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Opinion
Communist Turnaround
From 'Land to
Tiller' to
'Land to Tatas'
by Amulya Ganguli
Rarely has
there been a more variegated collection of personalities battling for a
single cause. Politicians in search of relevance, perennial do-gooders,
Marxist and Maoist revolutionaries, writers on the far left of the
political spectrum, rightwing leaders - all have assembled together to
oppose the West Bengal government-sponsored automobile project of the
Tatas in Singur.
Leading the charge to protest against the handover of fertile
agricultural land for industrial purposes is the Trinamool Congress
leader Mamata Banerjee, who has always been known to oppose whatever the
Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) does. But it is the motley
crowd around her that provides an insight into the political and social
ramifications of the protest campaign.
If Banerjee is the quintessential opposition leader who feels that
acceptance of the ruling party's policies - even if they have a positive
side - will undermine her position, each of her new friends has his or
her personal and political axe to grind.
Among the first to jump on to Banerjee's bandwagon was all-time social
activist Medha Patkar, well known for her opposition to big dams, such
as the one on the Narmada river in Gujarat. Although the Singur project
has nothing to do with dams, she has discerned a link in the problem of
rehabilitating the displaced people which enterprises of this nature
entail.
In the process, however, she has had to take on an anti-leftist position
because the Tatas have the full backing of the Marxist West Bengal Chief
Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya. It is the same with the Akademi award
winning Bengali writer Mahashweta Devi, who is known for her Naxalite
(Maoist) sympathies.
And if these two icons come together, can Booker prize winner Arundhati
Roy be far behind? So, she too has led a demonstration in front of the
CPI-M office in New Delhi over the Singur issue.
But what is curious is that these aggressive votaries of Left find
themselves today on the same platform as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
president Rajnath Singh and convenor of the BJP-led National Democratic
Alliance (NDA) George Fernandes, both of whom are usually branded as
'fascists' by Left activists.
The support extended by Singh and Fernandes to Banerjee was only to be
expected; she remains a member - albeit an unpredictable one - of NDA.
But that is not the full story. Both Singh and Fernandes are after
acquiring some kind of political relevance.
As is known, Singh remains in the shadow of the two BJP stalwarts, Atal
Behari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani, despite becoming the party chief with
the blessings of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Fernandes is at
a loose end, having been virtually evicted from the position of power in
his own party, the Janata Dal-United, by the Nitish Kumar-Sharad Yadav
duo.
If the 'fascists' are looking for a cause that will bring them into the
political limelight, so are the Marxist and Maoist revolutionaries.
Hence, the 24-hour shutdown called by the minuscule Socialist Unity
Centre of India (SUCI) in West Bengal and the attack by a handful of
young men claiming to be Maoists on a Tata automobile showroom in
Kolkata.
Banerjee may have been initially pleased by the support she was getting
from both Left and Right, but the pitfalls of such help from people
ploughing their own furrows have now become apparent.
Singh's appearance on the same dais with the Trinamool Congress leader
has made the West Bengal Congress distance itself from her after an
initial show of solidarity. Now, Patkar too has expressed her uneasiness
at being seen on the same side as NDA. The violence of the Naxalites has
also put Banerjee in a difficult position.
Herein lies the complexity of a situation that violates the norms of
conventional politics. Normally, the likes of Patkar, Mahashweta Devi
and Roy would have been behind the Bhattacharya government. But the
latter is now pursuing a path diametrically opposed to what the Left
upholds.
Not only that, the state government has also shown no hesitation in
using the strong arm of the law to keep the protesters at bay, using
tactics which the Left used to routinely associate with 'bourgeois'
administrations.
For Bhattacharya, however, there is evidently no alternative. Having
embarked on the path of industrialization, he has to ensure that the
investors are not discomfited in any way. And since the Tatas are at the
top of the corporate ladder, the government has to be particularly
sensitive to their needs, not least because both Orissa and Himachal
Pradesh have expressed their willingness to let the Tatas bring their
Singur project for manufacturing small cars, priced at Rs.100,000, to
these states.
If the Tatas are compelled to abandon their project in Singur, it will
be a major setback to Bhattacharya's efforts to woo foreign and domestic
industrialists to invest in West Bengal. Hence, the speed with which his
government has fenced of the plot of land to prepare for the arrival of
the Tatas.
It has also to be remembered that the comrades can be quite ruthless if
they set their minds on something. The Marichjhanpi incident in the
Sunderbans in the 70s (mentioned in Amitav Ghosh's The Hungry Tide) is a
case in point. The hard-hearted manner in which the Left Front
government evicted the East Bengali refugees from there and sent them
back to Dandakaranya in what is now Chhattisgarh underlined the same
official and political determination now in evidence in Singur.
Yet, at one time, when the leftists were not in power in West Bengal,
they used to favour the settlement of the refugees in the Sunderbans.
But their views changed after assuming office; just as it has now on
industrialization. So, the Left slogan today is not 'land to the
tiller', but land to the Tatas.
(Amulya Ganguli is a political
analyst. He can be reached at aganguli@mail.com)
December 24, 2006
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Opinion
The Week of December 24, 2006
Indo-Pak
Peace Talks: Moving on the Wrong Track by Rajinder Puri
2006 : The Year of Indian Diaspora by Aroonim
Bhuyan
Bloody 2006: No End to Violence in 2007 by
Col. Rahul K. Bhonsle
Words Meaning Changes and Misuse by Bush & Bin Laden
by Gaurang Bhatt, MD
In 2006, Courts Put the Fear of Law in the High
and Mighty by Rana Ajit
Can It Be The Beginning of The End of Partition?
by Amulya Ganguli
A Bold Judiciary Augurs Well for the Nation by
Maxwell Pereira
A Samuel Pepys of Emergency India by V.
Sundaram
Which God's Own Country by J. Ajithkumar
Communist Turnaround : From 'Land to Tiller' to
'Land to Tatas' by Amulya Ganguli
Communalism or Affirmative Action by Ram
Puniyani
Counting on People by Swapna Majumdar
A Tribute to a Poet by V. Sundaram
Urban Floods: Bane for
the People by VK Joshi
Tackling the
Water Crisis by Mini Sharma
In Quest of Space Colonization by Subra
Narayan
Psoriasis by Dr. Savitha Suri
Toxic Blood by Yasmin Rimi
Investing in Indian Real Estate: Is Your Checklist
Complete? by Sandeep Donald Shah
Why is Literature Indispensable for Human Life?
by TA Ramesh
Three Cheers for Thuggee Raj! by V. Sundram
Recognition for NARI's Work - A Report
The Village Bride of Beverly Hills a Book
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A Lonely Christmas in Jerusalem Shoshana
Kordova
Exposing the Hidden Half by Devindra Kohli
Porn & Mainstream Media Boundaries have become
Blurred by Elsa sherin Mathews
Mothers' Help: Home Surveillance Systems by
Gagandeep Kaur
Kerala's Feisty Fisherwomen by Nilanjana Biswas
Maternal Mortality: Civil Societies Call for Action
by Anil Gulati
The Olympics in London by Rajesh Talwar
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