Lessons Not Learnt

Residents of a locality in North Kolkata are up in arms over a proposal to convert a large open space in their locality--a park that has been in existence for well over a century-- into a stadium complex complete with a swimming pool and gymnasium. The project was envisaged by CPI(M) MP Sudhangshu Sil and was to have been funded by him. He submitted the project details to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation for implementation. And this is where the problem started.

As soon as local residents came to know of the project-- it was framed without their knowledge--they decided to stall it. A park is a park, they said, and there was no way a sports complex could be built on an open space that is used by all members of the local community. With this groundswell of opinion against his dream project, Sil backtracked a few days ago. "If local people don't want a sports complex at the park, we will scrap the project. I had formulated the project in consultation with local representatives. But since they (the locals) don't want it, I will shift it elsewhere," Sil said. Didn't he, by the way, sound a lot like his party leader and Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee post the Ides of March carnage at Nandigram? Of course he did, and analyzing Sil's problem at the micro level would provide a good idea of what the CPI(M) is up against in Bengal and why.

Sil, very much like Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, took it upon himself to decide what is best for the people. He says he consulted the residents of that North Kolkata locality. Technically speaking, hedid-- he spoke to members of the local unit of his party. But they, like their counterparts at Nandigram, had long lost touch with the people. Thirty years of uninterrupted rule have bred in the CPI(M) cadres and leaders an arrogance that's hard to match. 'We are the people' and 'we know best' have become their credo. Thanks to the systematic demolition and co-opting of most opposition forces, the complete subjugation of institutions like the police and administrative machinery, the reign of covert terror under which raising one's voice against the party invited swift and subtle or not-too-subtle retribution, the stranglehold of the party on all aspects of life and the complete absence of any independent voice, the party and its men have got away with whatever they imposed on the people of Bengal for so long. 

In all other states of India, institutions and individuals play a vital role as watchdogs and critics of whichever dispensation is in power. Not so in Bengal. The media, to borrow a phrase from L.K.Advani, is happy to crawl when just asked to bend. Ditto for academic institutions, the bureaucracy and the police which are, in any case, manned almost exclusively by people owing allegiance to the CPI(M). A majority of school, college and university teachers are CPI(M) supporters. Artistes, intellectuals and writers have all been co-opted. The few who dared to think or speak independently were hounded out. The CPI(M), deliberately I suspect, put in place a mechanism that, very covertly, enforced mediocrity and ensured that the talented leave Bengal. For, while mediocre people will easily conform, the talented have this irritating and dangerous tendency (for the party, that is) of thinking and acting independently. It is another story that these policies led to Bengal's ruination. But the point is, under such oppressive conditions, the people of Bengal lost whatever little courage they possessed and were forced to submit themselves meekly to the party's diktats. 

For three decades, thus, the CPI(M) has had a free run. Yes, it did some good, especially in the field of land reforms and giving land to the landless. But it also took away large tracts of land, even fertile agricultural land, for building roads and setting up industries. Nandigram was not the first time the Bengal government attempted to take away fertile farmlands. Singur wasn't the first time it had done so. The state government, with the help of CPI(M) cadres, had taken away large tracts of land at Haldia (near Nandigram) and at Rajarhat near Kolkata virtually at gunpoint. The compensation paid to the land-losers was a pittance and many of the displaced received no money at all. 

A number of those who had feared losing their lands at Nandigram had been displaced from Haldia more than a decade ago and hadn't received any compensation that time; they now allege that CPI(M) leaders and cadres pocketed the money. At Rajarhat, thousands have been reduced to penury after being displaced. But there were no protests. For the simple reason that none dared raise his voice against such moves. No one dared to challenge the CPI(M), its policies and its dominance. But then, as they say, it's not possible to subjugate all the people for all the time. It was inevitable that at some point in time, the oppressed and the subjugated would rise in revolt. And it happened, first in Singur. 

But the way the state government tried to crush the opposition at Singur and the manner in which the party and the government, including the holier-than-thou Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, tried to spread lies and falsehoods about Singur only strengthened the resolve of the people of Nandigram to oppose the state's plans to acquire their lands. But the government and party, cut off as they had become from the masses, never realized the trouble that was brewing at Nandigram. Even if a few CPI(M) leaders did, they were confident that all opposition could be successfully crushed, just as had been done all these years. Even at Singur, despite stiff resistance put up by farmers there, the government had succeeded in acquiring their lands. The apparent defeat of the farmers at Singur held out lessons for those at Nandigram. And that's why they dug up roads to prevent police from entering their area, drove out CPI(M) cadres and leaders and even didn't shy away from a bloody showdown with the state machinery.

What happened after March 14 has been widely documented and doesn't need repetition. The CPI(M) has no regrets for the killings; the voices of regret we heard from party apparatchiks later didn't sound genuine and was qualified, anyway, with their justification for police firing. In the CPI(M)'s scheme of things, police shooting down farmers and armed party cadres running riot was an acceptable means of crushing the opposition at Nandigram. But what really shook and shocked the party was the widespread condemnation, even from those perceived to be Left-leaning, of the March 14 incidents. 

What the CPI(M) didn't factor in was that the incident would get such nationwide and even international coverage. What it didn't realize was that this incident would serve to shake up all sections of the people of Bengal, including intellectuals, writers, artistes, poets, film personas, academics and others, from their decades-long paralysis (induced by the party's terror mechanism) and galvanise them into staging strong protests. For once, the CPI(M) was stunned and didn't know how to react. It was facing flak even from its allies in the Left Front. 

CPI(M) leaders scrambled to contain the damage. They realized the people had revolted and that this revolt had to be capped. Thus, initially, statements were issued about the party and government resolving to learn from the "mistakes" at Nandigram. The Chief Minister led his party in vowing that henceforth, land-losers would be consulted and their consent taken before acquiring lands. There wouldn't be any forcible acquisition, they promised.

But that was a short-lived phase and meant to be so. The fangs have now been bared. Speaking at a convention of his party's student affiliates a few days ago, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee derided the people of Nandigram for "failing to understand that the proposed chemical SEZ would have dramatically altered their lives for the better". He thundered that there would be no going back on the plans to build the SEZ. Bhattacharjee didn't sound at all like a Chief Minister harbouring deep regret for the massacre of innocents by his police force just a few days ago. And anyway, he or his party have never accepted the fact that those killed at Nandigram were innocent--they were, the party and its government held, reactionary forces out to destabilize the CPI(M)-led Left Front government in Bengal and derail the government's plans for rapid industrialization of the state. 

The party, as if on cue, got into the act of teaching those who had criticized the CPI(M) some stern lessons: an exhibition of works of painter Suvaprasanna (he was one of the critics) at Kolkata was sought to be disrupted, Shiv Sena-style. An unofficial boycott has been imposed on stage personalities who hit the roads to protest the March 14 killings; veiled warnings have been issued to others and senior CPI(M) leader Benoy Konar heaped scorn on all of them at a public rally. A senior minister and Revolutionary Socialist Party (a partner in the Left Front government) leader Kshiti Goswami who has also been very critical of the government says he's being boycotted by CPI(M) leaders who have even stopped speaking to him. Similar tales of harassment and punishment of those who dared condemn the Nandigram mayhem will be heard over the next few months.

CPI(M) leaders have evolved a multi-pronged agenda to prevent a repeat of not Nandigram, but of the widespread protests and institutional interventions after March 14. Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi, who publicly questioned the rationale behind the violence that day, has already been criticized by senior CPI(M) leaders. If sources close to Raj Bhawan are to be believed, the state government and the CPI(M) are making sure that Gandhi is snubbed at every available opportunity and made to feel unwelcome in Bengal. The Calcutta High Court, which ordered the CBI to probe the killings, is being lambasted nearly every other day for its intervention. Top leaders like Prakash Karat have ominously hinted at the need for Stalinist measures to curb the independence of the judiciary. Once the CBI started doing its job honestly and warded off CPI(M)'s attempts at interference, the party started questioning the credentials of the agency and suggesting that it was out to malign the CPI(M) and the Bengal government at the behest of its masters in Delhi. 

The party is trying to project that the battle at Nandigram was a political one and not one over land. Karat & Co have been saying that a conglomeration of forces ranging from the BJP, Trinamool Congress, SUCI to the Jamait Ulema-i-Hind and Naxalites have formed an unholy alliance to mislead people of Nandigram and provoke them into opposing the CPI(M). Karat and his compatriots know this is not true at all. But they firmly believe in the Goebbelsian tactic that a lie repeated a hundred times becomes the truth. And to ward off pressure or any attempt at scrutiny from New Delhi, the CPI(M) leaders spoke to the Prime Minister and other leaders there, reminding them of the crutch the Left provides to prop the UPA regime. Bhattacharjee met Sonia Gandhi and Dr Manmohan Singh in Delhi just the other day, requesting them to ensure that the Bengal unit of the Congress doesn't join hands with other opposition parties to oppose the CPI(M) and his government. He tried to do the same with the Jamait's national leaders, but was roundly rebuffed by the organization's general secretary Maulana Mehmood Madani who told Bhattacharjee the state unit of the Jamait would chart its own course of action. Pity that the Congress leaders in Delhi fell prey to Bhattacharjee's ploys and wiles to ask the state Congress to lie low, thus killing whatever little prospects the party had in Bengal. 

CPI(M) leaders, very cleverly, have been portraying the opposition forces and critics as anti-industry. This despite clear statements from everyone, right from Mamata Banerjee to the artistes and intellectuals who hit the streets after March 14, that they aren't against Bengal's industrialization. In fact, it can be nobody's case that Bengal should remain an agrarian state. Industries are critical to the state's development and, thus, land is required for setting up industries. Everyone also realizes that in Bengal, there is very little fallow land and industrialists may not want to set up units in the far-off and inaccessible areas where such fallow lands are mostly located. Hence, fertile farmlands would have to be acquired. 

The point simply is that there ought to be a proper, transparent, justifiable and fair method in acquiring farmlands. The landowner, share croppers and farm labourers have to be adequately compensated and provided alternate means of livelihood. Others who depend on the farmers, like suppliers of seeds and fertilizers, grocers, butchers, cobblers and many more, should also be included in the rehabilitation plans. There's no reason why a farmer or a member of the community that's about to be displaced would object to the displacement if the alternative being offered to him is attractive and practical. There's no reason why he should then support Opposition parties who may want him to resist displacement. And there'll be no agenda, or a need, for the Opposition forces to oppose land acquisition in that case. 

These are the lessons the CPI(M) and the state government ought to have learnt from Nandigram. But by resorting to all the unfortunate tactics and blatant lies detailed above, the CPI(M) has only proved that it has learnt nothing from Nandigram. The only lesson it has taken is this: CPI(M) cadres and the lower-level leadership hadn't been vigilant enough to foresee the coalescing of opposition forces in Nandigram and the manner in which they (the opposition forces) had "mislead and provoked" the people there into revolt. And, thus, party members at all levels need to be more vigilant to detect, fight and defeat such "reactionary" forces in future. 

This, in effect, means that the vice-like grip of the party on all aspects of life in the state would only be tightened. But the people of Bengal, having tasted success once against an oppressive party and state machinery, can't be cowed down so easily again. And since the CPI(M) will not tolerate any show of defiance to its plans, more clashes are inevitable. And that's not a happy prospect for Bengal.