Nandigram cauldron: An inbred dispute

The SEZ dream has gone bust. Homes burnt, men, women and children killed. Nandigram today is a battle field, staging almost a civil war.

One is inclined to think what went wrong for an ambitious chemical hub that was supposed to generate employment for thousands of people?

For facts, the Indonesian conglomerate, Salim Group wanted to set up a chemical SEZ. Nandigram was chosen for the limelight due its supply chain compatibility with Haldia, home to IOC’s and Haldia Petrochemicals’ refineries.

But this was not to be. This huge aspiring project needed land and a lot of it. Call it miscommunication by the state, or a general aversion to industry and capitalists that ironically enough, the ruling CPM had created over the decades, Nandigram revolted to the idea of resettlement.

A stronghold of the CPM till that point in time, its men, women and children came out on streets demanding project be scraped or relocated. Misinformation ruled the roost and the good-for-nothing opposition tried to cash on this issue by saying that the CPM is selling the country to foreigners. There was also the impending fear of losing land, the common man’s main source of livelihood. There were talks of jobs coming from the chemical hub, but this was uncertain. No one had worked before in any industry and this change seemed to unsettle everything, including the pattern in poverty.

CPM’s impression was that of being a party of the peasants, the daily wage labors, the ‘borgadars’ who worked for share on farms of large landowners, the common man. The newfangled, pro-industrialization image of the CPM is yet to reach out to the masses, the people who have been almost religiously voting them to Writers’ Building every five years. (I really do not want to strike the booth-capturing debate right now, although it is quite arguable.) These people, who also lived in Nandigram felt cheated. How can we sell our land to foreigners to build something we do not even understand?

Rumors regarding job uncertainty, corruption in the deal and incorrect land valuation were ensured steadily by people who do not want the progress of West Bengal, not at least the CPM doing it successfully. Fuelling everything was the fear of losing the only asset people have, land. And then there was ‘violence’.

Most appalling of all the events related to Nandigram was the onslaught by the state machinery on the common people. Thousands of policemen marched in, to crush any protest for land acquisition for the chemical hub. It is a dreadful thing to think of. Man vs Man, Indian vs Indian, State vs people.

This brings us to the unfathomable argument of to what extent should the state machinery go against the people for development? Development that is aimed at the benefits of the same people who are protesting it. Should there be policies and legislations regarding this? If yes, then on what parameters?

This is a great constitutional controversy, involving a lot of insights into human rights and public policy, best suited for the constitutional experts.
But as commoners, cannot we understand what lies in the best interests for ourselves? People with basic education will know that agrarian economies cannot match the growth or living standards of industrialized economies.

Moreover, one reasoning that is always provided against land acquisition cases in West Bengal is that the land is fertile and multi-crop. This argument is utterly baseless, not because it is false but due to the fact that land in almost whole of West Bengal is fertile and multi-crop. Where do we find barren or arid land to set up industries? The few areas where the land is less productive, largely the areas bordering Orissa and Jharkhand and the hilly areas are far away from industrial hubs of Kolkata, Haldia or the Durgapur-Bardhman. Most undesirable to any business sense.

Furthermore, it is common knowledge that the same size of land when used for industry generates more employment for the people and income for the nation than agriculture. Then why this holding on to agriculture?

If we scour deeper for answers, we find it to be a ‘colonial hangover’. Land and agrarian activities are considered belonging to us, Indians. Anything resembling industry and affluence is connected with imperialism or colonialism. No wonder, we, the educated, employed class have taken from erstwhile ‘gora sahibs’ as the successor ‘brown sahibs’. Though Indians, we take pride when poorer countrymen call us ‘sahibs’ as if are the Indian britishers. We see class difference everywhere, though the gap is closing in with rapid industrialization.

But West Bengal where Nandigram is located is a case in isolation. Communist influence and trade unionism saw the ‘flight of capital’ from the state since early seventies. The state also missed the first bus when liberalization policies were introduced in 1991, again due to the same reasons. It had been such a long time that industry and capital have become as alien as britishers for the masses. Nandigram is not the first instance. Whenever there have been efforts for large industrial projects to come up, there had been repulsion from the masses, largely due to the inertia that was created over the years.

This public apathy needs to be cured from the minds of people, not by police lathicharge and atrocities. Using gram panchayat as a pedestal, the state can easily deliver the benefits of industrialization, albeit slowly but surely.

What happened in Nandigram was disgraceful for the state and the ruling party. But the opposition is to equally share the blame for spreading imprecise and unwanted knowledge across. The so-called Bengal intellectuals came openly out in public to protest atrocities by the police. Public rallies have become regular phenomena in Kolkata, already infamous for being the ‘city of processions.’ One simple question. Why did not they invest their energies in creating awareness among the people of Nandigram about the benefits of the chemical hub? Probably walking a couple of miles in the November sun in Kolkata is after all not that bad an idea to gain limelight, proving ones commitment to a cause than spending the summer months in Nandigram, walking village to village, making people understand, in absence of basic civic amenities.

The CPM might win this ordeal of a chemical hub. Or the Trinamool Congress might win in stopping CPM in its march against commoners of Nandigram. Some Kolkata celebrities and intellectuals might win a cause for the lifetime. But if this trend continues, West Bengal surely stands to succumb.