Nandigram - Conflict Over Proposed Chemical Hub

Conflict Over Proposed Chemical Hub

The controversy over the state government plan to build a chemical hub in Nandigram led opposition parties to organise against the acquisition of land. The Trinamool Congress, Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI), Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind and Indian National Congress cooperated to establish the Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee (BUPC, 'Committee against Land Evictions'). A large number of erstwhile supporters of the ruling CPI(M) party also joined them. The apparent aim of the BUPC was to protect the farmers' lands. However the top leadership of the ruling party, determined to ride roughshod over all opposition, painted the agitation as one against industrialisation. The official propaganda carried by pro-government media talked of jobs for the large number of unemployed youths of the state of West Bengal and made claims of a boost to development in the area. According to the version propagated by the party, the region would have become an industrial belt and would have attracted further investments and jobs to the state. The main opposition party, the TMC, maintains however that they are opposed not to industrialization per se but poorly planned projects carried out with inhuman methods.

The situation came to a head when the MP from nearby Haldia took a proactive role in the project. The Haldia Development Authority under him issued a notice for land acquisition. Several supporters of both the CPI(M) and the BUPC were violently attacked by opponents with their houses vandalised. Both sides amassed huge quantities of arms and several clashes resulted in incidents allegedly of arson, murder and rape. However, the BUPC got the upper hand owing to its commanding greater public support and allegedly supported by Maoists, did not allow police and CPI(M) cadre to enter for over 3 months by digging up roads.

When the ruling party sought to reestablish its previous domination, it mobilised the administration in the name of removing blockades and restoring "normalcy". On the night of March 14, 2007, the party's cadre allegedly bolstered by hired hardened criminals from the state and outside, conducted a joint operation with the state police. They unleashed a reign of terror, killing at least 14 people (the officially admitted number, very likely a gross underestimate), maiming many more and allegedly committing numerous infanticides and rapes. There were allegations of removal of evidence in the form of dead bodies and injured persons.

Several writers, artists, poets and academicians took a strong position against the police firing which in turn brought significant international attention.

However, there has been some division among the intelligentsia in Bengal. While Mahasweta Devi, Aparna Sen, Saonli Mitra, Suvaprasanna, Joy Goswami, Kabir Suman, Bratya Basu along with noted envioronment activist Medha Patkar condemned the government; Soumitra Chatterjee, Nirendranath Chakraborty, Tarun Majumdar defended the Chief Minister on development issue. Just after the bloodbath of Nandigram on 14 March, pro-government intellectuals have spoken in favour of the Chief Minister which includes the novelists Buddhadeb Guha and Debesh Roy, the litterateur Amitava Chaudhuri, the poet Mallika Sengupta, the actors Dilip Roy, Sabyasachi Chakrabarty, and Usha Ganguly, the singers Amar Pal, Shuvendu Maiti, Utpalendu Chaudhuri, and Indranil Sen, the sarod exponent Buddhadev Dasgupta, the historian Aniruddha Roy, the football luminary P K Banerjee, the noted architect Sailapati Guha, the scientist Saroj Ghosh, and the poet Nirendranath Chakravarty who presided over a gathering at Science City Auditorium, kolkata. However, noted Leftist intellectuals such as Sumit & Tanika Sarkar, Praful Bidwai & Sankha Ghosh refused to buy the argument in favour of development & remained critical of the government.

As a direct aftermath of the West Bengal government's Special Economic Zone policy, in the panchayat elections of May 2008, CPI(M) and its left front allies were defeated in Nandigram and adjoining areas by the Trinamool Congress-SUCI alliance. The Trinamool Congress-SUCI alliance and the Congress wrested the Zilla Parishads from the CPI-M in three districts of the 16 districts of West Bengal out of the hands of CPI(M) after about 30 years.