[Reader-list] Nandigram....

[Shuddhabrata Sengupta]

Dear All,

I have recently been forwarded a post (on the Foil List) made by Vijay
Prashad on the Foil List
(http://insaf.net/mailman/listinfo/foil-l_insaf.net)

This post contains Sudhanva Deshpande's criticism of the reading I had
done (posted here and on Kafila.org)of his ZNet Commentary on Nandigram
  (earlier forwarded on this thread on the Reader List by Prakash Ray.)

Since this is not a private communication, and has been made on an
archived mailing list. I thought - that in the interests of free and
fair debate on the issue of Nandigram on the Reader List, since it
represents a significant criticism of my recent writing and in order
that we have more than one side's take on this issue - it ought to be
read here as well.

regards,

Shuddha
---------------------------------------------------
SUDHANVA DESHPANDE'S CRITICISM OF MY POSTS ON NANDIGRAM

Dear Shuddhabrata,

Some friends were kind enough to forward your response to my ZNet
commentary, which you posted on the Sarai list. I found then that the
response is also posted on Kafila. Your eloquence overwhelms me. I am
not,however, similarly blessed. I will keep my response short, and limit
it to the two points of fact that you dispute.

The number of dead. I said that 14 died on March 14, and, as many on the
Left have said, this was 14 too many. I have faced police brutality a
number of times while protesting, and I am no fan of it. I am perfectly
willing to believe that the number exceeds 14. All I am asking for is:
where are the lists of those dead or missing? Masum supplied to the
Asian Human Rights Commission a list of 11 dead, and there were fears
that the number would be higher. For seven-and-a-half-months, from March
14 to end of October, Nandigram was out of bounds for CPI (M)
supporters. Surely, this was enough time to figure out who was missing.

As I wrote in my commentary, the one list submitted to the court turned
out to be a fraud. If you have come across any other list, please do let
me know. Sanhati doesn't have a list, by the way, so don't bother with that.

As an aside, a Bengali paper today published an interview with a
"corpse." This man, by the way, is Kanai Sheth, alleged to have been
killed on November 9. He is also, by the way, the father of Khokon
Sheth, the main accused in the killing of Shankar Samanta, the elected
panchayat member from Nandigram, who was hacked and burnt on January 7.
Old man Kanai, by the way, was not interviewed in a hideout, but in his
own house, where he returned after the violence abated. He was, by the
way, hiding in a CPI (M)-run camp all the while, which is why the BUPC
activists couldn't trace him and presumed him murdered, especially given
his relationship to the main accused in the killing of an elected
representative. Oh, but the interview appeared in Ganashakti, so I am
sure it is utter fabrication.

Then, the notice. What did I say? That the notice was meant to clarify
rumours about land acquisition, and that the notice itself was not a
land acquisition notice. As you well know, the proposal of the chemical
hub was not new. The location was not finalized. There was speculation,
there were rumours ­ about how much land would be acquired, which blocks
would come under acquisition, whether it will all be done at one go, and
so on. The notice was meant to clarify how much land would come under
acquisition. The second notice was a further clarification on the first
one, to say that the acquisition would be in phases, and to tell the
public exactly which blocks were to be covered.

In any case, as the Chief Minister pointed out, the Haldia Development
Authority had overstepped its jurisdiction in issuing the notice. But
suppose, for argument's sake, that it had not overstepped its
jurisdiction. Is a notice that informs the public of an intention to
acquire land the same as a notice that actually acquires the land?
Surely not. Even you would understand this. A research proposal is
merely that, a proposal. A Ph.D. thesis is something else.

Did I say in my commentary that the notice(s) denied the proposed land
acquisition? No. You simply attribute it to me. The simplest argument to
demolish is one that was never made.

Your other, more recent post, the one about Prabhat Patnaik, Irfan
Habib, Vivan Sundaram et al., was also forwarded to me, this time by
another friend, with the question, "Why is he so abusive?" I corrected
her by pointing out that there was in fact no abuse in your post, though
the prose tends toward purple. Given your long record of struggle and
sacrifice for the poor and dispossessed, you are understandably angry
with individuals who have nothing to show on that front. People with
fancy institutional affiliations do not abuse. Abuse is what a poor
cycle rickshaw wallah gets from guys who drive big imported cars. I am
told it leads to a testosterone surge and makes them feel manly.

You have never made a secret of your intense hatred for the Left. I only
urge you to lace your purple prose with the occasional nod at verifiable
facts.

Best,

Sudhanva

PS: Reptiles - Phylum Reptilia ­ are a class of vertebrates, and they do
have backbones, I am afraid. And a species is not the same as a phylum
either. And to deride reptiles because they do not, like the species
Homo sapiens, have a conscience ­ oh dear, this is not very humble, is it.