| The
current events in Nandigram in West Bengal give rise
to many emotions, but one of them is surely a sense
of shock at the cynicism and irresponsibility of some
apparently progressive activists and artistes. What
is also shocking is how the local conflict - which continues
to lead to tragic loss of life – is still being portrayed
as a struggle against land acquisition, when that particular
victory was won several months ago.
Because
the media reportage relating to Nandigram over the past
few months has been so misleading, it is easy to be
confused about the situation on the ground and the nature
of the demands of local groups that have given rise
to the continuing conflict. So it is worth recapitulating
briefly the unfortunate sequence of events.
When the West Bengal government originally planned
for a chemical industrial hub somewhere in the region
of the Haldia petrochemical complex, Nandigram became
the centre of a fierce dispute on rumours that the hub
would be located there. A series of missteps by the
state government and its representatives, as well as
concerns among the peasantry created by the wide adverse
publicity from the land acquisition at Singur, led to
a situation where violence broke out in protest at possible
land acquisition in Nandigram. This violence, involving
not only local people but also the main opposition party
(the Trinamul Congress) and some Naxalite groups, led
to the eviction from the area of other local people
mostly associated with the ruling CPI(M), amounting
to more than 3000 people who have been forced to live
in uncertain conditions in makeshift refugee camps some
distance away.
It was the effort by the state government to bring these
people back to their homes that led to the tragic and
deplorable incident in mid-March, involving an incident
of police firing which killed several people. There
is no question that a number of mistakes were made by
the state government in this whole process, which had
a dreadful outcome and did not even manage to ensure
that the displaced people could return. However, the
state government also reconsidered its earlier plan
and in effect abandoned the idea of locating a chemical
hub in Nandigram.
So the struggle against land acquisition and
for retention of the land by a section of the local
people and their political allies was successful – the
Government of West Bengal withdrew its “incorrect” notification
and announced formally that it would not proceed with
any plans for an industrial belt in that area. This
is, incidentally, one of the few cases of any state
government in India in recent times responding to local
dissent in this manner, despite the protests in many
other states with regard to land acquisition for Special
Economic Zones.
It has been clear for several months now that no land
will be acquired in Nandigram, by the West Bengal government
or anyone else, for the proposed chemical hub. And therefore
there will be no displacement of those who currently
occupy or work on the land.
Nevertheless, and remarkably, the “struggle” in Nandigram
continued, and the flames of violence continued to be
fanned by those whose aim was not so much the interests
of the local people but a broader destabilisation of
the state government. It is evident to anyone who has
cared to inquire into the situation since March that
the “protest” in the area, led by some political groups,
has continued even after all the demands of the original
struggle were met. The area has been kept in a state
of turmoil and those poor peasants and rural labour
families who were displaced at the start of the year
during the land acquisition protest have not been allowed
to return to their homes, but forced to stay in refugee
camps.
Roads leading in and out of the “liberated area” have
been blocked and armed groups have patrolled and controlled
the area. The state administration has been effectively
kept out, along with the displaced local people, to
the extent that even basic health services and polio
immunisation could not be provided. Development work
was at a standstill. Sporadic violence has continued
with periodic loss of life, creating a completely untenable
situation in the area.
Obviously, things could not continue in this way, and
numerous attempts were made by the state government
to find a political solution by trying to engage with
the parties responsible. However, all these attempts
were rebuffed, and the reasons why are now fairly clear.
The most recent violence has come about as the displaced
peasants and workers have once more sought to return
to their homes and the state administration has sought
to bring the area once more under the control of the
authorities.
The continuing violence of the last six months
received very little attention in the media, but the
recent clashes have been in the full glare of publicity,
with massive outcry from some prominent activists and
politicians. The behaviour of the opposition party and
its leader Mamata Banerjee may come as no surprise,
given her past record. What is surprising, however,
is the way that some “progressive” activists have responded
to the latest events.
Thus, Medha Patkar of the Narmada Bachao Andolan has
announced that the struggle of the people of Narmada
and the people of Nandigram are the same, and has likened
conditions in West Bengal to those in Gujarat under
Narendra Modi during the post-Godhra riots. Both of
these extraordinary statements betray a poor understanding
of her own movement in the Narmada region as well as
of the pogrom in Gujarat, and damage her own credibility.
The activities of the NBA in the Narmada Valley have
essentially related to three demands: ensuring that
submergence is at the minimum, lowering the height of
the proposed dams to minimise displacement and securing
adequate compensation and rehabilitation for the displaced
people. It should be fairly obvious to anyone that none
of these demands is at all relevant in Nandigram since
there is now to be no land acquisition and therefore
no displacement.
So then what exactly are the demands of the protest
in Nandigram? They seem to be that those who were evicted
from the Nandigram area from January onwards are not
to be allowed to return, and that the state government
is not to be allowed to function in that area, even
for the provision of basic public services. Extraordinary
as it sounds, these are the demands which are being
implicitly supported by the activists and artistes who
are now decrying the actions of the state government.
It is even more bizarre to see the Governor of West
Bengal, a gentleman who surely should know better, behaving
in what can only be seen as a blatantly partisan manner,
condemning violence of one side but not the other. Indeed,
he appears to have played up and aggravated a situation
which was actually close to settlement amongst the local
people involved.
What
is most tragic of all is that the local people who are
actually suffering through all this, through enforced
evictions, violence and killing, may not even know that
their interests are not the issue, and they are no more
than the tools of a cynical and manipulative political
plan. |
