7) Finally a few of the thugs have been charged and taken into custody. However, 10 of these thugs had earlier been picked up and quickly released without charge by the state authorities.
Nandigram has now entered the vocabulary of class struggle in India. The Dec. 1 Hindustan Times carried an article headlined “Nandigram re-run alleged in Orissa.” The article refers to the government’s campaign in another district to browbeat protesters into submission as “the Nandigram strategy.” But the business pages of the Indian press are filled with panicky articles assuring future imperialist SEZ investors that India is safe and that Nandigram is an isolated case.
Global imperialism’s favorite tactic
A “special economic zone” is global imperialism’s model of super-exploitation at its most severe. In different countries the name changes—free enterprise zones, maquiladoras, SEZs—but the tactics are the same. The people are ruthlessly driven from the land to pave the way for unrestricted corporate exploitation. Corporations have virtually totalitarian authority, ignoring all labor standards, hiring and firing workers with no redress, paying starvation wages with no social benefits, and ignoring any environmental protections.
In the United States, the union movement in an earlier period fought against what it called the “runaway shop.” Now the runaway is global.
Why would Dow Chemical pay union wages to workers in a plant in the United States when it can pay SEZ workers pennies a day? Dow just announced it was terminating more than 1,000 jobs in Charleston, S.C. In the state of West Bengal, over 56,000 firms have been shut down while at the same time SEZ industries are cropping up all over India.
IAC solidarity mission
On Nov. 29, an International Action Center delegation led by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark joined with West Bengali activists to visit the area of the attacks in Gokul Nagar. The state authorities had sealed off all roads leading into Nandigram both to increase their isolation and keep evidence of the November atrocities from the media.
Heavily armed police accompanied the delegation. There was concern this would make residents fearful to speak freely for fear of reprisals. But as the IAC arrived at a refugee camp at the Brajomohn Tewari School, scores of victims came forward. One after the other gave their stories of suffering and injuries sustained at the hands of police and armed mercenaries.
A mother showed the wounds of her 10-year-old son, Bulu Mir, who had been shot through the head but miraculously survived. A 30-year-old woman gave moving testimony of how she had been gang raped. She is one of more than 200 women, ranging from children to elders, who have been brutally raped in a plan to punish the community. Daughters and mothers were raped in front of their fathers.
The IAC surveyed homes that had been burned to the ground and then looted of all belongings. The worst attacks were clearly reserved for leaders of the BUPC. Roshmi Das Adhikari, 90, told how state-sponsored forces had set fire to her home while she was inside. Despite everything, the people expressed their determination to stay in Nandigram.
At an impromptu press conference at the close of the tour, Ramsey Clark declared: “We do not need any more Dow Chemical companies in India. We need more food, housing and schools. We need health care and opportunities for every man, woman and child. The people of Nandigram have stood up for us all. Nandigram should be the battle cry for the future of humanity.”
Today corporations have globalized their exploitation. It is critical that the movement globalize the resistance. Messages of support and solidarity may be sent to Secretary Nanda Patra of the BUPC, care of the All India Anti-Imperialist Forum, 77/2/1 Lenin Sarani, Kolkata 700 013, India.

Laughing Buddha

By Sushmita
Did you see the smile on Buddhadev’s face when he announced the recapture of Nandigram? Did it not look similar to that of George Bush when he announced his capture on Iraq and Afghanistan? The only difference is that Bush was happy by killing the people of some other country while Buddha’s hands are dripping with the blood of his own people. It will not be wrong on your part if Buddha’s smile looked similar also to that of Narendra Modi’s when he justified the Genocide of Gujarat by saying that ‘every action has equal and opposite reaction ‘. Faces have amalgamated.
At last Nandigram has been captured. A deadly dance that took away hundreds of lives and hundreds are still missing. Dozens of women have been raped beneath the CPM flag. Houses have been reduced to ashes. Life will never be the same for the women and children there. The villagers say that the second round of violence has claimed about 150 lives, 2000 are missing. That day around 550 people were roped and taken to Khejuri where the CPM used them as shields against any retaliation. Sources say that criminals and goons were mobilized for the deadly operation. The genocide went on successfully under the leadership of four of CPM’s MPs. Tapan Ghosh and Shakur Ali who are wanted by the CBI in Choto angariya massacre case were amongst the goons who played the death game. It is being said that preparations were going on for months in Khejuri. For this, goons were hired from Raniganj-Assansol- Coal Belt, Gorbeta, and Keshpur.
We heard that the people of Nandigram have got a taste of there own medicine.
We heard that socialism would be brought if ladies showed their backs to Medha Patekar.
We also heard that CPM flags were put inside the bodies of women of Nandigram. We heard and were shamed. We heard about those who sold the ray of hope to the guardians of darkness. We heard about a CM who after killing 150 people washed his hands with rose water and started preparing for film festival.
The air is filled with the victory songs and slogans…Nandigram has been captured. Terrified …. Deserted… Burnt…. Burnt Nandigram. That Nandigram which is a sign of hope for us. That Nandigram which is the hottest blood amongst the great struggles of Paris commune Russia, China, Vietnam, and Naxalbari.
The plot of seizure was prepared a year ago. The people of Nandigram had already taken lessons from the Singur episode. On July 2006 the word spread that 28000 acres of land would be acquired for a chemical hub. People started resisting the land grab. In the march 2007 CPM tried its best to capture land from the peasants. But they failed. It became a question of prestige for them. They couldn’t bare the challenge posed by the people of Nandigram so this time they conspired and organized this butchery. First they came to negotiating terms with the Bhumi Uchched Pratirodh Committee and then attacked them so that they were not ready for this attack.
CPM’s Lakshman Seth said “Maaro, na maro”. Vinay Konar addressed the women asking them to pull up their saaris and show their backs to Medha Patekar. Viman Bose was continuously saying, “The people of Nandigram were not feeding us rosogullas”.
Amongst these killer slogans could be heard the laughter in writer’s building were the inhabitants congratulated each other saying that the people of Nandigram have been paid back in there own coin.
The deployment of CRPF was also a very shrewd act. First the killing operation was conducted and then despite of the strong protests by the masses and other democrats of West Bengal, CRPF was deployed to gain control over the area. The center’s gesture of sending a CRPF battalion is like bribing the CPI(M) not to push their demand of de operationalising of the Indo-US Nuclear agreement. The CPI(M) will now stage a ‘mock opposition’ in the impending parliamentary debate on nuclear deal. This act shows how the party is licking the feet of imperialist forces.
Buddhadev says that peace has been restored in Nandigram but the fact is that there is silence. A silence that can be found at the cremation ground. Silence combined with ashes. Only the hangman is shouting. He is advising the people of Nandigram to behave. He is enlightening the whole country with what is democracy.
We are being told that this step has been taken by an elected govt. therefore it is justified. We are being told that any question arising on the Nandigram issue is a conspiracy against an elected govt. Narendra Modi spoke the same language in 2002. Do we have the right to remember this ‘comrades’? Does George Bush speak any different language while attacking the weak and resisting countries in the name of democracy?
D.Raja of CPI and Prakash Karat of CPI(M) say that a democratically elected govt. was not allowed to function in Nandigram. In other words their democracy was in danger. Is democracy only a tool in the hands of ruling class to justify state sponsored killings? Does the govt. have the right to chase the people out of there homes only because the govt. is so called democratically elected? If democracy has a threat from the people of Nandigram then why don’t the people have a right to say that they are scared of this kind of democracy? This democracy is banning there right to live. The truth is that the people are fighting for there right to live which ultimately is a fight to save their motherland.
Nandigram is not the only witness of this kind of state oppression. Imperialist forces have carried over this kind of campaign all over the globe.The tribes of Latin America and Vietnam have been displaced or killed to gain control over resources. At some places not even a single person was spared. Whole tribe was butchered. The comparadors of imperialists in India are applying the same tactics. Years back the state had taken similar steps in Muthanga (Kerela) where the state crushed the brave resistance of the tribes in a bloody campaign. The story follows in Chattisgarh. Disputes were created amongst the tribes and some were taken to relief camps. The rest were frequently attacked and hence displaced. The govt. is planning to turn the relief camps to villages. All of them were displaced from there land and the land was handed over to the MNCs. A similar process is to be started in Orissa, Jharkhand and west Bengal. That is by hook or by crook remove indigenous people from their land and then surrender the land at the feet of imperialists. In Nandigram the resisting villagers have been chased out. It is being said that they can come back only on CPM’s will.
We feel that we are in peace because unrest is somewhere in Muthanga, Chattisgarh or Nandigram. But suddenly we find the green snake beneath our seats. It is hidden amongst the green grass so we are unable to see it. In such case we are compelled to leave our seats. The snake is crawling amongst the grasses. From Muthanga to Chattisgarh, Kalingnagar, Jharkhand, Singur, Nandigram and no one knows where.
The CPI and CPM assert that the opponents are against development. But statistics reveal the fact that already 55,000 factories are closed in West Bengal due to various reasons. Sick industries account to 1,13,846 i.e. 45.60% of the total sick industries in India. 15 lakh workers have lost jobs in the past 15 years. Where as only 43,888 people got employment. In 1980, employment in organized sector (both public and private) was 26,64,000. In the wave of industrialization the level came down to 22,30,000. In 1977(when left front came to power) registered unemployed were 22,27,000. It increased to 72,27,117 in 2005. Here it is necessary to point out that people above 35 years of age are not considered. Agricultural backwardness has created a more devastating situation. The CPM leaders never stop boasting about land reforms in West Bengal. They also assert that agriculture in West Bengal has created a strong base for industries in the state. But the veil is removed when actual situation comes to the front. After 1983, operation bargha and an attempt to make barren lands cultivable was stopped. The Human Rights Development Report 2004, state that 14.31% bargadars were displaced. The rate differed in different places i.e. in 31.60% in Jalpaiguri, 30.2% in Kuchbihar, 31.42 in North Dinajpur and 30.75 in South Dinajpur. Not only this, around 13.23% people who were given land on lease (patta) were displaced. From 1992-2000, 48.9% village households became landless.
As far as food grain production is concerned, in 1976 the per capita food grain availability for the nation was 402 gms. Where as for West Bengal it was 412 gms. In 1999 all India per capita food grain availability was 502 gms whereas for West Bengal it was 444 gms which fell down to 413 gms in 2001 (source-Ajith Narayan Basu,’Pashchim Bengal ki Arthniti Avam Rajniti). The above stated facts clear the crisis in agriculture.
The development models propounded by the western economists and borrowed by Buddhadev, mainly stress on increasing GNP and industrialization as the base of development. After the Second World War, in the age of neo-colonialism, this development model was imposed in the Less Developed Countries. The western model negated the alternative of a socialist model arising in Russia and China. Marx in his development theory had talked about industrialization on the debris of feudalism and pre-capitalist relationships. The modern theory failed in almost all the poor countries after 1970’s. To solve the internal crisis, the imperialist countries now preached the western model with the help of World bank, IMF, and other imperialist agencies. As said before Buddhadev borrowed this theory when he said in Indonesia that agriculture is a sign of backwardness where as industry is a sign of growth. This is nothing but buttering up the imperialists.
Agriculture is neither a sign of backwardness nor a problem. Problem arises when there is inequality in distribution, increase in number of middlemen, making space for MNCs, large number of shopping malls and fertile lands are destroyed for making highways. And this is what the CPM has been doing all these years.
The CPM’s notion for development basically suits the interest of imperialists and goes against the peasants. This approach to development would create chaos in the state. Conversion of vast fertile lands for other purposes will lead to further fall in the production of food grains and many more people will live in a state of despair.
Events in Nandigram have proved that this government with its sharp claws can crush any voice arising against the imperialist techniques used by them. The CPM has applied this technique to all its political opponents. Any force arising against the CPM had to face armed oppression. The CPM never allowed the opposition to develop more than a fetus. This is why the CPM could exist there for such a long period. But the areas where people continued powerful resistance till date, there CPM is fighting for existence. Gorbeta is an example of such an area. The goons of Gorbeta are now being used in Singur and Nandigram. The leaders of CPM have accepted that they cannot let go of places like Nandigram (tehelka). We can conclude from this that the opposition to survive in West Bengal will have to be prepared and well equipped to resist the henchmen of CPM. Therefore may be they are afraid of the Maoists. They say that violence in Nandigram was due to the presence of Maoists. That is the CPM would have completed its work peacefully if the Maoists had not been there.
From 1970s CPM has been charged of social fascism. Social fascism and communal fascism are two faces of the same coin. And Nandigram has cleared this. There are also communal charges against the CPM in the Nandigram issue concerning the minorities. What is important is that Nandigram has played a true role of opposition. It has continued the resistance struggle for almost one whole year.
Nandigram has been recaptured. Just like the victory of capitalism over the proletariats in Paris commune, China and other countries. Triumphantly they are celebrating as the State has celebrated after every victory over the mass rebellion.
So, will we not get a glimpse of hope even in the last lines of a poem? Will the laughter of children be made impossible in the climax of a film? Will the sky never be fragrant with the flights of birds? Will the earth filled with dreams come to an end? Has the spring gone forever to never come back?
We heard that the fields in Nandigram could not be cultivated this season. We heard that stones and bodies of the dead are lying in the fields. But have you not heard of the yield of hope that has ripened there? In the war front moving ahead and back is a part of the war. Moving back does not mean to surrender. The dreams of masses are still alive.
Masses will write the history of all Karats and Buddhadevs. Dreams haven’t ended for the masses of Nandigram. They have retreated from the front but they have not surrendered. They will again rise to take their front back. Masses from Muthanga, Chattisgarh, Kalingnagar, Singur and Nandigram and all other places are joining in this front. They won’t leave their seats. They are searching for the green snake and preparing to chase it far off. Are you listening Buddhadev ji?

Translated by lalima from hindi.

One more decomposed body found in Nandigram

Statesman News Service
NANDIGRAM, Dec. 12: Decomposed human remains were found in two sacks from a grave in Parulbari village of Nandigram today, after it was dug in the presence of Nandigram-I BDO, Mr Shanti Ram Ghorai by state police. An order from the judicial magistrate, Haldia, enabled the grave to be dug in the BDO's presence. The CRPF, however, claimed they were not informed by state police before the grave was dug. “In spite of repeated reminders to inform us before the grave is dug, the state police failed to do so today,” a senior CRPF officer said. The CRPF discovered the grave in Parulbari village on Monday. The CRPF had cordoned off the area after the discovery on Monday morning. The village in which this sixth grave was found, in a span of a week, is about 2.5 km from Maheshpur, a CPI-M stronghold. The senior CRPF officer said that the other spot in the same village, where human hair had been found, might not contain a body. The CRPF had cordoned off this spot too. This spot has houses surrounding it, which makes it unsuitable for body to be buried there. The BUPC supporters today staged a march near the spot, alleging that the body in the grave belonged to a BUPC supporter who has been missing since the alleged CPI-M goons fired on a peace rally by BUPC supporters in Maheshpur on 10 November. “Family members of Haren Pramanik, who has been missing since the recent firing on a peace rally in November, claimed that the body is his. These people are residents of Dihi Kamalpur, a village in Nandigram,” a senior CRPF officer said.

Used bullets found near ‘graveyard’

Nandigram/Calcutta, Dec. 11: The CRPF today found spent .315-calibre cartridges and torn cardboard boxes marked “Pune” in Parulbari village a day after two suspected graves were spotted there.
Assistant commandant A.K. Upadhyay said 23 “rimmed cartridges” were found during a raid in the area and were handed over to police for investigation.
The boxes suggest that the cartridges were manufactured at the Kirkee ordnance factory in Pune. But neither the police nor the paramilitary uses .315-calibre cartridges, a police officer said.
Those with licensed .315 rifles can buy the bullets from authorised gun shops and ordnance factory outlets.
Parulbari is on the fringes of Maheshpur, which had witnessed heavy gun battles between CPM and Bhoomi Uchchhed Pratirodh Committee activists from October 28 to November 6.
The CPM took control of Jambari village, a kilometre from where the cartridges were found, on November 6. The next day, the cadres recaptured Parulbari and Maheshpur.
“It appears that either the Pratirodh Committee or the CPM or both had these bullets. The police never opened fire in this area,” an officer said.
Home secretary Prasad Ranjan Ray said the CID would dig up the graves found yesterday in the presence of an executive magistrate. He had an hour-long meeting with chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and chief secretary A.K. Deb on Nandigram.
Many villagers whose family members have gone missing during the land war came to Parulbari today, hoping to find their bodies.
Among them were Dilip Maity and Sukdeb Singha, who had cycled nearly 20km from Southkhali village.
Sukdeb’s elder brother Balaram, 28, and Dilip’s elder brother Bhagirath, 30, went missing from the Pratirodh Committee rally that was fired at on November 10.
“We started to run for our lives when the CPM cadres started firing. I didn’t see Bhagirath after that,” said Dilip.

An open letter to The Hindu on its Nandigram coverage

We are writing this open letter to the editorial board of “The Hindu” to express our dismay at your coverage of recent events at Nandigram.
Most of us are regular readers of your paper. We have appreciated your balanced coverage of topics such as the Narmada Dam, Gujarat or the Agrarian Crisis. At least in our eyes, your principled reportage of these issues (and numerous others) has lent your newspaper an unusual degree of credibility. We believe that your paper’s articles carry enormous weight in moulding public opinion and policy.
It is therefore a cause of collective concern when this credibility gets damaged. We are particularly disturbed by the editorial titled “The Challenge of Nandigram” (12th Nov. 2007) which displayed a marked slant. Even granting merit to the editorial’s contention that the state government had to take steps to restore governance in the area, it seems beyond dispute that the methods adopted to do so were inherently incompatible with the rule of law in a democracy. We cannot comprehend how a full length editorial could completely fail to take note of the unchecked violence by the CPM cadres, the curbs that were placed on independent reporting, the attacks on reputed activists like Medha Patkar, all of which seem to have been facilitated – or at least condoned - by the state. None of these well documented events have any place in a society governed by law, and should have occasioned strong comment. We failed to see any critical editorial acknowledgement of these events, even after the chief minister had practically admitted having operated outside the law through remarks such as being “paid back in their own coin”. This stands in marked contrast to the way the governor has been singled out for supposedly impolitic remarks. This selective silence opens the Hindu to the charge of being partisan in its outlook.
We also notice that, unlike many other issues of similar gravity, there has been a marked absence of centrepage articles on this topic.. One would have expected The Hindu to flesh out the differing points of view on this issue as well as the dimensions of the human tragedy. By choosing not to do so, The Hindu abdicates its responsibility to its readers for fair and balanced reporting.
We would hate to see The Hindu be identified as a newspaper purveying party propaganda. It is important that the integrity of the newspaper be above all question. An erosion of The Hindu’s credibility would be an immeasurable loss for journalism and for society.
Your Sincerely,
Academics from Harish-Chandra Research Institute Allahabad, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay/Kanpur/Madras, Institute of Mathematical Sciences Chennai, Jawaharlal Nehru University Delhi, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Mumbai. (A complete list of signatories is given below.)
CC:1. N. Ram, Editor-in-chief
2. N. Ravi, Editor
3. K. Narayanan, Readers’ Editor
4. N Murali, Managing Director
5. Board of Directors
List of Signatories:
1. Prof. M Suresh Babu, IITM
2. Prof. Rahul Basu, IMSc
3. Prof. Enakshi Bhattacharya, IITM
4. Prof. Milind Brahme, IITM
5. Prof. Dhiman Chatterjee, IITM
6. Prof. Supratik Chakraborty, IITB
7. Prof. Om Damani, IITB
8. Prof. Rukmini Dey, HRI
9. Prof. Avinash Dhar, TIFR
10. Prof.. Raj Gandhi, HRI
11. Prof. Debashis Ghoshal, JNU
12. Prof. Rajesh Gopakumar, HRI
13. Prof. Purushottam Kulkarni, IITB
14. Prof. P B Sunil Kumar, IITM
15. Prof. Arul Lakshminarayan, IITM
16. Prof. Shiraz Minwalla, TIFR
17. Prof. Sunil Mukhi, TIFR
18. Prof. Ram Puniyani, retired, IITB
19. Prof. Sudhir Chella Rajan, IITM
20. Prof. Mahendra Verma, IITK
21. Prof. Spenta Wadia, TIFR
contacts
1. Prof. Om Damani, ompdamani@gmail.com, 9323003401
2. Prof. Rajesh Gopakumar, gopakumr@gmail.com , 532-2567732
3. Prof. Shiraz Minwalla, shiraz.minwalla@gmail.com

SELECTIVELY VIRTUOUS

The Taslima controversy will test the integrity of the Left intelligentsia
Politics And Play
Ramachandra Guha
A mail arrived in my inbox last week, as part of a circular sent to many people with some connection to the press. Addressed to “The Chief Editor/ Photographer”, it read: “We request you to cover the demonstration that AIDWA is organizing against the violence perpetrated on a (sic) tribal women in Assam at 1.30 pm near Jantar Mantar”. Signed by the general- secretary of the organization, it then went on to say that “AIDWA condemns the public stripping, beating and near-lynching of a tribal woman in broad daylight in Guwahati during clashes that erupted between members of tea-tribes demanding ST status and members of the public. We have demanded exemplary punishment of the perpetrators, and full support to the traumatized woman.”
My first thought on receiving this mail was a malicious one. Why had the All India Democratic Women’s Association not organized a demonstration to protest the externment from the state of West Bengal of the writer Taslima Nasreen, where it could have demanded “exemplary punishment of the perpetrators, and full support to the traumatized woman”? The thought was malicious but not, I think, wholly unfair. For AIDWA is an organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), and like all bodies or individuals associated with that party, it has a highly selective attitude towards suffering and discrimination. It was surely moved by the brutal beating of a poor tribal woman in Guwahati (as any sensitive human would be); but its sympathy and indignation were not entirely uninfluenced by the fact that the state government in Assam is run by a party other than its own.
As editorials and essays in this newspaper have pointed out, the incidents at Nandigram have once more exposed the hypocrisy of the organized Left. Violence is bad, if committed by parties or cadre of the Right or the Centre. It is excusable and even legitimate if it is the handiwork of the cadre or leaders of the CPI(M) and its allies. In some respects, however, the reaction to Taslima Nasreen’s predicament has been even more hypocritical. For in Nandigram there were, and are, two sides to the story. Over the past year or so, the activists of the Trinamul Congress and of the Bhoomi Uchchhed Pratirodh Committee have not exactly shown an exemplary commitment to democratic procedure. Harassment and intimidation, arson and beating, were elements in their armoury of violence, as they were in the armoury of the CPI(M) cadre who ‘recaptured’ the territory. In that respect, and that alone, the chief minister of West Bengal was correct when he spoke of the protesters being “paid back in their own coin”. That said, the CPI(M) and the Left Front are far more culpable than the BUPC rebels — for, they represent an elected government that has a greater responsibility to work within the law.
The case of the Bangladeshi novelist is more straightforward. Forced to flee her native land, she was living quietly in Calcutta. She had not used violence or even harsh words against anyone in the city. Then a group of Muslim extremists held a rally protesting her presence; the rally turned violent, and the army had to be called in to restore the peace. The Left Front government immediately capitulated to the extremists’ demands. The next day Taslima Nasreen was put on a plane to Jaipur.
As it happens, I was in a meeting in Chennai when the decision was taken in the Writers’ Buildings to, as it were, throw a writer out of the state. I had not watched television the whole day, and was thus alerted to the developments by a former teacher of mine in Calcutta. Although of north Indian extraction, she married a distinguished Bengali statistician and moved to his native city. She has lived there now for more than four decades. Despite her origins, she is, for all intents and purposes, a member of the bhadralok intelligentsia. She speaks fluent Bangla, and endorses and indeed embodies the progressive, liberal, cosmopolitan views associated —or once associated?— with that particular social class.
Speaking over the phone, my teacher was clearly very deeply moved. That a city identified with art and culture and literature and ideas — a city she had thought was her city— had now so callously treated a writer was bad enough. What was worse was where the state government had sent Taslima Nasreen. “She is going to Rajasthan”, my teacher informed me: “So Rajasthan is considered progressive nowadays”.
The irony in her voice was palpable. For Calcutta was the home of the Bengali Renaissance, which — or so we were once told — brought to the Indian subcontinent progressive and humanist ideas that were to bear fruition, in time, in the democratic and egalitarian ideals of the Indian Constitution. On the other hand, Rajasthan was notoriously backward, a state steeped in feudalism, which — so it was said — had never produced a writer or scientist of note, and where women were particularly badly treated. As recently as in the Eighties, Bengal was the land of Satyajit Ray, while Rajasthan was the land of Roop Kanwar. Now, two decades later, a writer felt safer there rather than here. What could be more ironical, more bizarre, more shameful?
I think the Taslima Nasreen case has tested, and will test, the integrity of the Left intelligentsia even more than Nandigram. After the latest outrage in Nandigram, CPI(M)-affiliated academics such as Prabhat and Utsa Patnaik, Irfan Habib and the like issued a wishy-wishy statement that, in effect, excused and condoned the violence. This was followed by a statement signed by CPI(M) sympathizers living abroad — Noam Chomsky and Tariq Ali among them — which suggested that to criticize the party’s doings in Nandigram was to play into the hands of the American imperialists.
On Taslima Nasreen’s expulsion, however, the fellow travellers, both desi and foreign, have thus far been silent. As intellectuals and writers themselves, they should not have such a selective approach to the issue of freedom of expression. They protest when the Bharatiya Janata Party or the Shiv Sena bans a book or intimidates an artist; should they not do the same when the CPI(M) does likewise?
It was speculated — probably rightly — that the Left Front’s decision to send Taslima Nasreen away was prompted by the fear of losing the minority vote as a consequence of Nandigram (where the vast majority of the victims of the latest round of violence were Muslims). Will the opinion polls that show a vast majority of Calcutta residents wanting to have Taslima Nasreen back in their midst cause them to rethink? Or will Narendra Modi’s cleverly brazen invitation to the writer to take refuge in Gujarat embarrass the CPI(M) into rescinding the expulsion order? Or will these facts and provocations be disregarded and the fundamentalists win after all?
As this column goes to press there are no clear answers to these questions. My own hope, naïve as it is, is for the government of West Bengal to invite Taslima Nasreen back to Calcutta, and then follow it up with a comparable invitation to M.F. Husain (an artist who certainly would not be welcome in Modi’s Gujarat). That would redeem not just the credibility and conscience of the Left, but the credibility and conscience of Bengal itself. Can a land which has long thought of itself as being in the cultural vanguard allow its history and heritage to be so brutally vandalized by a bunch of fundamentalists and bigots?

LAL SALEM and MODITVA!

Amit Sengupta Delhi
Diehard cynics are pushing the threshold. The rumours doing the political rounds in Kolkata and Delhi are uncanny and diabolical. That the spontaneous protests against Taslima Nasrin in Kolkata were stage-managed by those who wanted the nation's attention to shift from the shame of Nandigram. That the Centre and state government played footsie as they twiddled their thumbs while Taslima is shunted from here to there. Is it possible that the mighty Indian nuclear State can't protect one lone woman? And that too in a CPM bastion? It's fishy, and it stinks.
So how come suddenly, from nowhere, unknown, fringe fundamentalist groups with no identity or strength, started calling the shots on the streets of big bully's Kolkata and the big brothers at Alimuddin Street chose to watch the show on the idiot box? How come suddenly Taslima became a hate-figure in a city and state where the 'secularists' call the shots? And why was the army called so desperately and in such quick notice and curfew declared etc, even when the party's bloody party went on non-stop at Nandigram under siege while Writer's Building washed its hands off. So who has the blood of the peasants on their hands, in March, and in November, so that Lal Salem can resonate on the recaptured village bylanes by armed thugs and motorcycle gangsters?
This blood won't wash and the communal twist won't work now as it did not work after the March 14 massacre. It is a peasant struggle and it's not the fault of the poor Dalit and Muslim farmers if they constitute the majority in Nandigram. Besides, Muslims in Bengal have never voted for Muslim fundamentalists — they have voted for the Left, the Congress or Trinamool Congress. The Nandigram MLA belongs to the CPI and it does not matter if he is a Muslim.
Those who forcibly decided to 'deport' Taslima to BJP-ruled Jaipur, have obviously lost not only their ideology, but also their sanity and integrity. This communal insanity, combined with rapes and killings in Nandigram by their cadre, is so transparently crass that even the belligerent and foul-tongued troika of Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, Biman Bose and Benoy Konar seemed to have lost their tongues. If anybody who needs to be deported from Kolkata, it is this cosy muscle-flexing threesome. And if this is not utter degeneration and ideological bankruptcy, then what is?
And look who is celebrating? Narendra Modi and the Hindutva rabble-rousers. They will protect Taslima — so send her to Gujarat. Modi can then take her on a guided tourist package to Naroda Patiya, Ehsan Jaffrey's Gulberga Society, Kalupur, Juhapura, the Shah Alam refugee camp where thousands of survivors were dumped, and of course, the ravaged Best Bakery of Zaheera Sheikh in Vododra where they were all burnt alive. And enlightened 'Buddha' can call up 'vikas purush' Modi and promise to show him his pet, infatuated obsession: the chemical hub of Salem, notorious for backing the murder and disappearances of 2 million dissidents and communists by dictator Suharto in Indonesia.
Indeed, if money has no ideology or colour, as Buddha so proudly claims, then why not deport Halliburton and Bechtel from 'occupied Iraq' to Bengal. Blood for oil in Iraq. Chemical hub for blood in Nandigram. And if Henry Kissinger can be an honoured guest of Buddha, why not George Bush and Dick Cheney?
No wonder, a Rightwing Hindutva columnist is glorifying Modi and Buddha — as great role models of development. The Gujarat genocide celebrated communal fascism. And the Nandigram massacre — capitalist fascism. So why not? So between the Left and Right, what happens to Indian citizens in the twilight zone of a failed democracy when the State turns predator against its own people? Ask that Muslim woman in Nandigram, surrounded by a CPM mob, gangraped by known CPM criminals, her daughters too gangraped and still missing. Does’t it all remind you of Gujarat, 2002?

Who is the Left?

We salute the magnificent spirit in which secular-democratic and genuinely socialist forces in Bengal express their dissent. Maybe, a Left politics will emerge out of this churning. It cannot possibly come out of the morally bankrupt official Left
Sumit Sarkar/Tanika Sarkar Delhi
Nandigram, the CPM tells us, has been brought back into the Left fold. Once a secure Left base, it had dared to defy the party's handover of its land and livelihood to a dubious foreign corporate group. Worse, it defended its land with peoples' lives. That defiance — lasting, unbelievably, for 11 months, despite massacres, rapes, infliction of disability and trauma — is at last over. Villagers sign undertakings, promising total submission. Surely, we should celebrate the Left victory?
What do those who call themselves Leftist have to say when they condemn party action? Can one be a Leftist and yet be against the party? Let us dare to reverse the question. Must a party, by virtue of calling itself communist, by definition be Leftist? Is socialism a matter of labels, words and signs alone?
The CPM handed over, without information and consent, agricultural land to multinational companies at Singur and Nandigram. Its factsheets on Singur lied about the quality of land and the party's claims of securing agreements from peasants have been contested at the high court. When asked about the nature of the deal — where the government spent huge amounts to practically gift away land to the Tatas — the queries under the Right to Information Act were returned unanswered. Peaceful peasant resistance was met with brutal repression by the police and cadres.
With this precedent before them, Nandigram peasants feared the worst when an official notification informed them that 35 mouzas would be given away to the Salem group on the advice of an American market survey company. When the local party failed to give any concrete information, villagers — all of them CPM supporters — fortified Block 1 of Nandigram to keep the police and the party out, to preserve their land and their lives.
The party replied with shootouts and killings and peasants retaliated with one killing in return. Henceforth, their fear of reprisals became acute, enhancing their determination to resist. The bloody events of March 14 are well known. Cases pending at the Kolkata High Court continued to languish there, the CBI enquiries were folded up after two days, no party leader visited the area and not a scrap of relief or compensation came from the state government to the battered victims. This was not a climate conducive to placing any faith in Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya's belated assurance that there would be no chemical hub if peasants do not want it. Villagers were convinced that once the party forced its way into Nandigram, they would make the peasants 'want ' the hub.
We are asked why our criticism is selective, what about CPM loyalists ousted from the villages? This is precisely what the BJP asks secularists; why don't you talk that much about Kashmiri refugees? The answer is the same: while all intimidation is reprehensible, a swollen, huge party machinery and State apparatus exist to care for the latter. For rebellious Nandigram peasants, there was no support, except from civil society groups.
We also believe that there could have been no more unequal combat. There is no terror like State terror, though the use of terror by any one should not be supported. This is a state whose leading party has been continuously in power for 30 years and, at present, the central government depends on it for its survival.
We do not accept that any Left strategy should destroy a viable small peasant economy and environment in the interests of giant corporate companies. We believe that a harsh and ruthless neo-liberal power has been installed only by destroying even bourgeois legal constitutional norms — which is how Nandigram was won back. The peasant movement has been crushed by means that the Kolkata High Court considers illegal; that, in the process, civil and democratic rights of protests have been mauled.
The recent rural upsurges in the poorest districts against the non-availability of rationed foodstuff, and the urban upsurge against the corrupt party-business-police nexus that achieved the death of a Muslim youth who had married a Hindu girl, made it essential for the discredited party to make Nandigram an example of how far its repression can reach. We believe that a combination of Stalinist terror and neo-liberal economics is not a valid form of Leftism. On the contrary, all Leftists are committed to protest and resist injustice, inequality and repression wherever it exists — in Czechoslovakia, at Tiananmen Square, at Kampuchea, in Nandigram.
We challenge the defenders of the parties to identify any communist, socialist or even welfarist elements in West Bengal today — or a modicum of democratic right to dissent. We protest that because some anti-Left newspapers have been unfairly critical of the Left parties' foreign policy, no one else has the right to criticise anything else that the Left does.
We salute the magnificent spirit in which secular-democratic and genuinely socialist forces in Bengal express their dissent. Maybe, a Left politics will emerge out of this churning. It cannot possibly come out of the morally bankrupt official Left.
The writers are eminent historians based in delhi

Nandigram: Bones recovered from graves

NANDIGRAM: Burnt human bones and ashes were recovered on Thursday from three of the five graves found at Bidyapith village in the CPM stronghold of Khejuri near Nandigram. "The graves, which were under guard by a 15-member CRPF team after their discovery on Wednesday, were dug after Contai Judicial Magistrate Jaiprakash Singh arrived this afternoon," Superintendent of Police, Midnapore (East), Satyeswar Panda said. Eight human bones and ashes were found shortly after the digging began, he said. Asked why it took so long for the magistrate to arrive, Panda said: "We had written to the court on Wednesday and it is all upto them to decide when they will send a magistrate."