In an effort to reclaim the vital Muslim vote in Bengal, Indian Marxists are slipping, as quietly as they can manage, from the shackles of class as the primary identity of the Indian voter and easing into the wider space of creed. This may make them less Marxist, but it might make them more Indian.
The big story in Bengal since the impressive re-election of the Left Front three years ago is the implosion of Muslim support for the CPM. Twenty eight per cent of Bengal is Muslim, the highest, by far, percentage of any state. Since Muslims tend to poll in higher numbers, their effective voting strength is probably a few points more. If they desert the Marxists in significant numbers, the Left could lose up to 20 seats in the next Lok Sabha elections. If the momentum sustains, it could lose power in the state after three unique decades. Evidence of what could happen came in this summer's panchayat elections, when the rural Muslim vote shifted to Mamata Banerjee across wide swathes, particularly in south Bengal. The fear barrier was broken.
The Marxists are busy repairing the walls of Fortress Bengal, but the colour of the cement is no longer uniformly red. It is tinged with green. The incandescent alliance between George Bush, Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh has provided an opportunity. The Left has begun to participate in conferences against American imperialism sponsored by overtly Muslim organisations. The juxtaposition of the crescent beside the hammer, sickle and star is the gift of the Prime Minister who publicly celebrated his liberation from the “slavery” of the Marxists after he decided that Bush was a much better ally than Prakash Karat.
Traditional Marxist analysis has been unambiguous: class matters more than creed. Bread has no religion; dignity is the right of the poor. This has been a powerful foundation of electoral mobilisation in as complex a state as Bengal. Precisely because the Left has ensured communal peace we forget what a tinderbox Bengal was, and can be. Like Punjab, Bengal is a border state traumatised by Partition. It has had to absorb refugees who brought with them a tortured narrative of bitterness and exile. Having fled from Bengali Muslims, it is galling for East Bengali Hindus, with their traditionally superior sense of superiority, to discover that they have to deal with politically assertive, if financially broken, Muslims in the land of refuge. The ‘escape' has been, if you like, ‘inadequate' compared to Punjab where there was a near-complete exchange of populations (the exception was Malerkotla).
But the CPM “chatrachaya” stopped at security; they forgot to give Muslims jobs, or basic amenities like schools and healthcare in rural Bengal. They thought protection was enough to secure the Muslim vote permanently.
This was the policy of “soft secularism”: keep the peace and let Muslims fend for themselves. This has been challenged by the emergence of post-Partition generations who claim security as their inalienable right as Indian citizens, and are no longer willing to treat it as some special favour. They are angry, for they believe that they have become victims of a more subtle form of discrimination, economic communalism. Bengal's Muslims feel increasingly cheated by a party they trusted without reserve.
Curiously, the moment of revelation came with the publication of a report that the Left initially welcomed, the findings of the Sachar Committee. It showed that Bengal's Muslims had received less patronage and benefits from the state than even in Gujarat. The comparison, as can be easily deduced, was inflammatory. Nor could Justice Rajinder Sachar be dismissed as a BJP acolyte. His report was the hammer that cracked the awesome CPM edifice even more effectively than the anger of Muslim peasant-farmers defending their land in Singur and Nandigram. Mamata Banerjee stepped in at a psychologically vulnerable moment.
Sometimes it takes one incident to symbolize and set off a larger rage. Urban Muslims, who are mainly Bihari ethnically, have been incensed by the insensitive manner in which the Buddhadev Bhattacharya administration has handled the case of a young Kolkata boy, Rizwan, who fell in love with and married the daughter of a Marwari businessman with a less than upright reputation. He was found dead a little after the romantic rich-girl-poor-boy wedding. Civil society rose up in a remarkable protest that stretched across the narrow confines of community in the belief that he had been murdered and that the police had been bribed into a cover-up. The chief minister sent too many signals indicating that he was on the side of the police rather than the voice of the people. Between Rizwan, Sachar and Nandigram, the CPM is in unprecedented trouble. A crisis can induce temporary alliances with unfamiliar bedfellows. The Left is reaching out, anxiously, to the Muslim clergy that it once disdained.
Is the shift too late? The recuperative powers of even a comatose Marxist should not be underestimated. But this much is certain. Red has begun to bleed in its bastion.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-3426494,flstry-1.cms
Monday, September 1, 2008
Class to creed: CPM 'Religious Line' in Bengal
Monday, August 11, 2008
Wild and wilder: CPM and West Bengal
Kolkata calling : Shikha Mukerjee
Beatings and bullets seem to be the order of the day in West Bengal, converting it into the wild bad lands where scores are settled not through ballots but by other means. One Communist Party of India (Marxist) anchal committee member Niranjan Mondol is dead, killed by assassins. Another, Joydev Paik, is struggling with deadly bullet injuries. Both the attacks were in Nandigram.
In Singur, where the Tatas are racing to complete the automobile manufacturing complex, an engineer has been beaten up. There are reports of workers being intimidated by a shrill political campaign by Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee threatening to derail the project at the eleventh hour. There are conflicting reports of whether the Tatas will pull out or stay put. There are conflicting reports of the role of the now famous Krishijomi Raksha Committee (Save Agricultural Land Committee); do they want to run the resistance or do they want to enlist their cadre for work on the Tata site?
As the deadline for rolling out the Nano approaches, the campaign and the demands, contradictory as they may be, seem to have escalated. Why that should result in one death and one serious injury by armed and masked assassins in East Midnapore, miles away from Singur, where nothing industrial is likely to happen in the near future, is puzzling. If deadly warnings are being issued, then why in East Midnapore, which is vulnerable to violence post the Nandigram episode? The question therefore is, is there a sinister design in all this to plunge West Bengal into chaos?
The "situation" is, certainly, confusing. The absence of a mechanism for dialogue between the State Government, the CPI(M) and the main Opposition Trinamool Congress is only part of the problem. But mechanisms cannot work where the different parties are Luddites, determined to wreck the machine.
As the Opposition, Mamata Banerjee certainly has a responsibility to attack the CPI(M) and the State Government. But to indirectly condone the attack on an engineer working at the Tata plant is signalling a willingness to embrace wild, lawless methods that are dangerous for the polity and its suture. The connection is evident, because Mamata has plans of ramping up her campaign demanding the return of 400 acres of land to those who had been forced to give up their property to enable the Tatas to set up the manufacturing complex.
The justification of violence is as bizarre as the CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat's determined efforts to steer his party into the wilderness. At the public rally following the party's conference in Tripura Karat declared that he would lead the CPI(M) into a bid to set up a Third Front as an alternative coalition to the Congress-led UPA and the BJP-led NDA. He has worked out that between the Congress and the BJP, the number of Lok Sabha seats they can corner is around 280. Which leaves the remaining 265 seats up for grabs.
In other words, since regional parties are grouping and regrouping in a bewildering kaleidoscope of combinations, the CPI(M) sees it as an opportunity to emerge as the centre around which a new alliance can be formed. For a party that follows preset rules, this departure is unusual; in its rules, the CPI(M) had assessed that the time was not ripe for a Third Front.
If there is a new alliance and the CPI(M) is its lynchpin, certain things should follow. These are that the CPI(M) has sufficiently more numbers in the Lok Sabha to lead from a dominant position. That it must be prepared to provide people to serve in leadership roles. Given that the Third Front has several would be Prime Ministers and every leader of every party would want to be a Minister should the unlikely Third Front emerge as a contender for forming the Government, what will the CPI(M) do?
Since it is almost certain that the CPI(M) and its Left partners will lose seats in 2009, its capability to dominate is questionable. Since the CPI(M) does not have a prime ministerial candidate, how does it hope to lead the mismatched combination of parties? Unless Karat has plans that he has not disclosed as yet, the Third Front idea is as wild as Mamata's. In Karat's case, he does not have the eggs to make an omelette; in Mamata's she wants to unmake the omelette by magically transforming broken eggs into whole ones.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_variable=STATES&file_name=state7%2Etxt&counter_img=7
Beatings and bullets seem to be the order of the day in West Bengal, converting it into the wild bad lands where scores are settled not through ballots but by other means. One Communist Party of India (Marxist) anchal committee member Niranjan Mondol is dead, killed by assassins. Another, Joydev Paik, is struggling with deadly bullet injuries. Both the attacks were in Nandigram.
In Singur, where the Tatas are racing to complete the automobile manufacturing complex, an engineer has been beaten up. There are reports of workers being intimidated by a shrill political campaign by Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee threatening to derail the project at the eleventh hour. There are conflicting reports of whether the Tatas will pull out or stay put. There are conflicting reports of the role of the now famous Krishijomi Raksha Committee (Save Agricultural Land Committee); do they want to run the resistance or do they want to enlist their cadre for work on the Tata site?
As the deadline for rolling out the Nano approaches, the campaign and the demands, contradictory as they may be, seem to have escalated. Why that should result in one death and one serious injury by armed and masked assassins in East Midnapore, miles away from Singur, where nothing industrial is likely to happen in the near future, is puzzling. If deadly warnings are being issued, then why in East Midnapore, which is vulnerable to violence post the Nandigram episode? The question therefore is, is there a sinister design in all this to plunge West Bengal into chaos?
The "situation" is, certainly, confusing. The absence of a mechanism for dialogue between the State Government, the CPI(M) and the main Opposition Trinamool Congress is only part of the problem. But mechanisms cannot work where the different parties are Luddites, determined to wreck the machine.
As the Opposition, Mamata Banerjee certainly has a responsibility to attack the CPI(M) and the State Government. But to indirectly condone the attack on an engineer working at the Tata plant is signalling a willingness to embrace wild, lawless methods that are dangerous for the polity and its suture. The connection is evident, because Mamata has plans of ramping up her campaign demanding the return of 400 acres of land to those who had been forced to give up their property to enable the Tatas to set up the manufacturing complex.
The justification of violence is as bizarre as the CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat's determined efforts to steer his party into the wilderness. At the public rally following the party's conference in Tripura Karat declared that he would lead the CPI(M) into a bid to set up a Third Front as an alternative coalition to the Congress-led UPA and the BJP-led NDA. He has worked out that between the Congress and the BJP, the number of Lok Sabha seats they can corner is around 280. Which leaves the remaining 265 seats up for grabs.
In other words, since regional parties are grouping and regrouping in a bewildering kaleidoscope of combinations, the CPI(M) sees it as an opportunity to emerge as the centre around which a new alliance can be formed. For a party that follows preset rules, this departure is unusual; in its rules, the CPI(M) had assessed that the time was not ripe for a Third Front.
If there is a new alliance and the CPI(M) is its lynchpin, certain things should follow. These are that the CPI(M) has sufficiently more numbers in the Lok Sabha to lead from a dominant position. That it must be prepared to provide people to serve in leadership roles. Given that the Third Front has several would be Prime Ministers and every leader of every party would want to be a Minister should the unlikely Third Front emerge as a contender for forming the Government, what will the CPI(M) do?
Since it is almost certain that the CPI(M) and its Left partners will lose seats in 2009, its capability to dominate is questionable. Since the CPI(M) does not have a prime ministerial candidate, how does it hope to lead the mismatched combination of parties? Unless Karat has plans that he has not disclosed as yet, the Third Front idea is as wild as Mamata's. In Karat's case, he does not have the eggs to make an omelette; in Mamata's she wants to unmake the omelette by magically transforming broken eggs into whole ones.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_variable=STATES&file_name=state7%2Etxt&counter_img=7
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Boycott Banga Sammelan (World Bengali Conference) in Toronto --- Petition
BENGAL IS BLEEDING...
Millions of Bengalis living in the Communist state of West Bengal are condemned to a life of economic marginalization, violence, socio-cultural depravation and lawlessness by a pernicious system that thrives on the weaknesses of Indian democracy. Since 1977 the Communist Party of India (Marxist), along with its allies in the Left Front, has manipulated every election held in their corner of India to ghoulish advantage.
http://www.petitiononline.com/SWB2008/petition.html
Now, the anti-democratic clutches of the CPI(M) partisans have began to mar Bengali consciousness abroad.
As members of responsible Bengali citizenry, it is our duty to safeguard our culture from the vicious influences of the CPI(M).
Hence, we are protesting against the participation of CPIM party members in the upcoming Banga Sammelan 2008 to be held on 4th of July in Toronto.
Please help us in maintaining the sanctity of this erudite gathering. Please read and click to sign the petition below.
http://www.petitiononline.com/SWB2008/petition.html
http://www.savewestbengal.org/
Debolina Basu
Millions of Bengalis living in the Communist state of West Bengal are condemned to a life of economic marginalization, violence, socio-cultural depravation and lawlessness by a pernicious system that thrives on the weaknesses of Indian democracy. Since 1977 the Communist Party of India (Marxist), along with its allies in the Left Front, has manipulated every election held in their corner of India to ghoulish advantage.
http://www.petitiononline.com/SWB2008/petition.html
Now, the anti-democratic clutches of the CPI(M) partisans have began to mar Bengali consciousness abroad.
As members of responsible Bengali citizenry, it is our duty to safeguard our culture from the vicious influences of the CPI(M).
Hence, we are protesting against the participation of CPIM party members in the upcoming Banga Sammelan 2008 to be held on 4th of July in Toronto.
Please help us in maintaining the sanctity of this erudite gathering. Please read and click to sign the petition below.
http://www.petitiononline.com/SWB2008/petition.html
http://www.savewestbengal.org/
Debolina Basu
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Is Bengal ready for re-industrialisation?
"Sudhu bigha dui, chilo mor bhui, aar sab-i geche rine, Babu balilen, "Bujhecho Upen, e jami loibo kine."
(After losing everything in debt, I had only two bighas of land left. But the Babu said, "Upen, you must sell that to me.")
[from Dui Bigha Jami (Two Bighas of Land) by Rabindranath Tagore, 1895]
More than a hundred years ago, Rabindranath Tagore wrote about a poor farmer, Upen, who was forced to 'sell' his land to a rich man and suffer the inevitable consequences of losing his livelihood and, along with it, his sense of belonging.
In today's Bengal, the Left Front government has been buying lots of land for various purposes, ranging from local development to setting up industries. Singur and Nandigram are two highly publicized cases for obvious reasons of violence and collective resistance, though under the law landowners cannot refuse to sell, if the government wants to buy.
Many farmers have suffered the same fate as Upen's, and naturally voted against the Communist Party of India (Marxist) to make them suffer unexpected defeats in South 24 Parganas and East Midnapore. Given this reversal in panchayat (local self-government) elections, the debate on industrialisation is likely to be renewed, stirring up public emotion once again.
There is no denying that any strategy of industrialisation will involve some displacement of farmers, especially in a predominantly agricultural economy. Since the Left parties began their onslaught on industries forty years ago, Bengal's economic slide never stopped.
Only in the last decade or so there has been a conscious effort to reverse this process, and thankfully it is producing results; but still it has a long way to go before Bengal can reclaim its old industrial glory.
The real issue, therefore, is not reversal of the policy of industrialisation, but managing the transformation well, with due attention paid to people like Upen, who are marginal farmers, unrecorded sharecroppers or daily workers.
Land acquisition is only one task of this undertaking, improving the efficiency of bureaucracy and preparing the local labour market for private investment are two other crucial responsibilities that the state should not forget.
There is also an overlooked aspect of Bengal's improved agriculture, which now presents a great deal of dynamism and commerce in contrast to the archetypical image of poverty and exploitation: fodder on which every Left intellectual is brought up.
Industrialisation has threatened to eliminate such enterprises and along with them a hard working self-employed workforce.
Fair price
Two issues are important in land acquisition. First, who should acquire it: the government or the actual investor? Different views have been voiced, and so far the Bengal experience provides unclear evidence, with of course Singur and Nandigram tipping the scale in favour of the second option.
Some economists have given good reasons for divesting this task with the government, in which case the Land Acquisition Act empowers the government to take anybody's land. The strongest argument is to avoid 'hold up' by a few reluctant owners (reluctance could be genuine or strategic). This also seems to be the best policy for creating industrial park for small investors.
The second issue is fair price. The Left government has claimed that it has shown generosity by offering a markup on the 'going market rate' of the land in question. And even though, according to media reports, this claim is true, the fairness aspect still needs to be examined.
The going market price of a plot of agricultural land reflects its present value, assuming that the land will continue to be used for agriculture. In this sense, the market price reflects a 'fair price.' But when the plot is acquired for industrial, commercial or residential development purposes, the going market price is hardly fair. In this case, the land is transferred out of agriculture to a different market where its final price can rise 15 to 20 times.
When this is the case, basing the compensation formula almost entirely on 'current use' is clearly unfair. I believe, much of the current discontent could have been avoided, if in the land pricing scheme a respectable weight were placed on the future price of the land.
At present there are many low-scale development efforts going on in the districts, which have not received any media attention at all; but from my personal visits I sensed that such projects also expose the unfairness of land price schemes.
Typically, a government agency acquires land by offering say Rs 2 lakh (Rs 200,000) per acre, which could be the going market rate for 'agricultural land.' Later, after some developmental work, lands are sold in small 'parcels' to end users -- like private residential buyers -- at a premium rate fetching, say, Rs 20 lakh (Rs 2 million) per acre.
Sometimes, a private developer might act only as an intermediary. Clearly, developmental expenditure alone cannot justify such a phenomenal margin; it is the demand of the urban real estate market that makes the price rise so high.
The government price scheme has so far ignored the end-use price. Consequently, a landowner who is forced to sell feels robbed of the opportunity of getting a share of the margin. This is a clear case of regressive redistribution.
Efficient bureaucracy
Nobody can deny the crucial importance of an efficient bureaucracy, which will implement policies and programmes fairly and quickly. Although over the last few years the West Bengal administration has improved its performance through computerisation, internal monitoring and various campaigns, there is still much to be desired.
Compared to other industrialised states, such as Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra, West Bengal government's offices are still a poor picture of sloppy take-it-easy work culture (referred to in Bengali as hochche hobe). In the districts the picture is much worse. There ordinary people are at the mercy of the staff; and petty corruption is rampant.
Part of the problem lies with the practice of the leading party, CPI(M) itself. Party workers play a vital role in helping the poor people wade through cumbersome procedures that are inescapable even for routine things like a birth certificate.
Often, party leaders mediate serious family or property disputes, which can take ages to settle in court. Creditably this approach has empowered the disadvantaged and its economic benefits cannot be ignored. But this has also given rise to opportunities of selling favour and extorting money. The bureaucracy, in the process, has been made subservient to local party bosses, who call the shots but are not accountable in any way.
But industrialisation demands a well-functioning administration which will efficiently collect taxes and protect lives and properties of the poor and the rich alike. This work cannot and should not be undertaken or influenced by the party bosses.
Local labour market
Another sign of investment-worthiness can be read from the education sector. Here my hunch is that West Bengal is caught in two scenarios. Kolkata and its suburbs are benefiting from the buoyancy of the urban job market, thanks to largescale outsourcing. But the districts present a different picture. Majority of the college graduates there aspire for jobs at government schools or offices. For many, new economy jobs are too alien.
There are no statistics available; but most college graduates in the districts cannot write in English, let alone speak. Even their proficiency in Bengali is suspect. Computer literacy is dismal. In sum, they are unemployable.
If they are not ready to make use of the new opportunities, self-fulfilling pessimism will set in and opposition to industrialisation will grow.
It is time to reform our schools and colleges, to impart marketable skills and to reorient the youngsters to harsh reality of private sector jobs.
-Bibhas Saha
The author is a Senior Lecturer in Economics, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom. The views expressed here are personal.
http://www.rediff.com/money/2008/jun/10guest.htm
(After losing everything in debt, I had only two bighas of land left. But the Babu said, "Upen, you must sell that to me.")
[from Dui Bigha Jami (Two Bighas of Land) by Rabindranath Tagore, 1895]
More than a hundred years ago, Rabindranath Tagore wrote about a poor farmer, Upen, who was forced to 'sell' his land to a rich man and suffer the inevitable consequences of losing his livelihood and, along with it, his sense of belonging.
In today's Bengal, the Left Front government has been buying lots of land for various purposes, ranging from local development to setting up industries. Singur and Nandigram are two highly publicized cases for obvious reasons of violence and collective resistance, though under the law landowners cannot refuse to sell, if the government wants to buy.
Many farmers have suffered the same fate as Upen's, and naturally voted against the Communist Party of India (Marxist) to make them suffer unexpected defeats in South 24 Parganas and East Midnapore. Given this reversal in panchayat (local self-government) elections, the debate on industrialisation is likely to be renewed, stirring up public emotion once again.
There is no denying that any strategy of industrialisation will involve some displacement of farmers, especially in a predominantly agricultural economy. Since the Left parties began their onslaught on industries forty years ago, Bengal's economic slide never stopped.
Only in the last decade or so there has been a conscious effort to reverse this process, and thankfully it is producing results; but still it has a long way to go before Bengal can reclaim its old industrial glory.
The real issue, therefore, is not reversal of the policy of industrialisation, but managing the transformation well, with due attention paid to people like Upen, who are marginal farmers, unrecorded sharecroppers or daily workers.
Land acquisition is only one task of this undertaking, improving the efficiency of bureaucracy and preparing the local labour market for private investment are two other crucial responsibilities that the state should not forget.
There is also an overlooked aspect of Bengal's improved agriculture, which now presents a great deal of dynamism and commerce in contrast to the archetypical image of poverty and exploitation: fodder on which every Left intellectual is brought up.
Industrialisation has threatened to eliminate such enterprises and along with them a hard working self-employed workforce.
Fair price
Two issues are important in land acquisition. First, who should acquire it: the government or the actual investor? Different views have been voiced, and so far the Bengal experience provides unclear evidence, with of course Singur and Nandigram tipping the scale in favour of the second option.
Some economists have given good reasons for divesting this task with the government, in which case the Land Acquisition Act empowers the government to take anybody's land. The strongest argument is to avoid 'hold up' by a few reluctant owners (reluctance could be genuine or strategic). This also seems to be the best policy for creating industrial park for small investors.
The second issue is fair price. The Left government has claimed that it has shown generosity by offering a markup on the 'going market rate' of the land in question. And even though, according to media reports, this claim is true, the fairness aspect still needs to be examined.
The going market price of a plot of agricultural land reflects its present value, assuming that the land will continue to be used for agriculture. In this sense, the market price reflects a 'fair price.' But when the plot is acquired for industrial, commercial or residential development purposes, the going market price is hardly fair. In this case, the land is transferred out of agriculture to a different market where its final price can rise 15 to 20 times.
When this is the case, basing the compensation formula almost entirely on 'current use' is clearly unfair. I believe, much of the current discontent could have been avoided, if in the land pricing scheme a respectable weight were placed on the future price of the land.
At present there are many low-scale development efforts going on in the districts, which have not received any media attention at all; but from my personal visits I sensed that such projects also expose the unfairness of land price schemes.
Typically, a government agency acquires land by offering say Rs 2 lakh (Rs 200,000) per acre, which could be the going market rate for 'agricultural land.' Later, after some developmental work, lands are sold in small 'parcels' to end users -- like private residential buyers -- at a premium rate fetching, say, Rs 20 lakh (Rs 2 million) per acre.
Sometimes, a private developer might act only as an intermediary. Clearly, developmental expenditure alone cannot justify such a phenomenal margin; it is the demand of the urban real estate market that makes the price rise so high.
The government price scheme has so far ignored the end-use price. Consequently, a landowner who is forced to sell feels robbed of the opportunity of getting a share of the margin. This is a clear case of regressive redistribution.
Efficient bureaucracy
Nobody can deny the crucial importance of an efficient bureaucracy, which will implement policies and programmes fairly and quickly. Although over the last few years the West Bengal administration has improved its performance through computerisation, internal monitoring and various campaigns, there is still much to be desired.
Compared to other industrialised states, such as Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra, West Bengal government's offices are still a poor picture of sloppy take-it-easy work culture (referred to in Bengali as hochche hobe). In the districts the picture is much worse. There ordinary people are at the mercy of the staff; and petty corruption is rampant.
Part of the problem lies with the practice of the leading party, CPI(M) itself. Party workers play a vital role in helping the poor people wade through cumbersome procedures that are inescapable even for routine things like a birth certificate.
Often, party leaders mediate serious family or property disputes, which can take ages to settle in court. Creditably this approach has empowered the disadvantaged and its economic benefits cannot be ignored. But this has also given rise to opportunities of selling favour and extorting money. The bureaucracy, in the process, has been made subservient to local party bosses, who call the shots but are not accountable in any way.
But industrialisation demands a well-functioning administration which will efficiently collect taxes and protect lives and properties of the poor and the rich alike. This work cannot and should not be undertaken or influenced by the party bosses.
Local labour market
Another sign of investment-worthiness can be read from the education sector. Here my hunch is that West Bengal is caught in two scenarios. Kolkata and its suburbs are benefiting from the buoyancy of the urban job market, thanks to largescale outsourcing. But the districts present a different picture. Majority of the college graduates there aspire for jobs at government schools or offices. For many, new economy jobs are too alien.
There are no statistics available; but most college graduates in the districts cannot write in English, let alone speak. Even their proficiency in Bengali is suspect. Computer literacy is dismal. In sum, they are unemployable.
If they are not ready to make use of the new opportunities, self-fulfilling pessimism will set in and opposition to industrialisation will grow.
It is time to reform our schools and colleges, to impart marketable skills and to reorient the youngsters to harsh reality of private sector jobs.
-Bibhas Saha
The author is a Senior Lecturer in Economics, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom. The views expressed here are personal.
http://www.rediff.com/money/2008/jun/10guest.htm
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Why Bengal Politics Are So Bloody (BBC)
..
..
By Subir Bhaumik
BBC News, Calcutta
..
Violence during three phases of recent rural elections in the Indian state of West Bengal claimed more than 30 lives.
..
This was despite the claim of Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya that they would be held "in a festive mood".
The last round of elections on Sunday was the bloodiest, with nearly 20 deaths - almost all in the border district of Murshidabad.
..
"This district has no industry, huge unemployment, a large smuggling mafia supported by contract killers and musclemen who are used by all political parties," says local political analyst Dipankar Chakrabarti.
.
.
Murshidabad, like neighbouring Maldah, has a Muslim majority - and like Maldah, it is also a traditional Congress stronghold, which the state's governing Marxists are desperate to win control of.
..
'Fight for influence'
..
Congress parliamentarian Adhir Choudhury has run Murshidabad as his personal fiefdom for decades and Indian foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee owes his first electoral win - in Jangipur constituency in Murshidabad in the last general election - to Mr Choudhury's organisational
Congress parliamentarian Adhir Choudhury has run Murshidabad as his personal fiefdom for decades and Indian foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee owes his first electoral win - in Jangipur constituency in Murshidabad in the last general election - to Mr Choudhury's organisational
prowess and power.
--
-------------------------------
The opposition realises it can only fight the Marxists
by violence, so they also look to use similar tactics.
Political economist Abhirup Sarkar
---------------------------------
--
But in recent months, the Left coalition government has cornered Adhir Choudhury, after he was implicated in several murder cases and even arrested during a parliamentary session.
Mr Choudhury maintains he is innocent.
Mr Choudhury maintains he is innocent.
"The Marxists are desperately trying to increase their influence in Murshidabad and the village polls were seen as a big opportunity," says political analyst Sabyasachi Basu Roy Choudhuri.
"That's because they have lost their influence in some of their traditional strongholds, so this is a make-up game," says Mr Choudhuri.
"And both the Congress and the Marxists have no reservation about using hardened criminals for spreading terror in Murshidabad."
Actually, all major political parties in West Bengal - either those of the Left coalition or those in the opposition - have freely resorted to violence since Maoist rebels, or Naxalites, began an insurgency in the early 1970s.
In 2001, Mamata Banerji's Trinamul Congress won a parliamentary by-election at Panskura, allegedly mobilising the local criminal brigade by lavishing them with cash and favours.
In 2001, Mamata Banerji's Trinamul Congress won a parliamentary by-election at Panskura, allegedly mobilising the local criminal brigade by lavishing them with cash and favours.
A former Marxist mafia don, Mohammed Rafique, swung the polls in the Trinamul's favour and was treated by the party leaders like a film star.
.
The Marxists, threatened by a possible loss of their influence in the politically-important Midnapore district, hit back with a vengeance, unleashing "red terror" in places like Kespur and Garbeta.
.
.
"The Panskura line was countered by the Kespur line, eye for eye, bullet for bullet. This was no political battle, there was no place for debates and polemics, it was a typical feudal turf war fought with unusual brutality," says Ranabir Sammadar, director of the independent think-tank Calcutta Research Group.
..
'Red terror'
..
The Kespur assembly seat was subsequently won by the Marxists and their candidate polled 108,000 votes out of 120,000 cast.
The Kespur assembly seat was subsequently won by the Marxists and their candidate polled 108,000 votes out of 120,000 cast.
"That's unbelievable," says Mr Sammadar. "That's red terror in action."
The red-flag waving motorcycle brigade, openly brandishing rifles and swords, revolvers and locally-made bombs, first made its mark in Kespur and has ever since been the sword-arm of Bengal's governing Marxists.
During the village council polls that ended Sunday, this "motorcycle brigade" arrived in Basanti, an area dominated by their alliance partner, the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP).
They allegedly attacked the house of the RSP's minister Subhas Naskar in which his wife Gouri Naskar was killed. The Marxists blamed Gouri Naskar for storing bombs in her house and blamed her death on "one such bomb exploding".
"This is classic political tribalism. In the three decades of Left rule, the Marxists have always tried to undermine their Left allies, by force if necessary. But rarely have they gone this far," says Dyutish Chakrabarty, a professor of politics at North Bengal university.
Mr Chakrabarty says the Marxists have not merely tried to dominate the opposition parties but also their own alliance partners - and the methods have been the same.
"Manipulation of development funds, distribution of small favours, snuffing out dissent by ganging-up tactics and use of terror as the last resort - that's been the Marxist style of political consolidation," says Mr Chakrabarty, who studies political violence in the state.
To be fair, the Marxist built up a massive rural support base after they came to power in 1978, by pioneering comprehensive land reforms, by promoting local governance through the panchayats (village councils) and by spending development funds on poverty alleviation projects during the first decade of their rule.
.
"After that, the party expanded, became more corrupt and violent. And now it needs violence for everything it does - to win elections or acquire land for industry," says Abhirup Sarkar, who works on the political economy of West Bengal.
"And the opposition realises it can only fight the Marxists by violence, so they also look to use similar tactics, as Panskura or Nandigram has shown," says Mr Sarkar.
..
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Thursday, June 5, 2008
How Green is Your Valley?
My last journey from the Calcutta airport to my in-laws’ in the Eastern-Bypass is still vivid in my memory. I remember how overjoyed I was to be back home, to be in the city of joy, dreams and a feel-good sloth. As my cabbie embarked upon the highway, the Ambujas and the Hindujas ushered me with their dreams unfold: their astute billboards lure of a lifestyle that was unconceivable by the middle-class Bengalis not so long ago. They promise a living amid greenery, lakes, parks and boutique condominiums.
But reality hit me hard in my nostrils. I diverged my glance only to be smeared by gushes of smoke emitted by a racing mini bus, honking away to glory. People say that it’s carbon monoxide, I didn’t know for sure what it was, but the fumes emitted by the antique engine of the deranged vehicle left me nauseated for a good twenty minutes. By the time I regained consciousness, our cab was amongst the last ten in a long queue at the traffic signal. The cabbie mentioned nonchalantly, “there is a rally at the Science City and a subsequent protest by some other political wing”. I nodded in understanding but longed to meet my family, to crash out on my age-old bed. I gazed at the myriads of building crowding the skyline with awe. When did it all happen? Wasn’t there a lake before? And a soothing green patch just beside the road? And what about all the foliage that grew unreckoning? As far as my vision go, I could only find concrete and metals, buildings and hotels and hospitals…The lonely Gulmohar tree at the roadside looked glum, tainted and devoid of virility. Much like the fellow Calcuttans I spotted on the pavements.
I recalled the shocking statistics divulged by the BBC that some 70% of people in the city of Calcutta suffer from respiratory disorders caused by air pollution. That the ideal count of Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM) and Respiratory Particulate Matter (RPM) should not exceed 140 and 60 respectively. But Calcutta's average SPM count is 211 and RPM count is 105. And in the worst polluted traffic intersections, this count can be double the city's average during busy hours! It also said that 79% of hawkers who spend a long time outdoors have suffered damaged lungs…
Finally, we were in motion again. We sped through unruly intersections into a bumpy pathway with incessant interference by the two wheelers, bicycles, rickshaws and pedestrians. We stopped again and I noticed a toddler splashing in a reddish pool of muddy water, seeping in from a damaged water pipe. Just then, to my utter horror, I found a woman, maybe his mother, drinking from the same pipe! I shut my burning eyes but my conscience displayed the explicit headline, “14 villages in South Bengal were affected by chronic arsenic toxicity. A high level of arsenic was detected in the water from shallow tubewells (24-36 meters deep) used by those affected…” Was this place also mentioned in one of the subsequent reports? I hope not.
We traversed yet a few miles until we reached a red light in Patuli-intersection. I jarred from my slumber. Someone somewhere sounded very annoyed. He screamed with his lungs out in order to apprise the fellow citizens of his annoyance. The louder speaker reverberated with élan, surpassing all other background noise. It went on and on. Gosh, Calcuttans have mustered extreme level of tolerance! I remember, it was way back in April 1996, the Calcutta High Court gave strict directions to the West Bengal Pollution Control Board and Calcutta Police to be very vigilant against Noise Pollution. It’s being over a decade now since that order was passed but like everything else in this godforsaken city, rules and regulations have gone to the doldrums. Needless to say, my journey only brings back guileless memory of the mauled effigy that Calcutta showcase at present.
Today is 5th June. World Environment Day. I am sitting thousands of miles away from the city of my birth, the city which is witnessing a worse holocaust with more than 5 million Calcuttans suffocating to death. I sit with a hapless knot at the gut of my existence.
Where are those lush lawns that the billboards advertised? In which pocket, in which island in the gray smog are they going to build an unsoiled nest?
To quote my favorite singer, “the answer my friend is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind…”
--Somanjana
Save West Bengal
But reality hit me hard in my nostrils. I diverged my glance only to be smeared by gushes of smoke emitted by a racing mini bus, honking away to glory. People say that it’s carbon monoxide, I didn’t know for sure what it was, but the fumes emitted by the antique engine of the deranged vehicle left me nauseated for a good twenty minutes. By the time I regained consciousness, our cab was amongst the last ten in a long queue at the traffic signal. The cabbie mentioned nonchalantly, “there is a rally at the Science City and a subsequent protest by some other political wing”. I nodded in understanding but longed to meet my family, to crash out on my age-old bed. I gazed at the myriads of building crowding the skyline with awe. When did it all happen? Wasn’t there a lake before? And a soothing green patch just beside the road? And what about all the foliage that grew unreckoning? As far as my vision go, I could only find concrete and metals, buildings and hotels and hospitals…The lonely Gulmohar tree at the roadside looked glum, tainted and devoid of virility. Much like the fellow Calcuttans I spotted on the pavements.
I recalled the shocking statistics divulged by the BBC that some 70% of people in the city of Calcutta suffer from respiratory disorders caused by air pollution. That the ideal count of Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM) and Respiratory Particulate Matter (RPM) should not exceed 140 and 60 respectively. But Calcutta's average SPM count is 211 and RPM count is 105. And in the worst polluted traffic intersections, this count can be double the city's average during busy hours! It also said that 79% of hawkers who spend a long time outdoors have suffered damaged lungs…
Finally, we were in motion again. We sped through unruly intersections into a bumpy pathway with incessant interference by the two wheelers, bicycles, rickshaws and pedestrians. We stopped again and I noticed a toddler splashing in a reddish pool of muddy water, seeping in from a damaged water pipe. Just then, to my utter horror, I found a woman, maybe his mother, drinking from the same pipe! I shut my burning eyes but my conscience displayed the explicit headline, “14 villages in South Bengal were affected by chronic arsenic toxicity. A high level of arsenic was detected in the water from shallow tubewells (24-36 meters deep) used by those affected…” Was this place also mentioned in one of the subsequent reports? I hope not.
We traversed yet a few miles until we reached a red light in Patuli-intersection. I jarred from my slumber. Someone somewhere sounded very annoyed. He screamed with his lungs out in order to apprise the fellow citizens of his annoyance. The louder speaker reverberated with élan, surpassing all other background noise. It went on and on. Gosh, Calcuttans have mustered extreme level of tolerance! I remember, it was way back in April 1996, the Calcutta High Court gave strict directions to the West Bengal Pollution Control Board and Calcutta Police to be very vigilant against Noise Pollution. It’s being over a decade now since that order was passed but like everything else in this godforsaken city, rules and regulations have gone to the doldrums. Needless to say, my journey only brings back guileless memory of the mauled effigy that Calcutta showcase at present.
Today is 5th June. World Environment Day. I am sitting thousands of miles away from the city of my birth, the city which is witnessing a worse holocaust with more than 5 million Calcuttans suffocating to death. I sit with a hapless knot at the gut of my existence.
Where are those lush lawns that the billboards advertised? In which pocket, in which island in the gray smog are they going to build an unsoiled nest?
To quote my favorite singer, “the answer my friend is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind…”
--Somanjana
Save West Bengal
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
16 Dead, Hundreds Injured During Eastern India Election Violence
By Raymond Thibodeaux
New Delhi
Election violence has left at least 16 people dead and hundreds injured in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal. Raymond Thibodeaux reports for VOA from New Delhi.
Clashes between rival political parties spilled into Monday following local elections in West Bengal.
Eyewitnesses said some villagers and poll workers were killed as police fired at protesters near polling booths. The violence broke out in Murshidabad, 200 kilometers north of West Bengal's capital, Kolkata.
Adhir Chowdhury leads the opposition Congress Party. He accused West Bengal's Marxist-led government of 'unleashing a reign of terror' during the elections to intimidate voters in an opposition stronghold. The Communist Party of India has ruled in West Bengal for much of the past three decades.
"The entire rule of Bengal has been officiated by violence perpetuated by the ruling regime," said Chowdhury. "They simply are resorting to violence, arson, torture and raping only to intimidate the people."
West Bengal's Communist Party leaders argue that the Congress Party supporters threatened violence days before the polls to ratchet up tension in an already contentious election.
Political analyst Sujoy Dhur says the larger issue at stake is the poll violence that continues to plague elections in many of India's small towns.
"Violence is part of India elections, and this culture of violence is very much there in West Bengal too," said Dhur. "In the rural areas, things are always more violent than in the urban centers. The Communist Party of India - Marxists, they have pursued an industrialization policy that involves takeover of farmlands for industry so this tension was brewing for [a long time]. And this time the opposition tried tooth and nail to put up a resistance."
This year's local election was one of the most violent in West Bengal's history, with at least 30 dead in several rounds of polling. Nineteen people were killed during the last elections in 2003.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-05-19-voa35.cfm
New Delhi
Election violence has left at least 16 people dead and hundreds injured in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal. Raymond Thibodeaux reports for VOA from New Delhi.
Clashes between rival political parties spilled into Monday following local elections in West Bengal.
Eyewitnesses said some villagers and poll workers were killed as police fired at protesters near polling booths. The violence broke out in Murshidabad, 200 kilometers north of West Bengal's capital, Kolkata.
Adhir Chowdhury leads the opposition Congress Party. He accused West Bengal's Marxist-led government of 'unleashing a reign of terror' during the elections to intimidate voters in an opposition stronghold. The Communist Party of India has ruled in West Bengal for much of the past three decades.
"The entire rule of Bengal has been officiated by violence perpetuated by the ruling regime," said Chowdhury. "They simply are resorting to violence, arson, torture and raping only to intimidate the people."
West Bengal's Communist Party leaders argue that the Congress Party supporters threatened violence days before the polls to ratchet up tension in an already contentious election.
Political analyst Sujoy Dhur says the larger issue at stake is the poll violence that continues to plague elections in many of India's small towns.
"Violence is part of India elections, and this culture of violence is very much there in West Bengal too," said Dhur. "In the rural areas, things are always more violent than in the urban centers. The Communist Party of India - Marxists, they have pursued an industrialization policy that involves takeover of farmlands for industry so this tension was brewing for [a long time]. And this time the opposition tried tooth and nail to put up a resistance."
This year's local election was one of the most violent in West Bengal's history, with at least 30 dead in several rounds of polling. Nineteen people were killed during the last elections in 2003.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-05-19-voa35.cfm
Monday, June 2, 2008
House of Cards
The mood at Alimuddin Street ~ the state headquarters of the CPI-M ~ is now one of gloom, disbelief and numbing shock. The stunning defeat the Marxists suffered in the panchayat elections in half of rural Bengal has brought home to them the truth that they have been living in a make-believe world where only the Tatas, the Salims, the Premjis and the Dhoots exist, while the nameless, faceless millions of rural poor have melted into thin air.
The Marxists need the rural people only during elections and after they are shepherded to the polling stations through all-pervasive propaganda and terror to vote for party nominees they are sent back to eke out a living whichever way they can.
This has been the CPI-M’s ethos for a couple of decades, but the panchayat poll this time around has dealt such a devastating blow to the party that their brave new world of shopping malls, flyovers, dubious industrial projects and fraudulent special economic zones has come crashing down.
The mandate of the rural elections is not so much against land grab by crony capitalists masquerading as champions of the poor as against the final betrayal by the CPI-M. Had it been simply a question of land acquisition for industrialisation, the issue would have died down once Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said he was accepting his guilt “with his head held low”.
Mr Bhattacharjee even went to Nandigram nine months after the brutal police firing and its “recapture” by armed CPI-M goons and sought to mollify the people there by declaring that “the state government won’t take land for setting up a mega chemical hub as the people there don’t want to part with their land”.
But the people, not of Nandigram alone, but of hundreds of villages in the state where there was no threat of land grab, had by then got the full measure of the Marxist pretenders. The CPI-M has long ceased to be a party for the poor. Once it put in place the panchayati raj structure purportedly to change the lot of the rural poor, it began to show its character as a party that loots resources meant for the people.
The CPI-M set an example before the country by spending half the state’s Budget through the panchayats. Over the years, the rural population has known what that really means. The political propaganda by the party showcasing its “achievement” ~ the panchayati raj system ~ is hogwash. The rural people are witness to the loot of the state exchequer by CPI-M functionaries at all levels. Every sector of the rural economy has been captured by the CPI-M and its partners. Even ration shops, cold storage facilities, weekly market and construction projects have not been spared by the mercenaries who pretend to be Marxists to get political licence for their plunder.The rural people have been tolerating this vicious grip of the CPI-M for so many years for the simple reason that the CPI-M has hammered into their heads the notion that there is no alternative political force and that they will have to learn to live with the CPI-M and their armed goons.
Whatever pretence the CPI-M had as a pro-poor party was there as long as the reins of leadership were in the hands of Mr Harkishen Singh Surjeet and Mr Jyoti Basu. It was shed by the new axis of power formed by Mr Prakash Karat, Mr Sitaram Yechuri and Mr Bhattacharjee. If the first two were busy basking in the comfort and glamour of pulling the strings of the Union government and acting as midwives for international finance capital despite their hypocritical denouncement of it, the third turned into a megalomaniac, insulting whoever opposed his feather-brained schemes.
Mr Bhattacharjee’s insolence became etched in public memory when he said “we are 235 and they are 30”, referring to the number of MLAs the Left Front and the Trinamul Congress have in the state Assembly.
The panchayat election verdict is a resounding slap on the face of this insolence, which marks the behaviour of all the Marxists. The people in the state have for far too long endured the insufferable arrogance of CPI-M functionaries, who have turned their ubiquitous party local committee offices into de facto police stations-cum-lower courts, which even interfere in family feuds, marital problems and in many cases force people opposed to it to accept their patently wrong and biased decisions.
The rural people have realised from their experiences that the Marxists no longer work fo their welfare, but only for furthering their own selfish interests. They have discovered that Marxist insolence has assumed such diabolical proportions that the CPI-M leadership at Alimuddin Street in Kolkata and AK Gopalan Bhavan in Delhi have no qualms about destroying their sole means of livelihood ~ small plots of land. The betrayal of the poor by those who swear by Marx and Lenin is complete.
That’s why vast stretches of rural Bengal, where the threat of losing farm land was not even on the horizon, decided to vote en masse against the CPI-M. They wanted to teach the betrayers the lesson of their life. They have no illusion about the corrupt Congress or the BJP or any other political party and treat them accordingly. But they find it difficult to come to terms with the hypocrisy of the Marxists who once established their land rights, but who are now bent on taking away their land. The panchayat election mandate is against the Left’s metamorphosis from champions of the poor into patrons of big money and corporate houses.
The CPI-M is in a bind: if it dumps its policy of industrialisation on farm land, its machinations will become clear. If it goes ahead with it, there will now be much greater resistance than what the CPI-M has seen.
But the Marxist leadership has become so used to a life of comfort and is so alienated from the people that it is incapable of mingling with the poor the way their predecessors did before they captured power in 1977. Their time of reckoning has come. Sweet talking won’t cut any ice with the poor whom they want to throw at the mercy of industrialists.
It’s intriguing that the chief minister is propagating theories about the trajectory of civilisation ~ feudalism to capitalism to socialism ~ forgetting Russia and China didn’t follow that path.Farmers know their land will give income for generations and they won’t have to retire as workers have to. The Marxists pretend not to know these simple truths.
(The writer is Special Representative,
The Statesman)
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Amnesty cites human rights abuse by Indian Marxists in Nandigram as one of the worst in the world
Partha Sharma
What went on in Nandigram, West Bengal, was not unnoticed. Amnesty International alleges that there had been gross violation of human rights, especially in Nandigram of West Bengal.
The atrocities by the State Government and merciless killing of common people and farmers by West Bengal cops in support of the Marxist thugs, is nothing less than Hitler’s Gestapo or Stalin secret squads.
The world watched what the Marxists did to please their sponsor Indian rich oligarchs. They killed common people in West Bengal to hand over the farming land to rich Indian Industrialists.
The Congress Party of India ruling in New Delhi allowed this genocide looking to win the Left Parties to implement the India-US nuclear deal. The civilian nuke deal helps US Corporations like GE, Westinghouse and others to gain $100 billion or more. The Bush Administration and India’s Congress Party are eager to implement the deal so that $100 billion can be handed over to the US Corporations.
India still fails to prosecute the Marxists including top leadership in West Bengal who made countless people ‘disappear’ into mass graveyards. The Congress party at the center in New Delhi depends on the support of 60 MPs from the Left to stay in power. That is why India has allowed this atrocity to happen.
The opposition party BJP has vowed to bring all involved in Nandigram massacre into justice including Marxist leaders and West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya. This guy code named ‘Buddha’ in India has earned an international reputation – Butcher of West Bengal.
http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/19524.asp
What went on in Nandigram, West Bengal, was not unnoticed. Amnesty International alleges that there had been gross violation of human rights, especially in Nandigram of West Bengal.
The atrocities by the State Government and merciless killing of common people and farmers by West Bengal cops in support of the Marxist thugs, is nothing less than Hitler’s Gestapo or Stalin secret squads.
The world watched what the Marxists did to please their sponsor Indian rich oligarchs. They killed common people in West Bengal to hand over the farming land to rich Indian Industrialists.
The Congress Party of India ruling in New Delhi allowed this genocide looking to win the Left Parties to implement the India-US nuclear deal. The civilian nuke deal helps US Corporations like GE, Westinghouse and others to gain $100 billion or more. The Bush Administration and India’s Congress Party are eager to implement the deal so that $100 billion can be handed over to the US Corporations.
India still fails to prosecute the Marxists including top leadership in West Bengal who made countless people ‘disappear’ into mass graveyards. The Congress party at the center in New Delhi depends on the support of 60 MPs from the Left to stay in power. That is why India has allowed this atrocity to happen.
The opposition party BJP has vowed to bring all involved in Nandigram massacre into justice including Marxist leaders and West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya. This guy code named ‘Buddha’ in India has earned an international reputation – Butcher of West Bengal.
http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/19524.asp
Amnesty slams Bengal, CPM for violence in Nandigram
NEW DELHI:
The world's premier human rights organisation, Amnesty International, has strongly indicted West Bengal and its ruling party, CPM, for the state-sponsored violence in Nandigram in 2007.
In its annual report, which was released on Tuesday, the global human rights NGO said private militias allied to the CPM committed "a range of human rights violations including unlawful killings, forced evictions, excessive police force and violence against women".
The report said, "In January and March, at least 25 mostly local residents, were killed in Nandigram, more than 100 were injured and at least 20 women were sexually assaulted by private militias allied to the ruling CPM."
The CPM has already been deeply indicted for the Nandigram violence last year as well as this year, with the result that the CPM suffered some of its worst defeats in these areas during the recent panchayat elections.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Amnesty_slams_Bengal_CPM_for_violence_in_Nandigram_/articleshow/3078297.cms
The world's premier human rights organisation, Amnesty International, has strongly indicted West Bengal and its ruling party, CPM, for the state-sponsored violence in Nandigram in 2007.
In its annual report, which was released on Tuesday, the global human rights NGO said private militias allied to the CPM committed "a range of human rights violations including unlawful killings, forced evictions, excessive police force and violence against women".
The report said, "In January and March, at least 25 mostly local residents, were killed in Nandigram, more than 100 were injured and at least 20 women were sexually assaulted by private militias allied to the ruling CPM."
The CPM has already been deeply indicted for the Nandigram violence last year as well as this year, with the result that the CPM suffered some of its worst defeats in these areas during the recent panchayat elections.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Amnesty_slams_Bengal_CPM_for_violence_in_Nandigram_/articleshow/3078297.cms
Friday, May 30, 2008
Revenge in Nandigram
Elora Sen and Shafi Rahman
It was the site where Comrade Reformer of Indian communism wanted to build his legacy. It was where he wanted to begin his New Bengal project. Then everything went wrong.
Nandigram became a landmark in the Marxist bloodlust, and Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya ceased to be the much indulged moderniser, the Bangla version of Deng Xiaoping.
The carnage brought out the Stalinist savagery of the party. On May 21, it was as if the ghosts had their revenge.
Since the horrors of November 2007, CPI(M) leaders had been giving lessons on the need to understand the "ground realities" in the West Bengal villages and forecasting a Left victory in Panchayat polls in Nandigram and Singur.
Kicking the apparatchiks of AKG Bhawan off their high moral pedestal, Nandigram has hit back.
It was a clear mandate against the party by the people of Nandigram and Singur, giving Trinamool Congress their first-ever seats in the Zilla Parishads.
They won two districts: South 24-Parganas and East Midnapore (including Nandigram), both former CPI(M) strongholds.
The Left Front suffered a major setback with its overall tally in the state coming down to 519 Zilla Parishad seats from 619 in 2003. Trinamool improved its tally from 16 seats to 121 and Congress moved up from 67 seats to 98.
The Congress has fared well in two areas-its stronghold in Malda where Ghani Khan Chowdhury's legacy is still intact, and North Dinajpur, another Left Front bastion.
This is a huge humiliation for CPI(M). The party has been consistently maintaining that the atrocities in Nandigram and Singur would be of little consequence.
The defeat will also weaken CPI(M) efforts to bridle the reform policies of the UPA Government which is entering its last stretch.
For Trinamool leader Mamata Banerjee, this was more than just poetic justice. "This is the beginning of the end for the CPI(M) Government here. The Centre too must take note," she thundered.
"Where the ballot could speak, we have done well. The Centre must realise that for 31 years, the Left Front has not allowed a proper election machinery to function. They have not allowed people to vote."
Trying to explain why her party did so well in Singur and Nandigram she said it was because the people did not fall for CPI(M)'s propaganda that "Krishi amader bhitti, shilpa amader bhabishat (Agriculture is our base, industry is our future)."
The Congress, which maintains the number of Zilla Parishads where it is in power, also came out strongly against the Left Front. Says Congress leader Subrata Mukherjee, "The chief minister should resign following the mandate given in Singur and Nandigram."
The three-phase local body elections, which the chief minister had said would be a "people's festival" turned out to be a bloody battle not just between CPI(M) cadres and Trinamool and Congress supporters, but also between fellow Left Front members such as RSP and Forward Bloc.
The polls were also seen as a litmus test for the Bhattacharya Government's farmland acquisition policy for industries in the state.
Never before had this debate of industrialisation versus agriculture played such a vital role in Panchayat elections. The results may come in the way of the party's efforts to push reforms in the Left-ruled states.
Top CPI(M) top leadership stood by the chief minister saying he never deviated ideologically.
"After the experience of Nandigram, where a chemical hub was proposed to be set up and political and administrative mistakes were made, we must be all the more careful on large-scale land acquisition," CPI(M) noted in its recent assessment of the events at Nandigram.
After lying low following the Nandigram fiasco, Bhattacharya along with his reformist counterparts from the party's Kerala unit, had successfully pushed forward reform-friendly guidelines in the last party congress in April.
"We need to review the electoral results in Nandigram. People in Nandigram never wanted an SEZ there and we also failed to explain the project to the people before we started implementing it. The police firing also antagonised the common man." says M.K. Pandhe, CPI(M) Politburo member.
He also points at the alliance patched up by the Congress, Trinamool and BJP. "They had ideologically nothing in common. They are all bound by hate against CPI(M). We lost out not because our votes have gone down but because all-the anti-CPI(M) votes have been consolidated," says Pandhe.
The victory also brings cheer to civil society groups and the ultra-Left, whom the CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat termed as Nardoniks, a dirty word in Marxist lexicon used to describe intellectuals who idealise agricultural economy.
http://indiatoday.digitaltoday.in/component/option,com_content/Itemid,1/task,view/id,8678/issueid,55/sectionid,21
It was the site where Comrade Reformer of Indian communism wanted to build his legacy. It was where he wanted to begin his New Bengal project. Then everything went wrong.
Nandigram became a landmark in the Marxist bloodlust, and Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya ceased to be the much indulged moderniser, the Bangla version of Deng Xiaoping.
The carnage brought out the Stalinist savagery of the party. On May 21, it was as if the ghosts had their revenge.
Since the horrors of November 2007, CPI(M) leaders had been giving lessons on the need to understand the "ground realities" in the West Bengal villages and forecasting a Left victory in Panchayat polls in Nandigram and Singur.
Kicking the apparatchiks of AKG Bhawan off their high moral pedestal, Nandigram has hit back.
It was a clear mandate against the party by the people of Nandigram and Singur, giving Trinamool Congress their first-ever seats in the Zilla Parishads.
They won two districts: South 24-Parganas and East Midnapore (including Nandigram), both former CPI(M) strongholds.
The Left Front suffered a major setback with its overall tally in the state coming down to 519 Zilla Parishad seats from 619 in 2003. Trinamool improved its tally from 16 seats to 121 and Congress moved up from 67 seats to 98.
The Congress has fared well in two areas-its stronghold in Malda where Ghani Khan Chowdhury's legacy is still intact, and North Dinajpur, another Left Front bastion.
This is a huge humiliation for CPI(M). The party has been consistently maintaining that the atrocities in Nandigram and Singur would be of little consequence.
The defeat will also weaken CPI(M) efforts to bridle the reform policies of the UPA Government which is entering its last stretch.
For Trinamool leader Mamata Banerjee, this was more than just poetic justice. "This is the beginning of the end for the CPI(M) Government here. The Centre too must take note," she thundered.
"Where the ballot could speak, we have done well. The Centre must realise that for 31 years, the Left Front has not allowed a proper election machinery to function. They have not allowed people to vote."
Trying to explain why her party did so well in Singur and Nandigram she said it was because the people did not fall for CPI(M)'s propaganda that "Krishi amader bhitti, shilpa amader bhabishat (Agriculture is our base, industry is our future)."
The Congress, which maintains the number of Zilla Parishads where it is in power, also came out strongly against the Left Front. Says Congress leader Subrata Mukherjee, "The chief minister should resign following the mandate given in Singur and Nandigram."
The three-phase local body elections, which the chief minister had said would be a "people's festival" turned out to be a bloody battle not just between CPI(M) cadres and Trinamool and Congress supporters, but also between fellow Left Front members such as RSP and Forward Bloc.
The polls were also seen as a litmus test for the Bhattacharya Government's farmland acquisition policy for industries in the state.
Never before had this debate of industrialisation versus agriculture played such a vital role in Panchayat elections. The results may come in the way of the party's efforts to push reforms in the Left-ruled states.
Top CPI(M) top leadership stood by the chief minister saying he never deviated ideologically.
"After the experience of Nandigram, where a chemical hub was proposed to be set up and political and administrative mistakes were made, we must be all the more careful on large-scale land acquisition," CPI(M) noted in its recent assessment of the events at Nandigram.
After lying low following the Nandigram fiasco, Bhattacharya along with his reformist counterparts from the party's Kerala unit, had successfully pushed forward reform-friendly guidelines in the last party congress in April.
"We need to review the electoral results in Nandigram. People in Nandigram never wanted an SEZ there and we also failed to explain the project to the people before we started implementing it. The police firing also antagonised the common man." says M.K. Pandhe, CPI(M) Politburo member.
He also points at the alliance patched up by the Congress, Trinamool and BJP. "They had ideologically nothing in common. They are all bound by hate against CPI(M). We lost out not because our votes have gone down but because all-the anti-CPI(M) votes have been consolidated," says Pandhe.
The victory also brings cheer to civil society groups and the ultra-Left, whom the CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat termed as Nardoniks, a dirty word in Marxist lexicon used to describe intellectuals who idealise agricultural economy.
http://indiatoday.digitaltoday.in/component/option,com_content/Itemid,1/task,view/id,8678/issueid,55/sectionid,21
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Terror cloak foils CPM cadre
Rajib Chatterjee
CHINSURAH
Male Trinamul Congress candidates for various panchayats in Hooghly's Jangipara block are visiting the block office wearing burqas and ladies' slippers to collect their identity cards these days.
The reason: CPI-M cadres are allegedly not allowing the Opposition candidates to enter the block office. The Opposition candidates in Jangipara ~ the Assembly constituency of the state higher education minister Mr Sudarshan Roy Chowdhury ~ have devised this new technique to access the block office after some of their party colleagues, who went to the block office to collect their identity cards, were beaten up allegedly by CPI-M cadres in front of the office.
“Our six panchayat candidates from Dilakas, Mundulka and Kotulpur panchayats wore burqas and managed to elude the CPI-M cadres who are now keeping a watch in front of the block office to prevent our candidates from accessing the block office,” Mr Moinuddin Sheikh, a Trinamul Congress leader, said.
“Two of our candidates were beaten up by CPI-M cadres near the block office when they were on their way to collect identity cards,” Mr Sheikh said. He alleged that policemen, despite being aware of the “terror” being unleashed by the CPI-M cadres, are reluctant to take any steps to allow Trinamul candidates into the block office. “We had brought the matter to the notice of senior police officers, who preferred to keep their eyes shut. We apprehend an attack on our candidates prior to panchayat polls. The CPI-M cadres had forced nine of our candidates from Dilakas panchayat to withdraw their nomination papers. Despite being threatened, six Trinamul Congress candidates have refused to succumb to CPI-M sponsored terror,” Mr Sheikh alleged.
Three Trinamul Congress supporters, who had gone to Dingelhati village in Jangipara to hoist their party flag yesterday, were slapped allegedly by a group of CPI-M cadres. “Ultimately, we had to return without hoisting the party flag. We told police officers about the incident who reached the spot three hours after we were attacked,” Mr Sheikh alleged. According to reports, the CPI-M cadres allegedly forced at least 20 Trinamul candidates to withdraw their nomination papers from three panchayats in Jangipara.
Opposition parties couldn't even field a single candidate in Atpur panchayat owing to alleged threat by CPI-M cadres. “Policemen are acting at the behest of the CPI-M zonal committee member instead of being impartial.
“We would write to the state electoral officer demanding additional security arrangements for Jangipara on polling day,” Mr Dilip Yadav, senior district Trinamul Congress leader, said.
Mr Arup Basu Mallick, secretary of the CPI-M Jangipara zonal committee, denied the allegation, saying Opposition party leaders were offering a “cooked up story” about the CPI-M.
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?date=2008-04-30&usrsess=1&clid=1&id=228449
CHINSURAH
Male Trinamul Congress candidates for various panchayats in Hooghly's Jangipara block are visiting the block office wearing burqas and ladies' slippers to collect their identity cards these days.
The reason: CPI-M cadres are allegedly not allowing the Opposition candidates to enter the block office. The Opposition candidates in Jangipara ~ the Assembly constituency of the state higher education minister Mr Sudarshan Roy Chowdhury ~ have devised this new technique to access the block office after some of their party colleagues, who went to the block office to collect their identity cards, were beaten up allegedly by CPI-M cadres in front of the office.
“Our six panchayat candidates from Dilakas, Mundulka and Kotulpur panchayats wore burqas and managed to elude the CPI-M cadres who are now keeping a watch in front of the block office to prevent our candidates from accessing the block office,” Mr Moinuddin Sheikh, a Trinamul Congress leader, said.
“Two of our candidates were beaten up by CPI-M cadres near the block office when they were on their way to collect identity cards,” Mr Sheikh said. He alleged that policemen, despite being aware of the “terror” being unleashed by the CPI-M cadres, are reluctant to take any steps to allow Trinamul candidates into the block office. “We had brought the matter to the notice of senior police officers, who preferred to keep their eyes shut. We apprehend an attack on our candidates prior to panchayat polls. The CPI-M cadres had forced nine of our candidates from Dilakas panchayat to withdraw their nomination papers. Despite being threatened, six Trinamul Congress candidates have refused to succumb to CPI-M sponsored terror,” Mr Sheikh alleged.
Three Trinamul Congress supporters, who had gone to Dingelhati village in Jangipara to hoist their party flag yesterday, were slapped allegedly by a group of CPI-M cadres. “Ultimately, we had to return without hoisting the party flag. We told police officers about the incident who reached the spot three hours after we were attacked,” Mr Sheikh alleged. According to reports, the CPI-M cadres allegedly forced at least 20 Trinamul candidates to withdraw their nomination papers from three panchayats in Jangipara.
Opposition parties couldn't even field a single candidate in Atpur panchayat owing to alleged threat by CPI-M cadres. “Policemen are acting at the behest of the CPI-M zonal committee member instead of being impartial.
“We would write to the state electoral officer demanding additional security arrangements for Jangipara on polling day,” Mr Dilip Yadav, senior district Trinamul Congress leader, said.
Mr Arup Basu Mallick, secretary of the CPI-M Jangipara zonal committee, denied the allegation, saying Opposition party leaders were offering a “cooked up story” about the CPI-M.
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?date=2008-04-30&usrsess=1&clid=1&id=228449
Deterrence CPI-M-style
By: Sunando Sanyal
Not much evidence remains of the alleged gangrape of Ms Radharani Ari because of the time lost in prosecuting the case. Still there should be an investigation into what happened and why no enquiry has been held. The appropriate authorities are the National Commission for Women and National Human Rights Commission.
The woman herself asks the chief minister of West Bengal: “How many times will your cadres rape me? The CPI-M men entered my house at about 2 pm (on 14 April). I knew them. Well, I’m Radharani Ari. I live in Nandigram, Block 1, Gokulnagar. (One day), 14 March, 2007, changed my life forever. At about 2 pm, the CPI-M men entered my house. Honourable chief minister, I knew them all. They were Badal Garudas, Kalipada Garudas and Snehansu Das. They committed bestial violence on me. I fell unconscious. Much later my husband picked me up off a nullah ... I gave police the three names of the rapists. But they didn’t enter it in their khata.” Ms
Ari further tells the chief minister: “I talked to the CBI babus. I mentioned the names of the rapists to one officer called Balbir Ram. Finally, the CBI booked Badal and Kalipada. But do you know what happened to Snehansu Das? Being honourable, you may not know that in the forthcoming panchayat poll Snehansu Das is seeking election at the 167th booth of Gokulnangar Gram Panchayat (in East Midnapore) on a CPI-M ticket” (Dainik Statesman, April 20, 2008).
CPI-M cadres did it again. In her own words: “This time on 18 April they entered our house at about 10.30 pm, after the CPI-M marchers had dispersed. They hit my husband and son, who fell to the floor. They carried me off. (Next morning) my sons Bapi Adhikari and Ajit Adhikari brought me home from a nearby paddy field. Honourable chief minister, I could identify them this time too. They were Snehansu Das again, accompanied by Gurupado Patra, Manik Patra, Purna Das, Prakas Das and Raju Garudas. Thirteen months and five days later, I had to be taken to Nandigram Hospital again. I don’t believe these goons will be punished. … we will have to live at the mercy of your police and cadres. I know too you have no sympathy for the gangraped like us. Or else the person who raped me twice could not have sought election on your party ticket.”
Ms Ari was transferred to Seth Sukhlal Karnani Memorial (SSKM) Hospital thereafter, where Saonli Mitra (theatre person), Aparna Sen (actor and director), Joy Goswami (poet), Subhaprasanna (artist) and Arpita Ghosh (playwright) visited her. At a subsequent press conference, Mitra and Subhaprasanna said the police should have taken action on Ms Ari’s complaint. They are right.
A while ago a TV channel showed a teenager claiming to be raped, with the connivance of her own mother, by her stepfather. The police took the man into custody.
Ganashakti, the CPI-M mouthpiece, virtually called Ms Ari a liar on 21 April. Headlined ‘Aggrieved father asks: My daughter was with me all the while. When was she raped?’, a report quotes Mr Chittaranjan Das, Ms Ari’s father, as saying: “On Friday night she was with me. How come I don’t know of the rape? She had cooked up a similar story before. Now she cooks up another. On Saturday (19 April) I saw a number of Trinamul Congress (TMC) workers put her on a ‘van-rickshaw’ (a cycle-drawn contraption). ‘Where are you taking her,’ I asked them. ‘To hospital,’ they replied.”
Ms Ari disowns her father. “My father is a CPI-M leader of the area,” she says. “For the past 30 years I have had no connection with him .... My children do not know him.” In any event, on her complaint, in disregard of her father’s views, police should have booked the alleged rapists and subjected them to a medical examination. For, as medical jurisprudence puts it, possible evidence of rape is obtained from marks of violence on the person of not only the victim but also the accused. So why weren’t the accused booked and subjected to medical examination?
Ganashakti (24, 25 and editorially on 26 April) quotes Professor AK Ghosh, medical superintendent and vice-principal of SSKM Hospital, as saying that “there was no rape on Radharni Ari”. Mr Sujato Bhadra, a human rights activist, points out that, concerning rape, “Only the head of the medical board can issue a statement. Why is the superintendent standing in for him? Is it to cover up an unpleasant truth?” He quotes an authority on medical jurisprudence, as saying, “The medical officer should not give his opinion that no rape had been committed. (For) rape is a crime not a medical condition.” Bhadra is right. I find another authority, Dr KS Narayana Reddy agreeing with this view. The superintendent’s unseemly zeal in denying the rape can only speak of a cover-up. Therefore, not just the rape but also what prompted Dr AK Ghosh to deny it should be probed.
Ganashakti does admit that the doctors found “abrasions on the elbow and on the lower back” of Ms Ari. Why did the doctors rule these out as prima facie evidence of rape? Going by medical jurisprudence these might have been caused by “pressure on the gravel and hard ground”. Dr Reddy says: “The examination should be carried out (soon after the rape, as) minor degrees of injury may fade rapidly and swelling and tenderness of the vulva may disappear in a few hours. (And) the possibility of detection of spermatozoa from the genital tracts also diminishes without delay.” And as Mitra and Subhaprasanna said, allegation of rape by the woman concerned has to be taken as prima facie evidence for the legal process to start, not what her father says.
The CPI-M has long been using rape as deterrence against disobedience. Mr Sukharanjan Sengupta, a veteran journalist, says: “In West Bengal the CPI-M has created a secret organisation consisting of a private army that includes a murder squad and a highly trained raping squad.” This is plausible, if you consider the rapes committed at Nandigram on 14 March, 2007, in the presence of policemen. The CBI caught 10 of the rapists from the Janani Brickyard, Khejuri, and handed them over to the West Bengal Police, who set them free. Again Tapasi Malik, who organised a protest movement amongst the women of Singur against the land grab for the Tatas, was burnt to death to wipe out all proof of rape. The accused, Suhrit Dutta, head of the Singur local committee of the CPI-M, was remanded in custody. Even after Dutta confessed, the party called him an “asset”. As everybody knows, the CPI-M has forced opposition candidates to withdraw from the panchayat elections with rape threats.
(The writer is former Head of the Department, English, Belur Ramkrishna Mission College)
Not much evidence remains of the alleged gangrape of Ms Radharani Ari because of the time lost in prosecuting the case. Still there should be an investigation into what happened and why no enquiry has been held. The appropriate authorities are the National Commission for Women and National Human Rights Commission.
The woman herself asks the chief minister of West Bengal: “How many times will your cadres rape me? The CPI-M men entered my house at about 2 pm (on 14 April). I knew them. Well, I’m Radharani Ari. I live in Nandigram, Block 1, Gokulnagar. (One day), 14 March, 2007, changed my life forever. At about 2 pm, the CPI-M men entered my house. Honourable chief minister, I knew them all. They were Badal Garudas, Kalipada Garudas and Snehansu Das. They committed bestial violence on me. I fell unconscious. Much later my husband picked me up off a nullah ... I gave police the three names of the rapists. But they didn’t enter it in their khata.” Ms
Ari further tells the chief minister: “I talked to the CBI babus. I mentioned the names of the rapists to one officer called Balbir Ram. Finally, the CBI booked Badal and Kalipada. But do you know what happened to Snehansu Das? Being honourable, you may not know that in the forthcoming panchayat poll Snehansu Das is seeking election at the 167th booth of Gokulnangar Gram Panchayat (in East Midnapore) on a CPI-M ticket” (Dainik Statesman, April 20, 2008).
CPI-M cadres did it again. In her own words: “This time on 18 April they entered our house at about 10.30 pm, after the CPI-M marchers had dispersed. They hit my husband and son, who fell to the floor. They carried me off. (Next morning) my sons Bapi Adhikari and Ajit Adhikari brought me home from a nearby paddy field. Honourable chief minister, I could identify them this time too. They were Snehansu Das again, accompanied by Gurupado Patra, Manik Patra, Purna Das, Prakas Das and Raju Garudas. Thirteen months and five days later, I had to be taken to Nandigram Hospital again. I don’t believe these goons will be punished. … we will have to live at the mercy of your police and cadres. I know too you have no sympathy for the gangraped like us. Or else the person who raped me twice could not have sought election on your party ticket.”
Ms Ari was transferred to Seth Sukhlal Karnani Memorial (SSKM) Hospital thereafter, where Saonli Mitra (theatre person), Aparna Sen (actor and director), Joy Goswami (poet), Subhaprasanna (artist) and Arpita Ghosh (playwright) visited her. At a subsequent press conference, Mitra and Subhaprasanna said the police should have taken action on Ms Ari’s complaint. They are right.
A while ago a TV channel showed a teenager claiming to be raped, with the connivance of her own mother, by her stepfather. The police took the man into custody.
Ganashakti, the CPI-M mouthpiece, virtually called Ms Ari a liar on 21 April. Headlined ‘Aggrieved father asks: My daughter was with me all the while. When was she raped?’, a report quotes Mr Chittaranjan Das, Ms Ari’s father, as saying: “On Friday night she was with me. How come I don’t know of the rape? She had cooked up a similar story before. Now she cooks up another. On Saturday (19 April) I saw a number of Trinamul Congress (TMC) workers put her on a ‘van-rickshaw’ (a cycle-drawn contraption). ‘Where are you taking her,’ I asked them. ‘To hospital,’ they replied.”
Ms Ari disowns her father. “My father is a CPI-M leader of the area,” she says. “For the past 30 years I have had no connection with him .... My children do not know him.” In any event, on her complaint, in disregard of her father’s views, police should have booked the alleged rapists and subjected them to a medical examination. For, as medical jurisprudence puts it, possible evidence of rape is obtained from marks of violence on the person of not only the victim but also the accused. So why weren’t the accused booked and subjected to medical examination?
Ganashakti (24, 25 and editorially on 26 April) quotes Professor AK Ghosh, medical superintendent and vice-principal of SSKM Hospital, as saying that “there was no rape on Radharni Ari”. Mr Sujato Bhadra, a human rights activist, points out that, concerning rape, “Only the head of the medical board can issue a statement. Why is the superintendent standing in for him? Is it to cover up an unpleasant truth?” He quotes an authority on medical jurisprudence, as saying, “The medical officer should not give his opinion that no rape had been committed. (For) rape is a crime not a medical condition.” Bhadra is right. I find another authority, Dr KS Narayana Reddy agreeing with this view. The superintendent’s unseemly zeal in denying the rape can only speak of a cover-up. Therefore, not just the rape but also what prompted Dr AK Ghosh to deny it should be probed.
Ganashakti does admit that the doctors found “abrasions on the elbow and on the lower back” of Ms Ari. Why did the doctors rule these out as prima facie evidence of rape? Going by medical jurisprudence these might have been caused by “pressure on the gravel and hard ground”. Dr Reddy says: “The examination should be carried out (soon after the rape, as) minor degrees of injury may fade rapidly and swelling and tenderness of the vulva may disappear in a few hours. (And) the possibility of detection of spermatozoa from the genital tracts also diminishes without delay.” And as Mitra and Subhaprasanna said, allegation of rape by the woman concerned has to be taken as prima facie evidence for the legal process to start, not what her father says.
The CPI-M has long been using rape as deterrence against disobedience. Mr Sukharanjan Sengupta, a veteran journalist, says: “In West Bengal the CPI-M has created a secret organisation consisting of a private army that includes a murder squad and a highly trained raping squad.” This is plausible, if you consider the rapes committed at Nandigram on 14 March, 2007, in the presence of policemen. The CBI caught 10 of the rapists from the Janani Brickyard, Khejuri, and handed them over to the West Bengal Police, who set them free. Again Tapasi Malik, who organised a protest movement amongst the women of Singur against the land grab for the Tatas, was burnt to death to wipe out all proof of rape. The accused, Suhrit Dutta, head of the Singur local committee of the CPI-M, was remanded in custody. Even after Dutta confessed, the party called him an “asset”. As everybody knows, the CPI-M has forced opposition candidates to withdraw from the panchayat elections with rape threats.
(The writer is former Head of the Department, English, Belur Ramkrishna Mission College)
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Tension Mounts In Battleground Nandigram
Joydeep Sen Gupta
Nandigram
Panchayat polls in West Bengal are just three days away and tension is mounting at the battleground of Nandigram in east Midnapore district. Several people have been injured in clashes between the ruling CPM and the Trinamul Congress anti-SEZ supporters.
With leaders like Mamata Banerjee scheduled to campaign on Thursday, the administration is on alert to prevent further clashes.
Dozens of injured villagers have been admitted to Nandigram hospital following clashes in which they claim the aggressors were armed CPM cadres.
''We are being threatened by the CPM supporters. They have warned us that if we lose in the panchayat polls, nobody will survive. They are only capable of butchering people,'' said Arijit Jana, anti-SEZ supporter.
''Terror unleashed by CPM is incredible. They are creating all sorts of problems for us to prevent us from voting,'' said Radhakanta Sinha, husband of a Panchayat candidate.
Allegations are flying thick and fast between the CPM and the anti-SEZ, who are going to electoral battle on Sunday for 52 Zilla Parishad seats in East Midnapore district.
Last time, the Left had won 50 seats. The CPM claims the Trinamul supporters are crying foul of losing whatever little support they had.
''By force they captured the entire area. But now there is resistance and so they are crying. Also people are deserting BUPC or the Trinamul Congress. So they have become furious,'' said Shyamal Chakraborty, CPM MP.
The Home Secretary and the Director General of Police visited Nandigram on Tuesday to oversee poll arrangements. But the tension in Nandigram is palpable and is likely to escalate in the coming days.
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080049210
Nandigram
Panchayat polls in West Bengal are just three days away and tension is mounting at the battleground of Nandigram in east Midnapore district. Several people have been injured in clashes between the ruling CPM and the Trinamul Congress anti-SEZ supporters.
With leaders like Mamata Banerjee scheduled to campaign on Thursday, the administration is on alert to prevent further clashes.
Dozens of injured villagers have been admitted to Nandigram hospital following clashes in which they claim the aggressors were armed CPM cadres.
''We are being threatened by the CPM supporters. They have warned us that if we lose in the panchayat polls, nobody will survive. They are only capable of butchering people,'' said Arijit Jana, anti-SEZ supporter.
''Terror unleashed by CPM is incredible. They are creating all sorts of problems for us to prevent us from voting,'' said Radhakanta Sinha, husband of a Panchayat candidate.
Allegations are flying thick and fast between the CPM and the anti-SEZ, who are going to electoral battle on Sunday for 52 Zilla Parishad seats in East Midnapore district.
Last time, the Left had won 50 seats. The CPM claims the Trinamul supporters are crying foul of losing whatever little support they had.
''By force they captured the entire area. But now there is resistance and so they are crying. Also people are deserting BUPC or the Trinamul Congress. So they have become furious,'' said Shyamal Chakraborty, CPM MP.
The Home Secretary and the Director General of Police visited Nandigram on Tuesday to oversee poll arrangements. But the tension in Nandigram is palpable and is likely to escalate in the coming days.
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080049210
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Bengali Woman Stripped, Beaten and Chased by CPI(M) Activists
Nandigram On Boil Again
Saugar Sengupta Kolkata
The fierce turf war between the CPI(M) and the Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee (BUPC) in the run-up to the crucial panchayat elections saw a woman being beaten, stripped and chased almost a km by CPI(M) activists on Monday, a replay of the shameful Guwahati incident last year. West Bengal PCC president PR Dasmunsi, meanwhile, has sought postponement of the May 11 elections in Nandigram in view of the continuing violence.
On Tuesday, two more BUPC women claimed to have met a similar fate for refusing to support the CPI(M). Minati Das, Kshama Das and Sandhya Das (all names changed) of Simulkundu village also alleged that the Nandigram police refused to lodge a complaint in this regard. But according to PTI, the State Government has ordered a CID probe into the incident.
The women alleged that hordes of CPI(M) cadre, led by local leader Mamata Das, were trying to force their menfolk into joining the CPI(M) processions. "When they refused, they were dragged out. When we protested, the CPI(M) cadre started beating and stripping us. We ran nearly a km with only tatters on us," they claimed.
A BUPC delegation later demanded immediate transfer of Nandigram officer in-charge Debashis Chakrabarty. However, East Midnapore SP S Panda said he had no information on the issue.
The CPI(M) denied the allegations, saying the party cadre were being framed to tarnish the Left Front's image and stall the election process.
CPI (M)'s East Midnapore district secretary AK Guria alleged that one of his comrades, Sheikh Javed, was shot at by the "rivals" which made the women flee in panic. "In the melee, some of them might have received injuries," he maintained. Meanwhile, a group of 25 BUPC candidates from Nandigram met the State Election Commissioner and asked him to provide adequate security for holding free and fair elections.
Meanwhile, PCC president PR Dasmunsi has written to Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, State Election Commissioner AK Gupta and the Union Home Secretary for postponing the May 11 panchayat elections in Nandigram in view of the violence there. He has warned that any move to "force" the election on people would deteriorate the situation.
With CPI(M) activists allegedly attacking BUPC workers for "daring" to contest the elections, the situation is worsening by the day. Earlier, in an apparent bid to woo Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, the PCC president had requested the party supporters to vote for the firebrand leader's party at places where the Congress has not put up candidates.
Meanwhile, the State Government on Tuesday changed its proposal to remove police camps from Nandigram. State Home Secretary Ashok Mohan Chakrabarty said no police camp would be removed. The Government was thinking in terms of deploying paramilitary personnel in the two Midnapores to conduct the polls, he added. "While the Nandigram officer in-charge would not be removed, the Government has decided to depute the Haldia SDPO in Nandigram to oversee the law and order situation," Chakrabarty said.
For any comments, queries or feedback, kindly mail us at pioneerletters@yahoo.co.in
http://www.dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_variable=front%5Fpage&file_name=story3%2Etxt&counter_img=3
Saugar Sengupta Kolkata
The fierce turf war between the CPI(M) and the Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee (BUPC) in the run-up to the crucial panchayat elections saw a woman being beaten, stripped and chased almost a km by CPI(M) activists on Monday, a replay of the shameful Guwahati incident last year. West Bengal PCC president PR Dasmunsi, meanwhile, has sought postponement of the May 11 elections in Nandigram in view of the continuing violence.
On Tuesday, two more BUPC women claimed to have met a similar fate for refusing to support the CPI(M). Minati Das, Kshama Das and Sandhya Das (all names changed) of Simulkundu village also alleged that the Nandigram police refused to lodge a complaint in this regard. But according to PTI, the State Government has ordered a CID probe into the incident.
The women alleged that hordes of CPI(M) cadre, led by local leader Mamata Das, were trying to force their menfolk into joining the CPI(M) processions. "When they refused, they were dragged out. When we protested, the CPI(M) cadre started beating and stripping us. We ran nearly a km with only tatters on us," they claimed.
A BUPC delegation later demanded immediate transfer of Nandigram officer in-charge Debashis Chakrabarty. However, East Midnapore SP S Panda said he had no information on the issue.
The CPI(M) denied the allegations, saying the party cadre were being framed to tarnish the Left Front's image and stall the election process.
CPI (M)'s East Midnapore district secretary AK Guria alleged that one of his comrades, Sheikh Javed, was shot at by the "rivals" which made the women flee in panic. "In the melee, some of them might have received injuries," he maintained. Meanwhile, a group of 25 BUPC candidates from Nandigram met the State Election Commissioner and asked him to provide adequate security for holding free and fair elections.
Meanwhile, PCC president PR Dasmunsi has written to Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, State Election Commissioner AK Gupta and the Union Home Secretary for postponing the May 11 panchayat elections in Nandigram in view of the violence there. He has warned that any move to "force" the election on people would deteriorate the situation.
With CPI(M) activists allegedly attacking BUPC workers for "daring" to contest the elections, the situation is worsening by the day. Earlier, in an apparent bid to woo Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, the PCC president had requested the party supporters to vote for the firebrand leader's party at places where the Congress has not put up candidates.
Meanwhile, the State Government on Tuesday changed its proposal to remove police camps from Nandigram. State Home Secretary Ashok Mohan Chakrabarty said no police camp would be removed. The Government was thinking in terms of deploying paramilitary personnel in the two Midnapores to conduct the polls, he added. "While the Nandigram officer in-charge would not be removed, the Government has decided to depute the Haldia SDPO in Nandigram to oversee the law and order situation," Chakrabarty said.
For any comments, queries or feedback, kindly mail us at pioneerletters@yahoo.co.in
http://www.dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_variable=front%5Fpage&file_name=story3%2Etxt&counter_img=3
Monday, May 5, 2008
CPI(M) recaptures area in Nandigram before panchayat poll
Nandigram (PTI): In a re-enactment of recapture of Nandigram in November last year, armed CPI(M) cadres on Monday took control of a stronghold of an opposition Trinamool Congress-backed outfit, spearheading an agitation against acquisition of farmland, ahead of next Sunday's panchayat poll.
East Midnapore district superintendent of police S Panda said Roynagar, Jambari and Simalkunda areas in Satengabari village witnessed violence with guns and bombs being used.
He, however, declined to identify the attackers.
The TC-supported Bhumi Uchched Pratirodh Committee members said armed CPI(M) cadres on motorcycles hurled bombs and opened fire at Satengabari before capturing it, forcing 3,000 BUPC supporters to flee their homes.
After the recapture, the CPI(M) cadres attacked a relief camp where 300 BUPC members were sheltered at Maheshpur, they said.
Five BUPC supporters were missing after the attack, they alleged.
CPI(M) district secretariat member Ashok Guria admitted his partymen had carried out an operation but claimed it was to rescue three CPI(M) men.
He claimed a CPI(M) cadre was shot by BUPC activists and four others were injured. "They (BUPC) opened fire and our men retaliated."
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/002200805051968.htm
East Midnapore district superintendent of police S Panda said Roynagar, Jambari and Simalkunda areas in Satengabari village witnessed violence with guns and bombs being used.
He, however, declined to identify the attackers.
The TC-supported Bhumi Uchched Pratirodh Committee members said armed CPI(M) cadres on motorcycles hurled bombs and opened fire at Satengabari before capturing it, forcing 3,000 BUPC supporters to flee their homes.
After the recapture, the CPI(M) cadres attacked a relief camp where 300 BUPC members were sheltered at Maheshpur, they said.
Five BUPC supporters were missing after the attack, they alleged.
CPI(M) district secretariat member Ashok Guria admitted his partymen had carried out an operation but claimed it was to rescue three CPI(M) men.
He claimed a CPI(M) cadre was shot by BUPC activists and four others were injured. "They (BUPC) opened fire and our men retaliated."
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/002200805051968.htm
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Clashes continue in Nandigram
Statesman News Service
NANDIGRAM:
Amidst the visit of a team of intellectuals to Nandigram, clashes continued today at several villages leaving several persons injured, including two Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee (BUPC) members who were shot at. A few houses of BUPC supporters at Gokulnagar,
Simulkundu, Sonachura, Kalicharanpur Kanungochawk and Adhikaripara were also vandalised by armed goons alleged to be CPI-M cadres at 12.30 p.m. today.
The injured people could not be brought to hospital immediately as the attackers kept the villages encircled for a few hours. Threats from CPI-M cadres have compelled many rival supporters to flee their houses and they have taken shelter in make-shift camps set up at Nandigram and other areas.
BUPC leaders alleged that the Nandigram police had taken a partisan role during today's incidents. Even, the CRPF jawans were prevented from taking action by the Nandigram OC, the leaders charged.
According to the locals who have taken shelter at Nandigram, a group of CPI-M cadres along with some outsiders sneaked into Sonachura village from Khejuri side, then started firing indiscriminately and hurling bombs.
When they attacked Maitypara, two villagers in a field were shot and injured. But none of the villagers dared to come to their aid and so they were left unattended there for hours.
Another group of CPI-M workers unleashed a reign of terror in the nearby villages of Gokulnagar, Simulkundu, Adhikaripara and Kanungochawk, BUPC leaders alleged.
The CPI-M’s district secretariat member Mr Ashok Guria countered with the allegation that Trinamul Congress workers attacked local party leader Mr Phani Jana at Balarampur last night. "They fired two rounds at him and later beat him up. Many of our supporters in Rainagar and Balarampur areas have fled from their houses and taken shelter at Boya," he said. The district superintendent of police Mr SS Panda meanwhile disparaged media reports of violence in the area, saying the situation is as serious as is being described.
"I have no reports that two people were shot at. The police are frequently patrolling the areas and the situation is under control," he said.
Meanwhile, members of the Forum of Artistes, Cultural Activists and Intellectuals and Swajan headed by artist Subhaprasanna, poet Tarun Sanyal and playwright Saoli Mitra met the Nandigram BDO Mr Santiram Ghorai and submitted a memorandum expressing concern over the deteriorating law and order situation in Nandigram ahead of the panchayat polls. They also submitted a memorandum to the CRPF authorities in Nandigram. They demanded a peaceful poll and security for the common people in Nandigram.
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=6&theme=&usrsess=1&id=202444
NANDIGRAM:
Amidst the visit of a team of intellectuals to Nandigram, clashes continued today at several villages leaving several persons injured, including two Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee (BUPC) members who were shot at. A few houses of BUPC supporters at Gokulnagar,
Simulkundu, Sonachura, Kalicharanpur Kanungochawk and Adhikaripara were also vandalised by armed goons alleged to be CPI-M cadres at 12.30 p.m. today.
The injured people could not be brought to hospital immediately as the attackers kept the villages encircled for a few hours. Threats from CPI-M cadres have compelled many rival supporters to flee their houses and they have taken shelter in make-shift camps set up at Nandigram and other areas.
BUPC leaders alleged that the Nandigram police had taken a partisan role during today's incidents. Even, the CRPF jawans were prevented from taking action by the Nandigram OC, the leaders charged.
According to the locals who have taken shelter at Nandigram, a group of CPI-M cadres along with some outsiders sneaked into Sonachura village from Khejuri side, then started firing indiscriminately and hurling bombs.
When they attacked Maitypara, two villagers in a field were shot and injured. But none of the villagers dared to come to their aid and so they were left unattended there for hours.
Another group of CPI-M workers unleashed a reign of terror in the nearby villages of Gokulnagar, Simulkundu, Adhikaripara and Kanungochawk, BUPC leaders alleged.
The CPI-M’s district secretariat member Mr Ashok Guria countered with the allegation that Trinamul Congress workers attacked local party leader Mr Phani Jana at Balarampur last night. "They fired two rounds at him and later beat him up. Many of our supporters in Rainagar and Balarampur areas have fled from their houses and taken shelter at Boya," he said. The district superintendent of police Mr SS Panda meanwhile disparaged media reports of violence in the area, saying the situation is as serious as is being described.
"I have no reports that two people were shot at. The police are frequently patrolling the areas and the situation is under control," he said.
Meanwhile, members of the Forum of Artistes, Cultural Activists and Intellectuals and Swajan headed by artist Subhaprasanna, poet Tarun Sanyal and playwright Saoli Mitra met the Nandigram BDO Mr Santiram Ghorai and submitted a memorandum expressing concern over the deteriorating law and order situation in Nandigram ahead of the panchayat polls. They also submitted a memorandum to the CRPF authorities in Nandigram. They demanded a peaceful poll and security for the common people in Nandigram.
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=6&theme=&usrsess=1&id=202444
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
West Bengal followed China in Singur, Nandigram
Recent incidents of state oppression in China prove that West Bengal government adopted the Chinese methodology to curb the peasants' revolt against acquisition of land in Singur and Nandigram.
by Sagarika Roy
THERE IS a proverb – the Indian communists seek for an umbrella when it rains in Moscow or Beijing. China has transformed. Maoism has been shelved inside closets. Communism as a whole has been trailing behind across the world after it got a severe jolt in the Soviet Union in the early nineties.
Still, communists in India, particularly in West Bengal seem not to deviate from their big brothers’ path. The Left Front government has been in power in the state for the last 30 years. The steps being taken by it in acquiring land for industry and commercial purposes by evicting thousands of farmers from their lands, appear to have taken a cue from recent Chinese formula of evicting peasants for land acquisition. This has been well expressed in Singur and Nandigram.
In 2003, the government of Sanjiao town in Zhongshan province requisitioned a plot of land measuring more than 200 hectares of Panlong village for industrial development. Local people, though unwillingly, gave consent to the proposal. The town government provided compensation for land acquisition along with crop compensation to local villagers. The land was requisitioned in favour of a Hong Kong based business company to build factories at the price of 1,10,000 yuan per ’mu’. This was not disclosed as the villagers got compensated at a much lower rate – only a few thousands yuan per mu. Since the land was taken away, no effort for developing the land was taken. The peasants were promised employment in a proposed factory but even after three years, they did not get it because there was no response from the government or the business house for setting up the factory.
On January 10, 2006, thousands of villagers from Panlong village of Sanjiao town assembled at the office of the government. They claimed that it has cheated them in two ways . First, they have been given low compensation considering the rate at which the government sold the land to the business house. Second, they have not been provided any job as promised.
The second phase of the movement started on January 14 when they assembled at Nansan Road. A force of 2,000 policemen tried to break the blockade when some instigators threw bricks, stones and homemade bombs on police officers. Two police officers and three villagers were injured. In order to restore normal traffic and prevent the incident from escalating, the police arrested 25 suspected troublemakers. Four instigators were given a 15-day detention for disrupting traffic and the rest were discharged. The villagers claimed that police beat them at random, used weapons and a minor girl died in the attack. The government, however, refuted all allegations and said police was peaceful.
Afterwards, concerned departments of Zhongshan city and the Sanjiao town government responded actively to the reasonable demands of the petitioner villagers, meticulously persuaded and explained to them, and properly handled the problem.
Sanjiao town is an economically underdeveloped area in Zongshan, which is a commercial city in Guandong province of South China. Its proximity to Hong Kong has added advantage to its economic development, specially for the manufacturing industries. The city considers its eastern part, as a focus of development and to re-organise the fragmented industrialisation. However, the light and labour intensive industry imposes problem because of shortage of land in Zhongshan.
China’s growing economy is fuelling social tension. It is claimed that in Dongzhou, police shot a group of protestors against land seizures and 30 residents died in the shooting. The government refuted and admitted that only three died in the incident.
Recently, a wave of frequent, serious incidents linked to the problem took place in Guangdong too, only a few months before the initiation of the movement against land acquisition at Singur, followed by Nandigram in West Bengal. Both localities were under state government scanner for providing land to Tata Motors for manufacturing cars and an Indonesian Group for establishing a chemical Special Economic Zone (SEZ).
At Singur, the land requisitioned amounts to 1,000 acres where the state government tried to acquire 19,000 acres at Nandigram in East Medinipur without having any consent from local villagers. Both the areas became unstable and the government was shaken as opposition came from within the Left Front partners.
More particularly, Nandigram took the shape of a war zone as protests came from the residents of 38 villages. Several people died in police action and inter-party fights as well. The state government had to bid adieu to the proposed plots and announced that no land would be taken in Nandigram. However, at Singur, the opposition could not survive finally.
The incidents in China and in West Bengal have much resonance. The issue is same and in both places communist governments are in action. Both the governments are shifting to a new era with changed ideologies. Both the governments are sailing the same plank and their actions corroborate each other.
http://world.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=133306
by Sagarika Roy
THERE IS a proverb – the Indian communists seek for an umbrella when it rains in Moscow or Beijing. China has transformed. Maoism has been shelved inside closets. Communism as a whole has been trailing behind across the world after it got a severe jolt in the Soviet Union in the early nineties.
Still, communists in India, particularly in West Bengal seem not to deviate from their big brothers’ path. The Left Front government has been in power in the state for the last 30 years. The steps being taken by it in acquiring land for industry and commercial purposes by evicting thousands of farmers from their lands, appear to have taken a cue from recent Chinese formula of evicting peasants for land acquisition. This has been well expressed in Singur and Nandigram.
In 2003, the government of Sanjiao town in Zhongshan province requisitioned a plot of land measuring more than 200 hectares of Panlong village for industrial development. Local people, though unwillingly, gave consent to the proposal. The town government provided compensation for land acquisition along with crop compensation to local villagers. The land was requisitioned in favour of a Hong Kong based business company to build factories at the price of 1,10,000 yuan per ’mu’. This was not disclosed as the villagers got compensated at a much lower rate – only a few thousands yuan per mu. Since the land was taken away, no effort for developing the land was taken. The peasants were promised employment in a proposed factory but even after three years, they did not get it because there was no response from the government or the business house for setting up the factory.
On January 10, 2006, thousands of villagers from Panlong village of Sanjiao town assembled at the office of the government. They claimed that it has cheated them in two ways . First, they have been given low compensation considering the rate at which the government sold the land to the business house. Second, they have not been provided any job as promised.
The second phase of the movement started on January 14 when they assembled at Nansan Road. A force of 2,000 policemen tried to break the blockade when some instigators threw bricks, stones and homemade bombs on police officers. Two police officers and three villagers were injured. In order to restore normal traffic and prevent the incident from escalating, the police arrested 25 suspected troublemakers. Four instigators were given a 15-day detention for disrupting traffic and the rest were discharged. The villagers claimed that police beat them at random, used weapons and a minor girl died in the attack. The government, however, refuted all allegations and said police was peaceful.
Afterwards, concerned departments of Zhongshan city and the Sanjiao town government responded actively to the reasonable demands of the petitioner villagers, meticulously persuaded and explained to them, and properly handled the problem.
Sanjiao town is an economically underdeveloped area in Zongshan, which is a commercial city in Guandong province of South China. Its proximity to Hong Kong has added advantage to its economic development, specially for the manufacturing industries. The city considers its eastern part, as a focus of development and to re-organise the fragmented industrialisation. However, the light and labour intensive industry imposes problem because of shortage of land in Zhongshan.
China’s growing economy is fuelling social tension. It is claimed that in Dongzhou, police shot a group of protestors against land seizures and 30 residents died in the shooting. The government refuted and admitted that only three died in the incident.
Recently, a wave of frequent, serious incidents linked to the problem took place in Guangdong too, only a few months before the initiation of the movement against land acquisition at Singur, followed by Nandigram in West Bengal. Both localities were under state government scanner for providing land to Tata Motors for manufacturing cars and an Indonesian Group for establishing a chemical Special Economic Zone (SEZ).
At Singur, the land requisitioned amounts to 1,000 acres where the state government tried to acquire 19,000 acres at Nandigram in East Medinipur without having any consent from local villagers. Both the areas became unstable and the government was shaken as opposition came from within the Left Front partners.
More particularly, Nandigram took the shape of a war zone as protests came from the residents of 38 villages. Several people died in police action and inter-party fights as well. The state government had to bid adieu to the proposed plots and announced that no land would be taken in Nandigram. However, at Singur, the opposition could not survive finally.
The incidents in China and in West Bengal have much resonance. The issue is same and in both places communist governments are in action. Both the governments are shifting to a new era with changed ideologies. Both the governments are sailing the same plank and their actions corroborate each other.
http://world.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=133306
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Fear still reigns in Nandigram
Biswabrata Goswami
SONACHURA, April 23: In Nandigram’s villages, people still live in fear of the CPI-M and police. Opposition candidates who have filed their nomination papers for the forthcoming panchayat poll fear they may have to cancel their candidature should the pressure become unbearable.
Mr Sheikh Alam, a Trinamul leader, said: “It is not the CPI-M that we fear but the support it enjoys from police. Most of the attacks on villagers here took place in the presence of policemen. Given the deteriorating situation, we might withdraw our candidature at the last minute. We have intimated this to the local SDO.”
An aged woman draped in a saree slammed shut the window of her mud house when this correspondent asked for a reaction on the political scene in her home ~ Sonachura village, Nandigram. Others, who were nervously peeping out of their houses, did the same. A middle-aged man came out of his house and whispered, “Please don’t stay here for long. They will beat us and torture our women if they see us talking to outsiders. Even you may be attacked.”
In the Nandigram-I block of Midnapore East, “they” are CPI-M cadres. A few days before “normalcy” returned to these villages following the CPI-M’s bloody recapture of Nandigram in early November last year, the political scene was quite different from what it is now. The entire area was a stronghold of the Bhumi Ucched Protirodh Committee (BUPC). But after re-establishing their political dominance, the CPI-M is now desperately trying to hold on to these villagers by following a three-pronged strategy.
First, they chalked out plans to win the villagers’ faith by implementing various Central development schemes. They allocated huge funds for the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and various health schemes through panchayats.
Secondly, they worked insidiously to break the Opposition’s unity. Foreseeing a split in the BUPC over selection of candidates for the forthcoming panchayat poll, they filed the nomination of a Trinamul Congress leader in Nandigram I panchayat samity, Mr Ranjan Patra, as an independent candidate backed by the Left Front. The CPI-M leadership here tactfully nominated many new candidates who are mostly members of anti-Left Front families in those areas to cut a large piece out of the Opposition’s vote-bank.
Trinamul Congress chief Miss Mamata Banerjee has decided to keep both the BJP and the Congress at a distance during the panchayat polls. As most anti-Left parties are also members of the BUPC, there are rifts in the Opposition; many Opposition candidates have filed nominations as independents, which has helped the CPI-M to penetrate into Nandigram’s villages.
Thirdly, the CPI-M is unleashing “silent” terror among supporters of the Opposition. They have planned to enlist the help of local police to arrest prominent Opposition workers and leaders in connection with old cases ahead of the polls.
The CPI-M has been successfully able to unite its partners and solve seat-sharing disputes. Of 115-gram panchayat seats in Nandigram, the CPI-M has fielded 75 candidates, the CPI has fielded 33, the RSP three, the FB two and the SP has fielded two candidates. Of 27 panchayat samity seats, the CPI-M has filed nominations in 21, the CPI in five and the RSP in one, while in the two Zilla Parishad seats, the CPI-M and the CPI have fielded one candidate each.
Although the CPI-M-sponsored terror in Nandigram had united the Opposition and the CPI-M lost heavily in school committee elections, the Opposition will not be able to retain their influence unless they can retain their unity in the panchayat poll.
SONACHURA, April 23: In Nandigram’s villages, people still live in fear of the CPI-M and police. Opposition candidates who have filed their nomination papers for the forthcoming panchayat poll fear they may have to cancel their candidature should the pressure become unbearable.
Mr Sheikh Alam, a Trinamul leader, said: “It is not the CPI-M that we fear but the support it enjoys from police. Most of the attacks on villagers here took place in the presence of policemen. Given the deteriorating situation, we might withdraw our candidature at the last minute. We have intimated this to the local SDO.”
An aged woman draped in a saree slammed shut the window of her mud house when this correspondent asked for a reaction on the political scene in her home ~ Sonachura village, Nandigram. Others, who were nervously peeping out of their houses, did the same. A middle-aged man came out of his house and whispered, “Please don’t stay here for long. They will beat us and torture our women if they see us talking to outsiders. Even you may be attacked.”
In the Nandigram-I block of Midnapore East, “they” are CPI-M cadres. A few days before “normalcy” returned to these villages following the CPI-M’s bloody recapture of Nandigram in early November last year, the political scene was quite different from what it is now. The entire area was a stronghold of the Bhumi Ucched Protirodh Committee (BUPC). But after re-establishing their political dominance, the CPI-M is now desperately trying to hold on to these villagers by following a three-pronged strategy.
First, they chalked out plans to win the villagers’ faith by implementing various Central development schemes. They allocated huge funds for the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and various health schemes through panchayats.
Secondly, they worked insidiously to break the Opposition’s unity. Foreseeing a split in the BUPC over selection of candidates for the forthcoming panchayat poll, they filed the nomination of a Trinamul Congress leader in Nandigram I panchayat samity, Mr Ranjan Patra, as an independent candidate backed by the Left Front. The CPI-M leadership here tactfully nominated many new candidates who are mostly members of anti-Left Front families in those areas to cut a large piece out of the Opposition’s vote-bank.
Trinamul Congress chief Miss Mamata Banerjee has decided to keep both the BJP and the Congress at a distance during the panchayat polls. As most anti-Left parties are also members of the BUPC, there are rifts in the Opposition; many Opposition candidates have filed nominations as independents, which has helped the CPI-M to penetrate into Nandigram’s villages.
Thirdly, the CPI-M is unleashing “silent” terror among supporters of the Opposition. They have planned to enlist the help of local police to arrest prominent Opposition workers and leaders in connection with old cases ahead of the polls.
The CPI-M has been successfully able to unite its partners and solve seat-sharing disputes. Of 115-gram panchayat seats in Nandigram, the CPI-M has fielded 75 candidates, the CPI has fielded 33, the RSP three, the FB two and the SP has fielded two candidates. Of 27 panchayat samity seats, the CPI-M has filed nominations in 21, the CPI in five and the RSP in one, while in the two Zilla Parishad seats, the CPI-M and the CPI have fielded one candidate each.
Although the CPI-M-sponsored terror in Nandigram had united the Opposition and the CPI-M lost heavily in school committee elections, the Opposition will not be able to retain their influence unless they can retain their unity in the panchayat poll.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
CPM likely to bag 4,000 seats without contest
Express news service
Posted online: Wednesday, April 23, 2008 at 01:33:23
kolkata, April 22 The ruling CPM is likely to manage victory without a contest in nearly 4,000 gram panchayat seats in the first phase of panchayat elections. Like last year, the trend is being seen in Hooghly and West Midnapore districts on a large scale.
Hridesh Mohan, the election observer in Hooghly, told the State Election Commission on Tuesday that a large number of Opposition candidates have withdrawn their nominations and the trend is continuing.
S N Roychowdhury, Secretary of the SEC, said: “We are unable to get a clear picture for the number of seats where there won’t be any contest. But we expect the number to be less than last polls.”
Sources in the SEC said after the final figure comes, the number of uncontested seats would exceed 4,000. The number was 11,000 last time. The trend is seen in Goghat, Khanakul, Jangipara, Arambag in Hooghly district and in some blocks of West Midnapore. “There were no elections in these areas last time. We think the trend will continue. Because we are getting information of large-scale withdrawals from Hooghly,” said Roychowdhury.
Meanwhile, Opposition TMC alleged that the CPM is forcing its candidates to withdraw nominations at gunpoint.
“The district administration and the police are turning a deaf ear to our pleas for help,” said Partho Chatterjee, Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly.
Roychowdhury said: “The Commission cannot force someone to file or withdraw nominations. Our observers talked to individual candidates who said they were withdrawing papers willingly. We have got complaints. But none of them are so specific that we can ask the police to intervene.”
Till last reports came in, a total of 1,25,118 candidates had filed their nominations for 41,513 gram panchayat seats. For 8,798 panchayat samity seats, 26,917 candidates will contest and for 748 zila parishad seats, 3,703 candidates filed their nominations.
For further protection to candidates in some parts, the SEC claimed to have made arrangements at the SDO office instead of Block offices for filing nominations in Hooghly and West Midnapore. “But this seemed to have no effect as there are so many withdrawals,” said an official of the SEC.
The SEC needs 3,25,000 personnel for the polls. This time, it will not recruit schoolteachers and women.
Posted online: Wednesday, April 23, 2008 at 01:33:23
kolkata, April 22 The ruling CPM is likely to manage victory without a contest in nearly 4,000 gram panchayat seats in the first phase of panchayat elections. Like last year, the trend is being seen in Hooghly and West Midnapore districts on a large scale.
Hridesh Mohan, the election observer in Hooghly, told the State Election Commission on Tuesday that a large number of Opposition candidates have withdrawn their nominations and the trend is continuing.
S N Roychowdhury, Secretary of the SEC, said: “We are unable to get a clear picture for the number of seats where there won’t be any contest. But we expect the number to be less than last polls.”
Sources in the SEC said after the final figure comes, the number of uncontested seats would exceed 4,000. The number was 11,000 last time. The trend is seen in Goghat, Khanakul, Jangipara, Arambag in Hooghly district and in some blocks of West Midnapore. “There were no elections in these areas last time. We think the trend will continue. Because we are getting information of large-scale withdrawals from Hooghly,” said Roychowdhury.
Meanwhile, Opposition TMC alleged that the CPM is forcing its candidates to withdraw nominations at gunpoint.
“The district administration and the police are turning a deaf ear to our pleas for help,” said Partho Chatterjee, Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly.
Roychowdhury said: “The Commission cannot force someone to file or withdraw nominations. Our observers talked to individual candidates who said they were withdrawing papers willingly. We have got complaints. But none of them are so specific that we can ask the police to intervene.”
Till last reports came in, a total of 1,25,118 candidates had filed their nominations for 41,513 gram panchayat seats. For 8,798 panchayat samity seats, 26,917 candidates will contest and for 748 zila parishad seats, 3,703 candidates filed their nominations.
For further protection to candidates in some parts, the SEC claimed to have made arrangements at the SDO office instead of Block offices for filing nominations in Hooghly and West Midnapore. “But this seemed to have no effect as there are so many withdrawals,” said an official of the SEC.
The SEC needs 3,25,000 personnel for the polls. This time, it will not recruit schoolteachers and women.
CIC snubs Buddha on RTI
Express news service
Posted online: Wednesday, April 23, 2008 at 01:44:01
Kolkata, April 22 The Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) of West Bengal, Arun Bhattacharya, criticised the state government for the latter’s dismal performance in implementing the Right To Information Act in the state.
At a seminar on ‘RTI Act: Challenges and Opportunities’ at the Merchants Chamber of Commerce in the city, Bhattacharya said: “Compared to other states like Maharashtra and Delhi, West Bengal is lagging far behind. In Maharashtra 1.53 lakh applications have been received but in West Bengal where the commission was constituted in 2006, so far only 15,000 applications have been received. Of which only 10 per cent had been disposed of. It is very unfortunate.”
He attributed this to various reasons, including lack of infrastructure and attitude problem.
Chief Information Commissioner of India, Wajahat Habibullah, who was also presented at the seminar, supported Bhattacharya’s contention.
“It is true that West Bengal is lagging behind in dissemination of information. But there is also this fact that West Bengal started late. I believe there is much scope of progress in this regard. In West Bengal panchayati raj is very strong and I have been told that lots of information lie with the panchayats. People can avail them by using the RTI. I also believe that the awareness level among the people should also be increased,” he said.
Bhattacharya also said that the deal or the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the state government and some other party cannot be dubbed a “trade secret” and it should be made public.
Incidentally, state minister for commerce and industries Nirupam Sen had earlier said that the deal between the state government and the Tatas on the Singur small car manufacturing plant cannot be revealed as it was a “trade secret”.
“If there is any formula or a design for manufacturing something you can call that a “trade secret”. There had been many moves to make that deal (the one between the Tatas and the government) public. However, the government has not yet done that,” Bhattacharya said.
Posted online: Wednesday, April 23, 2008 at 01:44:01
Kolkata, April 22 The Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) of West Bengal, Arun Bhattacharya, criticised the state government for the latter’s dismal performance in implementing the Right To Information Act in the state.
At a seminar on ‘RTI Act: Challenges and Opportunities’ at the Merchants Chamber of Commerce in the city, Bhattacharya said: “Compared to other states like Maharashtra and Delhi, West Bengal is lagging far behind. In Maharashtra 1.53 lakh applications have been received but in West Bengal where the commission was constituted in 2006, so far only 15,000 applications have been received. Of which only 10 per cent had been disposed of. It is very unfortunate.”
He attributed this to various reasons, including lack of infrastructure and attitude problem.
Chief Information Commissioner of India, Wajahat Habibullah, who was also presented at the seminar, supported Bhattacharya’s contention.
“It is true that West Bengal is lagging behind in dissemination of information. But there is also this fact that West Bengal started late. I believe there is much scope of progress in this regard. In West Bengal panchayati raj is very strong and I have been told that lots of information lie with the panchayats. People can avail them by using the RTI. I also believe that the awareness level among the people should also be increased,” he said.
Bhattacharya also said that the deal or the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the state government and some other party cannot be dubbed a “trade secret” and it should be made public.
Incidentally, state minister for commerce and industries Nirupam Sen had earlier said that the deal between the state government and the Tatas on the Singur small car manufacturing plant cannot be revealed as it was a “trade secret”.
“If there is any formula or a design for manufacturing something you can call that a “trade secret”. There had been many moves to make that deal (the one between the Tatas and the government) public. However, the government has not yet done that,” Bhattacharya said.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Adversary to Amity…
The recent uprising in Tibet has been able to unmask the adjudicators of the world, if not anything else. The super power that squashed Communist dictatorship for decades has conveniently turned into compatibility mode and the super saver in Geneva, the convoyer of civil rights maintained an aloof indifference towards the gentile Tibetan’s strive against Chinese supremacy. Back home, in Kolkata where violations of human rights is perhaps an everyday ritual, our ruling party members, so-called comrades of the needy and the destitute invalidated even the slightest upheaval by the Tibetan students.
Here is a report by The Statesman:
Delhi says yes to rally, state says no
Statesman News Service
KOLKATA, April 11: Members of the Tibetan government-in-exile expressed strong discontent at the action of the state government at canceling permission at the last minute to the Tibetan Solidarity rally that was to be held over three days at Mayo Road. “The state and the Centre seem to have different points of view regarding Tibet,” said Mr Dawa Tsering (Gyalrong), a member of Parliament of the Tibetan government-in-exile. Even as Tibetans in the city were stopped from staging demonstrations, thousands of Tibetans held peaceful protests yesterday in the national Capital.
Hundreds of Tibetans who have congregated in the city from all over eastern and north-eastern India today held protest demonstrations in College Square. Shouting anti-China slogans and dressed in Chinese police uniform to display the torture meted out to Tibetan demonstrators in Tibet capital Lhasa, Tibetans from Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Sikkim, Darjeeling, Kalimpong and many other parts of eastern India assembled in Mahabodhi Temple behind College Square this morning.
Expressing dismay at the state government's stance towards the Tibetan cause, Mr Tsering, who has traveled from Dharamsala to organize the Kolkata chapter of demonstrations, said: “We are very unhappy with the state government's stand. We held discussions with the city police DC Headquarters in person and agreed to the route suggested by senior officers of the Kolkata Police for our peaceful demonstration to be held for three days from yesterday. Yet, police cancelled permission at the 11th hour. They called us at 9 p.m. on Wednesday, when all the Tibetan participants had already spent a large sum to leave their homes in far-off states and had arrived here.”
Mr Tsering, who is also president of the Tibetan Solidarity Sub Committee, added that in spite of pleading with senior police officers to be allowed even to simply hold a prayer ceremony at Mayo Road, permission was not granted. “Police here are helpless, as they have to listen to orders from the state government,” Mr Tsering said. Asked for an explanation, a senior city police officer said yesterday that it was because of “government policy” that they had had to cancel permission.
Emphasising that the Tibetan government-in-exile did not want to disrupt the progress of the Olympic torch relay, Mr Tsering however, iterated that the great games should be held in a country that upholds human rights. “In that, Beijing is not a suitable venue for holding the Olympics. Even now, as the whole world has its eyes trained on China, the Chinese government is adamant on not letting up torture on Tibetans or allowing the international media into the troubled area,” said Mr Tsering.
General Secretary of the CPIM, Prakash Karat compared Tibet to separatist demands in India! The ‘Letter to the Editor’ below perhaps best explains the absurdity of his insensible comment:
Karat’s ignorance Sir, ~ CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat showed his ignorance when he compared Nagaland with Tibet. Nagaland was never independent, but Tibet was. This makes a qualitative difference between Nagaland and Tibet. This explains why, when in 1949 China suddenly set up a military camp at Clumby Valley of Tibet, near the Indian border, General Cariappa warned the Indian government with the words, “The Chinese have not come there for picnic.”
Loknayak Jai Prakash Narayan observed “Tibet Day” in Delhi when the Chinese made further infiltration.
That Tibet was a sovereign, independent state is proved by the fact that it used to issue passport and visa until it was overrun by the Chinese military. Furthermore, it was a signatory to the document of MacMahon Line, which was the international border between Tibet and India.
Mr Karat should know that his writ runs on his mindless party members, but beyond that he cuts a sorry figure for his poor knowledge of Tibetan history. The military occupation of Tibet by China, of which Mr Karat is a great protagonist, is reminiscent of Hitler’s policy of imperialistic aggrandizement during World War II. The Marxist leader amusingly raises a hue and cry over the US-India civil nuclear deal on the sham plea of India’s sovereignty being compromised.
This betrays Mr Karat’s false show of loyalty to Indian nationalism, while his attachment to communist brotherhood beyond Indian borders is palpable.
~ Yours, etc., Dipti Kumar Majumdar,
Kolkata, 2 April.
Imperium in imperio being the mood of the moment in the communist Bengal, what else can one expect but felony against sovereignty?
Somanjana, SWB
Here is a report by The Statesman:
Delhi says yes to rally, state says no
Statesman News Service
KOLKATA, April 11: Members of the Tibetan government-in-exile expressed strong discontent at the action of the state government at canceling permission at the last minute to the Tibetan Solidarity rally that was to be held over three days at Mayo Road. “The state and the Centre seem to have different points of view regarding Tibet,” said Mr Dawa Tsering (Gyalrong), a member of Parliament of the Tibetan government-in-exile. Even as Tibetans in the city were stopped from staging demonstrations, thousands of Tibetans held peaceful protests yesterday in the national Capital.
Hundreds of Tibetans who have congregated in the city from all over eastern and north-eastern India today held protest demonstrations in College Square. Shouting anti-China slogans and dressed in Chinese police uniform to display the torture meted out to Tibetan demonstrators in Tibet capital Lhasa, Tibetans from Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Sikkim, Darjeeling, Kalimpong and many other parts of eastern India assembled in Mahabodhi Temple behind College Square this morning.
Expressing dismay at the state government's stance towards the Tibetan cause, Mr Tsering, who has traveled from Dharamsala to organize the Kolkata chapter of demonstrations, said: “We are very unhappy with the state government's stand. We held discussions with the city police DC Headquarters in person and agreed to the route suggested by senior officers of the Kolkata Police for our peaceful demonstration to be held for three days from yesterday. Yet, police cancelled permission at the 11th hour. They called us at 9 p.m. on Wednesday, when all the Tibetan participants had already spent a large sum to leave their homes in far-off states and had arrived here.”
Mr Tsering, who is also president of the Tibetan Solidarity Sub Committee, added that in spite of pleading with senior police officers to be allowed even to simply hold a prayer ceremony at Mayo Road, permission was not granted. “Police here are helpless, as they have to listen to orders from the state government,” Mr Tsering said. Asked for an explanation, a senior city police officer said yesterday that it was because of “government policy” that they had had to cancel permission.
Emphasising that the Tibetan government-in-exile did not want to disrupt the progress of the Olympic torch relay, Mr Tsering however, iterated that the great games should be held in a country that upholds human rights. “In that, Beijing is not a suitable venue for holding the Olympics. Even now, as the whole world has its eyes trained on China, the Chinese government is adamant on not letting up torture on Tibetans or allowing the international media into the troubled area,” said Mr Tsering.
General Secretary of the CPIM, Prakash Karat compared Tibet to separatist demands in India! The ‘Letter to the Editor’ below perhaps best explains the absurdity of his insensible comment:
Karat’s ignorance Sir, ~ CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat showed his ignorance when he compared Nagaland with Tibet. Nagaland was never independent, but Tibet was. This makes a qualitative difference between Nagaland and Tibet. This explains why, when in 1949 China suddenly set up a military camp at Clumby Valley of Tibet, near the Indian border, General Cariappa warned the Indian government with the words, “The Chinese have not come there for picnic.”
Loknayak Jai Prakash Narayan observed “Tibet Day” in Delhi when the Chinese made further infiltration.
That Tibet was a sovereign, independent state is proved by the fact that it used to issue passport and visa until it was overrun by the Chinese military. Furthermore, it was a signatory to the document of MacMahon Line, which was the international border between Tibet and India.
Mr Karat should know that his writ runs on his mindless party members, but beyond that he cuts a sorry figure for his poor knowledge of Tibetan history. The military occupation of Tibet by China, of which Mr Karat is a great protagonist, is reminiscent of Hitler’s policy of imperialistic aggrandizement during World War II. The Marxist leader amusingly raises a hue and cry over the US-India civil nuclear deal on the sham plea of India’s sovereignty being compromised.
This betrays Mr Karat’s false show of loyalty to Indian nationalism, while his attachment to communist brotherhood beyond Indian borders is palpable.
~ Yours, etc., Dipti Kumar Majumdar,
Kolkata, 2 April.
Imperium in imperio being the mood of the moment in the communist Bengal, what else can one expect but felony against sovereignty?
Somanjana, SWB
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Prakash Karat's obsolete hardline will cost West Bengal and India dearly
"....In 1984, leftists boycotted computerization of West Bengal amidst the hypothetical fear that it would lead to loss of jobs. This resulted in unplumbed loss for West Bengal as IT industry was welcomed and groomed in the South India. Same fate will repeat with civilian nuclear deal but this time for the whole India. Even our poor neighbor Bangladesh is going for Nuclear power helped by NSG. I will not be surprised if India would be forced to borrow power from Bangladesh in 2020 to meet its industrial demand."
http://www.fosaac.tv/content/PrakashKarat.htm
Dr. Biplab Pal, Editor FOSSAC TV
Few sights were completely unmistaken in the concluded CPM 18th party congress in Coimbatore. One of the key story that dripped of very squarely from several news reports—CM of WB Buddhadeb was humbled and made obedient of hard party liners led by Karat given several gestures from his speech. Firstly, Buddha apologized before the audience that he had been instructed to speak only on the failure of Congress instead of his experience of industrialization and surviving within capitalist network. Even on last day of party Congress, he was forced to raise slogans against SEZ and aggressive capitalist policy of the center. Compare this with 17th party congress when Prakash didn't have supreme control of CPM-Buddha flawlessly asserted policy of industrialization in West Bengal. If indications are clear enough, West Bengal is about to be plunged into myriad of industrial graveyards of 70s and 80s. Worst, this time India will not be unscathed from symbolic red hammer as Prakash is wielding power in the center as well. If his obdurate and unintelligible opposition to civilian nuclear deal is any indication of what is expected out of leftist coalition, India's meteoric growth to twenty first century which has been effectuated by its hard working educated middle class, will soon be balanced off by a few antediluvian comrades who never won a popular mandate but enjoyed supremacy in ideological circle of the party.
Crushing of industrial development for the sake of blind anti-Americanism is nothing new to comrade Prakash. When Boeing and Disneyland almost settled on investing in West Bengal in 2001, this Malayali man having no sympathy or feeling for people of West Bengal who suffered a complete draught of industrialization starting from leftist rule of 1977 to 1996 till Buddha was acceded to power, axed the investment deal for his love of anti-Americanism. Result? Boeing fled to Pune and Disneyland considered Hyderabad as hotter destination. Thousands of prospective jobs were lost in West Bengal-of course it does not matter to Prakash Karat because he does not belong to soil of Bengal—but it did matter to Buddha along with any resident of West Bengal.
Fortunately in 2001, he was not powerful enough to strangle the prospect of India-this time he is and well into the action with opposition of Civilian nuclear deal. Neat result? India will lag behind in industrialization in a matter of another two decades. Because Uranium as a fuel is very cheap compared to coal (besides it is environmentally clean) and generation 5th nuclear reactor will be a far more efficient source compared to Hydel or Wind power, insatiable need for industrial power in the future will constrain the industrial growth of India. If somebody has any doubt that the deal is against the interest of India and is not otherwise, I will suggest them to read the actual draft of the agreement online --(http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?tab=summary&bill=s109-3709) . When I read about Prakash's heated statement of imperialistic design in this act, I must say this man is insane-completely anti-American maniacal. But as a Bengali, I am familiar with this kind of historical insanity of the left. In 1984, leftists boycotted computerization of West Bengal amidst the hypothetical fear that it would lead to loss of jobs. This resulted in unplumbed loss for West Bengal as IT industry was welcomed and groomed in the South India. Same fate will repeat with civilian nuclear deal but this time for the whole India. Even our poor neighbor Bangladesh is going for Nuclear power helped by NSG. I will not be surprised if India would be forced to borrow power from Bangladesh in 2020 to meet its industrial demand.
India is the largest democracy with greatest media power in the world. If this act imposes anything against the interest of India, it will not avoid media scrutiny-no power in the center will embrace that risk. In reality, 123 agreement did fair justice to both India and USA in safeguarding their military interest. Besides, if history is not forgotten, there is no way one can impose international laws on India (for that matter any large democracy). So the fear-psychotic of imperialism created around the deal is completely ersatz and ploy for political game of haywire leftists. But, we, the common Indians, aspirant of twenty first century residents in the world, are continuing to suffer at the hand of a few leftists ideologues. In the past, it was only Bengal—now the whole India will be hammered in the same way West Bengal suffered its drowning fate.
http://www.fosaac.tv/content/PrakashKarat.htm
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Bengali Intellectuals decry Taslima’s departure
Statesman News Service
KOLKATA, April 3, 2008:
Considering Ms Taslima Nasreen's departure from the country as a severe blow to the fundamental principles of secularism, democracy and freedom of speech, city intellectuals felt the Union government should immediately ask her to return and assure her of a safe and secured life in India.
In a statement issued on 1 April, city intellectuals comprising of Aparna Sen, Bibhash Chakravarty, Mahasweta Devi, Suvaprasanna, Mr IK Gujral, among others criticised the state and Union government for their stand in the case of Ms Nasreen.
In the wake of the situation when Ms Nasreen had to break free from leading an isolated life by leaving the country, city intellectuals said the Centre should approach her to return as soon as her health condition improves. Further, the Central government must assure that no obstacles would prevent her from leading a normal life and provide her with adequate security.
Claiming the author's departure has tarnished the country's image before the world, intellectuals expressed concern over the highhandedness of religious extremists who have been encouraged to spread terror, disruption and violence in the country. The intellectuals have thus urged the state and the Union government to discourage extremist elements among religious groups.
They also added her decision to leave the country has caused immense frustration to all intellectuals who had been trying to defend her rights and secure justice for her. They even warned that if this policy of suppressing an author's right to speech is pursued it would pose a threat to the security, peace and stability in the country.
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=6&theme=&usrsess=1&id=197846
KOLKATA, April 3, 2008:
Considering Ms Taslima Nasreen's departure from the country as a severe blow to the fundamental principles of secularism, democracy and freedom of speech, city intellectuals felt the Union government should immediately ask her to return and assure her of a safe and secured life in India.
In a statement issued on 1 April, city intellectuals comprising of Aparna Sen, Bibhash Chakravarty, Mahasweta Devi, Suvaprasanna, Mr IK Gujral, among others criticised the state and Union government for their stand in the case of Ms Nasreen.
In the wake of the situation when Ms Nasreen had to break free from leading an isolated life by leaving the country, city intellectuals said the Centre should approach her to return as soon as her health condition improves. Further, the Central government must assure that no obstacles would prevent her from leading a normal life and provide her with adequate security.
Claiming the author's departure has tarnished the country's image before the world, intellectuals expressed concern over the highhandedness of religious extremists who have been encouraged to spread terror, disruption and violence in the country. The intellectuals have thus urged the state and the Union government to discourage extremist elements among religious groups.
They also added her decision to leave the country has caused immense frustration to all intellectuals who had been trying to defend her rights and secure justice for her. They even warned that if this policy of suppressing an author's right to speech is pursued it would pose a threat to the security, peace and stability in the country.
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=6&theme=&usrsess=1&id=197846
WISH & FULFILMENT --- West Bengal Budget Analysis
Dr Dasgupta’s Well-Intentioned Prescription For An Indeterminate Group
“My budget is aimed at the poorest of the poor. So it won’t be proper to label me Kalpataru.”
~ Dr Asim Dasgupta after presenting the West Bengal budget on 17 March 2008
=========================
By ARINDAM GHOSH-DASTIDAR
A critical, if scarcely noted, feature of Bengal’s social development has been the near-total disappearance of able-bodied beggars, a fairly common sight till not so long ago. Even the percentage of the lame and the halt among those seeking alms has dwindled considerably over the years. Far from projecting such positives as an index of a state on the roll, Dr Asim Dasgupta’s budget for 2008-09 has promised cooked food to the poorest section, including beggars. A tidy sum of Rs 100 crores has been earmarked for an indeterminate group and the proposal is arguably in response to the overwhelming disaster of the two icons of welfare economics ~ the Public Distribution System and the National Rural Employment Generation Scheme. We are tempted to enter a caveat that should the cooked food distribution system be handled by the village mafia in the manner of rationing, it is doomed to a similar fate.
Two months before the panchayat election, the budget seeks to benefit a wide cross-section of the dispossessed. The statewide canvas of the cooked food scheme is much too vast. However well-intentioned, it may not exactly serve the purpose of poverty alleviation if it gets diffused. If poverty alleviation is indeed the objective, the package ought to have focused primarily on the basket case of Purulia, Bankura and Midnapore. This is the perennially arid and impoverished belt where, by the Chief Minister’s own admission in November 2005, all alleviation schemes have floundered, notably also the ones that ought to have benefited from the prime-pumping by Britain’s Department for International Development (DFID).
Amlasole village in West Midnapore reported five starvation deaths in 2004 though it was politically diagnosed as malnutrition by the party office in Kolkata. Mercifully, there was no such semantic quibbling when Kuna Shabar died of starvation in the same district on 29 December last year. Misgivings that the reality of hunger and death in the three districts may find its echo in the panchayat elections in May are not wholly unfounded. Hence this contrived revival of the socialist baggage, however disillusioned Mr Jyoti Basu and Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee may be with the political philosophy.
Likewise, the Provident Fund scheme for the unorganised sector, including maid servants, may appear to be a benevolent move on the face of it; but here again the target group is an indeterminate quantity and the burden on the exchequer remains to be worked out. The record of both the national and state governments across the country doesn't inspire optimism. The Government of India’s standing assurance of a monthly allowance for the unorganised worker is yet to materialise as neither the Centre nor the states have been able to agree on the contributory ratio.
Touching, if fatally belated, is the concern for the peasant. A Rs 100-crore special assistance fund is to be set up for landlosers. This compensation package has been proposed two years after the government suffered a jolt in Singur and after enough died and more suffered cruel and barbarous reprisal in Nandigram. The Centre’s loan-waiver has been matched by the state with a Rs 6,175-crore target as bank loan for agriculture. To what extent this will be feasible must remain an open question given the rapid privatisation of the banking sector. As in large parts of the country, the farmer in Bengal is still dependent on the mahajan and money-lender, an affluent section of the rural populace. And rather presumptuous is the demand for universal banking in Bengal during the 11th Plan given the corruption that has led to the closure of at least one cooperative bank, a major source of rural agricultural funding.
Dr Dasgupta has matched the government’s overkill on industrialisation with a profound faith in the data yielded by Farm Management Studies. “Both employment generation and production per acre are highest in the case of small and marginal farmers. The high priority on land reforms will remain firmly in place”. Indeed, industry gets a relatively minor rating in the budget. Electoral compulsions may have convinced the government that the patta ~ the icon of agrarian reforms since the era of the Great Mughals ~ still means more to the rural voter than such totems of post-modern industrialisation as a Special Economic Zone.
While the anxiety to address the increasing disenchantment in the rural areas is perceptible, the budget offers little or nothing in relation to the primary indices of welfare ~ basic health, education and employment generation. The one-time tax on new cars and the tax on foreign liquor are targeted at those in the level of affluent subsistence, whose number is legion in Kolkata and its eastern fringe. With Singur set to roll out the people’s car this year, the Nano effect can be expected to net a fair amount to the kitty, now contending with a Rs 2-crore deficit budget.
From the permanently poor to the noveau riche the budget takes care of the market preferences of a wide cross-section. To symbolise the progress from Sutanati to shopping malls, the state’s finance minister proposes to set up food malls under a new market corporation, a move that is concordant with the fantasy of a Shining Bengal. The government's retail outlet chain will sell the produce procured directly from farmers by self-help groups.
The consumer may be able to avoid the flotsam and the jetsam of the para bazar, but there is no mistaking that the government's compulsion is more political than plainly economic. There is little doubt that the state-sponsored procurement-to-retail set-up has been studiously thought up to counter the Forward Bloc’s opposition to the entry of corporate private enterprise in the retail sector. The junior partner’s violent methods have provoked Reliance to down its shutters for now.
Overall, there is more of tinkering than assertion in the exercise. Whether the focus is on Parliament or the panchayat, whether the budget is the handiwork of a Harvard-educated lawyer or an MIT-trained economist, the electoral compulsions are equally compelling. The poor may be overawed at the munificence just as the corporate world may feel a mite let down because there isn’t much that a reformist government has to offer in this budget. In the manner of Palaniappan Chidambaram, Asim Dasgupta has been able to reflect the flavour of the season. And that is enough.
The writer is Assistant Editor, The Statesman
“My budget is aimed at the poorest of the poor. So it won’t be proper to label me Kalpataru.”
~ Dr Asim Dasgupta after presenting the West Bengal budget on 17 March 2008
=========================
By ARINDAM GHOSH-DASTIDAR
A critical, if scarcely noted, feature of Bengal’s social development has been the near-total disappearance of able-bodied beggars, a fairly common sight till not so long ago. Even the percentage of the lame and the halt among those seeking alms has dwindled considerably over the years. Far from projecting such positives as an index of a state on the roll, Dr Asim Dasgupta’s budget for 2008-09 has promised cooked food to the poorest section, including beggars. A tidy sum of Rs 100 crores has been earmarked for an indeterminate group and the proposal is arguably in response to the overwhelming disaster of the two icons of welfare economics ~ the Public Distribution System and the National Rural Employment Generation Scheme. We are tempted to enter a caveat that should the cooked food distribution system be handled by the village mafia in the manner of rationing, it is doomed to a similar fate.
Two months before the panchayat election, the budget seeks to benefit a wide cross-section of the dispossessed. The statewide canvas of the cooked food scheme is much too vast. However well-intentioned, it may not exactly serve the purpose of poverty alleviation if it gets diffused. If poverty alleviation is indeed the objective, the package ought to have focused primarily on the basket case of Purulia, Bankura and Midnapore. This is the perennially arid and impoverished belt where, by the Chief Minister’s own admission in November 2005, all alleviation schemes have floundered, notably also the ones that ought to have benefited from the prime-pumping by Britain’s Department for International Development (DFID).
Amlasole village in West Midnapore reported five starvation deaths in 2004 though it was politically diagnosed as malnutrition by the party office in Kolkata. Mercifully, there was no such semantic quibbling when Kuna Shabar died of starvation in the same district on 29 December last year. Misgivings that the reality of hunger and death in the three districts may find its echo in the panchayat elections in May are not wholly unfounded. Hence this contrived revival of the socialist baggage, however disillusioned Mr Jyoti Basu and Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee may be with the political philosophy.
Likewise, the Provident Fund scheme for the unorganised sector, including maid servants, may appear to be a benevolent move on the face of it; but here again the target group is an indeterminate quantity and the burden on the exchequer remains to be worked out. The record of both the national and state governments across the country doesn't inspire optimism. The Government of India’s standing assurance of a monthly allowance for the unorganised worker is yet to materialise as neither the Centre nor the states have been able to agree on the contributory ratio.
Touching, if fatally belated, is the concern for the peasant. A Rs 100-crore special assistance fund is to be set up for landlosers. This compensation package has been proposed two years after the government suffered a jolt in Singur and after enough died and more suffered cruel and barbarous reprisal in Nandigram. The Centre’s loan-waiver has been matched by the state with a Rs 6,175-crore target as bank loan for agriculture. To what extent this will be feasible must remain an open question given the rapid privatisation of the banking sector. As in large parts of the country, the farmer in Bengal is still dependent on the mahajan and money-lender, an affluent section of the rural populace. And rather presumptuous is the demand for universal banking in Bengal during the 11th Plan given the corruption that has led to the closure of at least one cooperative bank, a major source of rural agricultural funding.
Dr Dasgupta has matched the government’s overkill on industrialisation with a profound faith in the data yielded by Farm Management Studies. “Both employment generation and production per acre are highest in the case of small and marginal farmers. The high priority on land reforms will remain firmly in place”. Indeed, industry gets a relatively minor rating in the budget. Electoral compulsions may have convinced the government that the patta ~ the icon of agrarian reforms since the era of the Great Mughals ~ still means more to the rural voter than such totems of post-modern industrialisation as a Special Economic Zone.
While the anxiety to address the increasing disenchantment in the rural areas is perceptible, the budget offers little or nothing in relation to the primary indices of welfare ~ basic health, education and employment generation. The one-time tax on new cars and the tax on foreign liquor are targeted at those in the level of affluent subsistence, whose number is legion in Kolkata and its eastern fringe. With Singur set to roll out the people’s car this year, the Nano effect can be expected to net a fair amount to the kitty, now contending with a Rs 2-crore deficit budget.
From the permanently poor to the noveau riche the budget takes care of the market preferences of a wide cross-section. To symbolise the progress from Sutanati to shopping malls, the state’s finance minister proposes to set up food malls under a new market corporation, a move that is concordant with the fantasy of a Shining Bengal. The government's retail outlet chain will sell the produce procured directly from farmers by self-help groups.
The consumer may be able to avoid the flotsam and the jetsam of the para bazar, but there is no mistaking that the government's compulsion is more political than plainly economic. There is little doubt that the state-sponsored procurement-to-retail set-up has been studiously thought up to counter the Forward Bloc’s opposition to the entry of corporate private enterprise in the retail sector. The junior partner’s violent methods have provoked Reliance to down its shutters for now.
Overall, there is more of tinkering than assertion in the exercise. Whether the focus is on Parliament or the panchayat, whether the budget is the handiwork of a Harvard-educated lawyer or an MIT-trained economist, the electoral compulsions are equally compelling. The poor may be overawed at the munificence just as the corporate world may feel a mite let down because there isn’t much that a reformist government has to offer in this budget. In the manner of Palaniappan Chidambaram, Asim Dasgupta has been able to reflect the flavour of the season. And that is enough.
The writer is Assistant Editor, The Statesman
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