The dual danger~Part I by Sandeep Pandey* 2 Dec 07 (http://thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=3&theme=&usrsess=1&id=178862)
I was in Kolkata on 14 February 2007, to attend a meeting of the Anti-Nuclear Forum organised against the proposed nuclear power plant at Haripur in East Midnapore. Not as much in the news as Singur and Nandigram, Haripur had also thrown up a challenge to the Left Front government. Officials from the Atomic Energy Commission were not allowed to visit the area for inspection by the local people.
Shyamali Mitra, an artist, who spoke at the meeting in Kolkata talked about the state having become fascist in West Bengal. It was a jolt to me. I could not visualise a Left party or government as fascist. So far, I had associated the idea of fascism only with Right-wing politics. But people in Kolkata were talking about a government with fascist tendencies. We were told that the proceedings of every citizens' meeting was reported to the government. Punitive action was taken by the CPI-M cadres against anybody seen as acting against the interest of the party. Trinamul Congress activists were facing oppression at the hands of CPI-M cadres.
I returned from Kolkata with a feeling that my state UP or probably Bihar too, even with their highly publicised state of lawlessness, provide more democratic space for dissent than West Bengal. Not too long ago, Mulayam Singh Yadav's police also lathicharged the farmers whose land was being taken away for a SEZ in Dadri where Reliance was supposed to set up a power plant. When Mulayam Singh faced bitter criticism for his anti-farmer stance, he decided to put things in cold storage. But the overconfident West Bengal government persisted with their project in Nandigram.
We saw a face of Left fascism as we had never expected to see. Even though only 14 people were killed on 14 March and about 30 went missing, which is much smaller compared to the figures of Gujarat after the Narendra Modi patronised violence in 2002, one cannot but help compare the two unfortunate incidents. Whereas in Gujarat the police turned a blind eye while the Hindutva brigade went on the rampage, killing and raping Muslim citizens, in West Bengal the police was directly used to fire upon people and CPI-M cadres were reportedly wearing police uniform and firing alongside. A CBI investigation had revealed some police helmets along with the CPI-M flag and literature at one place. Did we hear of any RSS or BJP worker wearing a police uniform and killing a Muslim in Gujarat?
The idea of fascism is associated with a group which has a sectarian thinking and doesn't believe in democracy. It thinks of itself as superior to others. The Right-wing Hindutva group clearly fits the definition. It is unfortunate that they have used the freedom and flexibility offered by Indian democracy to capture political power through the backdoor.
Kalyan Singh, reneging on his promise given to the nation just before the Babari Masjid demolition, has also demonstrated that they have scant regard for the Constitution. Ideally, no party or group believing in sectarian ideology (catering to only one segment of the population at the cost of other) should be allowed to operate in a democracy. However, for the time being the Hindutva brigade gets to use emotional, nationalist and religious issues, which are potentially explosive, to further its politics.
The CPI-M, also by its actions, has increasingly begun to fit the description of a fascist force. They have come to believe in the infallibility of their ideology, so much so that they do not care about any other viewpoint. They did not feel the need to undertake a democratic consultative process with the people either in Singur or in Nandigram before deciding on the projects which were proposed there.
It remains mysterious why, going against the proposed National Rehabilitation Policy which suggests that developmental projects should be initiated at places which will either cause no displacement or minimum possible displacement, projects were conceived in Singur and Nandigram which are agriculturally very fertile lands and would have resulted in very painful and large scale displacements. Although the Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has accepted the mistake of his government in Nandigram, we are still waiting for an apology from him, just like we are waiting for an apology from the US government for using nuclear bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and from the BJP for what it did in Gujarat. Only Sonia Gandhi has apologised for the Operation Bluestar.
Moreover, in Kerala, we saw how blatantly disregarding the opinion of their Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan, the CPI-M party decided to get the cabinet approval by 'consensus' for an ADB loan. The party seems to be losing its tolerance for democracy. This is why it is now betraying fascist tendencies.
The people of India now face the dual danger of fascism ~ one from the Right and another from the Left and they'll have to confront both.
On 22 March Medha Patkar and 61 other activists belonging to Action-2007 ~ a forum against the anti-people policies of the government ~ went to the Planning Commission and were lathicharged and arrested. The Deputy Chairman, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, has sent a message to those who protested against the arrest of Medha Patkar, saying that these activists had arrived unannounced without a prior appointment and had forced their way into the Yojana Bhawan. They were first politely requested to disperse but they continued to create disturbance. The security personnel informed the local police and the police took action as they thought fit.
If Montek Singh Ahluwalia were to put himself in the position of people of Singur, Nandigram, Dadri or any of the places where development projects or SEZs are being imposed unannounced, he would face the same set of grievances against the government as he has expressed against Medha Patkar and the activists. And this is when the Yojana Bhawan is not even his permanent home and the activists were not taking away his land or causing a threat to his job.
The cold logic of development combined with the fascist attitude of governments is resulting in insensitivity towards the people, in whose name exist the political parties as well as the Planning Commission.
Part II – 3 Dec 07 (http://thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=3&theme=&usrsess=1&id=178936)
Unfortunately, much blood has flowed in Nandigram this year accompanied by rape and humiliation of many women. Members of families are separated, not knowing whether the separated ones are alive or dead.
At the last count ten to twelve thousand families are scattered, mostly living with their relatives, after the CPI-M activists armed to the teeth stormed Nandigram, accompanied by wanted criminals like Tapan Ghosh, Sukur Ali and Salim Laskar.
This time they did not even feel the need for taking the police along with them. The CPI-M) has regressed into a more fascist force and has displayed political arrogance not seen since the time when Indira Gandhi imposed the emergency. Important party functionaries do not like the interference of the High Court or the Governor in their attempts to terrorise the society into subjugation.
Muscle power
It was expected that after the decision to withdraw the SEZ, the Chief Minister would apologise for the March action. However, as it turns out now, he allowed his cadres to gain muscle power to retaliate with a vengeance. That he had lost both political and administrative control over Nandigram was something which had become a matter of prestige for his government and the party. But we must remember that Midnapore, along with Ballia in UP and Satara in Maharashtra, had responded to the call of 'Quit India' given in 1942 by the Congress convention in Mumbai. It had liberated itself from British rule. The British recaptured the three areas later.
As the CPM-led Left Front government had lost its credibility in the area and did not have the face to carry out a negotiated settlement of the dispute, it had to engineer a recapture in much the same way as the British would have done by bringing in an army.
But let us accept the fact that the CPI-M cadres who were forced to leave the area were the ones who had been threatening people to agree to give up their land for the proposed SEZ and were involved in beating, killing and raping the people of Nandigram.
Rather than trying to resolve the dispute by bringing the culprits to book, the Chief Minister supported the policy of paying back the ordinary villagers 'in the same coin.' It has been alleged that Maoists had infiltrated the area. And as proof, some arms and Maoist literature published in Telugu was shown to be confiscated.
The common sense question that comes to mind is: What relevance can Telugu literature, believed to have been published 20 years ago, have in West Bengal? There is no other proof of Maoist presence in the area. But the Chief Minister's statement implies that violence was used in response to violence. Can a democratically-elected CM justify the use of violence by a non-state actor?
The fact of the matter is that violence was used on both occasions, March and November, by the CPI-M cadres. The violence unleashed by the Bhumi Uchched Pratirodh Committee, the organisation formed by villagers to resist the land takeover by the government, was in self defence. The CPI-M cadres had the backing of the government whereas the villagers associated with BUPC had to fend for themselves.
The police is believed to have looked the other way while the CPI-M cadres accompanied by the hooligans went on the rampage, in a manner reminiscent of Gujarat 2002.
The targeting of women by the CPI-M cadres is simply beyond comprehension. It is not clear what 'coin was being paid back' when women, some of them pregnant, were raped. Unofficial figures put the number of rape cases at more than 100. Even after the CRPF has entered the area, news about one or two rapes everyday continues to filter in.
Brinda Karat says that no rape has taken place in Nandigram. Either she is completely unaware of the ground realities or her transformation into an opportunist politician is complete. In a culturally more advanced state like West Bengal the indulgence of the CPI-M cadres, who are supposed to be sensitive, ideologically groomed and prepared to fight all manner of injustice, crimes against women has come as the most shocking aspect of the Nandigram violence. The All India Democratic Women's Association, the women's organisation associated with the party, will now fund it difficult to raise its voice against injustice to women.
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee should resign taking moral responsibility for the manner in which women have been made victims by his party cadres. But that is not going to happen. Neither will the UPA government dismiss him.
Unholy alliance
The turn of the events has resulted in a very unholy alliance between the UPA and Left Front. The Congress has decided to ignore the incidents in Nandigram in exchange for the much sought after support of the CPI-M and its allies on the Indo-US Nuclear Deal.
Immediately after the Nandigram recapture the Left Front gave its approval to the UPA government to proceed with its negotiations with the IAEA. Thus the two political groups, for their respective vested interests, are completely jeopardising the people's interest.
The West Bengal government has given rise to a constitutional crisis by subverting the democratic functioning of the state and virtually handing over of the state to its party cadres. It has also created a political crisis for the people of this country.
Post-Nandigram, the Left parties have been bracketed with parties that rely on criminalisation of politics to win elections and are fascist in their thinking. With the essential character of all parties, from the political spectrum of the Right to the Left, having become anti-people and anti-democratic what choice do the people have in this democracy? Is it the end of democracy as we know it? Or is the civil society's protest in West Bengal, backed by large number of common people, intellectuals, artists, writers and social activists going to provide a solution?
* National Convenor, NAPM, & Magsaysay laureate
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