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http://www.countercurrents.org/bishnu190908.htm
By Saibal Bishnu
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could have avoided this situation too some extent but there
were several confusions and questions in the air on the
fertility of the land acquired, the cost benefit analysis of the
project, question of rehabilitation etc. The use of police force
during the land acquisition added fire to the fuel and
strengthened this protest movement, the broad-based
coalition was achieved and led to the incidents in
Nandigram. The success of the movement at Nandigram
were two folds, the government had to roll back its plans for
the chemical hub and the defeats of CPI(M) candidates in
the Panchayat polls there. This success story further
encouraged the movement to go in for a stronger agitation
which led to the siege at the Singur project site. The
government
recently
declared
an
unprecedented
rehabilitation
package
(http://www.wbidc.com/images
/pdf/ad1.pdf) which can be attributed to this movement to a
great extent.
The state government was in a peculiar situation, with the
fiscal crunch it is facing under neo-liberal agenda of our
country, it was very difficult for the government to protect the
gains it has achieved through land reforms and Panchayat
decentralization. The social sectors like health and
education were getting neglected as avenues to raise
resources were becoming increasingly limited. According to
a document of CPI(M), rapid industrialization was the only
way forward, it stated, "there is constant fragmentation and
division of land holdings and a high proportion of rural
population dependent on agriculture along with a high
proportion of landlessness, it is essential that this population
dependent on agriculture finds avenues for employment
which will be mainly provided by industrial development."
Accordingly, the idea of industrialization was to generate
alternate employment opportunities to the surplus labor in
agriculture so that dependency on land decreases,
considering the crisis agriculture is facing because of
economic liberalization. The idea was also to earn tax
revenues so that priority social sector spending can be
achieved.
The CPI(M) and its mass organizations were supposed to
play a very important role here. The government and its
agenda of industrialization had the potential to displace
farmers from land and destroy livelihoods for many,
especially at the Singur project site. They were caught in the
middle of the contradiction between the aspirations of the
middle class to gain employment through industrialization
and the farmers who were getting dispossessed from their
land precisely because of this. The educated middle class is
more enthusiastic about the industrialization since the
modern industry provides good scope of employment for
them, whereas the poor peasants being dispossessed are
not that excited, as there is not a direct relation between
their own employment and this kind of industrialization. It
was absolutely necessary that the Left take up the issues of
the peasants, understand their sentiments, and organize
movements on behalf of the land losers. It was thought
impossible for the ruling party to organize movements
against its own government. As a result the peasants found
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wean away a part of the core support base of the left. Both
have learned, next time these lessons will again be
implemented with much more finesse here or elsewhere,
possibly there will be more situations like this as the
contradictions are indeed sharpening.
Saibal Bishnu is Working in the IT industry, Kolkata, India
and keen observer of left politics.
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