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Victims and refugees of 'Development', 'Nation Building' and Conflict in the Indian Subcontinent
Interim Report of the Citizens' Committee on Singur and Nandigram.
Date : 29 January 2007
We, a group of concerned citizens with a Left orientation, visited some
disturbed parts of West Bengal, between 26 and 28 January, 2007, as a
fact finding team. Our team consisted of Prof.Sumit Sarkar,
historian; Colin Gonsalves, Senior Supreme Court Advocate; Sumit
Chakravarty, senior journalist; Krishna Majumdar, Delhi University;
Tanika Sarkar, Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Three members of the team had earlier visited Singur on 31 December
2006 and 10 January, 2007. Three members again visited Singur on 28
January,2007. The members visited the following places at Singur in
Hooghly: Khaser Bheri, Beraberi Purbapara, Gopalnagar, Bajemelia. At
Nandigram (Purba Medinipur) we visited Bhuta Mor, Kalicharanpur,
Garchakraberia, Sonachura. We also visited Bhangabera at Khejuri.
At all these places we were met with huge gatherings of people and also
had extensive discussions with individual villagers, men and women. At
Tamluk, Contai and Nandigram, we met District Committee members
of the CPI-M, including Lakshman Seth, MP and Chairperson of the
Haldia Development Authority, and Prashanta Pradhan, MP ; Prabodh
Panda, MP, CPI;
Shishir Adhikari and Shubhendu Adhikari, MLAs, Trinamul Congress;
Siddiqulla Choudhury, leader of Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind; Debaprasad Sarkar,
MLA, SUCI; Santosh Rana, PCC, CPI-ML. We also met a cross section of
activists from these parties and leaders of the Bhumi Uchched Pratirodh
Committee, Nandigarm and Singur Krishi Jami Raksha Committee. We
consulted civil rights groups, police sources and previous fact-finding
reports of the CPI-M and other organisations.
We have prepared a brief interim report within a day of our return to
be followed by a final report. Our unanimous impressions are as follows:
At Nandigarm, all sections of the village people that we met, women as
well as men, vociferously expressed bitter anger about the land
acquisition process. They had heard rumours of land acquisition for the
last year and a half, and had organised themselves to resist it. They
had not been consulted at any stage, nor had any elected body
(panchayats or gram sansads) been called to discuss the issue. On 3
January, people went to the Gram Panchayat office at Kalicharanpur to
ask for information about a notice that had been reportedly issued by
the Haldia Development Authority. They had heard that about thirty
eight mouzas would be engrossed within the land earmarked for the SEZ
under the Selim group. On being told by the Pradhan that no information
had come, they demonstrated peacefully and left. They alleged that soon
afterwards, the police attacked them with lathis and teargas and then
fired upon them. Four people were badly injured.
A large crowd, including many women, carrying household implements like
sharp knives, then came out and there was an hour long confrontation,
after which the police retreated in some confusion. According to
eyewitnesses among villagers at Bhuta Mor, a police jeep drove
offcourse and hit a lamp post while trying to escape. The jeep got
completely burnt through the ensuing electric short circuit, a
policeman fell out into a pond and another tripped on the road and
fell. The villagers rescued them and, after a light beating, sent
them back. They had left behind a rifle which was subsequently sent
back to the thana. Immediately, villagers began to erect barricades,
bridges were broken and roads dug up to prevent the entry of the police
and of CPM cadres into the villages. We saw hundreds of such barricades
which are still in place.
A police camp was set up on the border between Nandigram and Khejuri.
On 6 January, at around 5 PM, villagers saw the police vacating that
camp. That night, a launch drew up on Haldi river at the ferryghat
there. According to villagers of Sonachura and adjoining villages, a
very large number of strangers, fully armed, disembarked, and occupied
the police camp. At around 3 AM, villagers woke to the sound of bombs
and gunfire, coming from the house of Sankar Samanta, a CPM activist.
As they rushed towards the spot, they found the dead bodies of two
village youths, Bharat Mondol and Sheikh Selim. When the body of
thirteen year old Biswajit Mondol was found, villagers, in their fury,
turned upon the Samanta residence and torched it, killing Sankar
Samanta. Since then, they live under daily intimidation from CPM
cadres, expecting massive retaliation. We found village women extremely
apprehensive, begging us to spend the night with them.
We were told of these incidents by very large groups of villagers in
different places. Their accounts tallied. An overwhelming majority of
them said that they had always been CPM members or Left Front
supporters till these events occurred. The account of events that
Probodh Panda, CPI, MP, gave us, tallied with this, though he deplored
the continued resistance by villagers, even after the Chief Minister's
assurance that nothing has so far been finalised about the Nandigram
SEZ.
We were told by hundreds of Muslim women who surrounded us that they
were determined to hold on to their land at all cost : „ Jami
amra chharbuni‰. „Even if we lose our sons and husbands,
we will fight on, how many policemen can they send, there are more of
us „ They said that even though poor, they produced most of
their food and ran home based crafts like stitching of garments which
were sold in Kolkata and Delhi : „ what will happen to our shilpa
? „ They said that they put the CPM on the throne and the Party
rewards them with a bamboo. They had ransacked the CPM local committee
office at Rajaramchak on the grounds that „ it was a house of
sin. We had built it and now we ourselves are destroying it‰.
Further, they would not only lose their land and livelihood, but also
villages, schools, homes, their entire community and culture.
They were totally sceptical of industries providing uneducated people
like them with jobs. They, moreover, are doubtful that all the land
will be used for industries since large tracts of Haldia land had not
yet been utilised or been devoted to construction of rich residential
buildings. They, moreover, see the Jellingham Project at Nandigram
Block 1, where about 400 acres of land had been acquired in 1977 for
ship repairs. One hundred and forty two families lost their land. The
Project stopped functioning after five years and the site today lies
deserted. Neither at Haldia nor at Jellingham, had any rehabilitation
been done nor much compensation paid. Very few locals got jobs at
either.
According to the CPM District Committee's account, villagers were
organised by the Trinamool and only Trinamool supporters were involved.
They stoned the police and burnt the police jeep on 3 January, after
which the police opened fire. On 7 January, villagers, again instigated
by the Trinamool, had started the attack across the river and killed
Sankar Samanta whom they described as „a very harmless
man‰ who possessed a licensed gun which was snatched by the
villagers. There had been no firing from his house, according to
Lakshman Seth . About the number of casualties, police sources,
the CPM District Committee as well as villagers say that four people
have died, one of them being Samanta. There was, then, one CPM
casualty, the rest were villagers. However, according to an earlier
account given out by the Central Committee of the CPM, six of their
Party people have been killed. According to local Trinamool sources,
the number of CPM casualties was much higher : seven ( apart from
Samanta ) according to one and thirty one, according to another.
Trinamool leaders say that CPM casualty figures are minimised by the
Party as they were of outsiders who were allegedly criminals.
CPM leaders said that villagers who resist land acquisition are
Trinamool members and only pretend to be Left supporters. When we told
them that village women raised the left fist in salute as Communists
do, Lakshman Seth said that they had been rehearsed by the Trinamool
since they knew the enquiry committee was known to be leftist.
Our impression was that the people of Nandigram are prepared for a very
hard struggle. It is being waged with remarkable communal amity and
with participation from all political groups, many of whom had been CPM
just the other day. „ We were all CPM but now we only have our
movement‰, said a woman : „ we do not want to wander
around like gypsies, carrying tents on our back „ We found the
movement to be a genuine peasant movement, activated by mass fury or
„ janarosh‰ , as Probodh Panda said, though he said now
the Trinamool is trying to fish in troubled waters. We also feel that
the fury was partly due to the total lack of transparency about the
basic facts about land acquistion about which no government sources
would inform them. They were not part of any discussion about matters
that concerned their lives and livelihood.
The sequence of events in Singur is very well known. According to
the Status Report issued by the CPM, most of the affected area is
monocropped. They, however, seem to have used a land survey of the
early seventies after which several deep tubewells have been sunk, and
many shallow handpumps set up, increasing soil fertility enormously.
According to villagers, most of the land is under four to five crops.
There are also village based handicrafts, and a large number of rural
ancillaries that employ very large numbers of people. We did find
very green fields and relatively prosperous village homes. The people
are very humiliated that their land has been described as poor in
quality and their labour devalued as a backward form of work. The
factory, they feel, will give work to very few of the
displaced. Even in the unlikely event of one person per family getting
a job in the factory, other members will not. Land is the foundation of
their existence and they do not want to move over to factories.
Singur villagers learnt of the land acquisition for the Tata factory
from newspapers, there being no Panchayat meeting or Party spokesman
who informed them. They claim that holders of 360 acres have refused to
accept the compensation. They also claim that compensation is well
below the actual land price. In both Singur and Nandigram,
unregistered sharecroppers and agricultural labourers ˆ a very
large number, of several thousands ˆ are not included within the
category of compensation receivers. Property alone has value, not
labour.
It is generally acknowledged that Singur villagers have not used
violence against persons so far, even though there has been
considerable violence by the police against villagers who
demonstrated against acquisition with peaceful satyagraha methods,
especially on 25 September and 2 December. Despite the peacefulness of
protestors, Section 144 was clapped on Singur PS and on all roads
leading to Singur. Even where it does not exist, protestors are
arrested for congregating, and ordinary vehicles are stopped and
searched. Women were beaten up by male policemen, filthy language
was used, villagers and student protestors lathi charged, resulting in
severe injuries. The charge of possession of dangerous weapons had been
clapped on a two and a half year girl who was sent to prison for
several days and was deprived of baby food there.
Noted social activists like Medha Patkar have been frequently been
picked up and opposition political leaders manhandled. Even in Kolkata
where no Section 144 exists, protestors have been kept under lock up
and have been arrested during peaceful demonstrations, and have been
lathi charged. Particularly strange has been the fate of Tapasi Malik,
a young girl,who was found brutally murdered on 18 December. The police
seems to have obliterated most of the evidence during preliminary
investigations, insisting that she was murdered by a boyfriend whose
existence, however, can not be proved. The fact that she had been a
political activist in the movement and may have had political enemies
is not taken into account in investigations even though her father
insists repeatedly that a local CPM cadre could be responsible. Her
male relatives are harassed, and her young niece was questioned
vulgarly about the state of her underclothes. No policewomen were
present at the questioning though that is legally obligatory.
We found a determined peasant movement in Singur, peaceful so far,
except for some recent attacks on the fence surrounding the surrounding
land. Villagers are determined to fight on, regardless of the costs to
themselves. They now say that they will not be beaten up without
retaliation, they will fight back in whatever way that is effective.
In conclusion, we found powerful movements,determined to press on.
Large segments of erstwhile CPM members and supporters are deeply
alienated, against the Party and the Government. Muslims are terribly
offended about misinformed aspersions cast at the Jamiat as communal
and they are not satisfied by the invitation offered to their leaders
by the Party leadership to come and discuss the matter. We concluded
that the apprehensions of peasants are fully justified as industries
these days do not produce large numbers of jobs. There are alternative
sites that can be acquired for industrialisation without damaging
agriculture and village communities. Much peasant land has already been
acquired for the New Rajarhat Township near Kolkata, creating
environmental damage and dispossession of the poor. But it is earmarked
for entirely non-developmental purposes to satisfy the demands of
the very rich for their luxurious lifestyle. We also think that the
media, on the whole, has been insensitive and irresponsible in their
reporting. We urge the ruling Front to reconsider their land
acquisition policy, to talk to all segments of the people and to listen
seriously to their arguments. They need to think seriously about
alternative sites for industrialisation that would not lead to the
displacement of peasants. They need to think, in consultation with
people, about the alternative forms of development. Otherwise, a rural
civil war may ensue. -end-
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