The Maoists have come!

It would be a folly to imagine that Nandigram is a local movement against the midless development planning of the Left Government in West Bengal. Far from it, the movement is a part of the larger picture where the red color is spreading fast and furious. However, greater threat to the Indian States in the information that the Maoists are forging alliances with the fundamentalist Muslim forces as well as militant separatist groups in Kashmir. There is need to re-think and re-group if the democratic process as we created under the Constitution is to continue.

by reporter@dayafterindia.com

Make no mistake about it; a real red alert has been sounded in the country. It has been caused by outfits that largely constitute of those sections of the population that largely remain on the margins. Poor, illiterate, losing their roots and homes as a matter of routine and with nothing more to lose these outfits and organizations have painted large parts of the country in a hue that has paled the red of the hammer and sickle parties.

Nandigram is one manifestation of the events that threaten to overtake the country and it is being complimented by developments in Bastar in Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh. When these events are juxtaposed with the coming to the centre stage of the Maoists in Nepal and their Indian links, a sinister design seems to be afoot Elements as diverse as the Muslim fundamentalists and the Kashmiri separatists seem to be coming together and the Government in New Delhi is still not sure if this is the result of faulty State policies or bad politics of the political parties. The Home Minister insists upon calling the red threat as a ‘terrorist’ threat while many others would like to ask him to ponder over the State policies that leave no room for redress of grievances within the framework of the existing system.at even the central government chose for much of the time to pretend that the long drawn battle in Nandigram was only about the farmers struggle against the acquisition of land, an issue between them and their State government, thereby ignoring the ramification of the events on the political and socio-economic structure of the country.

Nandigram, it is now becoming clear, has, because of the classic combination of the governments push towards accelerated growth rate to meet the aspirations of the privileged classes and its inability to make large sections of the population a part of it, become a test case for those who wish to derail the development process and destablise the country. Nandigram, it is obvious now, is just a part of the of the battle that has been ongoing since the sixties of the last century and which has today practically drawn about twenty five per cent of the population into it. It is a battle that transcends party lines and therefore has to be collectively fought by those forces that believe that the democratic process as we know it has be preserved till a more constructive tool is invented by mankind.

Ever since various governments and opinion makers in the country decided that enough time had been wasted in the name of the poor and socialism there has been a race to be as close to the developed world in the shortest possible time. In this context the warning of the late President K.R. Narayanan still rings true where he had cautioned the NDA government to build the expressways but also make allowance for the bullock carts and slow moving traffic that still abounds. The red threat in the country today is a reflection of that contradiction.

The hurry in which the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) policy has been formulated and being implemented has only acted as a catalyst, in the process raising phantoms of insecurity, injustice and homelessness. The fact that contrary to developing SEZs in regions where the cost on transportation is the minimum, a number of them have been planned for places where infrastructure is already available and consequently land prices are high. This also gave the message that the new economic policies are meant to make better lives more better rather than pulling up those struggling to survive. In those areas where the infrastructure did not exist, the plans for mega projects only added to the apprehensions of the local population of alienation and consequent problems. As it is the gradual marginalization of the vast tribal population in eastern and central India was already reaching a boiling point. The fact that now these problems had arisen simultaneously in a number of States, and were being highlighted by the massive reach of the visual media, only goaded these forces to organize and strike. In the process, little distinction was made between one explanation or the other.

Nandigram is a prime example of this. The Left government of West Bengal did visualize of massive investment in industry to generate employment and rid the State of a stagnated economy. It was then believed that with the successful Chinese marriage with capitalism the Left will not face much difficulty in making the transition. It was forgotten that unlike China, West Bengal was being run by a political system which allowed for dissent and protest and since more often than not political parties and groups will go to any extent to derive mileage, all non-Left parties lent their support to those who opposed the proposal to develop a chemical hub in Nandigram.

The West Bengal Government claims that when the local population expressed its opposition and concerns the proposal was dropped though the fact remains that having had its way for much too long in that State it took a long time in assessing the ground reality. It now transpires that it was too late by then. The forces opposed not only to the new economic policies and all those who had an axe to grind had by now joined forces. For the first time since it came to power in 1977, the CPM came to be challenged by the people. The combination of these forces was lethal and germane with possibilities. There were landless labourers as there were marginal and small farmers but by a strange coincidence a large number among them happened to be Muslims. Many more poured in from outside and paying the CPM in its own coins they had driven it out of Nandigram.

The rest, as they say, is history. The attempt to recapture it with police support, subsequent deaths in police firing and the final take over of Nandigram by CPM by ‘paying in the same coin’ only alienated the Left government from the intellectuals and the middle class. However, in all fairness to the Left it must be said that looking at the fact that diverse forces, ranging from the fundamentalists to the ultra reds, joined hands to oppose a proposal that was aborted at its inception stage, points towards a sinister design. Those who pushed the Nandigram movement were confident in the knowledge that India is not China and that no government can push protestors beyond a certain democratic line used every stratagem to force the West Bengal government in taking a stance that made it the oppressor. In the process the need to push the State towards industrialization has been put on the back burner.

Another worrisome truth that is emerging is that the so called Nandigram movement was given all possible support by the Maoists from all over the country. It goes to their credit that they succeeded in garnering support not only from BJP, Trinamool Congress and Congress but also from the fundamentalists among the Muslims. The fact that in Kolkata, the Nandigram and Taslima Nasreen issue got merged, speaks volumes of the dangerous nexus between the ultra red and the green.

Nandigram is just one incident that has demonstrated the hold of the Maoists in States that have remained on the margins of development. Bastar in Chattisgarh is another where their hold has already created a parallel government. The BJP Government in that State had tried to mobilize the tribal people to counter the terror tactics of the Maoists by creating a Salma Judum that virtually converted the people into a police force. The back lash was quick and in no time 57,000 people from 640 villages were forced to live in camps. Finally, after an unending wait away from their hearths and homes, they are returning to their villages by accepting the security being provided by the Maoists. In other words that area now seems to have permanently gone out of the government control and this is not an isolated example of government writ not running in large tracts of land from the borders of Nepal to the Andhra coast.

It is obvious that it does not matter if a State is being governed by the Left or the BJP, the Congress or the BJD, the State as an institution is today under threat from the red forces. What is baffling is that these forces largely constitute of the tribal population, landless workers and the small and marginal farmers which is a clear indication that the mainstream political parties are either unable to express their aspirations or they are not willing to accommodate them. Not too long ago President Narayanan expressed his anguish at the way economic development was taking place. The Government of the day refused to pay heed. Often times UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi has said that the socio-economic causes of the Maoists movement should be addressed. It appears that her statements were more for the consumption of the liberal population than her political followers.

Nandigram and the subsequent events in West Bengal point towards an easy future. It can spin out of hand if corrective and strong steps are not taken soon. The tribal population cannot be weaned by force alone; the development process too cannot take place in a vacuum; and, therefore without making them the first beneficiary of change they cannot be made to support a movement that demands sacrifices from them and then distributes loaves among strangers and the well fed.