Nandigram, Singur - the place to refer to
Posted On Sunday, March 25, 2007 at at 01:30 by rk rishikesh sinha
Nandigram and Singur, unfortunately, are the two places in India, in the recent times that have hogged headlines for becoming the epicenter of political vendetta. These two places in West Bengal that were unknown to the psyche of the common people is now in news for all bad reasons, becoming the battleground for many parties.
People are flummoxed so are the main political parties of the state and the center on the events that were sequentially turning up in the two places. With the involvement of politics and business, all coming with their own version and speaking the same language of growth and progress of the effected people, the whole episode has now become more complex and caricatured.
The West Bengal government so to catch up with the industrial developments that had swayed in the other states, though lately wants to accelerate industrialization in one stroke by clutching big chunk of lands from the farmers and giving it to business houses. Such acquisition by the government in the name of development is not a new affair. In the past and still the trend is followed by the governments to acquire lands for developmental purpose. That we all know.
The question is – in this purchase exercise that was followed in Singur and Nandigram what went wrong and where? Is it government’s initiative to buy lands for the private parties or its adamant stand to defend its policy to develop Special Economic Zones?
Why people in these two regions, though fuelled by the parties like Trinamool Congress, are fighting tooth and nail not to surrender their land?
Why the developmental pill offered by the government does not sway people to swallow? Is it because the antidote of politics prescribed by the Mamta Banerjee to the people is more powerful than the government’s pill?
People are flummoxed so are the main political parties of the state and the center on the events that were sequentially turning up in the two places. With the involvement of politics and business, all coming with their own version and speaking the same language of growth and progress of the effected people, the whole episode has now become more complex and caricatured.
The West Bengal government so to catch up with the industrial developments that had swayed in the other states, though lately wants to accelerate industrialization in one stroke by clutching big chunk of lands from the farmers and giving it to business houses. Such acquisition by the government in the name of development is not a new affair. In the past and still the trend is followed by the governments to acquire lands for developmental purpose. That we all know.
The question is – in this purchase exercise that was followed in Singur and Nandigram what went wrong and where? Is it government’s initiative to buy lands for the private parties or its adamant stand to defend its policy to develop Special Economic Zones?
Why people in these two regions, though fuelled by the parties like Trinamool Congress, are fighting tooth and nail not to surrender their land?
Why the developmental pill offered by the government does not sway people to swallow? Is it because the antidote of politics prescribed by the Mamta Banerjee to the people is more powerful than the government’s pill?
These two places, no doubt, have added a new page in the so called manufactured development carried out by the government by taking away covertly or overtly lands from the farmers and peasants.