Torture which some Muslim students face at JNU

From: Idrees

Date: 2009/4/22

Subject: help!!!

Dear All,

We want to bring it to your notice the constant physical and psychological violence that many of us muslim students have been experiencing at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi over the last two years. Recently on On 17th March a Muslim student Masihullah Khan[ M.A. French] was brutally assaulted by a group of ABVP/RSS students inside Lohit hostel in full view of the Senior Waden and fellow residents. Despite that the administration did not deem it be a serious offence and let them off with very mild punishments, which were then revoked. All that was left of the punishment was hostel transfers, and even those were not carried out.

Exactly a month later on 17th April the same group of students assualted me [Idrees Kanth] badly and further threatened me of dire consequences. Even after this, the administration on one ground or other ['humanitarian considerations' is what the adminstration said] has been protecting them making us feel not only very vulnerable but traumatised. Such an attitude of the administration has only emboldened these hooligans who are now openly targeting us.

It is a common knowledge among students in JNU that the administration is completely right wing. In the past if by any chance a Dalit or a Muslim student was involved even in a minor act of indiscipline, the student was severly punished and even rusticated.

We therefore, appeal to you all to build an opinion on such a stark and open communal policy of the JNU adminsitration and the growing communal violence on the campus. We are being constantly threatened, intimidated, abused, physically beaten etc etc. We feel completely helpless !!!

Thanks
Idrees Kanth

The State And Its Step Children

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main41.asp?filename=cr110409the_state.asp

India’s industrialisation has played havoc with its poor. An alternative suggests steps for inclusive growth

MEDHA PATKAR & AMIT BHADURI

POSING THE RIGHT QUESTION

One of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century, Wittgenstein warned us how language can mislead and trap our thoughts. We are reminded far too often of this warning when we are dubbed as anti-development, antiindustrialisation, romantic environmentalists, because in most people’s mind, industrialisation conjures the image of sophisticated manufactured goods, highly mechanised heavy industries, large IT parks with imposing infrastructure or world class cities, airports and luxury apartments. While the toiling masses seldom figure in this image, the beneficiaries do, as the rich consumers of these goods and the relatively fortunate skilled workers who are absorbed in these enterprises.

We have aimed at this form of industrialisation since Independence and have switched to a fast track in recent decades. And yet, India has remained an overwhelmingly ‘poor’ country. Three out of four Indians have a purchasing power of not more than Rs 20 per day. At the same time, a large percentage of our population still lives on common natural resources like land, water, rivers, forest and fish. Their vast manpower receives neither value nor value additions for their ‘natural’ yet critical investment. If we have to think of industrialisation in democratic India, we cannot simply ignore this majority of our citizenry and their potential. The right question to ask, therefore, is not whether to industrialise or not, but industrialise for whom and how?

DEVELOPMENT DISCONTENT AND RESISTANCE

This question explains why tensions over policies of land acquisition and displacement in the name of industrialisation, Special Economic Zones or mining are gathering furious momentum across the country. Those who are dispossessed hardly figure as direct and major beneficiaries of industrialisation, and yet, they bear a disproportionate burden. Although dalits and adivasis, the poorest and most oppressed, constitute about one fourth of the population, they are estimated as more than half of the people dispossessed of their land, livelihood and habitats. It is said that capitalism is a process of ‘creative destruction.’ When destruction systematically targets the poor and their life-supporting natural resource base only to create wealth for the rich, the dispossessed see no possibility of benefiting from industrialisation for generations, and the process is resisted. ‘Industrialisation’ has come to conjure images of world class cities where toiling masses seldom figure

Today, the sign of destruction looms nowhere larger than in agriculture. India is dying rather than living in her villages. A farmer commits suicide every 30 minutes. The extremist political resistance has gained ground at least in one fourth of the landmass at the very heart of the country. Millions who are in these local struggles and peoples’ movements, over apparently diverse yet linked issues, are beginning to shape a new politics. All natural resources such as land, water, forest, including private property and that which used to be common property indispensable for people’s survival, are being forcibly acquired by the state to be handed over to the Tatas, the Ambanis, POSCO, Coca-Cola, mining giants and others. This is often under the veil of non-transparent deals. When recently the Gram Sabha in Kathikund, Jharkhand refused to hand over land in the name of development, two adivasis were killed in a police firing. Others were wounded and jailed. The systematic onslaught by liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation is being reinforced by the direct violence of the State to dispossess millions who live traditionally on a natural resource base. These poor populations are now condemned and continuously bulldozed for being poor in the name of some ‘illegality’ or ‘encroachment’ defined by the expropriators themselves. This results in the abandoning of existing rural forms of ‘manufacturing,’ including agriculture, horticulture, pisiculture, cottage and small scale industries. If we want to understand the motive for such dogmatic discrimination, it has to be linked to the process by which India created so many billionaires so swiftly, with political corruption in high places.

THE GLOBAL RACE

India, we are told, is a winner in the global economic race, which is being propelled by money and a market economy. A large section of our agrarian economy is unable to participate effectively in it; instead they are literally looted in a game with unfamiliar rules. Industrialisation is exceptionally generous to a small minority that is accumulating enormous wealth and buying and taking over communities, even civilisations. The victims are marginalised, left illiterate and undernourished, dispossessed of resources and any steady source of livelihood. At the most, some of the victims will live on bureaucratic charity, supported by meagre social security and an employment guarantee for 100 out of 365 days, which seldom creates productive capital. They would be incapable of participating — let alone competing — in the global market.

AN ALTERNATIVE INDUSTRIALISATION

An alternative has emerged, and peoples’ movements need to crystallise around it. It could turn our weakness into a strength by starting at the most vulnerable points of our economy. The alternative way of industrialising would involve the poor and illiterate, who constitute the skilled and semi-skilled labour force, in their traditional environment. Through a productive full-employment programme, they could become a propelling force for the creation and distribution of wealth. Existing livelihoods would not be destroyed in this process without people’s consent, and would ensure that they can have not just a habitat but also an alternative livelihood. In the present Indian context this means that industry should come up on vacant and uncultivable land, while productivity of cultivable land should be increased. Decentralised, efficient and participatory management of land, water and tree-cover with human power can achieve this. Industries can be labour intensive, producing on a small scale with more direct market linkages

We have to start by extending the employment guarantee scheme everywhere — urban and rural areas at a minimum uniform wage, for 300 days a year, available on demand.

With work opportunities conceived by the communities through innovative plans aimed at fulfilling basic needs within a short radius of the village centers, this alternative industrialisation would be characterised by labour-intensive technology, small scale of production by masses and maximum direct linkage between consumer and producer. The large projects, enterprises and heavy industries considered essential would need the consent of the community, compliance with social and environmental rules, justice with both labourers and landinvestors and economic viability without seeking maximum profit. The guidelines would be environmental sustainability, equity and justice monitored by wider institutions and agencies, who would work with unit tiers like the present Panchayati Raj, with suitable amendments to draw units on the basis of the eco-system boundaries.

IMPLEMENTATION MECHANISMS

Without consensus, plans would be neither accepted nor effectively implemented by the people. The precondition is decentralisation and transfer of power to the lowest level of elected local government, in the true spirit of Panchayati Raj. Mere political pronouncements, not backed by real intention, cannot deliver. Neither the Centre nor the states have been enthusiastic about giving full autonomy of decision-making or even little financial autonomy to the local governments. The legal first step is to actualise the 73rd Amendment with the help of Article 243 of the Constitution. The legal framework exists, but mainstream political parties would rather see our countryside in crisis than give up control to the people. Only irresistible peoples’ movements will make it a reality. Our focus must shift from external to internal markets that constitute local economies to reduce poverty

The cost of such an employment programme works out approximately six to seven percent of the GDP. We must afford this as the highest priority, increasing the Central Government budget deficit as and when necessary, by doing away with the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act. The funds would be held in a separate account in nationalised banks and provide credit lines to local governments or panchayats without interference from Central and state governments. The mechanism for supervision would be a checks and balance system between banks and the panchayats with a compatible incentive scheme.

THE CONTENT OF GROWTH AND INTERNAL MARKETS

This way of industrialisation would produce a large range of goods and services for the local market created through a purchasing power generated locally in the hands of the poor. This is the route through which the poor, rejected by today’s industrialisation, would enter the larger economy with dignity as both producers and consumers. The composition of our national output would change as we put the internal market, constituting many local economies and populated by the poor, at centerstage. The composition of output produced in this manner at the local level would be much less intensive in its use of natural resources. No big dams or ruthless exploitation of natural resources would be needed to provide electricity and minerals to benefit the nexus of contractors, industrialists and politicians. To reduce the pace of mad urbanisation that sucks enormous natural resources for a handful of rich, by dispossessing the poor and forcing migration to cities, is a related task which only this alternative can achieve. The domestic rather than the external market must occupy the centre of economic policy, with the purchasing power rising at a faster rate at the bottom than at the top of income distribution, and the market used by the poor for local exchanges to suit their needs and priorities. There are isolated experiments where local use of skills and resources have successfully withstood corporate competition.

TIME FOR A NEW BEGINNING

We live in a time when both centralised planning and corporate industrialisation have visibly failed. Even the workforce of the organised sector (less than 10 percent) feels increasingly insecure. The faith in existing paradigms is deeply shaken. The conventional politics of trying to capture centralised power by any means of democracy without trusting the creativity of the people has rendered both the right and the left political parties without legitimacy in the eyes of the people. The time is ripe for a new beginning.

Medha Patkar is founder-convenor of NAPM Amit Bhaduri is Professor Emeritus at JNU, Delhi

The right right

http://www.downtoearth.org.in/editor.asp?foldername=20090415&filename=Editor&sec_id=2&sid=1

The world’s cheapest car, the Nano, rolls out in India this week. Manufacturer Tata Motors says it will change the way Indians drive, for the inauguration places the personal car within the reach of people who once could only dream of owning one. Indeed, the Nano has been marketed as an ‘aspiration’—the right of every Indian to a car. No quibble here. There is no question an affordable car is better than an expensive one; or that a small car, being more fuel efficient, is better than a big one. No question, too, that every citizen of India has as much right to a car as every citizen of America, where vehicle numbers are obscene: some 800 vehicles for 1,000 people (old and young) against our measly 7 per 1,000 people (urban and rural).

Let me roll out my concerns. The issue is not the Nano. The issue is all cars and whether cars still are the future of the world economy. Over years, in different continents, vehicle manufacturers invented and re-invented this appliance for self-mobility, for different market segments. In India, two-wheeler manufacturers can rightly claim that over the 1980s they, too, provided technology innovation and affordable mobility for vast numbers. They can also claim they were the first to break the class barrier. Then, in the early 1990s, when Sanjay Gandhi’s people’s car, the Maruti 800, hit the roads, gender barriers also fell—this was a car women could drive and it gave new freedoms. No question, therefore, of what Nano will bring to new owners.

But this launch comes at a time when the production of personal vehicles itself is becoming old-economy. It is not surprising the car industry has become the first big dinosaur of the 21st century. Every country today is working to bail out its automobile industry. The big four companies are still on the brink of closure. There is huge over-capacity in the world of cars—sales are down and the industry is bleeding. You might think it is a temporary phase: cars will zoom again, as recession blues turn pink. But this is far from the reality.

The fact is cars could only make it big in the old economy because they were highly subsidized, or incentivized through cheap bank loans. If people could not afford the next car, the bank worked overtime to make sure the loans kept rolling, even if that eventually broke the bank’s back. But that is the past. The future, too, will not be too different. The bank might recover, but the cost of the fuel to drive the dream vehicle will not. Oil experts will tell you black gold prices will rise again, when the world economy re-boots.

Add to this what can only be called the mother of all subsidies—the free-ride personal vehicles have got, in the world, to emit large amounts of greenhouse gases and pump them into a common atmospheric space. As the rights over this ecological commons will be determined, as they must, carbon dioxide emissions from the cars of the rich will have to be limited and taxed. This will cost. It will make driving more expensive.

The global automobile industry knows it is not our future. It is our past. Unfortunately, this message has not yet come home. Unlike the car-saturated West, we still have a large number of people who are potential buyers. But the fact is in India, because of the even greater price-sensitivity, personal vehicles are viable only if they are subsidized to the brim.

Take the Nano. My colleague Chandra Bhushan has calculated the incentives rolled out by Narendra Modi’s Gujarat government amount to a fat write-off—as much as Rs 50,000-60,000 per this Rs 1 lakh car. In other words, its cost is so low only because the state has doled out a largesse. Every past and present automobile has got this benefit (more or less). We can afford a car because our government pays for it. We can also afford it because we are not asked to pay the price of its running—the tax on cars is lower than what buses pay in our socialist country. We do not pay for its parking, a cost, which, if added, would make us think twice before we bought or drove our new dream vehicle, whatever the variant.

As the Nano rolls out, think of how we subsidize the car and tax the bus. Public buses pay taxes as commercial passenger vehicles, each year and based on the number they carry. In many states, they pay over 12 times more tax than cars. Think of the public transport bus service in your city and ask how much of its revenues go in taxes: half, in most cases. Think also that the same Tata company, that has managed to roll out the car of our dreams in record time, does not possess the capacity to build the buses cities need.

Such an old-economy approach becomes completely perverse when one considers that already today, and definitely tomorrow, the greater proportion of people who are or will commute are using and will continue to use public transport—a bus or a train. Today, as much as half of rich Delhi takes a bus, and another one-third walk or cycle because it is too poor to even take the bus.

Think again about the car inequity in India—7 per 1000 people. Can the government write off the costs—Nano style—so that all can buy the car? Can the government pay for our parking, our roads and our fuel, so that all can drive the car? If not, then is this the right right at all?

The issue, then, is not the right to own a Nano. The issue is the right to a slice of the public subsidy so that everybody has the right to mobility. There is no other right.

— Sunita Narain

Intellectuals release manifesto of change

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Kolkata-/Intellectuals-release-manifesto-of-change/articleshow/4382660.cms


KOLKATA: A section of the city intelligentsia, which turned away from CPM, post Singur and Nandigram, released a manifesto on Thursday demanding steps to ensure the election results reflect the aspirations of the people. They also want to stay away from the poll process, but want people to cast their votes without fear. The manifesto was signed by the likes of Mahasweta Devi, Bibhas Chakraborty, Suvaprasanna, Saonli Mitra, Sujato Bhadra, Kaushik Sen and Bratya Basu, among several othersEducationist Tarun Sanyal explained the reasons behind releasing the manifesto by the intellectuals. "We are not campaigning for any party. We feel the situation in Bengal is such that we cannot remain quiet," Sanyal said."Change is required for the sake of democracy. This has to be achieved through the election process. If one
party remains in power in the Centre or state for decades, it is not healthy for democracy ...If people want change, they will have to find out ways to bring it about," the manifesto reads.
The manifesto maintained that bringing about the change is a long-drawn process.

No political space outside the CPI(M)-TMC binary

A large majority of the people of Singur in no way condones the Left Front government’s recent policies of industrialisation, development and land acquisition yet they are wary of the new TMC-led panchayat in Singur.

For instance, some villagers in Dobandi, an SC village of landless farm labourers (and owing to existing caste discriminations and economic conditions this village has been the hardest hit ever since the land was taken away for the Tata project), received the rare subsidy from the government for making brick houses under the Indira Abasan Yojana (Indira Housing Scheme). Yet, this sum of about Rs. 35,000 came with several riders. Madhabi, a resident of Dobandi, says “First, we did not get this money as such. We had to go to Bulda’s shop in Beraberi where a panchayat member made us buy the construction materials.” The second rider, Madhabi says is that “the TMC-led panchayat members asked for a bribe of Rs 1,500 from each family that received this grant as it is through the panchayat that the money reached these people. The panchayat members are demanding extra money from the electorate for doing their duty. However, none of us finally paid this bribe. As a result, the panchayat members have stopped speaking to us now.” Another resident of Dobandi who had also received this grant under this housing scheme denied when we asked him about the demand for bribe but when Madhabi spoke up and said that the panchayat members had asked everyone who received the grant, for a bribe, this man also admitted to being asked for a bribe, which he didn’t pay, like the other villagers. Therefore, the electorate is being forced to shell out extra money in buying bricks and cement from a certain specified supplier who is taking full advantage of the situation by selling goods at an inflated rate. The panchayat, it seems, is getting a commission from this hardware supplier for getting an unofficial government deal.

When it comes to the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), the situation remains the same as before. The previous CPI(M) panchayat was abysmal in its record. The scheme assures every adult member of any rural household willing to do unskilled manual work one hundred days of employment in every financial year at the statutory minimum wage. However, under the CPI(M) panchayat, most villagers in Khasherbheri (another village in Singur) did not even have the NREGS job cards required to submit an application for work. When we asked villagers in Khasherberi in May 2008, one of them said “I had gone to the panchayat and submitted my application form. But I haven’t got my card as yet. When on repeatedly asking the panahcyat members, I realised I wasn’t going to get it, I asked them to return the application form so I could take it to the BDO and complain about it. But they did not return the form either.” One of the villages where most people had job cards was Dobandi. However, the people got their job cards mostly due to the efforts of Anuradha Talwar and Paschim Banga Khet Majoor Samity, an NGO rather than due to the efforts of the local panchayat members. “Didi (referring to Anuradha Talwar) helped us make our job cards. No one from the panchayat took any initiative,” confirmed Kali, a resident of Dobandi. The CPI(M) panchayat made little effort to publicise the scheme. However, on an average no one had received paid work for more than seven days in 2008. Demand for hundred days of work from the authorities had been met with the dodge that there are no work openings available. While most people had not received any work at all, those who had told yet another story – that in many cases, the amount of work they were expected to do in a day was not such that was normally humanly possible and that that inability has often translated, come pay time, to a claim that the work has not been done to requirement, and therefore is undeserving of pay and also that the worker is unskilled and hence cannot be given any further work.

Most people in Singur had wholeheartedly thrown themselves behind the TMC in the panchayat elections of 2008. The victory was seen as their victory against the oppressions of the CPI(M) government. Yet, post-elections, little changed. Even in July 2008, Sukumar Pakira, elected TMC member of the Beraberi panchayat in Singur told members of the Citizens’ Initiative “Do not incite the people about the NREGS. The NREGS is the duty of the panchayat. The panchayat is looking into this. We shall soon start work under the NREGS. Our panchayat members have not yet got down to actual business. We shall start soon.” However, even in January 2009, there was little work under the NREGS scheme being initiated by the new TMC panchayat. The latest from Dobandi, informs local resident Kali, is that “people had worked for 12 days under the NREGS in January 2009. Yet the panchayat has paid some people for 5 days, some for 7 days, the rest of the money is gone. The reason the panchayat is giving is that it was due to errors we made while filling in the job application forms and we had entered wrong bank account numbers. But what I can’t figure out is that if we had indeed provided the wrong bank account numbers, why would we be paid at all and if we are being paid, then why only for a fraction of the actual number of days that we had worked.” Neither could we at the Citizens’ Initiative figure out! Kali had more beans to spill. “They were supposed to paid us Rs. 82 per day but they have only paid us Rs. 76 per day. We wonder what happened to the other Rs. 6 per person per day.”

Villagers in Khasherbheri had finally got around to getting NREGS cards made and they had received about 18 days of work on an average under the NREGS in February 2009. They have been paid Rs.80 out of the Rs 82 per day that they are supposed to receive.

Talk turns from economic matter to the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. What do you think will happen, we ask some of the villagers in Dobandi. Will this failure to perform on the part of the TMC swing votes once again towards the CPI(M)? “No way,” says one of the residents of Dobandi, “CPI(M) did a cardinal mistake. We can never again vote for the CPI(M) but we plan to boycott the elections this time round and not vote for the TMC either.” Kali, the enigmatic youth, is more skeptical. “Just before the elections, the TMC panchayat members will make some token gestures and announce sops and everyone will again vote for the TMC,” he taunts the first speaker. “You wait and watch. We won’t be fooled that easily,” replies the first speaker gleefully.

The speaker lives in a group of concrete houses which have been built just outside one section of the boundary wall of the factory. Contrary to the claims of Ravi Kant, MD of Tata Motors, who had said that no homesteads were acquired for the Tata plant, several people had indeed been uprooted from their homes. They were then bundled up in tiny concrete houses (with abysmal living conditions such as lack of even a functioning tube well, no toilets to speak of and the monsoons submerging their houses almost up to their knees). These people were no longer being taken care of by the panchayat under which they used to belong before they had been uprooted. Now, even though they fall within the Beraberi panchayat, the Beraberi panchayat (both pre and post panchayat elections, i.e. both CPI(M) and TMC panchayats) have refused to recognise them though they fall within their jurisdiction.

Now with the Congress and the TMC joining hands, the old binary of CPI(M) and TMC is further re-inforced. The people have little choice between Scylla and Charybdis, it seems.

Meanwhile, the 997 acres cordoned off for the Tata factory hang precariously in the balance. Whereas some residents of nearby households have been taking away some of the bricks which used to line the boundary wall running around the 997 acres, the people of Dobandi were never landowners anyway, they only used to work on that land that is now no longer anyone’s, it seems. The landowners of Khasherbheri though have never really given up hope. It is perhaps difficult to break down people’s convictions and their sense of propriety which have been built not only over years but over generations. “We are still hoping that we will get the land back,” a resident of Khasherbheri had told us in September 2008. If the lands are to be returned and due compensation paid for all the days of work lost and also the time required for the land to regain fertility (as most of the local farmers have been demanding), then such steps must be taken soon before the local farmers who were dependent on the land literally die out.

(Names have been changed so as to protect identity).

Citizens’ Initiative
March 2009

Election 2009: The Singur Issue

The Statesman

Suhrid, a bother for CPM

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=22&id=250506&usrsess=1

Rajib Chatterjee
KOLKATA, April. 9: With the murder of Tapasi Malik (in picture) still fresh in the memories of the people of Singur, the CPI-M Singur zonal committee members are battling unwelcome queries that cropped up after they engaged Mr Suhrid Dutta, the prime accused in Tapasi murder case, in party's poll campaign.
Mr Dutta is leading the party's poll campaign in Singur for CPI-M contestant from Hooghly parliamentary constituency.
After Mr Suhrid Dutta, CPI-M Hooghly district committee member and prime accused in Tapasi Malik murder case, took over the charge of party's zonal committee, local Trinamul Congress leaders in Singur are wasting no time to earn sympathy votes by roping in Tapasi's parents ~ Mr Manoranjan Malik and Mrs Malina Malik in their poll campaign.
To get maximum political mileage, the Malik couple are holding rallies at various places in Singur and describing how their daughter was murdered allegedly by “henchmen hired by Mr Dutta”.
“Being a father of a martyr, I urge the people of the state to pull down Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee from his chair. He is one who backed the man who murdered my daughter. My innocent daughter was killed by Mr Dutta's henchmen for daring to oppose the CPI-M. I can never forgive him. He is roaming freely in Singur and delivering intellectual speeches. I want to see him behind bars,” Mr Malik had said in a poll campaign of Trinamul Congress at Bhadreswar a few days ago.
Mr Becharam Manna, Trinamul Congress leader and convener of the Singur Krishi Jomi raksha Committee said: “The CPI-M will realise shortly that it has made another blunder by engaging Mr Dutta in poll campaigning. People of Singur are not one with the CPI-M's decision. Local CPI-M leaders are facing unwelcome questions for using Mr Dutta in poll campaign. In election rallies, we are highlighting how the CPI-M leader had hired killers to murder Tapasi.”
“With Mr Dutta leading the party's election rallies, a section of CPI-M cadres in Singur apprehend that the existing support base of the party would be hit hard. Some senior CPI-M leaders of Singur have reportedly opposed the decision of the party to engage Mr Dutta in poll campaign. Since it was the decision of the party's state committee, local CPI-M leaders are not opening up in the public,” said a CPI-M insider.
Mr Dibakar Das, CPI-M Hooghly district committee member from Singur, however claimed: “There is no controversy within the party over the issue. People are not raising any questions because they know it very well that Mr Dutta was framed. He is neither a rapist nor a murderer.”

CPM to steer clear of Singur

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?clid=22&id=282427&usrsess=1

Pranesh Sarkar
KOLKATA, April 6: Though Singur sparked off nationwide controversy after the small car project of the Tata Motors moved out of the state owing to stiff resistance put up by the Trinamul-led Opposition over “forceful acquisition of farmland”, the CPI-M has decided not to use the issue as a major campaign tool.
The decision has come at a time when it was being predicted that the CPI-M could leave the Opposition in an uncomfortable position, especially in the urban areas, ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. It was also being assumed that the CPI-M would leave no stone unturned to “expose” the “anti-development” stand of the Opposition and Singur could be a major weapon for this.
While replying to a question posted in its election campaign website, the CPI-M leadership made it clear that it would focus on the failure of the UPA government to address the concerns of common people during its regime. This apart, the party would also focus on the threat of communal politics of the BJP and the alternative politics advocated by the CPI-M and the Left parties to address the challenges faced by the nation.
Regarding Singur, the party leadership said: “What happened in Singur can only serve to illustrate the bankruptcy of forces like the Trinamul Congress which would be referred to as and when appropriate.”
However, experts said the party has intentionally kept the issue out of campaigning agenda as it would invite fresh controversies over acquisition of farm land to set up industries which could hit its rural vote bank. It can also be recalled that the Left partners had also raised their voices against forceful acquisition of farm land in Singur. If the controversy is raised again, it won't be very comfortable for the party.
It can also be recalled that the Left partners had initially opposed inclusion of Singur and Nandigram issues in the joint appeal of the Left Front. However, the issues were later mentioned in the appeal very briefly avoiding all controversial points. However, though the party decided not to use Singur issue as a major tool in the Lok Sabha polls, it has admitted that a mistake had been committed in Nandigram. Replying to another question, the party leadership said in West Bengal, there is a constant fragmentation and division of land holdings. And as a high proportion of rural populace is dependent on agriculture along with a high proportion of landlessness, it is essential that these people find avenues for employment which could be provided by industrial development.

Nano frenzy

Hindustan Times

Singur Drove Nano away, now it wants to drive it

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?sectionName=HomePage&id=8c681ca9-2724-4676-9420-733e8a017755&ParentID=cb75331c-e5b1-463e-b92c-9a6479ae2933&Headline=Singur+drove+Nano+away%2c+now+it+wants+to+drive+it

They want to ride the Nano because they want to show to their pro-farming leaders what they have missed.

Congress worker Ranjit Chatterjee was in a hurry on Thursday. He was not in a mood to miss even a second to apply for the Nano. He went to the State Bank of India branch here early in the morning to be the first to procure the application form.

He reached even before the bank had opened.

“Nano means technological advancement. Nano means moving forward. So, I have decided to gift it to my nephew who is studying computer engineering,” said Chatterjee, expressing sorrow over the Nano project's departure from Singur.

But Arun Das, the Congress candidate from the Singur Assembly seat in the 2006 elections, was unhappy even though he managed to procure an application form. He had wanted to be the first. “I was one of the first persons to give up my land for the Nano project. Though the plant is no more in Singur, I wish to be the first person from Singur to bag the Nano,” Das told Hindustan Times after receiving his application form.

“I want to ride the car because I want to show to our pro-farming neighbours what they have missed,” Das said.

According to State Bank of India sources, 25 application forms were distributed from its Singur branch. “The response was good. We expect more applicants in the days ahead,” P.K. Chandra, branch manager, said.

However, there was not much enthusiasm among general villagers in Singur about the Nano.

Peasants, who had protested against the Tata plant in Singur and had led to the project's withdrawal from there, however, seemed unperturbed. “It means nothing for us. Are we going to eat it?” Sahadeb Das, a septuagenarian from Khaserveri village, said.

Indian Express

Many Nanos rev up to roll into Singur

http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/many-nanos-rev-up-to-roll-into-singur/445346/

The small wonder wows Kolkatans too, with huge crowds turning up to book the car

The Nano may not have rolled out from Singur, but it is certain to roll into the area in good numbers.

The response was overwhelming from the farmers and other residents of the area on Thursday, when the booking opened for Nano.

Naba Kumar Pal, who lives at Beraberi Dakshinpara in Singur, which was once the hotbed of the agitation against the land acquisition, was among the many who booked a Nano today.

According to officials of the banks collecting booking forms in Singur, there was an incredible response from people, which included the likes of Zairul Haque, who had given up his land for the Tata project.

In Kolkata too, the response was great. Twenty-one-year-old Divya Hans, a resident of Russel Street, is praying hard she is among those to get the car in the first phase of Nano allotment. Incidentally, this is going to be her first car, and her mother wants to gift the small wonder when she finishes her college.

On Thursday, Divya rushed to the nearest Tata Lexus showroom at AJC Bose Road and was busy filling up forms with her mother Seema Hans. “This is my first car. I hope I get selected in the first allotment. My mother is buying it since I will be completing my college this year. This car is good for girls as it is compact, small and looks elegant,” said the BA final-year student.

Alauddin Master, who has come all the way from Hooghly to book his Nano, is waiting to own his first-ever car at the age of 47. With his wife and daughter, Alauddin, a primary school teacher, thanks the Tatas for giving people like him a chance to own a car which is reasonably priced.

“This is the first car for me and my family. Its affordability is the main reason why I want to book it. My daughters are more excited than me. For people like us, such cars priced at such rates, are a blessing. Now I can proudly drive around in my brand new car, which I hope to get soon,” Alauddin said.

At showrooms like Tata Lexus Motors and KB Motors, the crowd said it all.

At the SBI outlets, the response was mixed with only a few centres getting drawing people in huge numbers, but officials expect it to swell from Monday. “Till 7 pm, there has been a very good response, with almost 103 bookings at our outlet alone,” said an official of the Tata Lexus showroom in the city.

For some like Poulami Majumder, the Nano booking has given her an excuse to learn to drive. Newly-wed Poulami was seen preparing to enroll herself with a driving school while her engineer husband, Mainak, was busy booking the car for his wife.

“My husband often goes on tours. He is gifting me a Nano, which I want to drive,” said Poulami, her excitement written on her face.

The Telegraph
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090402/jsp/calcutta/story_10758021.jsp

Nano champion books ‘dream’ car

MEGHDEEP BHATTACHARYYA

Mukherjee with the Nano at a city showroom. Picture by Amit Datta Palash Mukherjee, 38, had dreamt of seeing his hometown, Singur, become an icon of Bengal’s industrialisation. But the dream was dashed with the Tata pullout last year. On Wednesday, the member of the Nano Bachao Committee had to be content with becoming one of the first to book a Nano in Calcutta. Mukherjee, a small-scale trader in medicines, left his Kamarkundu home in Singur early on Wednesday and took the 8.45am Burdwan-Howrah local to reach the city at 10am. He was one of the first to queue up outside a Tata Motors showroom in south Calcutta. “I couldn’t hold back my tears when I first touched the Nano. It’s a lovely car. It’s a dream come true but the dream isn’t ours anymore,” he told Metro. “But the joy in booking my first car fades into insignificance whenever I think of the deserted Singur factory,” he added. Mukherjee’s family had willingly given up around four bighas for the project and collected a cheque for Rs 11 lakh. “I felt proud that a part of the mother plant would come up on my land. We grew a little rice on our land but were ready to forego it for the small-car project,” Mukherjee said. “My cousin and I were involved with the factory canteen and also in supplying building material to the site. Those were the happiest days of our lives,” he sighed. Then, of course, Mamata Banerjee and Krishi Jomi Jeebika Rakkha Committee happened and the dreams ended. Mukherjee is one of the founder-members of the Nano Bachao Committee — formed a day before the October 3, 2008 pullout — and is its working secretary. He was also a part of the delegation that met governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi and chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee last year to try and save the project. “I begged with the governor. I did everything possible,” he said. But Mukherjee hasn’t given up on the Tatas yet. “The situation in Singur has improved since October. Ratan Tata is socially responsible, he won’t let us down. Security can’t be the sole issue, otherwise he would’ve closed down the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai (after 26/11),” he pointed out. So why was Nano his choice for the first car? “The Singur emotion overrides everything else. Also, it’s a great car, affordable for people from the lower-middle class. I can finally discard my old motorcycle and take my family out in our own car,” he smiled. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090410/jsp/frontpage/story_10802398.jsp Queries usher in Nano bookings OUR BUREAU Shyamaprasad Aich: Revenge buy April 9: Bookings for the Nano opened today amid confusing signals from the Tatas over the conduct of the computer-generated lottery in July. The Tata Nano website put out conditions for the bookings that specifically barred multiple applications by an individual. However, Tata Motors Finance — the auto financing arm within the group — said there would be no limit on the number of bookings that an applicant could make. The Tata Motors spokesperson saw no confusion between the apparently contradictory positions. “There is no upper limit on how many applications an individual can make. But we reserve the right to weed out multiple applications,” he said, without asserting that they would do so. If Tata Motors intended to weed out multiple applications eventually, why was it permitting Tata Motors Finance to accept multiple applications in the first place? It is fairly easy to weed out applications since the bookings have to be supported by PAN card identification. “Yes, multiple applications will increase your chances of winning an allotment,” said another official. The computerised pseudo-random number generation technique will select 100,000 allottees. Even more intriguing was a proviso in the booking terms spelt out on the Nano website which said Tata Motors would have the right to sell 10 per cent of the Nano production at its discretion and outside the lottery process. The car is now being produced at the company’s Pantnagar plant, which has a capacity to produce 4,000 units a month. Tata Motors is setting up a larger production plant at Sanand in Gujarat, which will have the capacity to roll out 2.5 lakh units a year. This plant is expected to be ready by December or early 2010. But the slight confusion over the booking rules didn’t dim the excitement at Tata Motors dealerships across the metros and towns. Many were paying the full booking amount of Rs 95,000 for the base model instead of seeking financial assistance. Retired central government employee Shyamaprasad Aich from Bijoygarh arrived early at KB Motors on Ballygunge Circular Road to submit his application form. He was one of the few to make an outright payment of Rs 1,40,000 to book the top-end LX variant. “My wife died on March 27. She had wanted a Nano very badly and would have seen one in her lifetime if Mamata hadn’t forced the delay. I want to buy one to pay my respects to her. I am booking the Nano to give Mamata a fitting reply.” The Tata channel partners were resorting to a bit of hard sell to get customers to book the car. At the Westside store on Camac Street, Club West members were being given gift vouchers worth Rs 300 to cover the cost of the form. Argentinian tourist Alexandro Vincent popped into Lexus Motors on AJC Bose Road to gaze at the world’s cheapest car. Vincent was “amazed” at the build quality of the $2,000 car. Will he buy the Nano Europa back home? “I just might consider that,” he said. Lucknow was one of the centres that witnessed heavy bookings — about 7,000 on the first day. Filmmaker Muzzafar Ali, who directed the film Umrao Jaan , was among the early applicants. Dealerships in Delhi, Mumbai, Ranchi and Jamshedpur reported bookings in hundreds. Most expect bookings to surge before the window slams shut on April 25. Many customers were disappointed they couldn’t test-drive the car. “Our dealers are unable to give out the car for test drives because of the numbers,” said the Tata Motors spokesperson. Most dealers have been given just one car for display.

Artful no to anti-CPM drama group

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?clid=22&id=282324&usrsess=1

Statesman News Service
KOLKATA, April 5: A group of artistes and intellectuals belonging to the Group of Rural Alternative Movement (Gram) ~ a social organisation ~ were prevented from performing a street drama in Chanditola yesterday, allegedly by Hooghly police officers. The drama was based on the alleged CPI-M sponsored terrorism in Nandigram and Singur.
Members of the organisation having been performing street dramas in various places across the state. They also sell CDs and cassettes based on the movement in Nandigram and Singur.
“We don’t belong to any political outfit. We never urge people to vote for the Trinamul Congress or any other political party. We were only highlighting the plight of the people of Nandigram and Singur. When we were performing the drama at Nababpur near Chanditola yesterday afternoon, a police team arrived and prevented us from performing. Police said that a complaint against us was lodged by a political outfit for disturbing the peace in the area. We were not allowed to perform the drama,” said Mr Manik Mondal, a member of the organisation.
"In protest against the incident, we went to Serampore police station today to lodge a complaint. But policemen didn't register our grievance. Ultimately, we submitted the complaint to the SDPO of Serampore. Eminent intellectuals and litterateurs will issue a statement shortly, protesting against the incident," Mr Mondal continued.
He further alleged that the artists have been facing resistance from CPI-M cadres while performing street drama. “We faced tough resistance in Asansol and Barasat a few days ago, while performing a street drama on the Nandigram carnage,” Mr Mondal said.

Have Nano, will travel

Have Nano, will travel

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?clid=4&id=282245&usrsess=1

The statements by three protagonists of the Left Front government’s industrialisation overdrive during the past three weeks tend to confirm the suspicion that there are wheels within wheels in the Tata Motors’ small car project at Singur that ended in a fiasco. It was believed that a full stop had been put to the venture after it was shifted to Sanand in Gujarat, but it seems the murky automobile saga is not yet over.
First, let’s examine how the three ~ chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, industries minister Nirupam Sen and principal industries secretary Sabyasachi Sen ~ by their statements sought to create an impression that they were talking at cross-purposes. But the way things unfolded during the past few days it became clear that the three were working to a meticulous plan.
It was Mr Bhattacharjee who, rounding up the debate on the Governor’s address for the Budget session, told the state Assembly that no part of the acquired land at Singur would be returned to the farmers as was being demanded by the Trinamul-led Opposition. He asserted that he couldn’t just betray the farmers of Singur by not setting up industries on the land acquired from them. He announced that the process of setting up industries on the land had started and it was likely to be completed in about a year.
The state government, he clarified, would, during this period, go through the motions of getting the land back from the Tatas who were given it on lease, while the Tatas wold move away whatever equipment they had installed there. In other words, the chief minister told the Assembly that the Tata episode at Singur was over for good.
Then came the dramatic launch of the “wonder car”, Nano, in Mumabi. Within minutes, the state industries minister called a Press conference to bemoan the loss of the Nano project. He squarely blamed the Trinamul and its allies for having brought this “misfortune” to the people of West Bengal, and asked why the LF government was accused of not being transparent in its deal with the Tatas.
He even asked “intellectuals” and social activists, who had put the state government in the dock for the deal why they were not seeking information under the Right to Information Act on the Gujarat government’s deal with the Tatas for the relocated project at Sanand.
The fact is, it was the LF government which had blocked every attempt to seek information on its deal under the RTI Act.
Nano has been turned into a major election plank for the LF with which it castigates the Trinamul Congress. The abortive venture is being projected by the LF as an example of Trinamul’s anti-development and anti-people politics. Hence, the launchng of Nano gave the LF’s Lok Sabha poll campaign the much needed extra firepower to slam Trinamul.
When one thought the remarks of the chief minister and the industries minister were merely part of poll rhetoric and a desperate attempt to turn public opinion against the Trinamul, which had already reaped huge political dividends from the Singur and Nandigram turmoil, the principal industries secretary used the safety and distance of Kuala Lumpur to announce that the Tatas are to stay at Singur and that West Bengal would be the second assembly line of Nano if only the state had been denied the pride of place of being the first stable of the small car.
For the first time, the principal industries secretary disclosed that Tata Motors had plans to produce Nano from four factories in the country. All along it had been bruited about that not an inch of the 997 acres could be returned to the agitating farmers as the project area had been conceived to be large enough to accommodate a whole automobile cluster so that Nano could be made available at the unbelievably cheap price of Rs 1 lakh.
The principal industries secretary had once even sounded grateful to the Tatas for their “sacrifice” of Rs 16,000 for each car they would produce as they would have got this money by way of sales tax exemption had they set up shop in Uttaranchal!
All these reveal that the Tatas must be regretting their decision to move out of Singur. This implies the undisclosed benefits that they were offered by the state government were too great to be thrown away. The Marxists lent their voice to Tata Motors’ inflexible demand for the entire 997 acres at Singur because conceding Trinamul’s demand for return of 400 acres would have been too big a political price for them.
Now, perhaps business is trying to get the better of politics.
Trinamul would let the Singur small car project be revived only if it comes up on 600 acres and the rest of the land is returned to the unwilling farmers from whom it had been forcibly acquired. This has been their stand from the beginning.
If the Marxists accept this stand and hope to make whatever political gain is possible from the actual production of cars in the state, Singur can be the second address of Nano as wished by the principal industries secretary.