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THE HIMALAYAN DISASTER: TRANSNATIONAL DISASTER MANAGEMENT MECHANISM A MUST

We talked with Palash Biswas, an editor for Indian Express in Kolkata today also. He urged that there must a transnational disaster management mechanism to avert such scale disaster in the Himalayas. http://youtu.be/7IzWUpRECJM

THE HIMALAYAN TALK: PALASH BISWAS TALKS AGAINST CASTEIST HEGEMONY IN SOUTH ASIA

THE HIMALAYAN TALK: PALASH BISWAS TALKS AGAINST CASTEIST HEGEMONY IN SOUTH ASIA

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Wednesday, April 22, 2009

CHANGE WANTED! PARIBARTON CHAAI!Face of the RESISTANCE MANIK MANDAL


CHANGE WANTED! PARIBARTON CHAAI!Face of the RESISTANCE MANIK MANDAL
 
Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams: Chapter 210
 
Palash Biswas
 
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    This morning, I visited the place of film director Tushar bhattachary with my Brother in law, beena`s husband , Niranjan. Where we saw some audio visual works by Amal Bawali, Pallab Kirtonia, Gautam Mitra, CANVAS and our dear friend MANIK Mandal.We also knew the work of delhi based social activist MANASI on Bengal Tea Gardens with her VCD, Rally of Death!

     

    Details of the works as follows:

     

    CD Audio by our friend , the FOLK Musician AML BAWALI: JHANDA NIYA DHANDABAJI

     

    VCD by pallab Kirtonia: ALO O MANUSH

     

    AUDIO CD by Kabir SUMAN: Nandigram

     

    VCD by MANIK MANDAL: EBAR ULTE DIN

     

    VCDs by CANVAS:1.GORKHALAND 2. LALGARH3.MATSAYAN (On RETAIL Chain)

     

    VCD by MANASI(DELHI): Rally of DEATH ( Death processions in BENGAL TEA GARDENs)

     

    Audio CD by GAUTAM MITRA : Nandigramer NATI

     

    Pallab Kirtonia and Manik Mandal are the only TWO faces from the Scheduled CASTE Schedule tribe communities involved in the RESISTANCE and Insurrections against GENOCIDE CULTURE and GESTAPO HEGEMONY in Bengal!

     

    Of the TWO, PALLAB is recognised as FOLK MUSIC ICON in Bengal.

     

    But MANIK MANDAL has emerged as a DHUMKETU in the RESISTANCE SKY!

     

    His MULTI DIMENTIONAL Social activism makes him the FACE of RESISTANCE!

     

    Provided other MANIK mandals also come forward like this, the CHANGE would be INEVITABLE whatsoever may come!

     

    Earlire I have already written some comments on the Man.

     

    But I do realise, Manik Mandal and CHHATRADHAR MAHTO must lead from the FRONT and it would work like a MAGIC.

     

     Just wait for some good reason, I would Elaborate!

     

    Campaign against Monopolistic agression, EK CHETIA AGRASAN VIRODI Manch and NagariK Manch are DOING EXCELLENT as far as DOCUMENTATION and mass Mobilisation are concerned.

     

     Specially, ABHI DUTT MAJUMDAR and NAVA DUTT are my favourites!

     

    Keeping in mind, the leadership of Mahashweta Devi and SHUBHO PRASANNO, SANHATI.COM, CIVIL Society and Intelligentsia, I highlight manik Mandal so much so because any CHANGE would be quite irrlevant until Indigenous, Aboriginal and minrity communities, SC, ST and OBC are not INVOLVED with EMPOWERMENT.

     

    The Civil society and Intelligentsia should have some VISION of the Change which would ENABLE them to create some SPACE, hitherto quite ABSENT for the SC, ST and OBC.

     

     Only this equation may KILL the Hegemony of genocide culture. otherwise not!

     

    Manik Mandal was amongst the PEOPLE of NANDIGRAM who faced BULLETS and did never SURRENDER!

     

    Manik Mandal has proved his worth with two novels on the INSURRECTION.

     

     First: BHALO NEI!

     

     SECOND: HARMAD.

     

    His VCD ULTE DIN is an Excellent work which includes everything since MARICHJHANPI Genocide.

     

    He has used the Clippings of other works including the MARICHJHANPI film by TUSHAR Bhattacharya, NANDIGRAM SINGUR LALGARH News LIVE with beautiful COMPARING and his SCREEN Presence is very COMMUNICATIVE!

     

    While the Marxists have come up with a feature film to counter Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee's allegations on government's highhandedness in Singur and Nandigram. Earlier the CPM had produced several audio-video CDs, with speeches of veteran Jyoti Basu and circulated those throughout the state. But this time the party has roped in tinsel word heroes like Saumitra Chatterjee and Sabyasachi Cakrabarty to act in the film. Shyamal Chakraborty, state president of CITU, was in-charge of producing the film, which will be released after April 16, the day Higher Secondary examinations get over. Party committees have been asked to collect CDs of the film and show them in rural video centers.

     

    I have already written on the works of MANDAKRANTA and CHANDAN and ANINDITA!


    The SLOGAN is PARIBARTAN CHAAI!

     

    Change wanted in Bengal!

     

    The Cream of  West Bengal  Intelligentsia, the CULTURAL ICONS, which turned away from CPM, post Singur and Nandigram, released a manifesto on Thursday demanding  steps to ensure the election results reflect the aspirations of the people. They also want to stay away from the poll process, but want people to cast their votes without fear.

     

     The manifesto was signed by the likes of Mahasweta Devi, Bibhas Chakraborty, Suvaprasanna, Saonli Mitra, Sujato Bhadra, Kaushik Sen and Bratya Basu, among several others.

     

    They have ot affliated to any Political Ideology or party, but they want to Change the GENOCIDE Culture! I, personally, am not against such a change.

     

    I am also UP AGAIST the Genocide culture. But I never believe in just the CHANGE of faces in RULING Manusmriti hegemony while the Intelligentsia is quite disinterested to overthrow the ROTTEN Brahaminical system as they  are the best defenders of the Bangla Brahaminical Nationality.

     

    Neverthe less, the CRY for change is justified!

     

    As Mahashweta Di demands that this GOVERNMENT must GO, I also support the IDEA of Change in this change.

     

    But I do not believe that it would really change the Socio ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENTAL Demogrphic chemistry of Manusmriti culture so dominant.

     

    The next Government so expected is also bound to be ABSOLUTE and as Capitalist, as Fascist, as Americanised, as americanised as our Marxists friends have turned!

     

    Thus, I am afraid that the CIVIL Society is trying best to change the GENOCIDE Culture with yet another Genocide Culture.

     

     Mind you, Ms mamata Bannerjee has aligned with CONGRESS led by Washington Slaves Anti national Imposters.

     

    We may not support this equation as PRANAB MUKHERJEE remains the Face of the Alliance and it would do no good to indigenous, Aboriginal Minorities communities.

     

    We all know that Marxists are responsible for Genocide Culture in West Bengal, but then who should be held responsible for the MASS Destruction Agenda elsewhere?

     

    Who introduced LPG Raj?

     

     Who operationalised INDO US Nuclear deal?

     

    Who plans for Disinvestment in PSUS?

     

    Who  helped USA to shift the War zone right into our heart in peace zone India Ocean?

     

    Who realligned in US ISRAEL lead? Who leads the War against teroor in India?

     

    Who is responsible for the Repression of nationalities?

     

    May we VOTE for Italian Sonia Gandhi or Supreme Slave Dr Manmohansingh and let RBI, FINMIN, ILLUMINATI, LPG Mafia and MNC RAJ allow to do everything in nationwide Killingfields?

     

     As a NATION, how we may support the Ruling Hegemony consisting of UPA, NDA and the Left, the integral part of TRIIBLIS Satanic WORLD Order against Black Untouchables worldwide?

     

    Should our Intelligentsia not look beyond Bengal and have a world vision!

     

    The Brahaminical Absolute Antipeople Character of the RULING hegemony consisting of all political party notwithstanding with any damned fucking Ideology has DISILLUSIONED Indigenous and abriginal people countrywide and thus the satnd with the Extremist Maoists!

     

    Neither I am a Maoist as they also remain Brahmins even after DECLASS Announcements! Little they care to OVERTHROW the Manusmriti apartheid Rule in India! Moreover, they never consider Empowerment or social movement as the tools of any Change!

     

    But Bengal situation is so much so helplessthat the demand for Change seems very JUSTIFIED!

     

    Let the Marxists be DEPRIVED of Power so the REGIMENTED GESTAPO may be DEMOBILISED without which any SOCIAL Movement or any Mobilisation whatsoever is VERY IMPOSSIBLE in  Bengal!

     

    Thus, I support the demand for change despite RESERVAYTIONS!


    As we should not forget NANDIGRAM, SINGUR, GORKHALAND, LALGARH or MARICHJHANPI, we must not forget the politics of ECONOMY, the Monopolistic Aggression, twin terror acts, Disinvestment,Anti Labour legislations, HIRE and Fire, Retail Chain, Citizenship Amendment act, DEPORTATION Drive against bengali partition victims countrywide, Worldbank and SWISS BANK Monsters with IMF, WTO, GATT, CIA and MOSSAD and also AFPSA!

     

     

    Stung by the growing strength of Trinamool Congress in rural West Bengal as exhibited in the last year's panchayat polls, the ruling CPM is now banking on digital mediums to reach to its grassroots supporters.

     

    The CPM does not want to make the two episodes - the Nandigram and Singur debacles — its Achilles' heel and hence it has created CDs to put across the party's view on industrialisation to the voters.

     

    All the 26,000-odd party units throughout the state have been asked to show the audio-video CDs in their respective areas.

     

    "The idea is still in a preliminary stage," says CITU state president Shyamal Chakraborty, in-charge of producing these CDs, adding that the party will produce a full length film on the issue.

     

    Another reason for adopting the modern mass communication tool is that the CPM lacks crowd-pullers and stalwarts like Jyoti Basu, sources say.


    Back 'real Left' Trinamool and its candidate Kabir SumanIs the Left being ditched by its most faithful supporters in West Bengal? This appears to be coming true for the CPI(M) which has for months been pilloried by the intellectual brigade for Nandigram and Singur.

     

    Educationist Tarun Sanyal explained the reasons behind releasing the manifesto by the intellectuals. "We are not campaigning for any party. We feel the situation in Bengal is such that we cannot remain quiet," Sanyal said.

     

    "Change is required for the sake of democracy. This has to be achieved through the election process. If one party remains in power in the Centre or state for decades, it is not healthy for democracy ...If people want change, they will have to find out ways to bring it about," the manifesto reads.

     

    The manifesto maintained that bringing about the change is a long-drawn process.

     

    A section of the city's intelligentsia, who had protested against the CPM's land acquisition policy during the peak of Nandigram and Singur agitation, is now openly showing its solidarity with Kabir Suman, the Trinamool Congress candidate from Jadavpur constituency. Suman is pitted against CPM's Sujan Chakraboty. At a public function organised by Sahanagarik Muktamancha on Thursday, the intellectuals urged voters to get rid of an "oppressive CPM".


    The list of celebrated people who came together in support of the singer included Mahasweta Devi, Bibhas Chakraborty, Debabrata Bandopadhyay, Sujato Bhadra of APDR, Amiyo Choudhury and Kaushik Bandopadhyay.

     

     

    "Kabir Suman has been one of the most vocal protesters against any injustice committed on Bengal's soil. Today, as he stands against the oppressive CPM-backed government, we wish him all the best and urge voters to elect Suman who can be the true and honest representative of the people of the state," said theatre personality Bibhas Chakraborty.

     

     Maheswata Devi, who could not attend today's function, sent her message saying it was time that people should come together and launch a movement against the CPM.

     

    The group has made Tomake Chai ( Need You) as the theme of its campaign for Suman and will even hold rallies to woo the voters. However, in spite of expressing their resentment against the CPM, the intellectuals are saying that they are not supporting any particular political outfit.

     

    Now, the intelligentsia is taking action --- throwing its weight behind Trinamool candidate from Jadavpur constituency, Kabir Suman. The slugfest here seems to be between the real "Left" and "pseudo-Left".

     

    Kabir Suman is a singer, a name Bengalis utter in the same breath as US folk musician Pete Seeger and music director Salil Chowdhury.

     

     For the first time, the Left Front is facing the wrath of its intellectuals in an organised manner.

     

     An indicator is the setting up of Sahanagorikder Mukta Mancha (fellow citizen's forum) that has several luminaries on board -- writer Mahashweta Devi, artist Shuvaprasanna, theatre personalities Bibhash Chakroborty, Bratya Basu, Koushik Sen, poet Joy Goswami ... the list is long and the shade of red here, perhaps, can't really get any deeper.

     

    But why are they supporting Kabir Suman, a Trinamool candidate? "Suman is a Leftist.

     

    I am a Leftist. We are fighting against the pseudo-Lefts," theatre personality Bibhash Chakroborty says vehemently.

     

    Why back a candidate that is contesting for the Trinamool?

     

    "What's in a name? The party is incidental here," Chakroborty concludes.

     

     Debrabrata Bandhopadhyaya, economist and ex-revenue secretary, and psephologistAmiya Choudhury emphasise that the "distinction between Left and Right in Bengal has become blurred".

     

    Prasun Bhowmik, convener of Sahanagorikder Mukta Mancha, observes, "The Trinamool movement is a Left movement... We are fighting the 'so-called Left'."Writer Mahashweta Devi, delivers the clincher: "We will have to defeat the CPI(M)."


    The mancha was set up on March 14, 2007 to protest against the "CPI(M)'s atrocities against farmers and women in Nandigram".

     

     

    Kabir Suman himself has a history of fighting for the downtrodden. He threw in his lot with workers of the closed Kanoria jute mills in West Bengal in the early 1990s. He also opposes the special economic zones and the chemical hub slated to come up at Nayachar, Haldia. But his supporters cock-a-snook when the CPI(M) calls them anti-development.

    As educationist and Left sympathiser Subodh Sarkar says: "Those opposing industries on the plea that it's against Left ideology have no right to call themselves intellectuals. Those who support industrial development are not pseudo-Leftists, it's those who do not."

    Filmmaker Sharan Dutta adds: "We need to understand that Leftist ideology is based on reality and the reality is that industries are the need of the hour. And if you ask me to describe the intellectuals opposing this development, I will say they are no better than intellectual terrorists."

     

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          Mainstream, Vol XLVII, No 17, April 11, 2009

          Oust the Tyrants!

          by Mahasweta Devi, 12 April 2009

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          The following is a message from Mahasweta Devi, veteran novelist and one of the foremost intellectuals of West Bengal today, to a Press Meet organised by the friends of Kabir Suman, a noted progressive singer, contesting from the Jadavpur constituency of Kolkata for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. The Press Meet took place at the Kolkata Press Club on April 2, 2009. The message speaks volumes of Mahasweta Devi's passionate advocacy of the cause of democracy in the present scenario of West Bengal ruled for more than 30 long years by an insensate dispensation that has done precious little to mitigate the miseries of the common people. It has been rendered into English by D. Bandyopadhyay, former Secretary, Revenue, Government of India, and the real architect of 'Operation Barga' that ushered in the first stage of land reforms in rural Bengal in the early eighties.

          I would have sincerely liked to participate in the Press Meet on April 2, 2009, organised by the friends of Kabir Suman to support his candidature for the Lok Sabha elections from the Jadavpur constituency. But as my blood sugar is danger-ously fluctuating, I don't find the courage to make it.

          I have only one message to one and all: give up all your reservations, in case you have any, and get committed to the one and only one mission of defeating the CPM in the ensuing election. It would not be an easy task. For the last 30/32 years, the CPM had been denying food, employment, health care, drinking water and electricity to the people of this State. They are only interested in converting free and autonomous individuals into slavish supporters of the Party, and for this purpose they have developed a full-fledged industry. It is against this vile industry that people should rise up and register their protest. In the last panchayat elections the people had voted against the CPM.

          Those who achieved this feat, we have to go to them, talk to them, learn from them and get committed to that one objective of ousting the CPM in the election. The industry that has been developed of not doing any work and embezzling crores of public fund, we are definitely against that industry. There is a Left Front Government in West Bengal and this State ranks first in India in crimes against women—from molestation, rape, kidnapping to selling and exporting these female bodies to other States and abroad. They have developed this abhorrent calling into an organised industry. There is a massive army behind it—such practice is carried out with direct help from the government. We are surely against this loathsome industry.

          That is why we should all stand united. Whatever strength we have we must employ that strength to oppose that industry while standing by the people. This is the industry which has brought the State to such a pass—touching the rock bottom in all spheres of activity in the country.

          Wherever you are, oppose the CPM. Let all opponents of the CPM, including Kabir Suman in Jadavpur constituency, emerge victorious. The Opposition forces too must unite. The times are changing. These times and the people at large are calling upon the Opposition to defeat the CPM. The Opposition too must have only one platform—this is the demand of the times and the people.

          I am with you as always and shall continue to be so.

           

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          Font Size

          Express News Service

          Posted: Apr 15, 2009 at 0200 hrs IST
          Kolkata If Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee launches a cultural offensive to garner votes, can Mamata Banerjee be far behind?

          Just two days ago, the CPM had mobilised the entire Left-leaning intelligentsia at Sisir Mancha where the chief minister explained his party's stand vis-à-vis Singur, Nandigram, Lalgarh and others. He also lamented the absence of many "known faces" from the world of art and culture. "It would have been better had they been here so that I could remove so many of the misgivings and confusion from their minds," Bhattacharjee rued.

          On Tuesday, the same "known faces" whom the chief minister missed were seen at Netaji Indoor Stadium. The occasion: a function on the eve of Bengali New Year organised by Paschim Banga Sanskritik Mancha, a cultural organisation, which can be easily dubbed as Trinamool Congress' counterpart of CPM's Ganatrantik Lekhok and Kalakushali Samiti.

          And quite invariably, the top brass of Trinamool, including party chief Mamata Banerjee, leader of the Opposition in the state assembly Partha Chatterjee, legislators Sobhondeb Chattopadhyay and Madan Mitra, to name a few, were there.

          The intellectuals' side included author Mahasweta Devi, theatre personalities Bibhas Chakraborty, Bratya Basu, painters Suvaprasanna, Jogen Choudhury, poet Joy Goswamy and others.

          But no speeches were made. The stadium instead reverberated with songs and recitations. Selected portions of plays critical of the policies of the Marxist government were also enacted.

          Amid this Banerjee seemed to be enjoying every bit of it, giving autographs, tapping her knee as a cultural band sang a Bihu song. She requested singer Pratul Mukhopadhyay to sing a song which was her favourite. As poet Joy Goswamy finished reciting his poems, some of which were overtly critical of the policies of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, the Trinamool leader burst into applause.

           

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          17 Apr 2009, 0436 hrs IST, TNN
           
           
          KOLKATA: If poetry
          marked Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's roadshow on Wednesday to garner votes for incumbent Jadavpur MP Sujan Chakraborty, it was
          politics and nothing else at Mamata Banerjee's counter act on Thursday to elicit support for her party nominee Kabir Suman, who is testing his fortunes in the Left bastion.

          As her hoodless jeep made its way through hordes of Trinamool and SUCI supporters and eager passers-by on the Gariahat-Garia stretch who had gathered to catch a glimpse of Didi and the jibanmukhi singer, Banerjee's message was simple: only the Trinamool-led alliance could usher in changes that could benefit the state.

          Stopping intermittently to acknowledge the presence of the assembled crowd many of whom were forced by circumstances to endure a long wait till the procession passed them and wish them on the occasion of the Bengali new year, the Trinamool supremo alleged that the Singur and Nandigram incidents had proved beyond doubt that the Left had lost its ability to provide good governance.

          As curious Jadavpur University students milled around in front of the campus to watch the proceedings many of them busy clicking away pictures of Banerjee on their camera phones the Trinamool boss tore into the government's claims of doing its bit for the young by alleging that its wrong policies had led to a severe brain drain. One crore youth had left the state because of want of opportunities, she claimed.

          Even the Left Front's assertions on promoting industrialization had actually not yielded the desired results, since there were a large number of closed units in Jadavpur Assembly constituency, which is represented by the CM himself. Trinamool was not anti-industry, as it was not against the Tatas setting up a small car plant on 600 acres in Singur and had only wanted that the land of unwilling farmers be returned. If voted to power, it would oppose disinvestment in banks, insurance companies and public sector undertakings, she asserted.

          "CPM has become a bankrupt political party which is why they are trying to provoke us," the former railway minister said, while addressing a gathering at the Mitali Sangha club ground at Garia, alleging that stones had been pelted at a Trinamool supporter near the Sukanta Setu crossing. "If Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee becomes PM, there will be Nandigrams everywhere," she asserted.

          Although the rally was largely peaceful, there were brief flare-ups between Trinamool and Left supporters. The former claimed that a shoe has been hurled on a party supporter from a bus plying on the route taken by the rallyists. Later, near Ganguly Bagan, DYFI supporters allegedly resorted to a slogan war with Trinamool.

          The Trinamool boss said the Left's desperation was evident from its attempts to resort to slander campaigns against Trinamool candidates like Kabir Suman, and trying to fabricate stories around the real cause of death of Tapasi Malik. "Kabir Suman used to be a Leftist and would be taken around by the Left to address their meetings. But the moment he joined us, he became an untouchable," she said.
           
          Kabir Suman on Mission Jadavpur with a song on his lips
          5 Apr 2009, 0534 hrs IST, Saikat Dasgupta, TNN
           
           
           Here, the horizon is made of clusters of skyscrapers that dot the fringes of the E M Bypass. And as the afternoon sun jumps behind these tall
          denizens of Kolkata's real estate pride, bringing an early sunset to those who live in their shadow, it tells the story of a place that'll be the toughest challenge for the most-watched man in the Kolkata election ring. Last week, Kabir Suman travelled 8 km out of the city to Bhangar and villages like Bamunghata and Hatishala, but what awaited him was a vast disconnect thrust upon villagers in this leeward side of the city where the writ of poverty runs and empty fields seem to stretch into eternity. Even the cellphone, which only a few minutes ago showed a full network, frets and falters before going on roaming', as if to make the alienation complete.

          "Dada, you must wave to the crowd," a Trinamool Congress leader advises Suman as the open-top campaign jeep bounces into Hatishala, slowing down to allow him to interact with enthusiastic locals gathered near a ground in front of a madarsa. The look of joy and disbelief on their faces slowly turns into one of hope and expectation as the singer-journalist (that's how Suman describes himself) steps down and shakes hands. "Kabir Suman, baba bhalo theko (wish you well)," says an elderly lady. Another, who cannot stop smiling, raises her hand in silent blessing. Then, as the collective vroom of nearly 2,000 bikes, ridden by Trinamool supporters on campaign, signals it's time to go, Suman instinctively climbs on the jeep, grabs the microphone from an aide, and sings "haal chhero na bondhu, barang kantha chharo jore.. dekha hobe tomai amai Jadavpurer more-e..." The mission statement, perhaps, of a man performing in real time after close to two decades of thought-provoking melody delivered from studio and stage.

          "The love of the people is humbling. They are the ones you must write about, not me," Suman says as the jeep rolls into a narrow bylane that'll take the campaign team to Bamunghata. For a man who'd announced his arrival on the political stage with "ora amake chene na (they don't know me)" during an interview in his Baishnabghata bylane home a few days ago, throwing a challenge at opponents, critics and cynics, this was his very own discovery trip. "Aro onek ladai baaki (we still have a huge battle to fight)," he tells an untiring aide who has been speaking into the microphone for the last couple of hours, urging people to vote for Suman in the Jadavpur Lok Sabha constituency on May 13.

          The jeep is now trailing a bike brigade shouting anti-Left slogans on a narrow road, navigating a maze of twists and turns on both sides of which lies Bamunghata. "You know, this is a blind area," a Trinamool leader travelling on the jeep says as it heads into the intestines of the village. "No Opposition candidate gets any votes from here." There is the occasional raised hand, or a brief greeting from the porch, or a quick smile from inside a partly open window, but the reaction to Mamata Banerjee's most trusted lieutenant is muted. "They are scared," remarks Suman as he waves to group of children standing under a tree.

          Land, as is evident from the vast tracts of green fields, is an issue here. And the Trinamool slogan of ma, mati, manush' has more resonance. No surprises then that the creator of the eponymous Sumaner Gaan is introduced here as the seasoned journalist who embarked on the land crusade with Mamata in Singur and Nandigram, sang for Tapasi Malik to whip up cries for justice, and campaigned for a resurgent Bengal that thrives on self-sufficience. "The public mood is with us, dada," another aide tells Suman and Bhangar MLA Arabul Lashkar, who is travelling in the jeep. "The tide has turned this time, you can see it in their faces,' he adds.

          It's late afternoon in Kolkata but the long shadows of Rajarhat's skyscrapers have already brought the first signs of evening here. And as the jeep rolls along a wooden bridge in its journey back to the city, Suman's onyo gaaner bhore' seems to be cast in a new light that of bringing the sun back to these dark fringes.

          (With inputs from Devjyot Ghoshal and Arpit Basu)
           

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          Mamata's message of change finds audience in rural Bengal
          Rajat Roy / Kolkata April 16, 2009, 0:50 IST
          The election manifesto of Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress (TC), released last month, did not get the attention it "deserved".
             
          The manifesto speaks of change. In concrete terms, Banerjee speaks of transforming Digha, a small sea resort at the northern end of the Bay of Bengal, into Goa, North Bengal's hills and forests into Switzerland, and Kolkata into London.
          Expectedly, the manifesto has been drawing flak from the ruling CPI(M) and the media since it came out. The CPI(M) organ lampooned Banerjee for her "wild imagination" and wondered as to why she had stopped short of converting Writers' Building into Buckingham Palace.
          Banerjee's similar utterances have frequently made her the butt of unkind jokes in the Kolkata elite. But things in rural Bengal indicate something different. The instant response of a Group D state government employee (who did not want to be identified) in Raigunj, a district town in North Bengal, was: "Mamata is not using political language. She is addressing us."
          Banerjee's election manifesto is replete with invective and direct attacks against the ruling CPI(M). It does mention issues related to industrialisation, acquisition of farmland for industry or rural development, but all this is overshadowed by her pledge to change Bengal. Though the coming election is all about sending as many representatives to the Lok Sabha, she is talking of what her party would do if it wins the 2011 Assembly elections.
          Achintya Chatterjee, an activist of TC from Habra in North 24 Parganas, the district where the party is expected to do well in the coming election, admits that the ordinary people of Bengal have seen London and Switzerland only on TV and in the movies. "They can't even think of visiting these places. For the ordinary people, these places remain a distant world of plenty, which is beyond their reach.
          What Banerjee has done is to point out that given the political will, we can achieve a lot and better our lives." As he campaigns door-to-door to seek vote for his party, Chatterjee says: "Teachers and bank employees are derisive about it. But the poor daily wage earners have no difficulty understanding it."
          Perhaps this change in perceptions in urban and rural Bengal point out to a much greater divide in society. When it comes to the question of Bengali identity, the urban elite swear by the legacy of Tagore, Satyajit Ray, Ravishankar and other such icons.
          Contrast this with the popular culture at mass level. Take popular cinema, for instance. The Bengali film industry, which is doing roaring business in Kolkata and elsewhere has seen the recent release of a film called 'Challenge Nibi Naa Shalaa, Panga Nibi Naa Shalaa' (I dare you to accept the challenge).
          Another Bengali feature film 'MLA Fatakesto', which was a superhit in 2006, was made by its dialogue — "Maarbo Ekhane, Lash Parbe Shamshane" (I will give you a thrashing here, but your body will automatically reach the crematorium). The popularity of these dialogues is on a par with those of 'Sholay', a Hindi hit film of the 1970s, the dialogues of which were used by one of its protagonists, Dharmendra, in his 2004 campaign as the BJP candidate from Bikaner.
          Subrata Sen, a journalist turned filmmaker who has been studying popular culture for some time, admits that there is a strong disconnect between the urban and rural milieu. "Whatever is understood by the 'progressive Left culture' is basically a product of Bengali middle class with a strong urban bias. Rural Bengal does not connect to that," he says.
          Precisely for this reason, the Left in Bengal had always been critical of mass popular culture, branding it reactionary.
          Achin Chakrabarty, a social scientist associated with the Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata, points out that Mamata's main campaign slogan — "Maa-Mati-Manush" (Motherland, Land and People) is also borrowed from a hit 'Jatrapala' (a traditional and popular form of drama where the actors play on open stage surrounded by the audience from three sides) of the same title.
          "The dominant culture in Jatrapala is to criticise and caricature the present. The hit movies like 'MLA Fatakesto' or 'Challenge…' are nothing but celluloid version of this Jatrapala. That is what make them click with the masses," he says.
          He admits that it is hard to quantify the effect of Banerjee's message among the rural people. But he can recognise the similarities in the languages used by popular culture and that used by Banerjee. Banerjee's crude invective against political opponents and her rustic approach to sort out long-standing problems of the state captures the people's imagination and they identify themselves with her causes like they did with actor Mithun Chakravarty in MLA Fatakesto.
          The Left in Bengal and also the Congress have always used a common language, though different in content, to convey their politics irrespective of whether the audience is urban or rural. People have got so used to hearing this language from political parties that the Group D employee from Raigunj mentioned above had no difficulty in identifying Banerjee's language as non-political, a language of their own.
          http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/mamata%5Cs-messagechange-finds-audience-in-rural-bengal/355277/
          Nano shadow over West Bengal polls
           
          Indrani Dutta
          Kolkata
           
          Issues of land acquisition, industrialisation uppermost on voters' minds 
          Never before perhaps has a single issue come to dominate an election in the way as industrialisation has this time in West Bengal. The State's 5.24 crore electorate is split over it, and it is likely to be uppermost on the minds of people when they vote in the State's three-phase election.
          While industrialisation and development are being used as poll planks, it is the underlying issue of acquisition of land for industry that is really crucial. Around this time a year ago, West Bengal was gearing up to enter the ranks of the country's industrially-advanced States. Riding on the iconic Nano small car project of the Tatas, the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee–led government wanted to usher in an era of industrial resurgence. Today, it is symbolic of the fate of what can befall a project when politics overrules development.
          The flashpoint in the confrontation between West Bengal's ruling Left-coalition and the Trinamool Congress came when the State was poised to accelerate its industrialisation drive, kicked off by the former Chief Minister, Jyoti Basu, in the mid-1990s. It was believed the stability of the government and the State's peaceful climate would help to turn what was then a trickle of investment into a flow. This was not to be.
          Many believe that more counselling is needed to explain to farmers the benefits that come from industrial projects. "We feel the farmers should have been made to understand how they would gain from the Nano project, which should not have been ejected from the State," says Swapan Chaudhuri, a 54-year-old-government employee.
          For the younger generation, the debate on acquisition of land and industrialisation as well as the rash of agitations seen since Singur, translates into shrinking job-opportunities. They are a confused lot, not knowing whether to vote for the Left, which they feel has been stymied by an unyielding opposition, or whether they should simply vote for change. "West Bengal will be keenly-watched for the message it carries with respect to industrialisation and land acquisition," says 25-year-old Debojyoti Mitra.
          Keen to shed its anti-industry tag, the Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has reiterated that her party too wants industrialisation, but keeping the interests of the farm-sector in mind.
          http://www.hindu.com/2009/04/19/stories/2009041955961300.htm
          Angry Old Man
          Jyoti Basu uses the CPI(M)'s organisational elections to renew his assault on ideological hardliners who kept him from the prime minister's chair.
          By Udayan Namboodiri
          Even a lion in winter seeks fresh prey. Jyoti Basu, aged 83 and chief minister of West Bengal since 1977, finds himself in the thick of a factional feud the likes of which his CPI(M) has never seen. Seventeen months ago, Basu was set to become prime minister of the first United Front (UF) government. His coronation was thwarted by theory-obsessed comrades. They pointed to the obscure clause 112 in the party's programme, which forbid it joining any Central coalition in which it did not have a majority.
           
          It still rankles. Basu's first salvo came in January, when he referred to the decision not to join the UF government as a "historic blunder". Sitaram Ye-chury, politburo member, tried to dismiss the issue as a "closed chapter". Now, what began as a debate on the nuances of political action has become a gigantic street brawl between Basu's loyalists and the pedantic old guard.
          Basu's intention, say his close associates, is to take the CPI(M) beyond its present confinement to West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura. He blames its inability to grow nationally on the fossilised apparatchiki who dominate the party structure and frame its programmes. The battle is not going to be easy. Says a former party MP who is close to Basu: "It would entail comprehensive changes at all levels. Basu realises he will need personalities interested in change whereas those controlling the party now have a vested interest in keeping it small." Little wonder Basu has been calling for "more democracy" in the party.
          Basu's aim is to pack the all-powerful Politburo and Central Committee with practical politicians. The politburo is currently controlled by Yechury and Prakash Karat -- sometimes disparaged as drawing-room leaders and said to be backed by E.M.S. Namboodiripad, the former party general secretary. Says a former party MP: "The Yechury-Karat group wants to ensure the invitee list to the party's Calcutta congress (scheduled for February 1998) is dominated by those preferring the status quo."
          Only those partymen elected to the State Committee can attend the party congress. The State Committee is in the grip of Anil Biswas, editor of Ganashakti, the party's Bengali daily. A divide between his supporters and those who seek change is now visible. Subhash Chakraborty, the transport minister, is emerging as Basu's demolition man.
          Elections to the party's two lowest rungs -- "branch" and "local" -- largely concluded in early October. They were marked by dissent and hostility. When Biman Bose, Central Committee member, issued strictures against canvassing or going to the press with "news about internal affairs", he was defied. To add fuel to the fire, on two occasions in the past month Basu termed his party's leadership "corrupt". He found an unwitting supporter in Ashok Mitra, former state finance minister and now Rajya Sabha member. Mitra recently attacked party functionaries, charging that "they have forgotten about ideology and help themselves to government funds for holding party conferences".
          The theoreticians hit back by sabotaging Basu's attempt to clear Calcutta's streets of hawkers. Biswas, despite holding no government office, asked the hawkers to return to their illegal markets. Buddhadev Bhattacharya, police minister and Basu's heir apparent, responded by calling in the riot-control Rapid Action Force.
          Factionalism was apparent in the local party conferences. One meeting in Behala, a suburb of Calcutta, resulted in Ashis Chatterjee, the district committee overseer, being shot at -- apparently in error. The most troubled district was North 24 Parganas, Chakraborty's battleground which neighbours the capital. Links with the real-estate mafia and influence over contractors divided comrades as much as the future of clause 112. Admits a leader: "Money was freely used to win support."
          Plainly, the theoreticians had it coming. In the perception of a new generation of CPI(M) leaders -- aside from Chakraborty, it includes Housing Minister Gautam Deb and Health Minister Partho Dey -- the party is controlled by ivory-tower dwellers. They rarely contest elections, keep away from the hurly burly of politics and, to quote one minister, "live off the cream". Yet, it is they who run the party -- and ask ministers, including Basu, to explain the Government's conduct. Says Chakraborty: "The vast majority of West Bengal leaders are upset at the fossilised thinking that dominates the party."
          Party elections had thus far been staid affairs. There was no real exercise of choice, with delegates to branch, local, zonal and district conferences meekly validating "panels" proposed by outgoing committees. This time, Biswas admits, direct elections were held at 90 per cent of the branch and local conferences.
          Anticipating this, the incumbent leadership had framed a rule whereby any "palta" (opposing) panel could be made public only 15 minutes before the voting. This gave the anti-establishment forces little time to campaign. There were allegations of "rigging" in some units, including one in Calcutta, where rival groups "guarded" ballot papers before the voting. Biswas denies tales of indiscipline: "All these are fabrications. People are feeding all kinds of stories." Yet, democracy seems to have finally contaminated the CPI(M).
          To many, it is clear that Basu is the patron saint of this rebellion. For one, he continues to back Nepaldeb Bhattacharya, the trade unionist who was suspended by the North 24 Parganas unit of the party. Also, Basu has not stopped Chak-raborty and Buddhadev Bhattacharya from patronising their factions. "We have never seen him in this kind of role," says a senior party leader, "in the past he distanced himself from internal matters and was even accused of siding with the demagogues. Now he is using the 'historic blunder' issue to stimulate a questioning spirit in the party."
          Even so, Basu may not be able to substantially alter the composition of the next Central Committee. Though Biswas sUFfered a setback in his native Nadia district -- where a majority of his supporters lost -- most local committees statewide elected hardline panels. Zonal, district and state committees should do likewise. Biswas may even find himself a place in the Politburo as a reward for keeping the theoreticians in the saddle.
          Biswas, in his early '50s, is a classic example of a theoretician. He runs Ganashakti from a seven-storeyed building which can claim to be among India's most ostentatious newspaper offices. Though cleared by the party of allegations of personal corruption, Biswas' gathering money for the paper has raised questions. Together with Bose, he presided over a "suddhikaran" (purification), which concluded in July and purged the CPI(M) of 12,799 full-time workers and 678 others. The purge was not entirely successful:
          Supporters of the suspended Lakshmi De won the local committee election in central Calcutta.
          Nepaldeb Bhattacharya, expelled for mysterious "links with the enemy", remained a factor in the polls in North 24 Parganas.
          In the mid '60s, an ageing Mao Zedong asked supporters to "bombard the headquarters" of the Communist Party of China. This was Mao's war against what he considered a degenerate leadership; this was the Cultural Revolution. In contrast, Basu's is still a cultural mutiny -- but if it succeeds, it may change West Bengal forever.
           http://www.india-today.com/itoday/27101997/basu.html
           A glimmer of change in West Bengal
          SANJEEB MUKHERJEE
           
          THE state of West Bengal is a puzzle for most analysts and critics. They are hard put to explain the absence of political change or, more precisely, any change in government. After all, if all states face an ubiquitous anti-incumbency factor, what makes West Bengal an exception?
          Though the CPI(M) led government has not changed for more than three decades, much nevertheless has changed in this part of India – more specifically that the Left has become Right and the Right Left. This essay addresses some of these puzzles and takes a somewhat longer view of political change and its prospects in Bengal, especially in the wake of popular struggles against the regime and the slow awakening of civil society.
          The first period of major social and political change in recent times came about between the mid-1960s and the mid-1980s. In the mid-1960s, the Left led United Front governments and militant peoples' movements frontally attacked the old structures of power and privilege in the economy, society and polity. This led to a violent counter-attack by the Indian state and the return to power of the Congress in 1972. The parliamentary Left then made a historic compromise with the state and capital.
          This Left which came to power in 1977 introduced three major changes: first, agrarian reforms put a formal end to semi-feudal landlordism in rural Bengal and created the most enduring and widespread social basis of support among the rural poor for the government. Second, through panchayati raj, the Left created a powerful ally in the rural middle classes – rich and middle peasants and teachers. Third, the Left-led Bengali middle class, especially the lower middle classes, came to establish its political and cultural hegemony over the state of Bengal. This accounts for the continuity of the Left government. Moreover, the Congress still remains discredited for its violence and misrule between 1972 and 1977.
          Officially, though the CPM does not believe that anything of significance can be achieved within the parliamentary frame without a revolution, not only has the revolution not happened, the party itself soon ceased to believe in its possibility. In fact, it had not even expected to remain in power. As Jyoti Basu admitted, 'We never before had imagined that we would be able to form a government and that it would last so long.'1 Likewise, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya said, 'We never imagined we would rule from Writers' Building.'2
           
          Despite having introduced agrarian changes and provided some 'immediate relief' to the people, the CPM's ideology did not allow it to believe that anything more substantial could be achieved. In fact, it soon started losing support in urban areas; it could not address the normal, everyday bourgeois aspirations of the middle classes. Nor could the Left restructure the constitutional order and acquire greater powers to pursue a Nehruvian development model. Ideology came in the way of a new imaginary of social change and development within the parliamentary frame.
          Even as its support base enabled it to win elections, a lack-lustre performance in key areas of development and well-being started pushing Bengal to add another 'B' to the infamous acronym BIMARU, much like Ekta Kapoor's soaps. Finally, with the liberalizing of the economy in the 1990s, the Left Front could no longer blame the Centre for denying it opportunities for growth.
          It is against this background that major changes came about in the politics and perspectives of the Left. To get out of this impasse it sought the help of international consultancy firms, who advised the government to pursue an openly pro-capitalist economic growth model. Consequently, it went all out to attract investment and do all that was necessary to make Bengal an attractive and safe investment destination. Calcutta's roads were sought to be cleared of hawkers, flyovers constructed, modern townships came up by displacing peasants, and 'closed' industries provided sites for shopping malls and high-end flats. Yet, despite its best efforts, the promised investments were unable to match the hype.
          It was only after Buddhadeb Bhattacharya became chief minister in 2001, that the party went the whole hog to get investments. The CPM embarked on a project to bring about a new transformation of Bengal – a transition to capitalism in the time of globalization, with the communists acting as midwives.
          Bhattacharya is generally known to be candid, often to the point of being brusque, unlike his predecessor Jyoti Basu. His slogan was 'reform or perish' and his inspiration and model was contemporary China. It meant building a capitalism which combines living in hi-tech cities, complete with the glitz and glamour of shopping malls and entertainment, alongside the violent and brutal state-led primitive accumulation of capital by dispossessing the direct producers of their means of production and a renewed bid to extract natural resources. Industry may need to be set up in Special Economic Zones, which for all practical purposes have become sovereign enclaves enjoying special privileges without bothering about political rules and responsibility.
           
          Under this model, the government initiated a series of projects, all claiming to bring about prosperity to the poor of Bengal. Of these the chemical hub in Nandigram and the Tata Motors plant in Singur are the most well-known, but the others were equally impressive – ranging from private highways, hi-tech cities, steel plants, nuclear plants and knowledge industries to Formula 1 motor race courses and a tourist paradise in Sundarbans, one of the most ecologically fragile deltas of the world. Many of these, of course, did not take off.
           
          This phenomenon caused both a real dislocation – eviction, loss of livelihoods, cultures and communities accompanied by increased suffering and inequality – and a deep fear of an impending disaster, especially among the peasantry. The peasants felt betrayed by a government which had given them land, power and dignity and towards which they were steadfastly loyal. This immense resentment and anger culminated in the peasant upsurge in Singur and Nandigram against the forcible acquisition of land. Soon, it became evident that the chief minister's grandiose schemes were not bringing about any improvement in the lives of the people; consequently, the Left started slowly losing its credibility. This was the beginning of the coming of political change in Bengal.
          The Left's popularity rested on three major claims. First, that it represented the poor and the forces of long-term historical progress, meaning socialism and, second, its promise to reverse the general decline of Bengal on account of the Centre's discriminatory attitude. Nevertheless, after nearly three decades of Left rule, it was found that Bengal was lagging in many of the key indicators of development, as revealed in the state's Human Development Report. The contrast with Kerala was obvious. Poverty was widespread and there were nagging reports of starvation deaths in villages and suicides of a large numbers of workers of closed industries.3 According to a recent government survey, close to half a million people in the state are living under starvation conditions.4
          The Bengali middle class, who prides itself on its education, culture and intelligentsia, increasingly found a stifling mediocrity buttressed by political power calling the shots in all fields. In fact, a third reason for the Left's claim to fame was its immaculate secular credentials and as a champion of the minorities. Unfortunately for the LF government, a series of events worked to explode its secular myth: first, the banning of Tasleema Nasreen's autobiography and her subsequent banishment from Bengal to pander to conservative Muslim sentiments. In this the Left appeared no different from the Right, which had to always keep its vote banks in mind. The second event was the role of the government, including top police officials close to Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, in the Rizwan-ur-Rahman case. The government till date continues to support the police officials making evident its class and communal bias. Finally, the Sachar Committee report on the state of the minorities in West Bengal came as a big shock.
           
          Behind the facade of its radical ideology and image, the Left had become the new rulers, who not only displayed their power, arrogance and intolerance of any dissent, but also had come to ally with global capital to embark on the renewed primitive accumulation process. The CPM dominated the entire state machinery and in the process subverted the rule of law and the Constitution. It captured civil society and turned both the form and substance of democracy into a near farce.5 It openly espoused a neo-liberal growth model.
          The Left had developed deep stakes in the state and government. It was this transformation of the Left, which led it to not only acquire prime farmland in Singur and Nandigram, but also explains the intensity of state and party repression and violence on the protesting peasants. Over time the Left lost its passion, its intellectual and cultural resources; it essentially became a mammoth machine and a pretty efficient one at that. Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and his government, however, became the darling of the big media and chambers of commerce.
           
          The political opposition was for long in a sorry state in West Bengal. The Congress was not only discredited, demoralized and often in disarray, many of its leaders were seriously accused of being hand in glove with the government. In fact, a committee was set up by the Congress to enquire into these charges against its own leaders, some of whom were called 'watermelons' – green outside but red within. Mamata Banerjee left the Congress and formed the Trinamool Congress (TMC), charging that the former had become the B-team of the CPM. To counter the opposition's B-team image, Mamata Banerjee relentlessly fought the CPM.
          The Left too identified her as its principal enemy and the relationship between the ruling party and the opposition was conducted in the language of enmity, hatred and war. Civility was the main casualty in this political scenario. Early in her career, Mamata was even physically attacked by the CPM. Slowly, the TMC seemed to be emerging as a match for the CPM. It was a no holds barred fight for political supremacy.
           
          Mamata's politics was personalized, passionate and populist; she took to the streets to protest against any injustice. She did not, however, invest in organization building, sustained political work at the grassroots level, or engage in ideological and cultural interventions; nor did she have a solid political programme or a vision for the future. Incidentally it is precisely on all these counts that the Left had become almost invincible in Bengal.
          Nonetheless, Mamata's battle against the Left was conducted in the style and tactics of the Left itself. Her spartan lifestyle, honesty, militancy, a passion for taking up peoples' issues and her lack of any personal political ambition or greed for power went a long way in forging her charisma and popular appeal. She built herself on the image of the dedicated communist cadres of the 1950s and 1960s on whose work the present regime rests. Actually, many communists privately remark that she is the right person in the wrong party; that she would have been an asset for any communist party was not in doubt. She conducted militant street protests in the copybook communist style of the past. She also resisted the CPM using both parliamentary and what communists call 'extra-parliamentary' methods.
          This enabled the TMC to build a strong support base among the urban poor and the unorganized working and lower middle classes. Mamata even defeated CPM heavyweight Somnath Chatterjee in South Calcutta and forced him to flee to a safe rural seat in Birbhum. Yet, in spite of some sustained effort, she could not make much of a dent in rural Bengal, especially among the peasantry. The CPM with its organized strength, peasant support, muscle power and state backing crushed all such attempts.
          The TMC's greatest weakness, especially in Bengal's context, was its inability to make any inroads in the intellectual and cultural world of the middle classes. This is crucial for making any claim for political leadership in West Bengal. Moreover, it is precisely on this count that the CPM has constantly criticized and ridiculed Mamata Banerjee. She was publicly called mad, irrational, whimsical; someone who could not be trusted or dealt with; in short, that she was not an intellectual. She was even likened to a domestic, belonging to the lower order of society, lacking culture, taste and education.
          Such accusations, the Left believed, would never make her dear to the Bengali bhadralok, given its derision for the menials. In a bid to make herself acceptable to the bhadralok, Mamata tried to prove that she too was a woman of many parts, nothing less than the secret desire of Bengali intellectuals to be a versatile renaissance personality. She wrote poetry and prose, painted and recorded her songs, and was even duped into getting an American degree, all in an effort to gain respectability.
           
          In the last two and a half years, there has been a spate of protest movements involving peasants, the urban and the rural poor, minorities, workers and all kinds of citizens' initiatives in Bengal. The peasant struggles in Singur and Nandigram, the awakening of Bengali civil society, and the rise of the political opposition have all been turning points in the unchanging politics of Bengal. In May 2006, the Buddhadeb Bhattacharya led Left Front government came back to power with a massive majority with the promise of industrialization and new employment and a renewal of West Bengal which was fast sliding into decay. The people did not realize that this transition to capitalism, though shepherded by the Left, would demand a heavy price. In fact, the day the new government came to power, the chief minister announced Tata's small car project in Singur. This was followed by a litany of projects by global capitalist firms. The opposition was in disarray and the government seemed to have won over everybody. However, the situation on the ground was not encouraging. Some of the gains made in agriculture had come to a halt in the 1990s; the number of agricultural labourers had grown phenomenally, and the sharecroppers and small peasants could not hold on.
           
          The compulsory acquisition of highly fertile land in Singur for private capital failed to get the consent of considerable sections of the peasantry, even though it was touted as benefiting the public interest. The government's claim that it was acquiring single cropland and was giving the best compensation package in the country came as an arrogant retort. Soon a powerful movement erupted to protect farmland. The government, which had long claimed to represent peasants, workers and the poor, was now pushed into taking extremely repressive measures for taking away land from the peasants.
          All this was seen as a major act of betrayal. The government imposed prohibitory orders to prevent people from assembling and used both state and political violence to crush all protest. The intervention of the High Court, however, set aside the prohibitory order against any assembly. The government increasingly became discredited for its violence and illegal actions. Soon the protest in Singur started gathering support from across the state and outside, as several committees at the grassroots level were formed to carry on this struggle. The opposition parties, especially Mamata Banerjee, further galvanized this struggle. She undertook a 25-day fast at a dharna mancha in Calcutta, which became an important site of protest and coordination of the re-emerging civil society of Bengal.
          A predominant section of the middle class and intellectuals who had earlier been feted by the government for the first time felt outraged by the government's actions in Singur and Nandigram. Several intellectuals resigned from government bodies and joined the civil society protests. Quite a few new citizens' organizations emerged, which came to play a crucial role in this mobilization against the government. Citizens' activism gave immense encouragement to the peasant struggle on the ground. Even when Mamata was fasting, a young girl, Tapasi Malik, in the forefront of protest in Singur was raped, bludgeoned, and then burnt alive by ruling party activists. This further outraged the moral conscience of Bengal. The role of the State Women's Commission and the police further antagonized the people. A CBI inquiry led to the arrest of an important district leader of the CPM as the key suspect.
           
          Nandigram followed Singur in quick succession as the next destination of capital's desire for farmland. This time it was for a dangerous chemical hub to be set up over several thousand acres. On receiving the land acquisition notices, the villagers of Nandigram barricaded their area as a kind of zone free of the control of the state. The struggle in Nandigram saw high levels of violence by the state and the armed cadres of the CPM and massive public protest by citizens, something unprecedented in the 32-year rule of the Left Front.
          For the first time in the state several political forces and formations were converging to form an alternative to the Left Front. Some of the allies of the CPM, like the RSP and Forward Bloc, put intense pressure on the government to retract from its policy of compulsory acquisition of fertile farmland and brutal repression of democratic movements in its drive to attract capital. Bengal's season of protest led to a near statewide movement against corrupt ration dealers and the local CPM bosses. Popular protests in rural Bengal led to the crumbling of the authority of the CPM and the erosion of trust of the people.
          Meanwhile, a new culture of silent and nonviolent public protest emerged over the death of Rizwanur. The media joined hands to expose both the role of top police officials and the support they received from the government. This mood of defiance was reflected in the panchayat and municipal elections of 2008. Both the SUCI and several Naxalite groups formally allied with TMC, which earlier would have been unthinkable. The opposition, including the Trinamool, had become Left and the ruling Left openly Right.
          The patterns of social and political change in Bengal have been distinct from most parts of the country. Here class politics, especially a politics dominated by the left-wing middle class, has for long ruled the state in close alliance with the peasantry, the working class and enjoyed a groundswell of support among the poor. The middle class, especially the intellectuals, forged this alliance by acting as the self-appointed guardian of these classes. The Bengali middle class became the leader and representative of the people. The communist parties and left-wing intellectuals perfected this role.
          It is now grudgingly accepted that this middle class is overwhelmingly Hindu upper caste and male though, of course, it did not draw upon caste ideology to claim hegemony. The success of this strategy hinged on the peoples' acceptance of the hegemony of the left-wing middle class. Thus, we find that in Bengal, neither a phenomenon like the backward caste or dalit movement grew.
           
          The problem with this perspective and strategy was that it did not have any serious programme of reforms and justice for the present. This strategy was entirely ideology driven and its success hinged on the making of a revolution, which eluded Indian communism. This, we have seen, led to the reversal of policies and surrender to capital. The entire opposition, including Mamata, played upon this betrayal and took up a Left position, not realizing that that this kind of leftism would inevitably lead to an impasse. The problem with this leftism is that it does not have any serious positive programme. It flourishes on negative politics, a politics of popular protest – the cholbe na cholbe na syndrome.
          The Mamata phenomenon reflected another crucial aspect; it was not an intellectual or middle class led movement. Her initial support base was the urban and semi-urban slums, unorganized workers, and the self-employed youth, what in Marxist language is called the lumpen proletariat and the riff-raff. Later, she was successful in reaching out to the peasantry and the minorities. In other words, the Left led middle class hegemony of the largely male bhadralok was first put to test by Mamata Banerjee. It was primarily a populist challenge, which grew around Mamata's personal charisma.
          The Gurkhas and the Rajbongshis in North Bengal had earlier challenged the Left hegemonic model, but only in certain pockets. Now following Singur and Nandigram, the Muslims are fast withdrawing their support from the Left. Some are independently asserting themselves under the leadership of Siddiqullah Choudhury; others are drifting closer to the TMC. I think that these processes are the harbinger of a major social and political change in West Bengal. For the first time in Marxist Bengal, the bhadralok elite faces a challenge from the so-called chhotolok or the subalterns.
          The left-wing Bengali bhadralok reaction to this challenge has been resolute, often even brutal and uncivil. Intellectuals have openly expressed their fear, anxiety and disgust of these masses. For example, when there was a mammoth rally, a civil society initiative against the carnage in Nandigram, a respected critic and poet openly warned Mamata against joining the rally. Likewise, when Subhas Mukhopadhyay, Bengal's leading leftist poet passed away, AM in Economic and Political Weekly lamented that towards the end of his life the poet had started keeping 'coarse company'; meaning, he had become close to Mamata. However, the middle class is splitting and a section is coming out against the Left Front and supporting popular struggles.
           
          In the long run the prospects of change will depend upon the peoples' ability to come up with new imaginaries and strategies of social and political change and development. Unfortunately, on this count even apparently radical Bengali intellectuals have badly failed Bengal. The mere reversal of the role of the Left and the Right is unlikely to take the state anywhere. The independent emergence of popular forces and a new leadership from below, per se, is no guarantee of change for they often mimic the old elites. The first glimmer of new thinking and ideas can, however faintly, be discerned.
           
          Footnotes:
          1. Foreword to Nirupam Sen, Bikalper Sandhane, Kolkata NBA, 2008 (in Bengali).
          2. Interview, Ananda Bazar Patrika, 16 May 2006.
          3. Unfortunately, the press has not sufficiently reported the large number of workers' suicides in communist Bengal. This has been documented by Nagarik Mancha – an independent activist organization – in many of its reports.
          4. The Telegraph, Calcutta, 29 September 2008.
          5. For details, see Sanjeeb Mukherjee, 'The Use and Abuse of Democracy in West Bengal', Economic and Political Weekly, 3 November 2007.
          http://www.india-seminar.com/2008/591/591_sanjeeb_mukherjee.htm
           
          West Bengal Chief Minister : Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's change of heart
          By Editorial Team • on September 1, 2006
          Mamata turns brand ambassador for change
          - Trinamul leader 'proves' Bengalis aren't against change at Desh debate 
          A STAFF REPORTER 
          Retreat from Revolutionary Rhetoric! Charting a New Capitalist Path!
          Yes, there is a new air of great expectancy in Bengal. A new optimism and a new sense of purpose in all walks of life. But this expectancy, this confidence is still in the hearts and minds of some people at the top. May be in the minds of Chief Minister Mr.Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and some of his colleagues!
          Alighting from the plane and coming out of Dum Dum was a great experience this time. Here I come, rather come back, after 20 long years! Also I come back to my old haunt where I had spent some of my carefree years as a student at Tagore's Santiniketan. Yes, I had been back in West Bengal many times. But this time, I come back with so much change in me too! This time I come with new eyes and new ears! I am seeing things, seeing the world in a new light. As an entrepreneur and as an economist (yes, I dislike the expression businessmen and in Calcutta they have so much dislike for business and businessmen, but here I am to communicate with the readers in some clear and non-complicated language!)
          I see thing, the world in black and white! Yes, your are either for creating wealth, or helping to contribute to the persistence of poverty! So, Calcutta this time I saw in a different light. Of course in a very positive and sympathetic light.
          What I saw and what I learnt?
          There was so much in my own expectation too. But alas! Not much yet has happened. The very first sound I was greeted as I came out of Dum Dum was a beggar's soul! Fine, I told myself, what if, we could still change things, we now have a vision in the CM's change of heart, I told myself as I walked out. I was full of optimism and I was so impatient to see and find for myself how things are going on in the State. I was not disappointed! Of course, Calcutta itself gave lots of new impressions. The city's infrastructure is very much seem neglected. Compared to what we see in other cities.
          And coming from Bangalore, Calcutta seems an orphan; there is no infrastructure activity visible, as we see in the Silicon Valley. Everything about Calcutta seems very old, every building or pavement seem crumbling and every corner seem congested and filthly. Anyway that was the first impression. The transport in the city is a mix of mind-boggling variety. The battered buses that ply the roads are from another age. When you see Bangalore introducing the Volvos in so many new designs, in hundreds, seems another India! Alas! It was a big disappointment. No news about the Chief Minister or about the redoubtable Mamata do either! There is not much political news, nor even the economic or industry news. I had to scan the many newspapers to learn that the Haldia Docks are working to capacity and they are planning for expansion! Fine, I thought. The typical Bengalis business news? Not much. For Calcutta's size and historical and heritage value plus the new found enthusiasm of the Chief Minister, the city's leading media don't give a damn to any of these aspects.
          What is clear is the need to create wealth by exploiting the new technologies, the technological revolutions, IT and telecom and the opening up of the economies and the flow of international capital to the advantage of the country. We live in a globalised world and India had benefited from the global developments, in IT we are now world's IT Super Power. Let us take pride and let us, I like to say to my Bengali brethren create thousands of startups all over the city.
          Yes, there were some positive changes and developments I noticed after my long time visit this time. The flyovers, the Vidyasagar Sethu and the underground Metro are truly international class and this gives a new hope for the city's comeback in due course.
          What raises an unusual hope and confidence, for outsiders as well as those who are living there is the fact that the newly transformed Chief Minister of the State Mr.Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's all-out thrust to court the private capital! Capitalism is the path he has begun to chart! So he also says so openly and with no tinge of any stricken conscience!
          Unfortunately, all these have been badly neglected and even crushed. In spite of Prof.Amartya Sen, having won the Nobel Prize in economics and in spite of other equally talented economists serving the government as finance ministers (Ashok Mitra and now Dr.Ashim Dasgupta) the State is an example of too much intelligence producing and economic laggard State. On every indicator of the Human Development Index, West Bengal comes almost after Bihar and UP! What a shameful state of affairs, after so much talk, outdated theory of Communism, Naxalism and other revolutionary empty rhetoric! There should not be any slight misunderstanding here. I am not the one who blindly believe that solutions to our multiple problems, be it economic development or political governance is simply in back and white! There are so many nuances, so many human and humane sides to society's problems, especially when we embark on radical changes. Let us remember that radical changes are taking place everywhere, not only inside India, outside as well. In such a context, all we have to be prepared to keep in mind that we have to have an open mind and must be willing to see and willing to listen and willing to learn useful lessons that will suit our immediate requirements.
          Globalisation is here, but not in the way run of the mill businessmen will hold forth. Globalisation works for good and also works for some undesirable things.
          As Prof.Pankaj Ghemawat, a professor at Harvard Business School has pointed out that the world is still not yet flat,(Thomas Friedman's thesis that had sold well with Indians as well as the Americans in the wake of the on-going boom in outsourcing),there are still country-specific strategies that is good for the countries like India. India is a large country, India's economy and culture, our peoples' perceptions of things are so unique that what works for Wal-Mart in the USA might not work in India. That is exactly the thesis of Ghemawat. He points out that Wal-Mart, the famous MNC, could not replicate its business model in all countries. It famously failed, the prof.says, in 5 out of 8 countries! There is a lesson for us in India. The comrades can take heart! So too in issues like FDI.
          There is now news about the Indian Government passing a National Security Exception Act that would protect security interests (threats) and also some sectors and some countries from which FDI might be prohibited. I need not dwell on this sensitive issue and I hope readers know enough and at least the authorities know it. Even otherwise, there is now even talk of restricting the many MNC companies to be headed by foreign CEOs. So much for the concerns expressed by patriots about protecting the country's interests. Here again, I don't like to dwell on grand themes or big theories but talk in simple language, deploy common sense and talk about policies that could make a dramatic impact and a change in the lives of the common people. The "Best practices" is another concept, so too the Public-Private Partnership. Whether we like it or not, it was Vajpayee who triggered the National Highways Development and the result can be seen even in Bengal today. It is roads and communications infrastructure, in my view, that are basic to other infrastructure. Luckily, these two sectors are booming in the country in many parts and the way ahead for the West Bengal Government is almost easy now. They just have to study what is being done elsewhere.
          V.Isvarmurti - Founder "Agriculture & Industry Survey" . Read more at www.isvarmurti.com
          http://www.agricultureinformation.com/mag/?p=1992
          Changes under the radar
          Yoginder K. Alagh
           Posted: Wednesday, Apr 22, 2009 at 0003 hrs IST 
           
          I have a consistent record in election forecasting. Almost always wrong. The only person from whom I won an election-related bet is one of the few real economic forecasters, an econometrician type I regard as a peer. In 1984, he came up on the second day of counting with an estimate for the Congress' final tally , on the solid basis that they had landed 320 out of 400 and so they would score 80 per cent; but he had not accounted for results from rural and semi-urban Bengal coming late and so the Congress ended closer to my guess. As long as we had a bipartisan national structure, opinion polls did reasonably well. Not any more; and laboured explanations of their limitations had grown boring — even before the EC got at them.  
           
          With hindsight, the indications were always there except that we did not have the antenna to see them. The last time I was in Canada; when abroad, you have time to watch the channels on India. The women coming out of Sonia Gandhi's speeches told a story which was commented upon, but its full significance did not register until afterwards. With so many channels and media messages it is difficult to escape the tyranny of "experts"; besides, remember that India was shining. 
          There is gradual change. While the septuagenarian-plus leaders are flexing their non-existent muscles at each other there are many indications that the much younger electorate is talking of first principles. Being a Midnight's Children-type, some first principles I like: a secular, open, caring society, for example. Others I don't. But that is not the point. There seem to be a lot of youngsters out there, confident of their place in the Indian sun, who seem to be pressing what they believe is important. It is interesting that it is leadership in the forties and fifties that is talking of these things, responding to this need, and not the old ones who have decided that they are mandated to rule the country. Of course the national parties' younger leaders still pay their obeisance to their old leaders, ours being a traditional society. Sometimes they also use language of which we don't approve. 
          http://www.indianexpress.com/news/changes-under-the-radar/449701/
           
          Mamata Banerjee at the Desh debate at Kala Mandir on Sunday. Picture by Pabitra Das nAnother picture on page 19 
          Bengalis want change, even Mamata Banerjee thinks so. What about Singur? Well, Singur was all about change, too, according to her.
          Change is good, the leader who many say epitomises Bengal's reluctance to change, said on Sunday at a debate organised by Desh, an ABP Group publication. Then came a flurry of examples and the trademark emotional fuzzy logic to prove that Bengalis, contrary to popular opinion, have always been harbingers of change rather than a community opposed to it.
          Sample 1: "Nasa theke bhasha, kothay Bangalir obodaan nei? (From Nasa to literature, where have Bengalis not contributed?)."
          Irrefutable.
          Sample 2: "We talk of globalisation, administrative and political reforms today, which Swami Vivekananda did decades ago. Raja Ram Mohan Roy spoke out against Sati and Vidyasagar introduced widow remarriage."
          Applause.
          Sample 3: "The same Left government that had tried to prevent computerisation later introduced computers because the people of Bengal wanted change. One cannot stall change even at gunpoint."
          Ouch!
          But what about her own party's role in Tata Motors' exit from Singur and the impasse in Nandigram? Mamata said she was not against industrialisation, but against industrialisation at the cost of agriculture. "One needs all body parts to become a complete person. The same thing can be said about change and progress. We need agriculture, industry, education and culture."
          The Trinamul leader said the unrest in Singur, Nandigram and Lalgarh were "examples of change from Leftist leanings".
          "This is also change. One can say that the colour of change has changed," Mamata said.
          If Mamata was fiery as usual, information technology veteran Rajarshi Sengupta — who also spoke against the motion — was witty. Together, they countered every argument that Sushim Mukul Datta, a former chairman of Hindustan Unilever, and Swapan Chakravorty, the head of Jadavpur University's English department, laid out for the motion.
          Datta had said that the Bengali's overt fondness for the past was symptomatic of his/her dislike for change. He cited the hype around former footballer Diego Maradona, whose recent Calcutta trip resembled a state visit, and the neglect of Bengal's present players as an example of the average Bengali's penchant for living in the past.
          "Change means uneasiness and disruption of peaceful existence, which is why the average Bengali is averse to change," Datta said.
          Mamata, who spoke last, turned this theory on its head by presenting the past as the reason to be optimistic about the future.
          Chakraborty said accepting change and desiring change were not the same thing. He explained that wanting change meant desiring change as a united group with a specific goal in mind, which was different from acceptance. "Even Leftist thought in Bengal has failed to evolve because we are averse to change."
          The editor of Desh, Harsha Datta, moderated the debate.
           http://www.telegraphindia.com/1081222/jsp/calcutta/story_10283472.jsp
          Change of mindset wanted
          The sudden paralysing of life in the city of Kolkata puts everyone to inconvenience but the leaders of political parties just do not bother about these irritants. Stoppage of life has become a way of life of Bengalis..
          CJ: prabir ghose,  11 May 2008
          WHAT BENGAL thinks today, the world thinks tomorrow' or words to that effect is a statement that emanated in the olden days. In those days, several famous Bengali names were doing the rounds – names like freedom fighter Subhash Chandra Bose, scientists Meghnad Saha and Jagadish Chandra Bose, poets like Rabindra Nath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam, political leaders like Chitta Ranjan Das. Then there were the cine artistes, playback singers, and music composers of Bombay filmdom (present day Bollywood to the uninitiated) who were Bengalis. Obviously, Bengalis used to set the trends for others to follow. The name of the originator of the famous words is lost but the statement remains and Bengalis utter it when it suits them.
           
          It is unfortunate that the same Bengalis continue to create embarrassments for not only the citizens of West Bengal and Kolkata but also of Bengalis wherever they stay. The latest in the series is the road blocks that prevented the Indian premier League (IPL) players from reaching the venue in time.

          The sudden paralysing of life in the city of Kolkata puts everyone to inconvenience but the leaders of political parties just do not bother about these irritants. Stoppage of life has become a way of life of Bengalis. The political parties are hell bent on having things their way – they care two hoots about the administration and when situations do not favour them, they resort to methods of browbeating the authority like beginning an indefinite hunger strike or undertaking a 'fast until death'.

          Another very common sight is the way murders are glorified. It has become common to hear of murders being branded as fallout of political rivalry – the victim suddenly finds takers from all parties. Whichever is the weaker party in the neighborhood claims the victim to be theirs! The body is paraded through the streets, a total stoppage of life is declared in the area and a memorial is erected in his memory, a photograph is procured, garlanded and praises showered on him for his braveness to stand up and fight against the oppressors. With ready availability of willing TV crews at hand, the incident gets prominence that should not have come its way.
          Other Articles by  prabir ghose
          Coming back to the incidents in Nandigram that keep popping up like the proverbial bad egg, the turn now came for the intelligentsia of Kolkata to join hands and walk from one place to another to express solidarity with the masses. It is strange that no other city in the country faces such situations – is it that Bengalis possess above average intelligence and want to have their say in each and every matter?

          Even the governor of West Bengal has discovered unique methods of expressing his unhappiness to the way the state is being run. While the chief minister tries to woo investors into his Information Technology (IT) setup, his own people put obstacles in his path. Can the state really clear these hurdles and come at par with other IT destinations like Hyderabad or Bangalore? What is necessary is for the citizens of West Bengal and Kolkata to change their mindset – let us hope it comes before the would-be investors flee to alternate destinations
          Nandigram opens door for change in Bengal: Mamata

          Suhrid Sankar Chattopadhyay

          Kolkata, March 16 It is significant that the Trinamool Congress supremo, Ms Mamata Banerjee, launched her campaign for the Lok Sabha polls not from her Kolkata South constituency, but from Nandigram in West Bengal's East (Purba) Medinipur district.
          Nandigram, which saw one of the bloodiest political turf wars over rumours of land acquisition for a proposed chemical hub in 2007, was also instrumental in reviving Ms Banerjee's political career after the drubbing her party received in the 2004 Parliamentary elections, in which it could only secure one seat out of 42 and down from 10 in 1999.
          The Kolkata South seat is, of course, an assured one for Ms Banerjee. She after all retained it even when popular tide went against her party, and she was the sole representative of the Trinamool in the Lok Sabha in 2004.
          'holy earth' of Nandigram

          Addressing a large gathering on March 14 at the place where 14 villagers were killed in police firing the same day two years ago, Ms Banerjee made it clear that the Nandigram issue would be central to her party's election campaign. "It is Nandigram that has opened the door for change in West Bengal and it shall continue to do so," said Ms Banerjee, collecting what she called the 'holy earth' of Nandigram in an urn, promising to carry it with her wherever she campaigns. Sharing the podium with her were representatives of the Congress, her new ally.
          Following the police action in Nandigram on March 14, 2007, the Trinamool-led Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh (Land Eviction Resistance) Committee (BUPC) — a consortium of Trinamool supporters, the Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI), and others — carried on a programme of violence that lasted over a year, in spite of the Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's repeated assurances that there would be no land acquisition in Nandigram for the chemical hub.
          The BUPC tried to create a 'Muktanchal' (liberated zone) in the area and for months did not allow the state administration to function there.
          In 2008, Trinamool's sustained agitation led to the Tata group shifting the small-car project out of Singur in Hooghly district. The the project that was expected to turnaround the industry-starved economy of West Bengal, went to Gujarat.
          Ms Banerjee's latest target, as it appears from her recent speech in Nandigram, is the proposed chemical hub at Nayachar in East Medinipur district. "You will soon be inhaling the poisonous air from Nayachar," she said.
          Till the Nandigram fiasco, the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front, seemed to have defied all anti-incumbency factors, soaring on the wave of Mr Bhattacharjee's industrial drive, while Ms Banerjee's political fortunes plummeted correspondingly. In the 2006 Assembly elections, Trinamool hit rock bottom, winning only 29 seats against 60 out of 294 in 2001.
          Her actions over the last two years have given her an image of being one who is anti-industries. Her persistence in maintaining this image perhaps stems from the belief that the rural masses will perceive her as a saviour of land, even if it means losing some base among the urban middle-class electorate.
          Anti-industrial drive

          Her anti-industry drive seems to have paid dividends, as is evident from last year's panchayat elections where, in an informal alliance at the grassroots with the Congress, Trinamool managed to severely dent the rural vote-bank of the Left. It won convincingly at both Nandigram and Singur, and this January also the Nandigram Assembly by-election.
          For CPI(M) heavyweight Lakshman Chandra Seth, who has not lost the Tamluk Lok Sabha seat (under which Nandigram falls) since 1998, it will be a tough battle ahead. He is pitted against Trinamool's Suvendhu Adhikari, in a straight fight.
          http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2009/03/17/stories/2009031751050400.htm
          A gory tell tale of climate change in Bengal
          Climate change is fast threatening the fate, future and lives of people who live in the 12 sea-facing islands in West Bengal's 24 Parganas district
          Published on 4/6/2009 5:33:27 PM
          By Joydeep Gupta

          Baliwara (West Bengal): The rising sea has drowned two of Jalaluddin Saha's small homes and threatens a third. Last monsoon surging water ruined his crops and he and his family ran for their lives. His livestock drank the brine and died.
          In eastern India, this 62-year-old retired schoolteacher is experiencing climate change first hand.
          So are the other 8,000-odd residents of Baliwara and other villages in the little island called Mousuni, facing the Bay of Bengal at one of the numerous mouths of the Ganga river that Indians consider sacred.
          With their backs to the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest, and one-third of their 10-km by two-km island engulfed by the rising sea in the last 10 years, climate change is no theoretical threat to the thousands who live in the 12 sea-facing islands of South 24 Parganas district.
          The next island, Gorumara, has already been abandoned to the waves. The residents have scattered.
          "You see these fertile rice fields, these coconut groves, these ponds we have dug with our own hands and which are teeming with fish. We don't know if they'll last beyond the month of Bhadra (August-September)," Saha said.
          "We're not imagining a disaster. It has happened to us, again and again, especially in the last few years. We can see how the sea is rising. Do you see the waves playing with the stump of that dead coconut tree? My second house was beyond that, just eight years ago. Today you can't see a single sign of it," he adds.
          He has invested in his third home, even spending Rs 20,000 on two solar power panels.
          "I'll fight as long as I can. But I know my children cannot. As the world gets hotter, the sea is rising all the time. So I've made sure my children can earn a living in Kolkata (80 km away). One is a computer mechanic and the other is finishing his Master in Computer Applications (MCA)," Saha said.
          There are other climate refugees too.
          Marjina Bibi, who lost her husband to cancer, cannot plan as far ahead as Saha. The eldest of her three sons is in Class 7. She has no land, no home except a makeshift hovel she put up on the edge of a canal. She used to have two cows and three goats. They died last monsoon, crazed by thirst and drinking the brine that had got in everywhere.
          She spends much of the day in the brackish waters of the estuary, diving again and again to peer through the silt in search for juvenile prawns that are then sold to prawn farms near Kolkata at Rs 10 for 100 juveniles.
          Her sons—the youngest is five—join her after school. The family makes Rs 20 on a good day. All suffer from salt sores.
          "I'm getting very little work as a farm labourer or a domestic maid now," Marjina says.
          "Everybody is losing land. No one has the money to hire others. Do you know anyone in Kolkata who wants a maid?" she asks.
          World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has started an information centre here to warn residents of impending high tides, storms and other disasters. It is trying out a salt-resistant variety of rice that has worked well in the first season. It is teaching people how to live with a rising sea.
          "In the long run, people won't be able to live here," Senior Programme Coordinator of WWF-India's Sundarbans Programme A Anurag Danda said.
          He further informs that raising the embankments has not helped in keeping the rising sea out.
          "Look at them lying broken all around you. For the time being, we're helping the people cope with sea level rise. But there's obviously a limit to which they can do this. After that, they'll join the list of climate refugees, unless investments in the younger lot within the community are made now, investments that will expand their world view and capacity to work elsewhere," he warned.
          Title: Growth with equity: the new technology and agrarian change in Bengal.
          Personal Authors: Dasgupta, A.
          Author Affiliation: University of Delhi, Delhi School of Economics, Delhi 110007, India.
          Editors: No editors
          Document Title: Growth with equity: the new technology and agrarian change in Bengal
          Abstract:
          During the last 2 decades, some parts of West Bengal (India) and Bangladesh have had an unprecedented growth in agriculture due to the expansion of irrigation facilities and an extensive use of high-yielding variety seeds, fertilizers and pesticides. These areas are known as the Green Revolution belts of Bengal. The introduction of new technology and improvement in the skills of farmers have contributed to agricultural growth in Bengal but the fruits of this development have not reached the poor in Bangladesh as they have in West Bengal. This then raises an important question: how did West Bengal achieve growth with equity? The role of different factors in achieving growth with equity is highlighted, including state intervention, changes in power structure, and unionization of the peasantry. The problems of agrarian change are illustrated with the help of data collected at district and village level through fieldwork in the Nadia district of West Bengal and Kushtia district of Bangladesh. KEYWORDS: TROPAG | Oryza sativa | Triticum aestivum | agricultural development | constraints | agricultural structure | farm size | technological changes | high yielding varieties | policies | land reform | Bangladesh | INDIA.

          Publisher: Manohar

          About CAB Abstracts
          CAB Abstracts is a unique and informative resource covering everything from Agriculture to Entomology to Public Health. In April 2006 we published our 5 millionth abstract, making it the largest and most comprehensive abstracts database in its field.
          http://www.cababstractsplus.org/abstracts/Abstract.aspx?AcNo=20026789325
          Survival roadmap for climate change
          JAYANTA BASU
          Calcutta is to have a "detailed, scientific plan" to combat the effects of climate changes, courtesy a World Bank initiative.
          A three-member team from the bank was in town recently to kick off the project, which will use a simulated model to predict Calcutta's vulnerability to climate changes till 2050 and prepare a survival roadmap.
          "Calcutta is among the 10 cities in the world that are most vulnerable to climate changes. The Bengal government has okayed a World Bank proposal to launch an initiative to predict the changes," said state environment secretary K.L. Meena.
          The Union ministry of environment and forests and the ministry of external affairs, too, are backing the project, partnered by the University of Tokyo and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation.
          The World Bank team was in talks with experts from the state pollution control board, Calcutta Municipal Corporation, Jadavpur University, Calcutta Metropolitan Development Authority and the Survey of India.
          The team sought information about the rainfall pattern, rise in the sea level and the temperature graph over the past 50 years; details of drainage, electricity and drinking water networks; and the location of thermal power plants, hospitals and defence facilities.
          "All these may have to be shifted over the next 50 years or so because of the climate change," said an environment department official.
          "Calcutta is selected for its size (second largest city in India), the level of vulnerability because of its slum headcount (one third of its population) and the lives and livelihood at risk," stated the draft concept note of World Bank.
          The note was prepared by the visiting team that included environment expert Adriana Jordanova. A report placed at the recent climate conference in Bali predicted that in 2070, Calcutta will be the worst sufferer of climate disruptions.
          "If everything goes according to plan, the team will make an interim presentation on Calcutta's vulnerability at the G-8 meeting in Tokyo in May," said an official.
          "A similar attempt was made earlier. But Calcutta Environment Management and Strategy Action Plan could not succeed because of faulty, secondary data. I hope this project will not meet with the same fate," said an environmentalist.
          A similar project is on in some other South Asian cities, including Bangkok, Jakarta, Karachi and Ho Chi Minh City.
           http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080221/jsp/calcutta/story_8929914.jsp
          Tata project would have brought a major change in Bengal: Ficci
          Ficci said that it is sad that the land dispute over the Nano project could not be amicably resolved and that the Tata project could not be retained in Singur
          New Delhi: Reacting to the Tata group's decision to move the Nano project out of Singur, Ficci said that it is sad that the land dispute over the Nano project could not be amicably resolved and that the Tata project could not be retained in Singur.
          "The Tata project could have brought about a major change in the industrial scenario in Bengal", said Dr. Amit Mitra, secretary general, Ficci. He added that this was not a one off auto project but would have given a boost to a whole host of ancillaries as well.
          Ficci noted that Bengal's tradition of engineering and heavy industry had suffered over time because of lack of fresh investments in these industries in the state and the gradual closure of many of the old engineering industries.
          http://www.livemint.com/2008/10/03193459/Tata-project-would-have-brough.html
           
           
          Do election campaigns matter any more?
          20 Apr 2009, 0709 hrs IST, Santosh Desai
           
          There is no escaping the Great Indian Election Campaign. Even without attending any rallies, or sitting through any speeches, we get our daily dose
          of electioneering from the media. The doyens of dexterous debate from all sides occupy their appointed places and practise their patter on us. Advertising campaigns featuring lofty poetry, bombastic promises and not-so-clever slogans target us wherever we might be, including the Internet.

          It is all very loud and very predictable, and most interestingly likely to be utterly irrelevant. For we live in an era where campaigns, particularly those that are national in their character, may not matter quite as much as they did once.

          On the face of it, that seems like an absurd proposition. How can election campaigns not matter? We choose our leaders through elections, and we make up our minds through campaigns run by various political parties. It is only through campaigning that parties generate energy and momentum, and especially in a scenario where vote shares get fragmented, a swing of a couple of percentage points can mark the difference between a landslide and a rout.

          The truth is that elections nowadays are decided primarily on the basis of alliances and political formation rather than on the basis of issues. Individuals become key rather than performance or promises. Elections today are an elaborate exercise in trying to stitch together a patchwork quilt of power comprising individual islands of local influence.

          Regional satraps carry their constituencies with them, and manoeuvre themselves in positions where they can bargain for power. What we are seeing in this campaign is an incredible amount of doublespeak, with parties going out of their way to mark distance from their once and would-be allies by bad-mouthing them, while being careful not to go so far as to burn their bridges.

          It is clear that alliances are key to eventual victory and while systemic logic would decree that these be entered into before the elections, for each individual party it makes sense to go it alone and jockey for power depending on how the results pan out.

          So we have a situation where everyone is utterly uncompromising before the elections, only to turn utterly pliant afterwards. Parties are united by their quest for power and their fear of elections and this greases the post-electoral process of arriving at some equilibrium.

          National parties, which are increasingly resembling a sum of their local parts, thus find it increasingly difficult to create a national imperative in terms of how people vote. So the campaigns we see on television, however pervasive they might appear to be, may actually play a very small role in determining what happens in the elections.

          Also, there are fewer unifying issues that cut across all constituencies this time. Terror is not high on the rural agenda, the economy affects Market India more than Electorate India while the concerns of rural India do not crease the brow of those watching television, for most part.

          So it matters little that the BJP is struggling to find a sharp instrument to cut the Congress with. In a locally dominated election like this one, attacking an allegedly weak prime minister might not make much sense because the electorate has not expected too much from him, and for matter anyone in his position. Also, today to see L K Advani as a strong decisive leader is not as plausible as it might have been a decade ago. The Congress, too, is doing little noteworthy.

          As an incumbent that has not polarized the electorate on anything too significant, its role is to lie low and not give the opposition anything too tangible to shoot at. It has to avoid the mistake made by the BJP in the last elections, which was to stand for something too specific. The problem with India Shining was that it begged a rebuttal.

          At the heart of what is happening in these elections is a fundamental change that is occurring in our polity. The experience of democracy has increasingly become localized. Whether it is Modi in Gujarat, a Nitish Kumar in Bihar, a Buddhadev in West Bengal, a Sheila Dikshit in Delhi or a Mayawati in UP, we increasingly associate administration with state governments rather than that with the Centre. Unlike the previous High Command view of the world, where local chief ministers were air-dropped into power without having any significant base, today the regional leaders carry genuine electoral clout.

          Issues like the economy and national security continue to be experienced through the lens of the Central government, but otherwise the idea of politics resides at the state rather than the central level. In a larger sense, most of the electorate has few ways of experiencing in a tangible way, the difference that a particular government makes at the Centre.

          So at one level, one can ask if election campaigns matter anymore. At an even more fundamental level, a more radical question begins to rear its head. Does the Central government really matter that much? Of course, it does to Market India and the India that faces the rest of the world, but does it at a visceral level, make a difference to the India that is going in for elections these days?

          santoshdesai1963@indiatimes.com
           
          Calcutta's digital vision
          Jonathan Fildes
          Science and technology reporter, BBC News

          Bike propped against the wall outside a new IT building
          Calcutta wants to be the IT hub of Eastern India
          Beneath a billboard that reads "propel your dream for high profile success" a young boy is sat selling a handful of cauliflowers off a rickety cart.

          On the dual carriageway in front of him, rickshaws and taxis held together with rust compete for space with gleaming saloons.

          The area is known as Salt Lake City, a drained area of marshland squeezed between the crumbling Victorian edifices of Calcutta and the teeming Netaji Subhash International airport.

          The satellite town, conceived in 1962, was designed to take the pressure off a heaving and decaying Calcutta.

          But it is more than just overspill. Salt Lake City now represents West Bengal's ambition to grab a slice of India's pullulating computer industry and play catch up with boomtown cities like Bangalore.

          "We are looking at Calcutta to be the IT hub for eastern India," said Swarup Roy, from the department of information technology at the Government of West Bengal.

          "We aim to be number three in India by 2010."

          Disruptive baggage

          Although the IT industry only gained a foothold in Calcutta in the early 1990s it has developed at a phenomenal rate.

          "Every year the export growth is between 70 and 100%," said Mr Roy.

          The national average is 38%.

          But West Bengal's economic bloom is at odds with the state's political history.

          For more than three decades the area has been ruled by a communist-led coalition.

          We cannot ignore knowledge-based industries like IT
          Shri Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee
          Chief Minister, West Bengal

          The Communist Party India (Marxist) Left Front is the longest running democratically elected communist government.

          It was this and other related factors that kept companies away in the early days of the IT boom

          "Calcutta has a great deal of historical baggage," said Kiran Karnik, president of the National Association of Software and Service companies (Nasscom).

          "For a long time it was seen as a centre of disruptive unions and disruptive strikes."

          But the state and government has now changed its outlook and, for IT at least, abandoned its Marxist principles.

          "We cannot ignore knowledge-based industries like IT," said Shri Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Chief Minister of the district at a recent conference.

          "I have to admit that West Bengal was a late starter but now our position is improving, our growth rate is improving and I and my colleagues are trying to attract more IT companies."

          Huge development

          One reason for this advance is the status IT now enjoys in the state.

          The industry is now classed as a "public utility service" alongside other essentials like the police and hospitals.

          Buildings in Salt Lake City
          Salt Lake City is a former area of marshland

          This means that the government has a legal framework with which it can reassure business that there will always be continuity of service, even if a general strike is called.

          "IT is immune," said Mr Roy.

          Alongside financial incentives, it has encouraged a huge growth in areas of Salt Lake which has attracted international businesses.

          "We got a lot of support from the state," said Satadru Sinha, assistant manager of infrastructure at software firm Cognizant, the first major company to set up in Salt Lake.

          The company now occupies a gleaming building that borders what remains of the marshes.

          It has been joined by strips of gleaming buildings for the IT industry with futuristic names like Technopolis.

          And these emblems of growth are just the start.

          Three new satellite townships are planned around Calcutta at Howrah, Dankuni and Baruipur.

          Work on the 390-acre (1.5 square kilometres) township in Howrah has already begun while nearly 4,000 acres of land have been earmarked for Dankuni, while the Baruipur township will cover more than 2,000 acres (8 square kilometres).

          In addition there is a huge amount of infrastructure being put in place, such as a new 72 km (45 mile) ring road that will run around Calcutta.

          Digital disparity

          Acquiring the land for this kind of development has become a bone of contention in West Bengal. A recent land-grab of 1,000 acres for a car factory sparked fierce protests.

          Other problems exist.

          Buildings in Salt Lake
          The IT industry has the same status as the police and hospitals

          Visitors can be whisked straight from the airport into an air-conditioned office, without having set foot in the former British capital of India.

          Critics argue that because of this, the development is not benefiting the old town where desperate poverty is still a fact of life.

          But the government denies this is the case.

          "With economic growth you eliminate poverty," said Mr Roy.

          This maxim, at odds with the government's Marxist past, shows the shift in thinking the IT boom has brought about in Calcutta and the hopes for the future it can bring.

          But for now, the aspirational promises on the billboards and hoardings lining the roads of Salt Lake still sit incongruously with the poverty beneath.

          It will take time for the benefits of IT to touch everyone but the government is optimistic that it will become a force for change.

          "Given the pace of development over the last five years we think it will not take too long," said Mr Roy.

           


          A week of special programming about India can be heard on the BBC World Service from 3 to 11 February
          http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6322345.stm

           
          SUCI talk on Singur, Nandigram
          Bangalore, DH News Service:

           

          'Nandigram can be repeated at Nandagudi'- with this in view and to inspire peoples' movements against land acquisition for SEZs, Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI), Bangalore organised a discussion and VCD show on Nandigram and Singur here on Thursday.

          This function was part of the series of such shows that SUCI is organising across the country. In Karnataka, the show was held at Dharwad, where an SEZ is coming up.

          The video showed the police excess against people in Nandigram and Singur and the determination of common men to not to give away their land at any cost.

          A 70-year-old woman was saying, "I have lost one son to this movement but I've one more to sacrifice; I'll not let them take our land."

          Nandigram movement could sustain because people were conscious of what they were agitating against and the movement was well organised, said Krishna Chakravarthy, member of central committee of SUCI. People in Karnataka must have the political understanding of SEZ and similar land grabbing policies that come up in the name of development, Rajashekhar, member of SUCI, Bangalore added.

           http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Jul132007/city2007071312588.asp

           

          Retired Somnath Chatterjee omnipresent in old constituency

          http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/politics/retired-somnath-chatterjee-omnipresent-in-old-constituency_100174951.html

          April 3rd, 2009 - 1:38 pm ICT by IANS Tell a Friend -

          Somnath Chatterjee By Sirshendu Panth
          Bolpur (West Bengal), April 3 (IANS) In 1985 Somnath Chatterjee arrived here to revive his parliamentary career in a bypoll, months after his shock defeat to then relatively unknown Mamata Banerjee in Jadavpore. Almost a quarter century later, as another election approaches, Bolpur is missing its seven-time MP who rose to become the country's first communist Lok Sabha speaker.

          An eighth term from Bolpur was beyond Chatterjee's reach after the constituency was reserved for the Scheduled Castes by the Delimitation Commission. Last year, Chatterjee was also expelled from the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) for defying its directive to quit the speaker's post after the leftists withdrew support to the United Progressive Alliance government over the India-US civilian nuclear deal.

          Last August, Chatterjee announced his retirement from public life once the present Lok Sabha's tenure ended.

          But despite his absence from the electoral scene in this mainly rural constituency, which also includes the Rabindranath Tagore-founded Santiniketan and Visva Bharati University, Somnathbabu - as Chatterjee is respectfully called - continues to be a major talking point for his colossal stature, humility and sincere development efforts.

          "He is a great personality, with very few parallels now in politics and parliament. He earned the respect of one and all in the constituency for his foresight, dedication and non-partisan approach to development," former Visva Bharati University professor Somendranath Bandopadhyay told IANS.

          He referred to Chatterjee's contribution to improving the lot of women in villages, construction of new roads including the Bolpur-Burdwan bypass, as also to permanently solving the water crisis in large parts of the constituency which is spread over Burdwan and Birbhum districts.

          Bandyopadhyay, a Tagore expert, recalled how Chatterjee worked for years to improve the medical facilities in the villages around Santiniketan that led to a significant decrease in the number of tuberculosis cases.

          Ramchandra Dom, who has replaced Chatterjee as the CPI-M candidate, said he was proud to contest for a seat that was represented by such a stalwart.

          "I want to carry forward his vision of development," Dom told IANS, fully aware of the love and respect that Chatterjee commands in the area.

          Chatterjee's work in the constituency is acknowledged by his friends and foes alike.

          Dom's rival and Congress nominee Asit Mal referred to the construction of the Geetanjali cultural complex in Bolpur town and the development projects implemented in the urban areas that ensured huge and increasing victory margins for the veteran at the hustings over the years.

          The Congress has made Chatterjee's expulsion from the CPI-M an electoral issue.

          "People have been voting for him over the years as they held him in high esteem. They are hurt at the way he was driven out of the CPI-M. This will be reflected in the results," said Mal.

          However, Dom countered: "None of the local leaders has misbehaved with Somnathbabu. And have you read his recent statements? He is a leftist from the core of his heart. He is our well-wisher, and people know it."

          Bolpur legislator Tapan Hore conceded that a section of people, especially the middle class intelligentsia, did not like the way Chatterjee was expelled.

          "But people knew for long that Chatterjee will not contest from here this time as the constituency is now a reserved one. So, in that way there will not be much of an effect," said Hore, leader of a ruling Left Front partner, the Revolutionary Socialist Party.

          Bhabatosh Dutta, former professor of Kolkata's presidency college and Visva Bharati University, said Chatterjee has lot of empathy for the poor. "He is a great planner, with a fine eye for details which raised the quality of his projects. Every time he came here, he would set out on tours to the remotest corners. Despite his stature, he is equally at ease with the rich and the poor."

          Local businessman Sushil Chowdhury said Chatterjee played a key role in every development project in Bolpur ever since he became the MP by winning the 1985 by-poll.

          "Somnath Chatterjee is Somnath Chatterjee. No one can even come close to him in stature," said Chowdhury, secretary of the All India Rice Mill Association.

          But the famed barrister-cum-orator does have his share of critics.

          Writers like Mahasweta Devi had vehemently opposed Chatterjee's housing plans in Bolpur, arguing that Santiniketan's landmark khowai - the undulating zones of red earth, dips and pits - was being vastly eroded.

          But Bandopadhyay supported Chatterjee. "At one time the whole of Santiniketan was khowai. Even during Tagore's time construction took place on the khowai. So, it won't be right to blame Chatterjee for this."

          And is the love-affair between Bolpur and Somnath mutual? Yes. "He has said so many times that he is proud to represent the constituency which includes Tagore's Santiniketan. He also loved to travel to the far-flung villages of the constituency that is spread over two districts," said Rasik Roy, a hotelier.

          But the greatest acknowledgement comes from the man himself, who has declared his wish to spend the remaining days of his life in Bolpur near Santiniketan.

          "Everything now is targeted towards spending the last few days of my life there," Chatterjee, who will be 80 on July 25, said in a recent interview.

          (Sirshendu Panth can be contacted at s.panth@ians.in)


           

          For the Leftists know win will come easy

          Anjan Chakraborty 
          BANKURA, April 21: Cracks may have developed in certain quarters of the Left bastion in the state, but for this stretch of rural Bengal, which has returned a CPI-M Member of Parliament for eight consecutive terms, change of guard is neither evident nor seems a remote possibility.
          The Opposition combine may have fielded a "heavyweight" candidate in the form of Mr Subrata Mukherjee of the Congress against a veteran CPI-M parliamentarian, Mr Basudeb Acharya, but the reluctant challenger doesn't seem to be imposing enough for the CPI-M to be pushed to the walls in protecting what they call a "safe" seat.
          The Congress candidate has been virtually forced to defend his initial reluctance in contesting from Bankura in almost every speech during his campaigns here. Mr Mukherjee is doing a lot of explaining that he didn't want to give Mr Acharya a walkover again and that is why he has accepted the challenge of contesting the veteran MP at his own background. But invariably, Mr Mukherjee adds that he is here at the instruction of Mrs Sonia Gandhi and Mr Pranab Mukherjee. 
          The CPI-M has been quick to pounce of their opponents' weak link. "He has no credibility, he is not a son of the soil. I am sure he will never come back to Bankura after 16 May. People also know that. Basuda (Basudeb Acharya) on the other hand has nurtured this constituency for decades and we are not only confident of his win here, but we believe that he will maintain his victory margin of 2004," said Mr Amiya Patra, CPI-M district committee secretary.
          Mr Acharya himself has an arrogance mixed confidence about his victory here. "He (Subrata Mukherjee) is not going to be a factor. This seat has remained a CPI-M stronghold since 1980 and it will continue to remain so. During my tenures as MP, I have done a lot of development in the area," claimed Mr Acharya. 
          His area, however, has undergone significant changes, following delimitation, but not for the advantage of the Opposition. The Assembly segments of Para, Kashipur, Hura and Onda which gave Mr Acharya a victory margin of over one lakh votes during the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, have been replaced by Ranibadh, Taldangra and Raipur segments, where the CPI-M had a margin of over one lakh votes in 2004 as well.
          On top of that in Ranibadh and Raipur, the Jharkhand parties, namely, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), the Jharkhand Party (Naren), Rashtriya Dehat Morcha Party, Jharkhand Party (Aditya) contesting as Independents, are bound to make a dent in the Opposition vote bank, further diminishing chances for a surprise setback here. The Jharkhand parties however, could have acted in favour of Mr Mukherjee had the Opposition combine reasoned it out with their leadership about their fight against the CPI-M. They could still just be a phone call away from this proposition, but want Miss Mamata Banerjee to give them their due.
          Miffed at the arrogance of the Trinamul Congress, these parties have fielded candidates in both Bankura and Bishnupur constituencies and are expected to secure about two to three per cent votes.
          Another player here is the BJP, which is expected to make a further dent into Mr Mukherjee's aspiration of upstaging the CPI-M MP. They have fielded their state secretary, Mr Rahul Sinha and by CPI-M's own admissions, BJP will manage to get about four to five percent of the vote share in Bankura. 
          Aware of all these factors, Mr Mukherjee is focusing his fight on two factors. One is to convince the electorate about the futility of voting for the Left Front when they are not expected to form the next government at the Centre and the other is to give the Congress a chance to serve the constituency.
          He says that whatever little development has taken place in the constituency, is because of the Congress and UPA government at the Centre and not because of Mr Acharya's efforts, as has been portrayed by the CPI-M and that even after receiving funds from the Centre, the MP had failed to bring a change in the life of the people of Bankura. To add glamour to his campaign, he has also roped in filmstars, like Mahima Chowdhury, but how much will that translate into votes is anybody's guess.
          The CPI-M is banking on its development plank for the constituency and the ill-motive of the Trinamul Congress-Congress to stall development of the state by campaigning against industrialisation.
          But there is another shadowy figure that is likely to haunt this constituency when it goes to polls on 30 April. The presence of Maoists and their poll boycott call may not be something new, but this time both police and the political parties are apprehending action on the lines of the attacks which were carried out on 16 April in five states by the Maoists killing more that 17 people.

           
           
          Ode to mortality
          - Soumitra Chatterjee, now undergoing treatment in London, talks about his health, his fear of pain and a few of his favourite things

          Soumitra Chatterjee agrees that "life is for the living" but 50 years after he made his film debut at the age of 23 in the role that was to define him for the rest of his career — that of Apurba Kumar Roy in Apur Sansar, the final part of Satyajit Ray's trilogy — Bengal's premier actor is prepared to face the final curtain.

          "I am not afraid of dying," he says.

          Despite reports to the contrary, Soumitra, who has been staying with friends in north London, looks well. But he has to keep taking his tablets, do exercises and go for walks. In London the daffodils, cherry blossom and magnolia are in bloom, so the spring weather makes a pleasant change from being at home in Golf Green in Calcutta.

          Since he will turn 75 on January 19 next year, he feels he has to pack in a great deal — plays and poems, for instance, plus TV serials and films, some of them shot in London — in a short space of time. His diet is a bit restricted these days but he would quite like to fit in a nice, juicy steak with some excellent red wine — "prochur wine khabo, prochur" (I shall drink lots of wine, lots).

          Speaking in Bengali and English, he has opened up his heart probably as never before.

          "Time is very precious, it has become shorter now, I can almost see the end," he observes.

          Not that he is afraid of the "The End".

          "The end is inevitable, you know," he says. "It is useless to be afraid of it. I am only afraid of physical pain and nothing else. I wonder if at the end I will be able to preserve my dignity. I don't want to lose my dignity even when I am going away."

          He acknowledges the human spirit is resilient. "No one wants to die. I don't either but I have learnt to accept that it will come. At some point, life transforms itself into death."

          However, like Mark Twain who corrected reports of his premature passing with the quip — "this report of my death was an exaggeration" — Soumitra, too, for it is best to call him that rather than Chatterjee or Mr Chatterjee, would like to reassure his many friends in Calcutta, who have been very worried about his health, that "by and large, I am ok".

          So what about the unconfirmed reports swirling in two continents that he has come to London for "tests"?

          "Yes, I came here for some consultation," he confirms matter of fact. "I have some prostate trouble — and I have come here to find out in detail what stage that is at and what I need to do. There is nothing that needs to be done immediately except tests from time to time."

          So, he is not undergoing chemotherapy or radiation?

          "No, not at all," stresses Soumitra.

          In over a month in London he has managed to fit in some sightseeing (a trip to Yorkshire), catch up at home with DVDs (Il Postino, an Italian movie; Behind the Sun, from Brazil; the Czech film Kolya; and The Lives of Others) and take in a play at the National Theatre, Death and the King's Horsemen, by the Nigerian Wole Soyinka.

          He hopes to return to London at the end of the year to make a multicultural film, Ithaca, scripted by friends Amit and Paramita Biswas.

          "No chemotherapy or radiation," he makes it clear. "I came for a consultation with a very good specialist, Dr Anup Patel. He is a urologist and teaches at St Mary's Hospital in London."

          He realises that he has a special place in the hearts of Bengalis and that any report he is unwell causes concern. "When I had my heart problems, I was flooded with inquiries and messages from wellwishers."

          He has cut down his working day from 10-12 hours to eight but "I am a workaholic".

          Do his fans know the real Soumitra Chatterjee?

          After 50 years, "they have their image of me but that may not essentially be me. But I have a question, too, 'Do I know myself so well?'"

          It is an intriguing philosophical question but how would he like to be remembered?

          Not apparently as just an actor who gave a lot of pleasure to a lot of people, he says. "Maybe I have been of use to some people on their journey through life. They may have seen one of my movies and (felt), 'I can fight again.' I get a lot of letters."

          The man who played Apu concedes that, "it is difficult to go on after you have started your life with a double century. But when you have geniuses like Bradman you have enough inspiration to continue with your creative efforts".

          When Apur Sansar was released in 1959, his friends would gather for adda in a Calcutta coffee house. Convinced there was sweetness in taking a wife, they vowed solemnly: "Now, we must get married."

          He chose not to defect to the Hindi film industry. "There are executives in Calcutta who earn more than me. But to go to Bombay would have meant reorienting my mind which was not possible for me."

          He has seen Pather Panchali 30-40 times. In common with another of his favourites, Vittorio De Sica's The Bicycle Thief, made in 1948, "they are classics. They transcend time. People will see them as long as there is cinema."

          "As a student of cinema, Pather Panchali is the weakest of Satyajit Ray's films. It is the second, Aparajito, which is technically perfect. But Pather Panchali has such vitality and life force that I have not seen a human unaffected by it."

          If he could take only a handful of DVDs (or videos) to a mythical desert island from which there was no escape, he could plump for Pather Panchali and Charulata. His life would also not be worth living unless he could take Charlie Chaplin's 1925 movie, The Gold Rush, as well.

          His pick of western classical music would be Vivaldi's The Four Seasons and Beethoven's Choral Symphony.

          He estimates he has read 8,000 books in his time. His choice for a desert island would be the Mahabharat. He enjoys the current generation of Indian writers in English, but his favourite is Amitav Ghosh, especially The Glass Palace and The Hungry Tide. "It is written in very competent English but I feel it is part of Bengali literature."

          Soumitra, who has been coming to London roughly once a year since his first visit in 1965, says he receives plenty of love and affection from his numerous Bengali friends in the UK.

          "But in a big city like London, I get a kind of anonymity," he says. "No one disturbs me, I am not mobbed, I go untroubled to the theatre. That is difficult for me to do in Calcutta."

          He is also partial to "fish and chips".

          He recalls that on one visit he looked up the house with a blue plaque in Hampstead, north London, where Rabindranath Tagore had stayed. The English woman owner, informed that an actor from India wanted to pay a pilgrimage to the site, scrutinised his face and asked: "Weren't you in Charulata and in Teen Kanya (Three Daughters)?"

          Asked by Soumitra about the framed portrait of Tagore on her wall, she happily revealed she had cut out the picture from a book she had received on moving into the house — the first translation in English of Gitanjali published by Macmillan.

          Though he himself did not go to an English medium school and hence was not taught Shakespeare, he had wanted "to do something with" Hamlet in his youth. Now, the prospect of doing something with King Lear "hovers in front of me like a dream". He does not think much of Mulayam Singh Yadav's manifesto commitment to ban English — "is he mad or what?"

          He says the West Bengal government is reasonably friendly towards the arts but he wants it to do much more along the lines of the publicly-supported Arts Council of England. He wants Bengali society to retain the best of the old culture but press ahead with technical and industrial progress. "There should be a synthesis, a via media. We should not ape states like Gujarat. The yardstick should be humanistic. I have great faith in the future."

          This Soumitra in 2009 is "basically" not that different from that Soumitra of half a century ago. But the youth of 23, he points out, "was very immature and very romantic. He did not know the practical aspect of earning money. He was a bloody fool."

          "Inside, though," the veteran actor reflects, "that young boy has remained the same. He did not want to live a life without art, not then, not now."


          MOVIES ON AN ISLAND

          • Pather Panchali
          • Charulata
          • The Gold Rush

          MUSIC ON AN ISLAND

          • Vivaldi's The Four seasons and
          • Beethoven's Choral symphony

          BOOK ON AN ISLAND

          • The Mahabharat
          • (He also loves Amitav Ghosh's The glass palace & the hungry tide)

          Soumitra on Sharmila:

          Though Soumitra meets Sharmila Tagore only intermittently, he has retained a "solid friendship" with his schoolgirl co-star from Apur Sansar. "Maybe she will come to Calcutta once in six months, 'What are you doing?'. I would ring her if I am in Delhi, 'You eat here tonight'. She is interesting and

          intelligent and has maintained herself well." He jokes she is not that interested in cricket but has picked up enough jargon through osmosis. "For the wife of the Nawab of Pataudi, it is part of the package."


          Films HE FINISHED: Suman Ghosh's Dwando (set to release in July). Somnath Sen's Swartho (with Madhabi Mukherjee) is in post-production.

          Films he couldn't do: Sangeeta Datta's Life Goes On in London was scripted with Soumitra in mind (now replaced by Girish Karnad). Raja Sen's Teen Murti (replaced by Dipankar De).

          Films on hold: First-time director Sushanto Pal Chowdhury's Tumi Mor Priya Re and Hridoyer E Kul O Kul. "Soumitrada has agreed to do both films when he comes back from London," says Pal Chowdhury.



          "The efforts to cobble up a non-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and non-Congress alternative will gain a more distinct shape in the post poll situation. Partners will come out of both the UPA and the NDA," Bhattacharjee, a Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader, said in an interview to his party's mouthpiece Ganashakti.

          "The new force that will see consolidation in that scenario must have a common minimum programme," he added.Bhattacharjee said the leftists will have to play a role in such a situation. "We will perform our duty."

          The CPI-M politburo member felt the Third Front had become relevant now both in terms of its strength and number of constituents."But this is not enough. We have to consolidate the front by holding discussions. The process has already started, and such dialogue will continue even after the polls."

          In an obvious reference to the Congress and the BJP ridiculing the Third Front for its large number of prime ministerial hopefuls, Bhattacharjee said adopting the right programme was the main pre-requisite for forming an alternative government."The leftists are laying stress on drawing up such a programme, and not on any party or leader," he said.

          Bhattacharjee said the leftists will take a call on joining a Third Front government after reviewing the post-poll situation.He said the leftists' main aim in the Lok Sabha elections is to form an alternative non-Congress and non-BJP government. He claimed that there was a distinct possibility of the leftists, and secular and democratic regional parties getting a majority.

          THIRD FRONT SHALL DOMINATE THE LOK SABHA RESULTS: BIMAN BASU


          KOLKATA, 28th MARCH: A reality now, more than ever, rather than a theoretical compose the Third Front with the Left in the van shall direct the shape of the Lok Sabha that shall be formed after the Lok sabha election. This was Biman Basu, state secretary, Bengal CPI (M) at the massive convention of Left student-youth in Kolkata at a packed indoor Stadium in the afternoon hours of 28 March, the anti-unemployment day.

          Biman Basu said in clear tones that both the bourgeois alliances, one led by the Congress the other by the religious fundamentalist BJP, were breaking apart in front of their own eyes, and they stand helpless. The Third Front gains strength continuously and is spreading its political wings across a larger and ever larger footprint across India.

          Explaining that it had been the Left students-youth organisations that had commenced observing the anti-unemployment day from back in 1973, the speaker said that the young generation of the Left had also played an exemplary role in the struggle against quasi-fascism and lumpen terror that Bengal bled under during the 1970s. The relevance of 28 March shall continue to be relevant until an end was wrought of exploitation, deprivation, and the ruling class control over the means of production.

          Extending his arguments into analysing the massive economic recession that has slowed down production and has resulted in billions of people losing job especially in the capitalist world, the Bengal LF chairman said that more than a hundred million young men and women stand to lose employment in India itself over the next year or so. By 2020, the rate of unemployment itself shall reach 30% in the sub-continent. In just over a decade's worth of time-scale India shall be burdened with the presence of eleven crore jobless youth.

          As we speak today, said the senior CPI (M) leader, India has lost 1.5 million men and women in the organised sector alone. Five lakh people connected with the once-lucrative ornaments trade and calling has become without a viable means of livelihood. The sunrise Info-Tech industry is expected to shed 50 thousand jobs, come the next half-a-year. BPO will see 2.5 lakh jobs go down the drain, adding to the burden of joblessness.

          The country groans under misery of the financial kind because of the fatuous way the ruling classes have clung to the capitalist path and has seen the light at the end of the tunnel in 'globalisation.' The Left has cautioned the people during the earlier Lok Sabha polls against the expected facet of the Congress policy of towing the economic policy of the NDA régime, and that proved disastrous for the nation, especially for the toiling masses.

          The Left has lent its outside support to the UPA governance strictly based on the few pro-people aspects of the CMP, aspects that the Congress did not follow while selling the nation downstream to imperialism and its lackeys. This resulted in the correct decision of the CPI (M) and the Left in withdrawing support.
          Biman also mentioned the u holy alliances that had come together in Bengal against the CPI (M) and the Left Front. As he put, the masses shall bid good night to the forces of darkness whose surreptitious alliance was forged not in the broad day light but in the darkness of the night. Biman was also thoroughly critical of the way the opposition had suddenly started to shed what were clearly tears of sham and falsity for the adivasis.

          The opposition was also playing the Communal card as dangerously as the young stalwart of the BJP was doing with imp unity at the national level—and getting away with it. Biman called upon the youth to be politically active in dealing a blow to the hopes and evil ambitions of the opposition in the Lok Sabha polls all over Bengal. A win in Bengal for the CPI (M) and the Left would improve the prospects that much more for the Left-led Third Front. Student and youth leaders, too, addressed the vast gathering, a gathering that was big enough to take a long time to disperse.

          Third Front's prospect brightening, says Buddhadeb

          Siliguri (WB),28th March : With the desertions of certain partners in the UPA and NDA, the prospect of the Third Front faring better in the Lok Sabha polls is "brightening fast", West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said on Sunday. "The poll prospect of the Left-led Third Front is brightening fast and it will form the government at the Centre," he said in a party workers' meet at Bidhannagar, about 35 km from here.

          Mr. Bhattacharjee criticised the Congress for negotiating with the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha on seeking the hill organisation's support for its candidate Dawa Narbula in the Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat. "It is pathetic to see that the Congress has kept aside its political stand to bag one seat," he said.

          The CPI(M) leader ruled out any division of West Bengal to create Gorkhaland as demanded by GJM. "The state government is ready for further development of Darjeeling Hills, but there must not be any separation," he said.

          He criticised Opposition parties for creating controversy over acquisition of farm land to set up industry in West Bengal and said they had been constantly opposing development in the state.
          Blaming the Congress for rise in prices of essentials, he alleged 180,000 farmers had committed suicide during the UPA rule on account of its anti-poor policies.

          Singur people want Nano back: Buddhadeb




          KOLKATA, Saturday, 28 March , 2009: Global auto major Tata Motors may have moved out its Nano plant from the state but the people of Singur still want the project, says West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. "People of Singur want the factory over there, they are very hopeful and I have conveyed this to the higher authorities of the Tata Group," Bhattacharjee said in an interview to a private regional news channel here.

          Singur, 40 km from here in the state's Hooghly district, had turned into a battleground for about two-and-a-half years since May 2006 after the state government allotted land for the Nano project. On Oct 3 last year the company announced it had scrapped its plans to bring out the small car, priced at Rs.100,000, from the Singur facility. The plant was shifted to Sanand in Gujarat.

          Tata Motors wound up its Singur plant following sustained protests by a Trinamool Congress-led farmers agitation demanding return of 400 of the 997.11 acres acquired for the project. The agitators alleged that the 400 acres were forcibly taken by the government from farmers unwilling to part with their land.

          "I am trying to set up a factory in that plot in Singur. We have already spoken to a few Indian as well as foreign companies. In fact, now our industry secretary is in China talking to a company over there," the chief minister said. He, however, said whichever company sets up a plant in Singur, the government would ensure that it generates as much employment as the Nano project was supposed to do and "if possible even more than that". "It is very important that the youth of the state get employment," he said.

          Talking about land acquisition and the compensation that was provided by the government to the farmers of Singur who gave their land for the Nano project, he said: "Around 85-86 per cent of the farmers have taken compensation and of the remaining 10-15 per cent many do not stay in India and few others don't have proper papers of the land. That means the number of unwilling farmers were really small."

          "I failed to make the opposition understand the meaning of ancillary industries. They didn't understand that this was an integrated project and 400 acres cannot be given away like that. Giving away 400 acres would have meant stalling the project," he added.

          Referring to the meeting between the Left Front government and the Trinamool at the behest of Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi Sep 7 on the issue, Bhattacharjee said: "We didn't sign any deal that night regarding the land in Singur. It was a joint statement in which we stated that we will give back as much land as possible keeping the project intact.

          "Later our officials did a detailed study and found out 70 acres from the project, which we were ready to return keeping the nature of the project intact," he said. He said the Left Front government did not believe in using brute force. "In Singur, 80 per cent work was done and we thought we could start the factory. But after the attack on engineers we had to resort to applying force. Otherwise we didn't have any problems with the agitation that the opposition was doing, had they been doing it in democratic way," Bhattacharjee said. He said his government was against using fertile land for industrialisation. "But there is only one per cent fallow land available in the state and it is not possible to set up all the industries on it," Bhattacharjee said.

          Regarding the police firing in Nandigram March 14, 2007, he said: "I will always feel sorry for what happened in Nandigram March 14. Police did not go there to torture the locals, they went there along with people of the municipal department to repair road. We even had sought opposition's help that day. But suddenly everything changed and so many people died in the clash."

          The state government's efforts to set up a chemical hub project in Nandigram also came unstuck in 2007 following stiff resistance from the Trinamool-led farmers. The project has now been relocated to Nayachar island near Haldia in East Midnapore district. Singur and Nandigram are exceptional cases and do not reflect the trend in the state, the chief minister said. "In Nayachar, we are trying to start work as fast as possible," he added.

          Left goes digital, scripts Nandigram, Singur stories to win back rural Bengal

          Express News Service
          Posted online: Mar 28, 2009 at 0445 hrs

          Kolkata : Stung by the growing strength of Trinamool Congress in rural West Bengal as exhibited in the last year's panchayat polls, the ruling CPI(M) is now banking on digital mediums to reach to its grassroots supporters.

          The CPI(M) does not want to make the two episodes - the Nandigram and Singur debacles — its Achilles' heel and hence it has created CDs to put across the party's view on industrialisation to the voters. All the 26,000-odd party units throughout the state have been asked to show the audio-video CDs in their respective areas.

          "The idea is still in a preliminary stage," says CITU state president Shyamal Chakraborty, in-charge of producing these CDs, adding that the party will produce a full length film on the issue.
          Another reason for adopting the modern mass communication tool is that the CPI(M) lacks crowd-pullers and stalwarts like Jyoti Basu, sources say.

          So, the party's election strategists have decided to take the help of modern equipment to attract voters, especially the young voters in rural Bengal. The party has already produced a CD comprising Basu's speech which will be distributed after April 16. "More are coming. The party has planned to make CDs of the conflict areas in Bengal politics," said a senior leader of the CPI(M).

          On Friday, one of the CPI(M)-backed directors of a city theatre gave a sneak preview of the proposed film on Singur to a select group of CITU leaders. "First, we will see this and then it will be distributed among the supporters," said CITU state secretary Kali Ghosh.

          Sources in the CITU said the rushes contain details on the case of Suhrid Dutta, who was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation on charges of masterminding the gruesome murder of teenager Tapasi Malik. "The film will show how he was implicated in the case," said a leader. "Suhrid Dutta's case has tarnished the image of the party, so we have to react. We think this issue is still alive in the minds of the people," he added.

          TRINAMOOLIS PREPARE GROUNDS FOR OPPOSING PETRO-CHEM PROJECT AT NAYACHAR

          KOLKATA(INN): Mamta Banerjee has declared the intention long back. The fact of her intent is now being fructified by the reckless desperadoes of the Trinamulis and their Maoist minders at Nayachar, as a recent visit proved. This was out second visit to this 'char' land in the mouth of the Hooghly River. The Nayachar enclave straddles the river and in equidistant from Haldia and Falta industrial zones. One has to touch the shores of the vast empty land (bar for a few fishingfolk's huts, around two dozen in number) by sailing on one of those ubiquitous motorised dinghies called in the sonorous and common Bengali noun of bhoot-bhooti.

          The first time we had visited the place back in February of this year, the place looked desolate. 54 square km of the 'char' had been acquired by the state LF government without any resistance or opposition from the fishing folk or even the self-proclaimed 'environmentalist lobby,' for the union government-approved petro-chemical products investment region (PCPIR). The rest of the area was filled with shrubs and wild grass.

          The change was startling when we recently paid another visit to Nayachar. All on a sudden, we noted the quick increase in the number of hutments. We also found deep dug out. A full-fledged Krishi Ucchhed Pratirodh Committee' (KUPC) has been formed mostly with Maoist participation. The number hutments had gone up at an incredible rate, from a dozen-odd to several dozens.

          The east Midnapore unit of the CPI (M) informed us that they had authentic news that 50 hardened Trinamuli-Maoist killers of Nandigram had been despatched and 'settled in' at the 'char' land. These goons carried a large cache of arms. They come mostly from the localities of Kendemari, Shrigauri, and Bachhurmari of Nandigram 1 and 2. Others have come from Sagardwip and the abutting coastal zones of south 24 Parganas and east Midnapore. The Maoist chief 'Kishan' has already circulated a VCD where the Nayachar issue has been noted and later transcribed into a CP (Maoist) party letter that has been propagated in Midnapore east and at Nayachar.

          According to Party sources, the work of making mines and other explosives has already started at the locale of the 'char' land, which is thickly shrubbed and has no habitation. This is yet to be confirmed but we have no reason to disbelieve the local fishingfolk, once friendly to us, trembling in fear this time around when asked about the plethora of 'new people,' coming into Nayachar and going away from the island.

          The desolate areas are Baolatala, Bishalaxmi, and Khejurtala. We learn that the Maoists would start the 'action programme' right after the Lok Sabha elections are over under 'earnest request' from the Trinamuli chieftains. Maoist leader Sheikh Gaushal of south 24 Parganas is apparently the 'coordinator' with the Trinamuli hoods of the 'char' land.
           

          Seeing and hearing

          January-March 2007

          the almost-a-rape of democracy in india

          film on gujarat genocide 2002

          "in SEZ scheme the tax exemption amounts to a loot..."

          newsreport on gorai special economic zone

          http://www.natant.org/seeingandhearing/january-march2007.htm

           

          the almost-a-rape of democracy in india

          March 20 2007 (Tuesday)

          What happened last week in Nandigram village in West Bengal state of India is one of the many culminating results of a hideous obsession with a single top-down model of development as initiated and thrust upon the country in the last decade by the likes of prime minister of India, Manmohan Singh, finance minister P. Chidambaram and deputy chairman of Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

          In my understanding, many many development projects and special economic zones (SEZs) are simply excuses to loot the land and resources of India and its non-urban (and urban-poor) people through a widespread abuse of democracy. Ecology considerations are also given a reckless and dangerous go-by by the central government of India and the country's various state governments.

          The three newsreports whose cut-and-paste I give below brings out some facets of the Gestapo-like operation carried out in Nandigram village by the Communist Party of India (Marxist)'s state government in West Bengal implicity supported by the Congress-Allies-led central government in Delhi (this is not to say that the Bharatiya Janata Party or BJP as it is commonly referred to as, or other political parties in India, would have done anything different).

          1] http://www.calcuttaweb.com/nandigram.shtml

          That night in Nandigram

          Soumitra Basu, Editor, Anyaswar
          Published in : www.guruchandali.com (in Bengali)

          It is a story of that horrific night. The night of 14th of March, 2007. After the completion of "Operation Nandigram" in broad day light, CPM called a local 12 hour strike (bandh) in Nandigram. A bandh was called in the evening hours in such a remote place where people mostly keep themselves indoor after sunset. Why was that called then?

          After the first bout of police action in the daylight when the news came that around 60 were killed, the second phase and the most horrendous phase was waiting to happen.

          Meanwhile, the number of casualties as stated by media gave rise to enough confusion. Dainik Statesman (the Bengali Statesman) put the number to 31. The TV channels [private] displayed 18. TARATV correspondent Gourango, who was apprehended by the police and was handed over to CPM goons and then (on live TV) was thrashed and foul-mouthed by CPM, puts it off the record as 100+ and on the record as "could not count". TARATV correspondent Subrata put the number as "uncounted" as he explained no one could say and knew the exact figure. The state government spokesperson (Mr Vora) went back to the number 6 and then said that is what he was informed and he would inform the press some time later!

          Subrata and Gourango of TARATV were in the field. This is the horrendous facts that they had to say. They put self-imposed censorship on themselves as - "I have stopped telling the media what I saw and ought to have told them; there is no chance people and our viewers would believe. Their is a limit to human belief. They will take me as a mad babbler! I myself am not convinced of what I saw, heard and went through. It was like a nightmare and I wish all that I saw and heard was simply a delirium."

          As a matter of fact, they vomited several times in the hotel they stayed, not because of the threats by the CPM goons but because what they saw and heard and the language of threats by the CPM goons who besieged them in CPM party office in Nandigram.

          "Bands of CPM goons aided by platoons of Eastern Frontier Rifles and Commando forces were entering every village and paras [mahallas]. They brought the men out of home, they took no prisoners, no witnesses, they shot them, bayoneted them, ripped apart their stomachs and then laid them down the canal to the sea and confluence. They then brought out the young girls, gathered them in open space, raped them multiple times till the girls collapsed, they then tore their limbs, in some cases cut them to pieces and let them down the Haldi river and/or Talpati canal. They made sure that there were no witnesses. And even if there were some, they know that the young girls in traditional Medinipur would never come out to say what really happened and who will believe. Nobody will corroborate and those who will speak out will be killed and tortured again. CPM and police then wrapped the entire village with their red banners showing that the area was secured and their writ will run. Those who fled the villages were mostly apprehended on the outskirts or on the boundaries and no one knows what happened to those poor souls. We could hear these facts only from those who could crawl the whole way out through fields and forests. Even that is difficult now as the fields are all dried up and the crops have already been reaped. Anyone running is easily visible.

          Even though innumerable, official count of rape could be obtained as six, because these are the ones who survived to tell their tales and they are around middle aged women who somehow were spared from being butchered and minced to pieces. The process followed in villages after villages and to our utter astonishment the process continued till next morning. All the correspondents were removed. Sukumar Mitra, a journalist from Dainik Statesman ran his way out amidst flurries of bullets. He was specifically hunted and somehow could manage to sneak out. The ferocity of this attack was so grizzly that the residents of that area was simply not believing anyone to open their gab. Fear is made a weapon for a social-censorship.

          Haripur is a nearby subdivision. This area is earmarked for nuclear power plant. People of that region has also come up in protest. Most of them are fishermen. They have stopped going to the confluence and the sea. They feel that human bodies are everywhere in the confluence and the worst is that the crocodiles,gharials and sharks are now rushing towards that spot from far away Sunderbans. These animals rush for fresh blood. The fishes will be eaten away by these reptiles and there is a high possibility of these getting netted instead of fishes. The Haripur will be out of livelihood for at least a week or so, and this was premeditated by the CPM administration to teach Haripur a lesson. Haripur is the place which shooed out even Central teams and even bigger police forces. This was a lesson to teach both Nandigram and Haripur together. No sign of any dead bodies would ever be found, no proof of rape will be there. The real number of casualties can only be revealed at least three months after, and that too if peace comes into stay, and if the residents could come back and then count the missing. But after CPM has "secured" and "liberated" those areas, the evicted will not be allowed to come back and these properties will be given to the CPM goons from Keshpur and Garbeta and neighbouring places. The permanency of mopping up strategy is how CPM will ensure that Nandigram and Haripur will be secured for electoral battles in the future."

          This is more horrendous than partition story. The journalists all are aware of this but they cannot come out with these stories. CPM will ensure that these journalists are hunted down and wiped out of existence. They have already started to threaten all journalists and intellectuals who have gone against them.

          Let us not draw parallels from the history! I do not know who will believe how much, but I have mentioned the sources and you all are welcome to verify them through the references I have provided.

          2] http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=227407

          Villagers say more people died, many bodies removed after police firing in Nandigram: Medha

          by Subhendu Ray

          Kolkata, March 18 2007: The death toll in Wednesday's police firing at Nandigram would go up if a proper investigation is conducted into the cases of missing locals, social activist Medha Patkar today told Newsline on her return from a fact-finding mission to affected villages.

          Officials put the death toll at 14, but Patkar, who met Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi today, dismissed the figures. She demanded a judicial inquiry led by a sitting Supreme Court judge, and also sought an official notification on withdrawal of the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) project in Nandigram.

          Patkar gave reports on the findings of National Alliance of Peoples' Movements (NAPM) to Governor Gandhi. NAPM comprises social activists from across the country.

          On her way back from Raj Bhawan, she told Newsline that the organisation is opposed to industrialisation at the cost of livelihood, food security and marginalisation of villagers.

          "We were told by the villagers (in Nandigram) that many locals cannot be traced since Wednesday's tragedy," Patkar said. "The villagers fear these missing persons were killed and their bodies were later removed. We want a detailed investigation into all missing cases, with a house-to-house survey by an independent agency.

          "The locals told us they suspect that the bodies have been buried in trenches near Bhangabera canal — these should be immediately dug up.

          "People in Sonachura village said as many as 35 children are missing as are many bodies of people killed in police firing that day. There are cases of missing children from other villages, too."

          According to Patkar, many women in the area reported rape by police personnel. She said women of Gokulnagar and Sonachura villages told her that they are still receiving threats from local CPI(M) activists.

          According to Patkar, locals claim the police entered Sonachura and Gokulnagar villages from Khejuri and Tekhali respectively. Both Khejuri and Tekhali are known as CPI(M) bases in the area.

          The Patkar-led team has also demanded the formation of a concerned citizens' committee with prominent citizens to begin the process of restoring normalcy in the affected areas.

          Meanwhile, expressing satisfaction over the Governor's stand on the issue — Gandhi had criticised the government machinery after Wednesday's incident — Patkar said, "The Governor should intervene when any case of human rights violation takes place."

          The Indonesian Salim Group has been allotted space to set up a chemical hub in Nandigram. The local Save Land Committee, led by Trinamool Congress, is resisting the move, which has triggered several skirmishes this year, finally snowballing into Wednesday's incident.

          3] http://theseoultimes.com/ST/?url=/ST/db/read.php?idx=4993

          Alarm Bells Sound in Nandigram for Indian Democracy

          By Bobby Ramakant
          Public Health Writer

          The state of west Bengal has waged a war against farmers with an intention of occupying their farm land, fish ponds, homes and hearths. In spite of the rhetorical statements by the Chief Minister of WB that he would consult and convince the people, the State government claiming to be leftist by ideology, has resorted to brutal and barbaric way of using police force and party cadres to attack the unarmed, non-violent farmers, fish workers, labourers and artisans in the district of East Midnapore for grabbing their land.

          14 people, all villagers, were reported to be killed. Civil society organizations claim there are more than 50 dead so far in the mindless frenzy unleashed by police and administration on people of Nandigram.  

          The people from generations old communities who have a golden history of freedom movement and martyrdom are being not only forced but killed by the "free Indian state" which is shameful for the Indian democracy and its people. Imposition of industrialization, with or without SEZ, as also real estate-development, is to kill farm land and farming as a way of life.

          This brutal attack is being condemned by civil society organizations across India, and also expatriates with forums as those of DailySouthAsian and AID India flooded with outcry to lobby pressure for action and justice. "CPM must be compelled to stop murdering farmers immediately and held accountable. Such state fascism and corporate war against people can't and must not be tolerated" said noted social activist Medha Patkar.

          Medha continues to add that there is going to be a demonstration in Delhi beginning on March 19 in support of all people's movements against displacement in India. The charter of demands include:

          - That the Union of India and UPA through the PM, Sonia Gandhi and others must immediately intervene and use various restraining measures in their hands to compel the CPM government to stop the murderous attack.

          - Legal action must be taken against all responsible for the killings including the CM, West Bengal

          - That the National Human Rights Commission will send a team for urgent enquiry and take action. We assert that SEZ Act should be repealed and projects with conflict between the state and the people should be put on immediate hold across the country. An enactment on Development Planning, based on the draft submitted to the National Advisory Council under the Chairmanship of Smt. Sonia Gandhi should be taken for consultation with people's movements and approval.

          The West Bengal state stands charged with culpable homicide in Nandigram. The people's demands included:

          - Immediate police withdrawal from Nandigram
          - Police officers be held accountable for the massacre
          - Judicial enquiry into the massacre be conducted immediately.
          - Due punishment be meted out to offenders
          - Public apology by the CPM
          - Halt land acquisition right now
          - Repeal the SEZ act that has already caused so much blood shed

          It is a shame that police administration and our elected representatives continue to thwart people's struggles and instead of protecting democratic rights of our people, they are overtly active in protecting vested interests of corporations.

          Another noted social activist and Magsaysay Awardee 2002 Dr Sandeep Pandey reasserts that "industrialization is not an alternative to agriculture." Even pro-industrialists need food to eat, not machines.

          Let's hope that people who feel they are not "affected" by the Nandigram Satyagrah, will `hear' the alarm bells communities on the frontlines have already sounded. The time to wake up is running out.

          top


          film on gujarat genocide 2002

          Febrary 9 2007 (Friday)

          I saw Parzania movie today. Its on a middle class family getting shattered in the horrendous genocidal violence inflicted by Gujarat's chief minister, Narendra Modi, on the minority citizens of Gujarat in February-March 2002. Parzania is a movie which I will not hesitate watching multiple times for the close-to-reality portrayal of the horrors of that time. In fact I would like to watch the uncensored version of the movie (what I saw in the movie theatre today had many cuts forced upon the filmmakers by the official Censor Board and more so by the hooligan unofficial censors emanating from Modi's team, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal, Bharatiya Janata Party and the wolf-in-sheep's-clothing Congress-cum-allies.

          The only other film made on Gujarat Genocide 2002 is Dev which was released around two years ago. But what struck me particularly about Parzania is that it minces no words in illuminating some of the harsh truths (which I am sure would be more pronounced in the uncensored version). And in this respect it surpasses Dev. Also, the direction, music, acting in Parzania is competent and moving. Sarika is deeply moving in her portrayal of the missing boy's mother.

          Parzania is a must watch. If it goes out of the theatres buy the DVD/VCD as and when available.

          There is an excellent documentary film too -- Final Solution by Rakesh Sharma -- on Gujarat Genocide 2002 that is worth watching and whose DVD/VCD is worth purchasing. 

          Two comprehensive non-film reports on Gujarat Genocide 2002 are here and here. Such events are a part of a vicious cycle of violence that our Earth's human inhabitants have been carrying out against each other for thousands of years. Yet when I see it happening it at close quarters in my country I can not but feel anguished. When the brutal bomb blasts took place in Bombay's suburban train in July 2006 I wrote something about the factors, causes and the vicious cycle.

          top


          "in SEZ scheme the tax exemption amounts to a loot..."

          January 7 2007 (Sunday)

          I attended a public discussion day before yesterday (January 5 2007, Friday) in Bombay's Xaviers College on 'State, Development and People's Movements' in which Medha Patkar was one of the speakers. I present below some excerpts from her talk which I could jot down in my notepad. at the discussion a note on the Singur issue was handed out which can be read here (in English) or here (in Hindi).

          Medha Patkar: "after the secular-communal divide in the country is the divide on the issue of development...its not about Singur (in West Bengal where Tata Motors has been illegally given a 1000 acres fertile land belonging to farmers) only...in Weste Bengal itself, 38,000 acres of land is being given to New KolkataInternational Development Pvt Ltd (name cleverly changed from Salim Group of Indonesia against whom the government was made to back out earlier)...another 40,000 acres is being given for a nuclear plant...things are changing fast in the name of development...in fact, it is looting...things have reached at such a serious state that in in Narmada, Singur (West Bengal), Pune and Raigad (Maharashtra), Punjab and Haryana, landowners or land cultivators, whose lands are sought to be grabbed under the Special Economic Zones Act or for dams and other development projects, are forced to say that they will resort to anything but not give up their lands...meanwhile arrogant state talk on SEZs continue...

          what we are seing today is that the state powers-that-be are playing out a dangerous game against the people themselves from whom they got the power in the first place...the legalised noose of land-grabbing is hanging on all our heads...do not the people have a right on the natural resources around them?...land-grabbing is done strategically and cunningly by politicians, industry and their agents...in Lonavla (Maharashtra), for example, the agents of politicans and industry heads are buying lands on the periphery of the disputed SEZ-declared area...every acre of land is a land of 'sabyatha' for farmers...when i and few others went to Nandigram (where a chemicals SEZ is being set up) in West Bengal we were continuously, without-a-break, accosted and watched by state police forces as if we were terrrorists...but i say that even the policemen and policewomen who are set after us day in and day out are victims of the state policies...

          in SEZ the tax being exempted for the industry is a loot in disguise...the fights you read about in the media between Chidambaram and Kamal Nath or between Kadam and Deshmukh on the tax issue are not genuine fights...they do not emanate from conceptual oppositioin to SEZ...

          talk of accountability is selective...if the ransacked office of CPM (Communist Party Marxist which is in power in West Bengal) office in Nandigram open to everyone (police, media and pubic) for investigation then why is Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure imposed on Singur making it illegal for anyone to even visit the area...if this goes on then there will be no choice but for protests like that seen in nandigram to take the shape of a confrontation...

          equitable and sustainable land use policy is needed without delay..."

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          newsreport on gorai special economic zone

          January 5 2007 (Friday)

          One more SEZ (special economic zone scheme of the central government of India) approval that is manipulative and illegal. This one is at Gorai area (at Borivli-Bhayander West) in Bombay.

          Here is a newsreport in Bombay's 'Afternoon' newspaper on the matter:


          http://www.cybernoon.com/DisplayArticle.asp?section=fromthepress&subsection=inbombay&xfile=January2007_inbombay_standard11795

          Medha to lead protestors at Gorai

          BY A STAFF REPORTER | Thursday, January 04, 2007 11:30:50 IST

          As the residents of eight villages join to protest against the allotment of 5000 acres of land to the Essel world under SEZ

          Like the Shingur incident, a similar controversy may grip Maharashtra as the residents of Gorai would be holding a protest rally against the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) scheme of the government. The Narmada Bachao Activist (NBA) Medha Patkar would be heading the protest rally.

          The rally would be organised protesting the allotment of 5,000 acres of land of eight villages to the Pan India Tourism ltd (Essel World) by the government, under its controversial scheme. This would be affecting over 75,000 residents living in the area since decades. The residents are furious as they would be displaced as soon as the land is allotted.

          Manori, Gorai, Uttan, Dongari, Pali, Tarodi, Chowk and Morva, are the eight villages that would be affected. The Koli community, tribals and slat producers mainly inhabit these villages.

          Lourdes Dsouza, Head, Dharavi Beth Bachao Samiti, said, "Today in the evening members of Jagatik Virodhi Kriti Samiti Maharashtra (JVKSM) will visit these areas and will join our protest. We have been doing our business here since many decades and we will not leave our land at any cost." JVKSM had recently visited the Pen area in Raigarh which is being planned to be allotted to the Reliance group under the SEZ scheme.

           


           
          By: Anita Iyer    30 Mar 09 13:09 IST
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          CPM gets music therapy into poll campaign album Pic by Courtesy / Mint

          MUMBAI: Music has always been an effective bait for political parties trying to woo the masses on the eve of elections.

          Now, the prim Communist Party of India has followed in the tracks of the Congress' Jai Ho campaign with a music led campaign of its own. The West Bengal ruling party launched an album on 28 March at the hands of CPM Chairman Biman Basu and CITU state president Shyamal Chakraborty in the presence of 35,000 people.

          Composed by secretary of Kolkata-based NGO Sonata Foundation and a composer himself, Pranay Dutta, the Bangla album, 'Kairin Akhon' comprises 12 tracks based on music therapy. "I have composed the tracks based on classical ragas with specifications on every rhythm and notations. There are traditional folk tunes picked up from the Lal Garh area in West Bengal and we have inculcated it in the album after a lot of research." Dutta, who is also a music therapist, mentions that the music in the album will have a therapeutic effect on voters.

          The lyrics have been penned by Dutta himself and revolve around the issues of women's self-employment, Hindi-Muslim riots, industrialisation, land acquisition, as well as contemporary issues like riots in Nandigram and Singur etc. Says Dutta, "Although these are tracks for political campaigning, the tunes don't stress on the political aspects. Also, I have tried to keep the music as raw as possible, using percussion instruments such as dhamsa and madol. These are the instruments conceived and used locally in the interiors of West Bengal and the audiences would instantly relate to it." Renowned Bengali singers Raghav Chottopadhay, Lopamudra Mitra, Prany Dutta and others have rendered their vocals for the album.

          The track will be used across media like television, radio, as well as the CPM's rallies in the state.

          Pranay Dutta has been composing songs on subjects related to social awareness for the past 14 years. "I have launched eights albums in the last few years on issues related to blood donation, HIV, preservation of culture etc with singers like Mahalaxmi Iyer, Sadhna Sargam and others," he says.

          MUMBAI: Music has always been an effective bait for political parties trying to woo the masses on the eve of elections.

          Now, the prim Communist Party of India has followed in the tracks of the Congress' Jai Ho campaign with a music led campaign of its own. The West Bengal ruling party launched an album on 28 March at the hands of CPM Chairman Biman Basu and CITU state president Shyamal Chakraborty in the presence of 35,000 people.

          Composed by secretary of Kolkata-based NGO Sonata Foundation and a composer himself, Pranay Dutta, the Bangla album, 'Kairin Akhon' comprises 12 tracks based on music therapy. "I have composed the tracks based on classical ragas with specifications on every rhythm and notations. There are traditional folk tunes picked up from the Lal Garh area in West Bengal and we have inculcated it in the album after a lot of research." Dutta, who is also a music therapist, mentions that the music in the album will have a therapeutic effect on voters.

          The lyrics have been penned by Dutta himself and revolve around the issues of women's self-employment, Hindi-Muslim riots, industrialisation, land acquisition, as well as contemporary issues like riots in Nandigram and Singur etc. Says Dutta, "Although these are tracks for political campaigning, the tunes don't stress on the political aspects. Also, I have tried to keep the music as raw as possible, using percussion instruments such as dhamsa and madol. These are the instruments conceived and used locally in the interiors of West Bengal and the audiences would instantly relate to it." Renowned Bengali singers Raghav Chottopadhay, Lopamudra Mitra, Prany Dutta and others have rendered their vocals for the album.

          The track will be used across media like television, radio, as well as the CPM's rallies in the state.

          Pranay Dutta has been composing songs on subjects related to social awareness for the past 14 years. "I have launched eights albums in the last few years on issues related to blood donation, HIV, preservation of culture etc with singers like Mahalaxmi Iyer, Sadhna Sargam and others," he says.

          http://www.radioandmusic.com/content/editorial/news/cpm-gets-music-therapy-poll-campaign-album

           

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