Party before state

Many things have gone seriously wrong at Nandigram in southern West Bengal. The genesis of the crisis lies in the decision of an agency of the state government in January this year to notify the acquisition of 25,000 acres of land in Nandigram to facilitate the setting up of a giant chemical hub there by the Indonesian Salim group - a move that would have displaced thousands of residents from about a dozen villages in the area. Coming as it did soon after the state government had fought a messy battle with residents of Singur (near Kolkata), over acquiring land for Tata Motors' car manufacturing unit, this was the first mistake in an area where (unlike Singur) alternative livelihoods are not available for displaced people. In any case, no state government should arrogate the right to acquire land through notifications, without prior consultation with the people who will be displaced, and without assuring them a rehabilitation and resettlement package that meets their needs.

As was to be expected, the affected villagers of Nandigram organised themselves as a group (which no doubt enjoyed the patronage of the state's chief opposition party, the Trinamool Congress) and succeeded in shutting down most government offices and police outposts in the entire area. Nandigram had become an enclave where the local administration's writ had ceased to run. It took more than a month for the state government to recognise the gravity of the situation, after which it stirred itself and sent a strong police contingent to restore normalcy in Nandigram. The resulting police action was the second blunder, as it led to the death of 14 people. Nandigram became a bigger mess.

The immediate casualty was the proposed chemical complex, as West Bengal's Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee announced that Nandigram would not be the site for the proposed project. A new site has now been found, but the enthusiasm for investing in West Bengal has faded; the state's industrialisation programme (identified closely with the chief minister) is therefore the second casualty. Still, there was no end to the unrest in Nandigram, which became a battleground for supporters of CPI (M) and Trinamul Congress [and, if the CPI (M) is to be believed, of local Maoist elements as well]. The issue was who would "control" the area "" itself a comment on the confusion between party and state in Left Front-ruled West Bengal.

If television coverage is any indication, it has been a free-for-all between CPI (M) and Trinamul supporters. The state police have been conspicuous by their absence, suggesting that the numerically stronger CPI (M) supporters had been given a free hand to settle scores with their political rivals. Another giveaway was that even as state CPI (M) leaders announced last Sunday that Nandigram was free from "terror", the state administration denied civil society representatives the right to enter Nandigram. Equally distressing was a public statement from the governor of West Bengal, who instead of exercising his Constitutional right of advising the chief minister in private, played to the gallery by describing Nandigram publicly as a "war zone".

The chief minister has belatedly called for the Central Reserve Police Force, but it is yet to be fully deployed. And yesterday, normal life in West Bengal was affected as all the major opposition parties in the state observed a protest bandh, the third over the Nandigram issue. None of them has helped Nandigram, and they have done harm to the state, which will have been struck off the map for many industrial projects. As for the Left Front, its own common minimum programme seems to be to run the state government as the handmaiden of a very violent CPI (M).