Brinda Karat

THE SMEAR campaign against the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Left Front Government on the Singur issue has been marked by a remarkable absence of facts. Invective has replaced reason. The political acumen of the critics was on display when a comparison was made between the policies of the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Government, which only recently received a two-thirds majority from the people of Bengal, and the United States occupation of Iraq. So many wild allegations and fabrications have been hurled at the CPI(M) and the Left that it becomes necessary to put the record straight. In respect of consultation, consent, compensation, and concern for employment generation, Singur stands in favourable contrast to what is being done in other States.

Untruth No 1: The common theme for the charge of double standards is that while the CPI(M) opposes `forcible' acquisition of land elsewhere, in Singur its Government has done just that. According to them, "50-60 per cent of land is not sold and [the] majority of landholders in thousands are against the compulsory land acquisition and transfer of land and livelihood to the corporate."

Fact: Of the 997 acres required, the Government has received consent letters from landowners for 952 acres. Three fourths of the 12,000 persons involved, including sharecroppers, have collected the share of the total compensation amount of Rs.131.49 crore and others are waiting to do so. The large numbers involved point to the fragmentation of the plots compared with other States where there are no land ceilings and where the same amount of land would have less than one third of the number of persons. This process has been going on under the public gaze for the last three months in a claims office set up in the area, with not a single complaint that it has been anything but democratic and transparent. Indeed this is the one government that has had numerous meetings with the affected people and called all party meetings several times to discuss the details of the project, the nature of land being taken over, and the compensation package.

Untruth No. 2: "There is no compensation policy for the landless agricultural workers, unrecorded sharecroppers and rural households who are indirectly dependent for their lives and livelihood on land and agricultural activities."

Fact: It is well recognised that West Bengal under the Left has ensured registration of the majority of sharecroppers through a bitter struggle. In Singur, all the 275 sharecroppers will get 25 per cent of what landowners will get; and 170 more sharecroppers who are not registered have applied for compensation, which is under consideration.

West Bengal agriculture is characterised by a relatively high share of family labour on self-owned farms. That is why the vast majority of workers in the area earn their income through non-agricultural work. Government records for the five areas where land is being taken put the number of workers involved in non-agricultural work at around 7,700, including 1,000 women. Another 700 are involved in some type of household industry. Not surprisingly, the number of agricultural workers, around 1,230, is much less; and most of them have to do other work to ensure a minimum income. The Government has ensured alternative work for them. Already in that area, over 7,500 person-days of employment have been generated in the last few weeks. Employment for local workers will also be created in canal renovation, road widening, fence and building construction, and other activity. The Left Front Government is the only one in the country that has initiated different types of training programmes for landless workers and land losers, 1,800 of whom have already registered in different programmes. The effort is to ensure that alternative work and livelihood is ensured.

Untruth No. 3: Singur land is prime agricultural land. While the CPI(M) opposes the acquisition of prime agricultural land in other States, in West Bengal it is doing the same thing.

Fact: According to Government records, approximately 90 per cent of the land is single crop. 175.5 acres of fertile land in the command area of the deep tube wells have been excluded and less fertile land included. Land has been changing hands faster in Singur than in any other part of West Bengal. Over the last year or so, there have been 572 private land transactions of approximately 300 acres of land, at one-third the rate given as compensation in the Singur project. This is the opposite of what is happening in other States, where land is being acquired from the peasantry at less than the market price. According to Census data, the share of fallow land, wasteland, pastures and so on is only 1 per cent in West Bengal compared with the national average of 17.6 per cent. Clearly, for taking forward agricultural growth, expanding employment opportunities in agriculture, and ensuring industrialisation, a proper land use policy is essential. The State Government is preparing precisely this.

Untruth No. 4: "There was unheard of and unprecedented police brutality on December 1 — women are being sexually abused, their clothes torn off and children drowned in the local water bodies. Police had fired, several people are injured. [The] CPI(M) cadre are wearing police uniforms and terrorising the people."

Fact: This constitutes a cluster of fabrications so outrageous and so far removed from the truth that nobody takes them seriously. The report of the NGO `fact-finding' team cannot name a single child thrown in a water body nor one woman who was sexually abused. If there was brutal beating and repression, surely there would have been scores of people with fractured limbs and broken heads who would have no doubt been paraded before the media as proof. If there were police excesses the Government must take action. But as the women of Singur told me, in all these months when the process of giving consent was on, there was not a single policeman in their village. On the contrary, they said, 20 houses of those who had given land to the Government were damaged. Members of the Krishi Jami Raksha Samity (KJRS), an alliance of 19 parties ranging from the Right to the ultra-Left led by the local TMC MLA, tried to prevent the fencing work. Bombs were thrown at the police, which chased the crowd into the village, lathi-charged, and tear-gassed them.

When 12,000 directly affected people have given their consent and collected their compensation, it is clear that those who are involved in the violent protests, which are politically motivated, have little to do with the interests of those affected. The land has to be fenced off and the Government will be shirking its responsibility by not doing so. As the Chief Minister has said, it is unfortunate that the police had to use force against the demonstrators; but it is doubtful that a force attacked with bombs will respond differently anywhere.

The question arises: why Section 144? Why prevent people from visiting the area? Why the police force? The provisions apply to all parties, including the CPI(M). However, the critics have double standards.

When the CPI(M) and its Kisan Sabha organised a demonstration in the villages earlier in November before Section 144 was imposed, it was described by the KJRS as "intimidation." When bombs are thrown at policemen and women, it is the democratic right to protest! The West Bengal Assembly was opened for two days to the general public and a hundred thousand people went inside to see the damage and vandalism of the State Assembly by TMC MLAs.

West Bengal has seen the havoc and violence wrought by a politically frustrated Opposition. Singur is their target. Those being mobilised are not the peasants or workers affected by the project — but others led by the Opposition. Such a situation is likely to lead to counter protests, causing a law and order problem. Hence the use of Section 144. The sooner this is lifted, the better it will be but that is an assessment the Government will have to make.

The Left is conscious of the need to defend, consolidate, and advance the agrarian gains of the people of West Bengal. Nevertheless, the leaders of what are nowadays called `social movements' would do well to recognise that a progressive, people-centred social and economic policy cannot proceed if the very process of industrialisation is seen as sinister and alien.

(Brinda Karat is a member of the Polit Bureau of the CPI[M].)

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