Afraid Of Dalit Muslim Unity, Mamata Meets Basu

Afraid Of Dalit Muslim Unity, Mamata Meets Basu

Indian Holocaust My father`s Life and time- One Hundred Seventy FIVE

Palash Biswas


Afriad of Dalit Muslim Unity, the traditional Dalit mobilisation and social equation, Mamta Bannerjee suddenly meets Basu for peace in Nandigram. Yesterday I wrote that national convention to say NO to SEZ witnessed tens of thousands Muslims in a public Rally on Metro Channel in Kolkata on Sunday with Dalits. This is a red Alert for ruling Brahminical Classes in Bengal. I had been consistantly writing that Mamata and Mahashweta are after all Brahmin ladies and the caste Hindu politicians, social activists and intellectuals are not interested in any socil change resulting the annihilation of Brahminical dominance. Only day before yesterday , the Dalit leaders addressing the anti SEZ convention alleged that political parties are misusing Muslim and Dalit bases for political gains. They support Nandigaram but are detached from every Dalit and Muslim issue!

CPIM patriarch Jyoti Basu and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee today agreed to continue talks for restoration of peace in Nandigram and look into the demand for giving back land to the unwilling Singur farmers.In what turned out to be a positive one-to-one dialogue followed by public exchange of praises, Mr Basu accepted that the demands of the Trinamool leader should be considered while making her agree to cooperate in bringing back the 2,000-odd CPI(M) people, evicted in the wake of political violence in Nandigram.


Gurjars, Rajasthan govt strike peace deal; agitation called off while Basu-Mamata meet over Nandigram, Singur. Welcome Peace Time provided it sustains itself in coming days. In an attempt to end the Nandigram standoff in West Bengal, CPI (M) patriarch Jyoti Basu invited Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee to a meeting this evening.The meeting assumes considerable significance as it was held in the backdrop of the collapsed all-party meeting on Nandigram on May 24 from which the TC chief had walked out.After the meeting, Mamata was all praises for Basu and reiterated that her demands on Singur and Nandigram were not unreasonable.

In a significant move to end the impasse over the vexed land acqusition issue in Nandigram and Singur, veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu today held talks on with Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee as both the leaders expressed the confidence about an amicable settlement.

''After talking to her, I feel that there is a solution...She does blare out fiery speeches, but I think her demands should be looked into...she also wants peace and her attitude is good,'' he told reporters at a joint press conference with Ms Banerjee after the talks--a first between the two--at his Salt Lake residence.

The meeting, significant in the background of a failed all-party meet over Nandigram, was organised at a short notice after Mr Basu telephoned Ms Banerjee and she readily responded.

Ms Banerjee told the CPI(M) veteran that the Government must give back land to the 300 unwilling farmers whose plots were taken away for the small car factory and look for an alternative site for the project.

While agreeing that the evicted CPI(M) people should be brought back home, she also demanded that a CBI inquiry into the March 14 police firing in Nandigram be continued and the offenders punished.

''We do not do foolhardy politics. The people's demands should be met. I believe the people of Nandigram will get justice if Mr Basu takes personal initiative,'' Ms Banerjee said.

Describing the nonagenarian Marxist as the most senior leader in the country, Ms Banerjee said she had no qualms in joining further talks, if called by ''a leader like Mr Basu''.

''There is nothing more important than the fact that he realises what we say and wants peace to come back,'' she said.

Mr Basu assured the Trinamool leader that her demands would be taken up with the Government and the Tatas, executing the small car project in Singur and steps would be taken to stop attacks on Nandigram by CPI(M) cadres from the adjoining Khejuri.

''My partymen at Khejuri are hurling bombs and firing shots from pistols at Nandigram. I will ask the party to stop it immediately.

At the same time, I believe the Triamool leader would not put any hindrance to those driven out from home to come back,'' he said.

Describing Ms Banerjee as the most important opposition leader, Mr Basu reminded that while in the opposition, the Marxists had cooperated on several occasions with the then Chief Ministers like Bidhan Chandra Ray and P C Sen, who belonged to the Congress.

He said today's talks would be followed up by a meeting among Ms Banerjee, Left Front Committee Chairman Biman Basu, veteran Forward Bloc leader Ashok Ghosh and Housing Minister Rabin Deb to sort out differences and pave way for another all-party meeting over the Nandigram issue.
"I invited her for talks today and she readily agreed. After hearing her, I feel her demands need to be looked into," Basu told reporters immediately after his meeting at his Salt Lake residence.

Mamata, for her part, said "I am happy that he listened to all the details from me about Nandigram and Singur. I will meet him again if he calls me after discussing the matter with the concerned people".

This was the first time that the two leaders met to discuss a political issue since the firebrand TC leader, who has been spearheading an agitation on Singur and Nandigram issues, broke away from Congress in 1998 to emerge as the main opposition leader in West Bengal.

The Basu-Mamata meeting assumes significance as it was held in the backdrop of the aborted all-party meeting on Nandigram on May 24 and a subsequent decision of the state`s ruling Left Front on June 2 that a future initiative for a peace meeting should be taken by the CPI-M.

Mind you, Nandigram Resistance stands divided now. Sidkullaha Chowdhari and his Gana Unnayan oO Jana Adhikar Manch organized a national convention to say no to SEZ. Mamata and TMC were not invited. No Kolkata intellectual, including Mahashweta Devi, spearheading the resistance participated the convention attended by CPIML, CPIML-PCC, SUCI and a host of mass organisatios nationwide. Medha and Arundhati along with sidikullah who was not invited in the much hyped All Party Meeting, slamed the power politics of CPIM and TMC. Arundhati branded Mamata as synic and opportunist and Medha demanded investigation of role all political parties in SEZ controversy.

When the iron is hot, hit it!

The Left Front tries to strike a DEAL with the fire brand TMC Supremo meantime!

Sticking to her stand that the small car factory would never be allowed to come up here, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee only yesterday resolved to take out 'Bhookha Michchil' of farmers in five cities across the country.Addressing a rally at Bajemelia village under Singur, Ms Banerjee declared that she would intensify her movement against the Tatas' project unless land was returned to the farmers.

''Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is in all smile to say that the Tata project will be executed. But I say, never never never shall we allow it to happen. I shall see to it how does it come up,'' she said.

Ms Banerjee said the Trinamool Congress-led Krishi Jami Raksha Committee would organise the processions and highlight the Singur farmers who had lost their land for the Tata Motors' project. They would take out processions with begging bowls in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Jamshedpur between the third week of June and second week of July, she added.

''The processions will be organised demanding that peace be restored in Nandigram, the guilty for the March 14 genocide be tried and the land of Singur farmers returned,'' she said.

Pressing for the demands, the Krishi Jami Raksha Committee would also organise a one-hour 'chakka jam' in the city on June 9.

''We shall further intensify our movement and take it even to the Marxist stronghold areas unless and until the government gives back land to the unwilling farmers who had to part with their plots for the small car project,'' she said.

The Trinamool leader alleged that the Left Front government was misleading the people in the name of industrialisation and its policy ''prompted'' at least two Singur farmers to commit suicide.

Senior Trinamool Congress functionaries and the Naxalite representatives sharing the Krishi Jami Raksha Committee platform, also addressed the rally.

The week-long violent agitation by Gurjars was called off tonight after the Rajasthan government agreed to set up a high-power committee headed by a retired High Court judge to examine their demand for Scheduled Tribe status.The talks between Gujjar leaders and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje have been successful, following which Gujjars have withdrawn their agitation.

A three-member commission will now examine the Gujjar demand of ST status. The commission, which will be headed by a retired High Court judge, will submit its report in three months.

The Gujjars want to be designated as a Scheduled Tribe - a status that could get them greater education, job and promotion benefits.


Centre unhappy with reporting of Raj violence by TV channels
The government today expressed unhappiness with the coverage of the caste rioting in Rajasthan by TV channels, complaining that incidents of violence that were days old were shown by them repeatedly.
Germany offers weapon systems, defence technology to India
Seeking to establish a presence in the country`s burgeoning arms market, Germany today offered to sell frontline hi-tech weapons systems to India and to provide technology for the joint development of military hardware.
Brazil ready for civil nuclear cooperation with India
Brazil, a prominent member of Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), Monday agreed to have civil nuclear cooperation with India as the two countries initiated a strategic dialogue to bolster ties.

Cong authorises Sonia to decide presidential candidate
The Congress party on Monday authorised its president Sonia Gandhi to decide its presidential candidate if the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) reached a consensus over a Congress candidate.


Expansion of the CPI (M) in the northern and southern States is the last wish of nonagenarian Marxist leader Jyoti Basu.

"We have not been able to expand our party's base outside West Bengal and Kerala and it is my last wish to see our expansion in the northern as well as in southern states," Mr. Basu told an open rally of CITU here.

Wish fulfilled

Prior to the last Assembly elections in the State in May, last year, the former Chief Minister had also expressed his `last wish' to see the installation of the seventh Left Front in power in West Bengal.

His wish was fulfilled when CPI (M)-led Left Front stormed back to power with a thumping two-thirds majority.


Communist patriarch Jyoti Basu Monday made a surprise.Left Front sources said Basu himself called up Banerjee and the Trinamool Congress leader readily agreed to meet him at his Salt Lake residence Indira Bhavan at 7 p.m., raising hopes of a possible return of peace in Nandigram.

A Basu-Banerjee meeting is a stunning political development and with one phone call and Banerjee's immediate positive response, the 94-year-old Basu once again proved who still calls the shots in the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and his stature as the undisputed leader of Bengal politics.

"I welcome it and we are all hopeful that now Mamata would accept Basu's advice and show political maturity to restore peace," said Left Front leader and Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) leader Kshiti Goswami while Communist Party of India (CPI) leader Nandogopal Bhattacharya said a leader of Basu's standing would be successful in breaking the impasse.

"We are hopeful," said senior Trinamool Congress leader Saugato Roy.

The much-publicised all-party peace talks on May 24 collapsed after an angry walkout by Banerjee over using the word "genocide" in the draft proposal of the meeting. The CPI-M had refused to term the March 14 police firing in Nandigram as "genocide".

The peace meeting was initiated by Left Front leader and Forward Bloc state secretary Ashok Ghosh.

At least 21 people have been killed, hundreds injured and several women raped in the continuing violence in Nandigram, about 150 km from here in East Midnapore district, since January over possible land acquisition for a special economic zone (SEZ) project in collaboration with Indonesia's Salim Group.

Thousands have been living in camps since.


Meanwhile, the West Bengal government has initiated administrative steps for return of persons rendered homeless by violence and restoration of peace at the trouble-torn Nandigram in East Midnapore district, Home Secretary P R Roy said here today.If anybody has to be taken back home under police protection it would be decided at the local level, Roy said.

Altogether four police camps had been set up at Nandigram, the scene of agitation against the state government's move to acquire land for industries, for restoration of peace in the area where some homeless persons have already returned, he said.

Several people in Nandigram had to quit their homes following clashes between activists of the state's ruling CPI(M) and local residents under the banner of a Trinamool Congress-backed group opposed to acquisition of land for industries.


Total and Tata plough £75m into India
Total Produce and its joint venture partner Tata Chemicals, has unveiled a five-year plans to invest more than £75 million to set up around 40 fresh produce distribution centres in India.

The first two centres will be opened towards the end of 2007 and be located at Ludhiana in Punjab and Kolkata in West Bengal, after which the jv company plans to spread out and scale up over the next three to five years. The first two distribution centres that will come up towards the end of this year will entail an investment of Rs 30 crore.

Homi Khusrokhan, managing director, Tata Chemicals Ltd, said: “We will initially identify 10 vegetables and 10 fruits, select farmers and help them with modern techniques of farming, provide them with the seeds and finally collect, sort and pack the goods to be sold to the wholesale market and to large retail chains.”

Nandigram peace talks: Include women, says Patkar

Nandigram (WB), June 04: Social activist Medha Patkar today advocated participation of women and people from the area in talks for peace in Nandigram.

"Women, specially who were among the first to begin agitation here against the acquisition of farmland for a SEZ, should be included in peace talks. All political parties in the area too should be invited," she said speaking at meetings at Garchakraberia, Bhangabera, Satengabari and Hajrakata.

In the last peace talks on May 24 in Kolkata, the Bhoomi Uched Pratirodh Committee (BUPC), a conglomerate of six political parties spearheading the agitation, had not been called. The meeting had remained inconclusive.

Patkar said until the government took steps to stop attacks by CPI-M cadres on Nandigram from neighbouring Khejuri, there would be no peace in the area.

Sporadic firing was carried out by both CPI-M and BUPC yesterday at Satengabari and Bhangabera, police said.

The situation was peaceful today.


Agri export zones (AEZ) in West Bengal have failed to meet investment as well as export targets in the last six years, according to a study by Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham).
Inspite of the increasing budgetary support from the state, and export of agricultural produce that appears in state finance minister Asim Dasgupta’s wish-list, West Bengal could not even reach 10% of its export targets.

Jharkhand To Have Resettlement Policy For Displaced People
Monday 04th of June 2007 The Jharkhand government plans to announce a resettlement and rehabilitation policy soon for those displaced by land acquisition for setting up industries to avoid violent clashes like those witnessed in West Bengal's Nandigram.

The new policy, which Chief Minister Madhu Koda had promised three months ago, will be announced after an all-party meet to evolve a consensus over the matter.

'We will call an all-party meeting and invite suggestions from political leaders so that there are no hassles after the policy is announced,' said Deputy Chief Minister Stephen Marandi.

'We want a policy that will satisfy the landowners and help investors to set up industries without any protests. We do not want to create a scene like Nandigram in Bengal and Kalinganagar of Orissa,' Marandi told IANS.

In Kalinganagar, over a dozen tribals were killed in police firing in January 2006 while protesting the construction of a boundary wall of a Tata Steel plant.

Similarly in Nandigram, at least 14 people were killed in police firing in March in a protest against a Special Economic Zone (SEZ).

There are suggestions that the displaced people in Jharkhand be given a share in the industries being built.

'We might also ask the investors to directly negotiate with the landowners and provide them the market price,' an official said.

In the last five years, the Jharkhand government has signed agreements with 64 companies in the steel, mining and power sectors. The firms are expected to pump in Rs. 2.4 trillion into the state.

Nearly 20 percent of the state's population has been displaced due to major industrial projects.


The total Plan outlay for agriculture and horticulture, which was earlier increased from Rs 47 crore in 2006-07 to Rs 59 crore in 2007-08, is proposed to be raised further to Rs 93 crore this fiscal.

Dasgupta, in his Budget speech for 2007-08 said, ‘‘After meeting the state’s requirement, some quantities can be exported particularly in case of pineapple, litchi, mango and vegetables, initiatives have been taken to set up special zones for these crops.’’

The real picture is somewhat different as according to Assocham, the state was to earn Rs 1217.90 crore from the export of the agricultural production, while it could merely earn Rs 85.65 crore in the last six years.

Dasgupta has also set a target for improving the production during the Eleventh Plan period (2007-12). The target of production at the end the Eleventh Plan has been fixed at 6 lakh metric tonne for pineapple, 2.26 lakh metric tonne for litchi, 7.50 lakh metric tonne for mango, 97 lakh metric tonne for potato and 191 lakh metric tonne for vegetables.

Assocham, in its report said that the investment in the AEZs in West Bengal was targeted at Rs 354.24 crore. The achievement was much below the target as it is now pegged at Rs 59.28 crore.

Accordinng to the report, at least six AEZs in the state were notified for commercial production six-year back. The AEZs were marked for pineapple, lychee, potato, mango, vegetable and Darjeeling tea.

While the pineapple AEZ could only manage to earn Rs 20 lakh against a target of Rs 127 crore. The investment in the pineapple AEZ stood at Rs 35.59 crore against a target of Rs. 54.50 crore.

Vegetable supermarkets leave the sabziwala cold
http://www.freshplaza.com/news_detail.asp?id=1759

Reliance’s bid to retail farm products in West Bengal has been put on hold thanks to Forward Bloc's resistance and Jyoti Basu’s apprehensions but analysts say that Reliance Fresh will find the going tough also in other provinces of eastern India.

Earlier this month, vegetable sellers armed with brooms, rods and bamboo sticks smashed and vandalised three new supermarkets at Ranchi in Jharkhand giving vent to their frustration at being unable to compete with the chain’s low prices.

Analysts believe the attack is a sign of things to come as Reliance opens new supermarkets across the country. Between last November and May, it launched 155 outlets.

According to reports, customers like the chain because the produce is generally fresh, the shops are air-conditioned and the prices are much lower than those of open-air markets or mobile vendors.

These are sellers who trundle around neighbourhoods with carts laden with vegetables and fruit. Residents enjoy the convenience of buying vegetables right outside their door. But the vendors and small shopkeepers fear they will not survive the Reliance onslaught.

Because it buys in bulk directly from farmers, Reliance Fresh enjoys economies of scales, which it passes on to customers in the form of low prices and discounts. Vendors have to battle many odds. The supply chain is so inefficient that the produce they bring to the towns is not very fresh by the time it arrives.

In fact, according to experts, about half the country’s food and vegetables rot before they reach the shelves or market stalls. India lacks cold storage and refrigerated transport — all things Reliance has built for its new chain.

Reliance Fresh, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, is investing $5.6 billion in hundreds of stores. The company, already India’s top private oil refiner and petrochemical maker, is at the lead of the large chain stores that are storming into Indian organised retail, which now makes up only about 5 percent of the retail market.

The retail revolution in India is touching almost everyone. Indians are switching from small shops and open-air markets to shopping malls and supermarkets.

Reliance is on the vanguard of this transformation. But Wal-Mart is coming soon, and two other supermarket chains — Britain’s Tesco, and Carrefour of France — are itching to enter the Indian market.

The losers are likely to be the estimated 12 million Indians whose livelihoods depend on their small shops. The number of mobile vegetable vendors is not known.

Experts are divided on the impact of every street in every town succumbing to the retail revolution. Some predict doom for small shopkeepers. Others believe that while many will indeed disappear, quite a lot will survive.

“Given India's size and population, the market is so big and growing so fast that there is space for both supermarket chains and corner shops”, says an analysts.


The crisis of Communism in West Bengal
Wednesday 23 May 2007 by SUDHANVA DESHPANDE and VIJAY PRASHAD
http://alternatives-international.net/article866.html
Banerjee, who was once an activist in the Congress Party, floated her own front in 1997 (the Trinamul Congress Party — TMC), formed an alliance with the far right BJP two years later, and has since floundered to gain a footing in the state. Meanwhile, the Left had recently consolidated its political hold on the West Bengal, having ruled the state government since 1977 in a united front. The Left Front has won every election since 1977 with a two-thirds majority in the Legislative Assembly. In the last election, earlier in 2006, the Left Front increased its tally to three-fourths of the Assembly (the TMC lost half its sitting members). Nothing that Banerjee could do seemed to dislodge the robust alliance built by the Left. Her best chance was in the 2001 election, which was preceded by months of violence in Midnapur district, particularly along the Pingla-Garbeta-Keshpur belt. Banerjee claimed this was violence unleashed by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPM], the largest component of the Left Front. She hoped to get a sympathetic central government (led by the BJP) to dismiss the state government on the eve of the elections. In fact, TMC cadres had begun the violence, in a brutal attempt to reverse the land reforms initiated by the Left in the 1970s.

Banerjee came to Singur, just north of West Bengal’s capital Kolkata, to squelch the government’s attempt to reinvigorate industrialization in the state. Descending from their three jeeps, TMC party members and Banerjee were joined by a handful of locals as she proceeded to plant rice on a small plot of land. Such political theatre was designed to lay bare her protest: that the government was in the process of acquiring land from the farmers on behalf of an Indian car manufacturing firm, the Tatas. The kisans of Bengal, she told the assembled media, would "shed blood." This was a harbinger of what was to come, given the recent history of Midnapur.

By December 2006, the TMC, joined by reformed Maoists and anarcho-syndicalists, offered leadership to the minority of disgruntled farmers who refused to give consent for land acquisition (farmers who owned 952 acres of the 997 acres needed had signed consent letters by then). The Krishi Jami Raksha Samiti (KJRS), led by the TMC, began to harass those who signed consent letters (by damaging houses, for instance), and they went on a rampage against those who had come to fence the acquired land. In this vise, the state government sent in the police, who fired tear gas at demonstrators and arrested several dozen people. The government has since begun an investigation of the excessive police action (the police alleges that the KJRS threw "country bombs" at them).

Singur was the dress rehearsal for the next phase.

Singur spilled over across the Hooghly River, into East Midnapur district, to the area of Nandigram. Nandigram is an economically weak region, but it is within sight of major industrial growth, exemplified by the Haldia Petrochemical refinery and by a Mitsubishi chemical factory. The government was eager to develop Nandigram, using the area as the site of a mega chemical hub. The estimate is that this hub would employ about 100,000 people. This part of the project remained dormant, at a proposal stage. The Chief Minister of West Bengal, Buddhadev Bhattacharya, made a public statement to the effect that there would be no land acquisition without the widest political consultation. However, a document circulated by the Haldia Development Authority sowed the seeds of doubt. Bhattacharya dismissed the document.

Banerjee’s TMC, for the first time in years, saw the making of a political campaign against the Left Front government. Her party now pushed from Singur to Nandigram. When activist Medha Patkar came to visit Singur (a trip denied by the state government), she went to Nandigram, where the struggle, at that point, was muted. It came to a boil after Singur, as the TMC and its allies tried to build on the momentum achieved at Singur. In early January 2007, in two incidents, the police were assaulted, police jeeps were set on fire, and the state personnel was forced to withdraw from the area. CPM offices were destroyed, four thousand CPM supporters were removed from the region and roads into Nandigram were dug-up. In February, Chief Minister Bhattacharya held a public meeting near Nandigram, where he reiterated his commitment that no land would be used for the chemical hub and that the area would not be a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) if the people there opposed it. The violence against the CPM supporters continued, and Nandigram remained isolated. On March 14, 2007, the state government sent in the police to reclaim the area. In an armed action, the police killed eight people (six others were killed in the melee). This was the most damaging incident in the Left Front’s thirty years of government.

Thirty years ago, in 1977, the two major Communist Parties joined with other socialist allies to take power over West Bengal’s state government. With a great deal of promise, the Left Front alliance inherited control over a state government. The bourgeois-nationalist Congress Party failed to conduct elementary land reforms, and it had presided over the attrition of the state’s industrial base (to be fair, one of the main industries was jute, which had entered a terminal decline after World War 2). The Left went to work with a modest mandate, keeping the land question at the forefront. In 1971, Communist leader P. Sundarayya wrote, "It is only by developing a powerful mass movement culminating in land seizure that we will ultimately get ’the land to the tiller,’" which is exactly what the Left did. The gains were substantial: today, 78% of agricultural land in West Bengal is in the hands of small and middle farmers, and agricultural productivity is higher there than in any other Indian state. Land reform, given the allowances for it in the Indian Constitution, was not a radical demand, but it was a radical step toward the structural transformation of the countryside. Land reforms were followed by a movement through which landless tenant farmers registered their rights to the land (Operation Bargha), a periodic campaign led by agricultural workers through their trade union to ensure a universal wage rate, and finally, the revival of village-level institutions (panchayats) for local self-government. The Left Front government implemented what is already legally allowed by the Constitution; it did not go beyond the right to property enshrined in the Constitution. As a government of a state within the federal republic of India, the Left has done what can be done in the countryside: anything else requires a revision of the Constitution, and that can only come with wider political strength.

The Left Front’s first Chief Minister, Jyoti Basu was cautious as his government took office in 1977, telling the press, "We must be content to make whatever small improvements we can in the lives of the poor people, to make life more liveable." Two decades later, poverty levels in Bengal declined significantly (according to the Planning Commission).

But, by the mid-1990s, new contradictions emerged in the Bengali countryside. Neo-liberal agricultural polices on the global stage decreased the prices for agricultural goods, at the same time as neo-liberal economic polices of the Indian government has worn out the ability of the state to intervene on behalf of small and middle farmers who face an across the board crisis. The rate of poverty eradication began to slow down as agricultural production itself declined (it was 5.4% in the early 1980s and only 2.99% a decade later). In 1993, a committee set up the West Bengal government reported that agricultural stagnation was inevitable, as the land reform agenda had been exhausted. Distress in the countryside provided an opportunity for those rich farmers (many of them absentee landlords) who had lost their land in the reforms. They, along with the rural neo-rich, form a bloc in the countryside who are ready to join any counter-revolutionary, even counter-liberal, dynamic. The TMC had fronted for these forces in Midnapur in 2000-01, and the TMC’s campaigns in Singur and Nandigram have afforded them a chance to strike back against the Left Front government.

In state after state in India, which had embraced neo-liberalism with missionary zeal, the price is being paid by farmers, particularly small farmers. In some places, like the Vidharba region of Maharasthra (as journalist P. Sainath continues to document), farmers’ suicides have assumed near epidemic proportions. These farmers are the casualties of the global offensive of neo-liberalism on petty production in the agrarian sector. It is, therefore, no coincidence that in country after country in Latin America, the Left in some form or another has made a resurgence through the struggles of the small farmers’ discontent and aspirations. In countries where the Left is virtually absent, that political space has been filled by other forces ­ in Iran, for instance, one factor behind Mahmud Ahmadinejad’s electoral victory was his championing of the cause of the small peasantry. Given this global context, it seems remarkable that West Bengal has been able to ward off the political symptoms of the agrarian crisis. At some point though, global trends were bound to catch up. In addition, new problems, with their root in the land reforms, have cropped up: a report that the West Bengal state government had commissioned on the eve of the last election pointed to the fragmentation of land among the successor of the original beneficiaries of the land reforms.

Aware of the need to stem the economic distress of the working-class and the peasantry, and the political problems this would entail, the Left Front moved an industrial agenda from the 1970s itself. Of its seven goals (in its 1978 "Industrial Policy for West Bengal"), the CPM, the largest partner in the Left Front, called for a "reversal of the trend toward industrial stagnation" by constraining monopoly capital, encouraging small-scale industry, promoting worker self-management and an expansion of the state sector.