Nandigram - Industrialization & political responsibility
The Nandigram issue is back on the Parliamentary focus. I admit this wasn't on my radar in March this year, but I'm finding the issue quite provocative now.
Villagers in West Bengal use very fertile land in Nandigram for multi crop agriculture. The area is a Special Economic Zone and governed by the elected Communist Party of India - Marxist (CPI-M). The CPI-M in W-Bengal won a competition with 9 other states to get the business of the Salim Group who wants the land to build a chemical hub (needs 10,000 acres = 40 sq km).
The Salim Group is a large Indonesian company specializing in foods. Haldia Petro-Chemicals & refinery is located near Nandigram, making Nandigram an ideal location for the supply chain dynamics of the chemical hub.
While CPI-M argues that it will create 10's of 1000's of jobs, the villagers want to keep their fertile, multi-crop land for farming. They banded together under a group called the BUPC to protest the acquisition of their land. The BUPC is a group consisting of the opposition party in the area (Mahajot), TMC (Trinamool), Congress, Jamiyate Ulema e hind. BUPC literally stands for "Against forced expulsion from land" = Bhumi Uchched Protirodh Committee. As a result of the repeated opposition to the project, the Chief Minister actually declared the project void. However local, district & State administration maintained it's viability and denied the CM's statement.
In March this year, protests led to clashes between the BUPC and the area's elected CPI-M (police forces), leaving at least 50 seriously wounded and at least 14 farmers confirmed dead.
Various famous personlities like PC Sarkar, Medha Patkar, Arundhati Roy, Aparna Sen, Mithun Chakraborthy, Mrinal Sen & others protested on the side of the farmers. Intellectuals in Bangalore also took up the cause.
The CPI-M has armed and trained troops that joined police force in this March event, abut have subsequently (In April) also attached intellectuals, theater personalities and others from Calcutta who came to the area to distribute relief materials. The CPI-M has accused the Jami Raksha Committee (coalition of activists from various parties who oppose land acquisition) of driving their supporters / party folks into relief camps that they subsequently attacked. These events, they charge, led to murders and gang rapes.
The Governor of West Bengal (Gopal Krishna Gandhi) got involved and this led to the W Bengal high court ordering a Central Bureau of Investigation enquiry into the matter. The investigation has been inadequate.
The issue pits the need for industrialization versus how that gets enforced on the people (with what extent of force / violence). The CPI-M has now (September 07) publicly stated that they would not forcibly acquire the land. The Chief Minister has suggested the location of Nayachar, some 30km away and sparsely populated. (2500 people working on 13 fisheries that are not exactly sanctioned to exist, although they exist as a result of govt. loans).
Coastal regulations do not currently permit industries in the Nayachar region because of it's environmental effects. The (is)land is prone to cyclones and tsunami and is only 60 years old (soft land). The regulations are being modified to create a Special Economic Zone being for the area. The modification is toying with the idea of mandating Carbon-Neutral construction that may actually earn carbon credits. The development and saving of otherwise unviable land, solar, wind-power and other sustainable technologies would all be factors for new construction in the area.
If a viable alternative that even has a responsible environmental sidebar is available, then why was there the irresponsible violence at Nandigram ? Did politicians just choose the most obvious location with no consideration of its effects or alternatives ?
Multi crop farming on fertile land seems very very worthy of saving from the ecological perspective and I'm glad that the resistence of farmers and their deaths have paid off. It seems like a very high cost for the war between nature versus industrialization.
While small scale agriculture can also be termed "industry" - what makes it better than a giant chemical hub is the fact that it is at a scale that we can understand and see the effect of. It sustains local practices, although it may not produce non-local profits. I'd like to understand the economic motives of the Salim Group's chemical hub. What profits and benefits were politicians valuing so highly that they were not willing to seek alternatives until their citizens protested violently ?
The whole issue of the resistance at Nandigram is deemed as a State Government issue and that under the rules, parliament is not allowed to discuss it. The BJP wants to discuss in Parliament and the left says that they are being disruptive.
The issue of Nandigram and it's alternate location makes me think that policy makers are quite irresponsible in considering that balance. And it angers me that a multi million dollar Indonesian company is given priority over India's working class until they spill their blood for their rights. Sure, there is a larger economic motive too - all the benefits that come with a large chemical factory startup, but who does that really help ? Where is our industrialization headed towards ? Did Gandhi figure out that happiness / contentedness did not allign with western definitions of "progress" ?
The issue seems to me very worth-while of discussion at the national and political level. How to balance small scale industry with large industry has been a unresolved concern since before independence; something that Gandhi proposed to solve by simply focussing on the former. (Or the farmer :-).
How does India, how do each of us define progress ? Nehru, ideoligically opposite to Gandhi, looked to Russia and the U.S. to define progress. Modernization was defined as synomous with Westernization in India's infancy & this seems to have continued. What is the goal ? And what are the means ? What do Indian law & policy makers see us going and why ?
Villagers in West Bengal use very fertile land in Nandigram for multi crop agriculture. The area is a Special Economic Zone and governed by the elected Communist Party of India - Marxist (CPI-M). The CPI-M in W-Bengal won a competition with 9 other states to get the business of the Salim Group who wants the land to build a chemical hub (needs 10,000 acres = 40 sq km).
The Salim Group is a large Indonesian company specializing in foods. Haldia Petro-Chemicals & refinery is located near Nandigram, making Nandigram an ideal location for the supply chain dynamics of the chemical hub.
While CPI-M argues that it will create 10's of 1000's of jobs, the villagers want to keep their fertile, multi-crop land for farming. They banded together under a group called the BUPC to protest the acquisition of their land. The BUPC is a group consisting of the opposition party in the area (Mahajot), TMC (Trinamool), Congress, Jamiyate Ulema e hind. BUPC literally stands for "Against forced expulsion from land" = Bhumi Uchched Protirodh Committee. As a result of the repeated opposition to the project, the Chief Minister actually declared the project void. However local, district & State administration maintained it's viability and denied the CM's statement.
In March this year, protests led to clashes between the BUPC and the area's elected CPI-M (police forces), leaving at least 50 seriously wounded and at least 14 farmers confirmed dead.
Various famous personlities like PC Sarkar, Medha Patkar, Arundhati Roy, Aparna Sen, Mithun Chakraborthy, Mrinal Sen & others protested on the side of the farmers. Intellectuals in Bangalore also took up the cause.
The CPI-M has armed and trained troops that joined police force in this March event, abut have subsequently (In April) also attached intellectuals, theater personalities and others from Calcutta who came to the area to distribute relief materials. The CPI-M has accused the Jami Raksha Committee (coalition of activists from various parties who oppose land acquisition) of driving their supporters / party folks into relief camps that they subsequently attacked. These events, they charge, led to murders and gang rapes.
The Governor of West Bengal (Gopal Krishna Gandhi) got involved and this led to the W Bengal high court ordering a Central Bureau of Investigation enquiry into the matter. The investigation has been inadequate.
The issue pits the need for industrialization versus how that gets enforced on the people (with what extent of force / violence). The CPI-M has now (September 07) publicly stated that they would not forcibly acquire the land. The Chief Minister has suggested the location of Nayachar, some 30km away and sparsely populated. (2500 people working on 13 fisheries that are not exactly sanctioned to exist, although they exist as a result of govt. loans).
Coastal regulations do not currently permit industries in the Nayachar region because of it's environmental effects. The (is)land is prone to cyclones and tsunami and is only 60 years old (soft land). The regulations are being modified to create a Special Economic Zone being for the area. The modification is toying with the idea of mandating Carbon-Neutral construction that may actually earn carbon credits. The development and saving of otherwise unviable land, solar, wind-power and other sustainable technologies would all be factors for new construction in the area.
If a viable alternative that even has a responsible environmental sidebar is available, then why was there the irresponsible violence at Nandigram ? Did politicians just choose the most obvious location with no consideration of its effects or alternatives ?
Multi crop farming on fertile land seems very very worthy of saving from the ecological perspective and I'm glad that the resistence of farmers and their deaths have paid off. It seems like a very high cost for the war between nature versus industrialization.
While small scale agriculture can also be termed "industry" - what makes it better than a giant chemical hub is the fact that it is at a scale that we can understand and see the effect of. It sustains local practices, although it may not produce non-local profits. I'd like to understand the economic motives of the Salim Group's chemical hub. What profits and benefits were politicians valuing so highly that they were not willing to seek alternatives until their citizens protested violently ?
The whole issue of the resistance at Nandigram is deemed as a State Government issue and that under the rules, parliament is not allowed to discuss it. The BJP wants to discuss in Parliament and the left says that they are being disruptive.
The issue of Nandigram and it's alternate location makes me think that policy makers are quite irresponsible in considering that balance. And it angers me that a multi million dollar Indonesian company is given priority over India's working class until they spill their blood for their rights. Sure, there is a larger economic motive too - all the benefits that come with a large chemical factory startup, but who does that really help ? Where is our industrialization headed towards ? Did Gandhi figure out that happiness / contentedness did not allign with western definitions of "progress" ?
The issue seems to me very worth-while of discussion at the national and political level. How to balance small scale industry with large industry has been a unresolved concern since before independence; something that Gandhi proposed to solve by simply focussing on the former. (Or the farmer :-).
How does India, how do each of us define progress ? Nehru, ideoligically opposite to Gandhi, looked to Russia and the U.S. to define progress. Modernization was defined as synomous with Westernization in India's infancy & this seems to have continued. What is the goal ? And what are the means ? What do Indian law & policy makers see us going and why ?