Forced Land Acquisition in Bengal - I
A Test-case for the left-front government
With India poised to become the worldwide hub for small car production and sales, the TATA industries - a flagship business house in India – wants badly to start production of small family cars for the “common man”. No sooner than the left-front government was voted to power in West Bengal for the seventh consecutive time, TATA Motors started pushing for prime land near Kolkata to set up its Rs 1000 crore ($ 200 million) automobile plant. This venture is a part of an aggressive expansion spree undertaken in the last few years by the TATA industries.
Within days, Singur, located some 30 km west of Kolkata in the alluvial plains of the main river in Bengal – Hooghly, was identified as the site. With that also began the battle over 1300 acres of fertile and multicrop agricultural land. More than 15,000 peasants and their families in Singur now live under the threat of eviction and livelihood loss. The threat is growing ominous by the day since TATA Motors has given an ultimatum that they need the land by the end of this year, and the state government has threatened to clamp down the Bengal Land Acquisition Act 1890 - a law of colonial heritage – to procure the land for the TATA Motors.
While a handful of big farmers have sold their land, the small farmers have refused to budge. Organized under the banner of Krishi Jami Banchao Committee, the peasants are continuing their fight-back, preventing the entry of both the TATA Motors officials and the officers of WBIDC, the governmental development wing of Bengal, into Singur. Already they have been at the receiving end of police batons and large-scale arrests, including the recent incarceration of a large number of women.
Muddying waters, parliamentary opposition parties have also joined the fray in Singur, claiming to support the vulnerable farmers - strictly according to their narrow electoral interests and vote-bank calculus. On the other hand, CPI-M has mobilized its mass organizations to hold rallies in support of the land sale. Through its official organ, it has declared those opposing the land-sale to be “anti-development”, and have even gone to the extent of calling the land uncultivable. An irate Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, the chief minister of West Bengal state, has said: “They cannot stop us from setting up industry in the state. Let them shout as much as they can, we'll do what we have to”.
By and large, the Singur landscape is dominated by small peasants who own more than 60% of the disputed land. According to the court decision, before any payment, a land holder is required to clear all outstanding dues. With the scourge of debt the way it is, small peasants expect to make precious little from the sale. And, once forced off the land, they have no other means of livelihood. Then there are innumerable agricultural laborers, unregistered sharecroppers, cottage industry workers and small business, who are simply left entirely to fend for themselves. Thjs is no “fair compensation” for the dispossession, displacement, loss of livelihood, and sheer insecurity that stares both at the land-owners and landless in Singur!
In fact, not far from Singur, another village has recently met with the same fate. Under the watchful eyes of the state government, Bankura was handed over to the Indonesian-based Salim Group of Industries for making a megacity called Kolkata West International, while the peasants were evicted from their land and dispossessed of their occupation, and slowly but surely pauperized.
Singur and Bankura are merely the first wave of forced land sale in Bengal. Keen to give a red-carpet welcome to domestic and foreign investments in Bengal, the left-front government has already chalked out plans for acquiring at least 40,000 acres in the coming years for various industrial projects. Ironically, it is the very promise of protection of farmers and landless laborers against eviction that brought the leftist coalition to power in Bengal 30 years ago.
There is a lot at stake for the left-front government in Singur. One would remember that the current year was ushered in with bloodshed over land-grabbing by another Tata entity - Tata Steel - in Kalinganagar, located in the neighboring state of Orissa. A massive agitation from the tribals who lost their land was met with police firing that took at least 13 lives and left scores injured. If the communist party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) and its left allies in West Bengal can now hand over the land to the Tata Motors with minimal fuss, they would have proven their worth to the big business of India. For some years now, the business houses of India have known that Bengal under CPI-M is super friendly and profitable for large investments. With a peaceful resolution of Singur, CPI-M would prove their ability to disperse opposition from the workers and peasants as well. With an organized mass base at its disposal, left-credentials to bank on, and its recent success at creating enthusiasm for the discredited dogmas of industrialization, investment and employment, will the parliamentary left be the one to finally deliver “reforms with a human face” - that coveted yet elusive wish of the big business in India? It will be people who will have the final word.
With India poised to become the worldwide hub for small car production and sales, the TATA industries - a flagship business house in India – wants badly to start production of small family cars for the “common man”. No sooner than the left-front government was voted to power in West Bengal for the seventh consecutive time, TATA Motors started pushing for prime land near Kolkata to set up its Rs 1000 crore ($ 200 million) automobile plant. This venture is a part of an aggressive expansion spree undertaken in the last few years by the TATA industries.
Within days, Singur, located some 30 km west of Kolkata in the alluvial plains of the main river in Bengal – Hooghly, was identified as the site. With that also began the battle over 1300 acres of fertile and multicrop agricultural land. More than 15,000 peasants and their families in Singur now live under the threat of eviction and livelihood loss. The threat is growing ominous by the day since TATA Motors has given an ultimatum that they need the land by the end of this year, and the state government has threatened to clamp down the Bengal Land Acquisition Act 1890 - a law of colonial heritage – to procure the land for the TATA Motors.
While a handful of big farmers have sold their land, the small farmers have refused to budge. Organized under the banner of Krishi Jami Banchao Committee, the peasants are continuing their fight-back, preventing the entry of both the TATA Motors officials and the officers of WBIDC, the governmental development wing of Bengal, into Singur. Already they have been at the receiving end of police batons and large-scale arrests, including the recent incarceration of a large number of women.
Muddying waters, parliamentary opposition parties have also joined the fray in Singur, claiming to support the vulnerable farmers - strictly according to their narrow electoral interests and vote-bank calculus. On the other hand, CPI-M has mobilized its mass organizations to hold rallies in support of the land sale. Through its official organ, it has declared those opposing the land-sale to be “anti-development”, and have even gone to the extent of calling the land uncultivable. An irate Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, the chief minister of West Bengal state, has said: “They cannot stop us from setting up industry in the state. Let them shout as much as they can, we'll do what we have to”.
By and large, the Singur landscape is dominated by small peasants who own more than 60% of the disputed land. According to the court decision, before any payment, a land holder is required to clear all outstanding dues. With the scourge of debt the way it is, small peasants expect to make precious little from the sale. And, once forced off the land, they have no other means of livelihood. Then there are innumerable agricultural laborers, unregistered sharecroppers, cottage industry workers and small business, who are simply left entirely to fend for themselves. Thjs is no “fair compensation” for the dispossession, displacement, loss of livelihood, and sheer insecurity that stares both at the land-owners and landless in Singur!
In fact, not far from Singur, another village has recently met with the same fate. Under the watchful eyes of the state government, Bankura was handed over to the Indonesian-based Salim Group of Industries for making a megacity called Kolkata West International, while the peasants were evicted from their land and dispossessed of their occupation, and slowly but surely pauperized.
Singur and Bankura are merely the first wave of forced land sale in Bengal. Keen to give a red-carpet welcome to domestic and foreign investments in Bengal, the left-front government has already chalked out plans for acquiring at least 40,000 acres in the coming years for various industrial projects. Ironically, it is the very promise of protection of farmers and landless laborers against eviction that brought the leftist coalition to power in Bengal 30 years ago.
There is a lot at stake for the left-front government in Singur. One would remember that the current year was ushered in with bloodshed over land-grabbing by another Tata entity - Tata Steel - in Kalinganagar, located in the neighboring state of Orissa. A massive agitation from the tribals who lost their land was met with police firing that took at least 13 lives and left scores injured. If the communist party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) and its left allies in West Bengal can now hand over the land to the Tata Motors with minimal fuss, they would have proven their worth to the big business of India. For some years now, the business houses of India have known that Bengal under CPI-M is super friendly and profitable for large investments. With a peaceful resolution of Singur, CPI-M would prove their ability to disperse opposition from the workers and peasants as well. With an organized mass base at its disposal, left-credentials to bank on, and its recent success at creating enthusiasm for the discredited dogmas of industrialization, investment and employment, will the parliamentary left be the one to finally deliver “reforms with a human face” - that coveted yet elusive wish of the big business in India? It will be people who will have the final word.
posted by charcha-editor at 18:11
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