[Reader-list] 'Land for nothing, bullets for free'

[Sanjay Kak]

Land for nothing, bullets for free

Shobhan Saxena,  18 August 2010

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Main-Street/entry/land-for-nothing-bullets-for

Young boys, barely in their teens, pick stones, take aim and hit the
policemen. A few older lads with bamboo sticks in their hands charge
at the cops who are carrying Kalashnikovs. Then a group of middle-aged
women, many with their heads covered, descend on the street. They too
join the stone-pelting crowd. Raising slogans against the government,
the stone-pelting boys turn their attention to police vehicles. From
inside the jeeps, the heavily-armed policemen watch the restless
crowd. As big rocks crash into their windscreens and stones hit their
helmets, a few cops unlock their rifles, aim into the crowd and fire.
Suddenly, the crowd freezes. Three boys drop dead. And then the crowd
moves towards the police who flee the spot, leaving behind a cloud of
dust and trail of blood.

If you are thinking this incident happened in the valley of Kashmir,
you are wrong. This clash between stone-pelters and armed cops took
place this week in the heart of India – in the villages of Agra,
Aligarh and Mathura. Angry over "low compensation" paid to them for
their land acquired by the UP government for the Rs 10,000-crore
Yamuna Expressway, the farmers came out on the road to protest. They
were joined by their sons. Even their mothers, wives and daughters
joined the demonstration as they wielded lathis and chucked stones at
the cops. And, even after the police bullets snuffed life out three
men, more people came out with more stones in their hands. Now, even
after the UP government's decision to raise the compensation, release
the jailed leader of the movement and drop all cases against the
agitating people, the agitation is showing no signs of abating.

It seems the people are no longer scared of police bullets.

Though the footage of stone-pelters of Srinagar have been played
non-stop on our TV screens with the running commentary which slams the
"separatists" for provoking the "misguided young men" to throw stones
at the security forces and undermine the idea of India, the fact that
clashes between the people and police have been happening all over the
country is conveniently forgotten or ignored. All these clashes have
happened because of one reason: the government's acquisition of
agricultural land for some private project. And all these clashes have
ended in dead bodies – of people, not police. In Andhra Pradesh,
police fired at poor peasants protesting against the grabbing of their
land for a power plant. In Orissa, the police have fired on unarmed
tribals rallying against their displacement a number of times in the
past few months. The same story has been repeated in Maharashtra. And,
now, the tragedy is being played in UP.

In India, people have been displaced and forced to migrate due to
industrialization since the 1950s, but in the past few years the
government’s tendency to grab people’s land, pay some compensation and
kick them out of the land they have lived on for centuries has reached
dangerous proportions. In the name of SEZs, in the name of development
and new projects, people are being displaced all over the country.
Knowing well that no amount of money can compensate the loss of
agricultural land, people are rising against the government.

This problem is going to become more acute in the time to come as
government – central as well as state – act as an agency that acquires
land on behalf of private business. We can forget the bloody mayhem of
Singur and Nandigram at our own peril. Our economy might be aspiring
to reach double-digit figure and we may claim to be world leaders in
information technology, but we can’t create more land. As India’s
population increases and agricultural production falls, it’s criminal
for the government to convert green fields into factories and real
estate properties.

And, it’s even worse to fire on protesting crowds. In a brilliant play
called ‘Seema Rekha’ by Vishnu Prabhakar, after police fires on a
group of students, a politician reminds the police chief that "the
police are given guns and bullets for the protection of people and not
to attack them." Even if the police have to fire in self-defence,
firing is the last resort after all other options have been exhausted.
But, in the world's biggest democracy, firing on the protesting crowds
has become the first option for our trigger-happy security forces.

Nowhere is the situation worse than Kashmir, where 55 people have been
killed by police bullets in as many days. Despite the promises of
"healing the valley", the security forces will continue to fire at
unarmed people. Maybe the government fears that the stone-pelters of
Srinagar are giving ideas to people in other parts of the country.
Maybe the government only cares for land and not the people. After all
land is money. Maybe the government believes that a few dead bodies
here and there shouldn’t hamper the country’s march towards the
superpower status.

That’s why the state shows equal enthusiasm in grabbing the people’s
land and firing at them when they protest.