[Reader-list] Nandigram....

[prakash ray]

Dear all,
I am posting a commentary written by Sudhanva Deshpande.

Prakash

ZNet Commentary

Nandigram Again

By Sudhanva Deshpande

15 November 2007

As peace returns to Nandigram, the media – especially the electronic media –
and the blogosphere is going crazy.

One hears that Nandigram is a "concentration camp," and has been witness to
"massacre" and "genocide." Nandigram 2007 is worse than – or at least as bad
as – Gujarat 2002. And so on.

For a long time, no one on the Left has responded to the comparison with
Gujarat in 2002, which witnessed a barbaric anti-Muslim pogrom, simply
because responding itself elevates the charge to an undeserved degree of
seriousness. However, as the rubbish accumulates, let us remind ourselves of
some simple facts.

One, the so-called "land acquisition." What was purported to be the land
acquisition notice was not that at all – it was a notice to clarify rumours
about land acquisition. In any case, the notice was, rightly or wrongly,
deliberately or otherwise, construed to be for land acquisition. Once this
became apparent, the government, in February itself, clarified that there
was no question of land acquisition in Nandigram. Period.

Two, the so-called "massacre" or "genocide." Even after it became clear that
the government would not acquire land in Nandigram, the "struggle" against
it continued. This struggle was carried on under the banner of the Bhumi
Uchhed Pratirodh Committee (BUPC, or Committee Against Land Eviction), an
umbrella alliance that included the Hindu Right on the one hand, the
ultra-Left on the other, with the lead and much of the muscle being provided
by the Trinamul Congress (TMC), the main opposition to the Left Front in the
state. It was an armed struggle even in January and February, before the
police action on March 14. In the firing of March 14, it was alleged that
"hundreds" were killed, women raped, children butchered. It turned out that
the number of dead was 14. Of these, 8 were killed in police firing, 6 died
for other reasons, including one person who died because a bomb he was
holding went off. Since January, one has heard of "hundreds," even
"thousands" dead and missing.

This is simply not true. The one list that the Trinamul submitted to court
turned out to be a fraud, with virtually everyone being traced alive.
Television channels did interviews with them. The one person who was really
dead was someone who had died more than a week before the March 14 firing,
and his death in any case had nothing to do with the violence around land
acquisition. Not a single child's body has been found. Not a single child is
reported missing.

For those who are comparing this with the Gujarat riots of 2002, it is worth
recalling that over 2,000 Muslims were butchered by the Hindu Right in
Gujarat within a span of 3-4 days, in a State-sponsored pogrom. In contrast,
fifty-odd people have died in Nandigram in 11 months, half of them Left
supporters. We have no concrete numbers, since the opposition has not put
out its list of the dead. The list of Left supporters killed is available on
www.pragoti.org, and the pattern is telling. 27 killed since January: 3
killed between January and March, 6 in April-May, 4 between June and August,
and 14 in October and the first 10 days of November. Look at the spurts in
killings: April-May, when Nandigram was being "liberated" and Left
sympathizers driven out; and again in October-November, when people were
being prevented from returning.

And why were they forced to live in camps to begin with? Because the Left
Front government decided to withdraw the police after the March 14 firing.
This meant leaving Nandigram to the mercy of BUPC-TMC, who cleansed the area
of Left supporters. To withdraw the police, in other words, was a decision
that hurt the Left, and helped the opposition gain physical control of the
area. However, to withdraw the police was a political decision, because a
political problem demanded a political solution. Such a solution was
attempted, time and again, by calling all-party meetings, both at the local
as well as the State level. Repeated appeals for dialogue and a peaceful
settlement of all issues were made to the opposition leader Mamata Banerjee.
However, the impasse could not be broken because of the unjust position of
the BUPC and Mamata Banerjee that no CPI (M)/Left supporter would be allowed
to return to Nandigram. They would not allow road blocks to be lifted, would
not allow people to come back, would not allow the administration to resume
its normal functioning.

Contrast this with Gujarat: who was forced to live in camps? Modi's
supporters? VHP-Bajrang Dal hoodlums?

The Left has responded by mobilizing the homeless people, who have returned
to the villages in the face of bullets and land mines, and by refusing, even
under severe provocation, to send in the state police. Instead, it asked
for, and received after much delay, the assistance of Central paramilitary
forces. Since the argument of the opposition was that the state police,
along with the cadres of the ruling front, was responsible for the March 14
"massacre," to have sent in the police to oversee the return of refugees
would have possibly led to more violence. However, had the Central
paramilitary forces moved in when requested, in October, the latest round of
violence in early November would almost certainly have been avoided, and
several lives saved. To blame the Left for the latest violence is,
therefore, to be callously blind to ground realities.

Picture this now: Narendra Modi pleading for Central forces, refusing to
send his state police into an area controlled by the opposition. Is this
even imaginable?

Three, the "armed gangs." There is no doubt that armed gangs moved around in
Nandigram. But who were they? Who put in land mines, and who imported AK
47s? The CPI (M), of course. Except that the bracketed M stands for Maoist,
not Marxist. For a politically illiterate press and deliberately blind army
of bloggers, this is too fine a distinction. (See the report titled "Maoist
network spreads to Nandigram," DNA, October 30, available at
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1130702. See also the PTI report
of November 14 about the arrest of three persons with suspected Maoist
links, available at http://in.news.yahoo.com/071114/20/6n8i6.html) The
Maoist hit squads have infiltrated Nandigram from Jharkhand, Midnapore West
and Purulia. They have made common cause with the TMC.

The Maoists have a history of using land mines and automatic weapons, not
the Marxists. But does it even make common sense for the Marxist cadres to
put in land mines that targeted its own people and the administration that
its own party runs? To be sure, faced with the Maoists, the Marxists fought
back. Why should they not? Who are the imported Maoists to prevent hundreds
of villagers from returning to their homes?

Four, sympathy for the rural poor. After the March 14 firing, the Chief
Minister expressed his anguish, Jyoti Basu said the police should have just
come back when faced with resistance, the CPI (M) state secretary said we do
not want the poor to be divided against each other. Has Mamata Banerjee,
even once, expressed even verbal sympathy for the CPI (M) supporters who
have been killed or the few thousand rural poor who were forced to live in
camps for months? Forget Mamata, she is crass. Have Medha Patkar or
Mahashweta Devi said a word? Have they tried to visit those camps? Why not?
The CPI (M) is vile and villainous, but do its supporters among the rural
poor deserve to be abandoned for that reason? What kind of politics is this?

Five, the alleged "murder of democracy" in West Bengal. Let us remind
ourselves that the Left Front has won every election it has contested since
1977. Each one of these elections has been won by a two-thirds majority, and
two of these elections – including the last assembly elections which ushered
in the present government – by a three-fourths majority. In each of the
assembly elections, the CPI (M) alone has got enough seats to command a
simple majority in the house. Aside from the assembly elections, the Left
has won handsomely in panchayat and Lok Sabha elections, again and again.

Over the years, the percentage of people who have gone out and voted has
increased, and now the average voter turnout is more than 70%. For a long
time, one heard whines that all this was rigged. The last assembly elections
were conducted under massive scrutiny by the Election Commission – even the
impossible Mamata admitted the elections were fair – and the Left Front
romped home. Most recently, in the June by-elections to local bodies, which
saw 85% polling, the Left Front performed spectacularly at the village level
– including increasing its tally in the district where Nandigram falls. (For
more details, see my ZNet commentary of June 24.) To discount all this is to
have a profound contempt for the democracy that one supposedly swears by.

But my main point is something else. The BUPC-Maoist siege of Nandigram
meant that the elected representatives of the local population are not
allowed to even move freely in the area, forget about discharging their
duties. Even if, theoretically speaking, these individuals have lost the
confidence of a section of the people, are we going to argue that they have
no right at all to function? What kind of democracy is this?

The "murder of democracy" charge is of course reminiscent of the charge
that, for instance, Chavez and the Bolivarian revolution routinely face from
global corporate interests. But in West Bengal itself, this charge comes
from the TMC, which alternates between fronting for the RSS and the Maoists.
But then, one expects nothing more from Mamata Banerjee.

But why is Medha Patkar parroting Mamata Banerjee? One would have thought
that given the impending Gujarat elections, Patkar would want to expend her
energies in that state. But she chooses not to go to Gujarat. Why? Because
her brand of politics has never believed in elections, or because it doesn't
matter who wins in Gujarat?

At the time of writing, on November 14, the CRPF has been able to move to
all the villages of Nandigram, and no fresh violence has been reported for
the past three days. Local markets are coming back to life. Residents are
welcoming their neighbours with modest feasts. The festive season is finally
bringing back some hope, even though still fragile, to Nandigram. All those
who have the interests of the poor at heart should welcome the peace.

To be sure, political battles will continue to be fought. But let them be
fought democratically, by mobilizing the people. Not through the barrel of
the gun.

Sudhanva Deshpande is editor with LeftWord Books, New Delhi,
www.leftword.com. He can be reached at deshsud at rediffmail.com.