The ruling party in West Bengal plans to not forcibly acquire land

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090525/jsp/frontpage/story_11017039.jsp

Land impact on CM’s lips Party dissects local factors

BISWAJIT ROY

Bhattacharjee at the CPM state committee meeting on Sunday. Picture by Amit Dutta Calcutta, May 24: Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today virtually admitted that discontent related to land played a crucial role in the Left parties’ poll debacle and made it clear land acquisition would be put on the backburner for the remaining two years of his term, sources said. The chief minister’s specific observations before the CPM state committee did not find mention in the official party release which sought to strike a balance between both national and local reasons — the subject of a raging debate — behind the drubbing. “It is true that the all-India voting trend has also influenced the outcome in Bengal. Having said that, we can’t ignore our shortcomings in the functioning of the government, the party, the Left Front, panchayats, municipalities and our mass organisation as well as in public relations. Accepting the people’s mandate, we will take corrective measures,’’ the statement said, without making a direct reference to the land controversy. However, sources told The Telegraph that several members raised the issue at the meeting, following which the chief minister responded. The sources said Bhattacharjee did not delve into the national issues as they were highlighted in an initial note distributed by state party secretary Biman Bose. Bhattacharjee “accepted the criticism” against the state government and said that henceforth, he would proceed by “accepting the people’s mandate”. “The chief minister made it clear that he would abide by the people’s verdict which had gone against us on the land issue. From now on, he will take a flexible and cautious approach in pursuing the government’s development goals, particularly those involving land acquisition. No major land acquisition will be carried out if the local people do not want it,” a committee member said. Bhattacharjee also stressed on what some members called a “course correction”. He spoke of “time-bound implementation” of rural development projects, including job-generating schemes, rural electrification, public health and education packages to win back voters who had deserted the Left, the sources said. Bhattacharjee admitted that the government’s style of functioning has to change to make it more accountable to “poor people”. He said the cabinet core committee would meet on May 28 to set guidelines to implement the government’s priorities. The state committee did touch upon the issues raised by the politburo last week — such as the failure of the third front and the voters’ perception that the Congress could provide stability. Although the pro-Prakash Karat faction in the politburo had insisted that the withdrawal of support to the UPA and the vote against its government were ratified by the politburo and central committee “unanimously”, it was clear that the Bengal leadership wanted to debate both issues. However, in line with its composition, the state committee utilised most of the latter half of the session to discuss local factors — the first time a party forum attempted to dissect such issues after the results were announced. The criticism against the state party and the government largely revolved around disenchantment among the rural poor, which was blamed on the land acquisition programme. A committee member said the state government’s “hasty” and “forcible” land acquisition and subsequent violence in Singur and Nandigram had alienated farmers. Some leaders carried to the meeting the public criticism of the central leadership’s decision to withdraw support to the UPA — articulating the deep divisions within the CPM — but others did not spare the local leadership either. “The state leadership is trying to absolve itself of responsibility. They must answer why the so-called Congress wave stopped at the border of Bihar and Orissa,” a veteran member said This section pointed out that the urban middle class, both Bengali and non-Bengali, did not come out overwhelmingly in support of the Left Front, belying the party’s hope to cushion the loss elsewhere. Today’s meeting did not settle the question which factor was decisive in the poll debacle. The committee will wait for feedback from booth-level campaign committees as well as district committees before meeting again on June 11 and 12 for a “full-fledged review”.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090525/jsp/bengal/story_11016767.jsp

Copycat land protest by CPM

ABHIJEET CHATTERJEE

Durgapur, May 24: A poll-stung CPM has taken a leaf out of the Trinamul Congress’s book and forced work to stop at a state government coal-mining project, demanding better compensation for landlosers. Some 1,000 villagers alle- gedly led by local CPM leaders stoned workers at the open- cast mine project in Bankura’s Borjora on Friday, demanding jobs for landloser families and cash for their farm labourers. One worker was injured. Trinamul had earlier objected to the project with similar demands but with the CPM then in favour, 105 acres of the required 750 acres were acquired in 2007 and digging started last October. Now CPM opposition has halted the project with 25 per cent of the work already done. “We have stopped work since our workers are feeling insecure after the stone-throwing,” said P.P. Mishra, an official of Trans Damodar Coal Mining Project, a private firm hired by the government. Aloke Mukherjee, Trinamul leader and Borjora gram panchayat chief, said: “The CPM is trying to hijack our agitation. We were agitating from the outset; now the CPM has placed the same demands. They are trying to copy us to improve their image.” One perceived reason for the CPM’s poll debacle was its post-Nandigram image of land-grabber. The party is now desperate to acquire a “farmer-friendly” face. The secretary of the CPM’s Borjora zonal committee, Tarun Raj, denied forcing the project to stop. “We submitted our charter of demands; we don’t know about Trinamul’s demands,” he said. Bankura district magis-trate Sundar Majumder said: “The ADM will hold a meeting with the parties and project authorities in a day or two.” The project was conceived after the state government appealed to Coal India in 2004 to mine coal in Bengal so that the steel and sponge-iron plants in Burdwan, Bankura, Purulia and West Midnapore had uninterrupted coal supply. Most of the land in Borjora is multi-crop, and the government offered Rs 4 lakh to Rs 6.4 lakh an acre. The compensation package included jobs for those losing two acres or more, 3.5 cottahs of developed residential plot against loss of a house, and 25 per cent of the land price to the sharecroppers.

Understanding the Nano: small car, big responsibilities

Dr Dipankar Dey, associate dean. ICFAI Business School, wrote this piece for sanhati.com, a shorter version appeared in Hong Kong-based online daily www.asiasentinel.com. Here is the Sanhati piece.



Understanding the Nano: small car, big responsibilities

By Dipankar Dey (http://sanhati.com/articles/1484/)

On 23rd March 2009, Tata Motors Company (TMC) launched its much publicized small car Nano in Mumbai. As the Sanand plant at Gujarat is at its inception now, a makeshift arrangement has been made to produce 50,000 units at their Pantnagar plant. Limited numbers of prospective buyers will receive their cars after three months, in June 2009. It is reported that the basic model priced at Rs one lakh ($2500, ex-factory without transportation cost) without air conditioning will contribute only 20 per cent of the Nano sales and rest 80 per cent will be contributed by the premium models priced at around Rs 1.6 lakh.
The TMC's strategy on the Nano draws a striking similarity with the General Motors (the US auto major currently struggling for its survival) global production strategy in the late 1980s that was based on simple and flexible manufacturing plants; global sourcing of automobile parts; rapid introduction of new models; and a lean dealer network. This strategy had shown success in Europe and it was introduced in Brazil in the early 1990s, with a goal of applying it in Asia, Eastern Europe and ultimately in the United States. Later Ford and other major automobile companies also followed the same model.

In 1997 GM made the Blue Macaw Project the centipede of its Brazilian strategy. GM chose the state of Rio Grande do Sul as the site. The project revolved around a new automobile assembly plant with an annual capacity of 150,000. The plant produced a stripped-down version of the Opel Corsa, a subcompact car, with an under $10,000 price tag. Among the advantages of locating in Rio Grande do Sul were geographical proximity to the Southern cones major markets in southern Brazil, the Buenos Aires region of Argentina and Uruguay. In return for agreeing to build the $600 million plant in a lightly industrialized area, GM received a package of subsidies from the state government of Rio Grande do Sul.

The subsidies amounted reportedly to $250 million, and the tax breaks appeared to have the potential to equal $1.5 billion over a 15-year period. GM executives maintained that in the absence of these subsidies, the firm would have located the plant in a more developed part of Brazil. In 2000, the GM plant employed 1,300 workers, and locally based suppliers employed another 1,300 workers. The plant housed 20 suppliers, the most important of which were US, French and Japanese companies. GM outsourced all components except power trains, body welding, body panels, paint, and final assembly.
Similar activities were planned in the TMC's mother plant at Singur.. The main thrusts were on body welding, body panels, paint, and final assembly. Major components were to be supplied by other ancillary companies.

\In May 2006, Tata Motors had announced its decision to start an automobile factory at Singur (West Bengal) to roll out the world's cheapest car Nano. The launch of the car in Mumbai in March 2009 was an important phase in the automobile history of the world. This brief history of Nano has taught us how a large corporate house could (i) use, to its advantage, the unhealthy competition among different states to attract large capital; (ii) effectively use parliamentary politics as a business strategy to convert an internal crisis into an advantage. Politics has played an equally important role, if not more than business economics, in shaping the future of Nano.

The supportive role of the State in the expansion of large capital is a controversial and much discussed topic. This symbiotic relationship between the state and large capital had worked successfully throughout the 19th and most decades of the 20th century. In India, the Tatas did not rely much on the nascent State. They constructed their own power plants to supply electricity to their factories, managed schools, research centers, municipalities etc. To ensure steady supply of management staff, they created Tata Administrative Service (TAS) in line with the Indian Administrative Service.

Till the early 1980s, the government role was considered as regulator only. One of the major changes that Mr Ratan Tata brought about in the Tata House after he succeeded JRD Tata in the mid 1980s was the group's attitude towards government. In the changed situation, the Tatas decided to involve the government as their business partner. The group's involvement in the Karnal refinery project with Indian Oil Corporation (which did not take off), Ratan Tata's acceptance of the Chairmanship of Air India and his close advisory relationship with Rajiv Gandhi could be cited as indications of change in attitude towards the government.

The relationship between the state and the group improved over the years and during last two decades; the Tatas have succeeded in extracting substantial benefits from the state. Allocation of vast agricultural lands by various state governments to the Tata companies, say for shrimp cultivation at Chilka (1991); steel plants at Gopalpur on Sea (1995) and Kalinga Nagar (2004); automobile plants at Singur (2006) and Sanand (2008), are few such examples. There was resistance against all the above projects; many protesters were killed and none of the projects have been put into operation till date. But except in Chilka, the Tatas have not returned a single acre of land to the government/cultivators. With the passage of time, when the protest movements dwindled, the Tatas increased their grip (as seen in Gopalpur) on the land.

Singur is not an exception to this trend. Though Tata Motors has abandoned the Singur project in October 2008, till date it has not retuned the land to the farmers. Instead, recently it expressed its willingness to renew the lease agreement for another year. The Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee's reported comment in an election rally on 11 April (ABP, April 12, 2009), expressing his desire to return to Singur to build the Nano factory adds to the speculation that the Tata's decision to abandon the project midway was nothing but a well planned strategic retreat. They will return back to Singur at the most appropriate time.

The decision to abandon the Singur project has benefited both Tata Motors and the ruling Left Front government of West Bengal. It was a win-win situation for both the parties. In a twosome game, no one recognizes the third or fourth parties which remain beyond the fence, as silent spectators. However, in Singur, the third and the fourth parties namely local peasants and civil society organizations did not remain quiet. They have made their voices heard across the country.

Gains for Tata Motors:
The most crucial gain for TMC was to get five extra months between November 2008, when the launch was initially scheduled, and March 2009, when Nano was actually launched. These additional five months have benefited the company in two ways.

First, the production cost could be reduced. Now, the cost of production is much less compared to last year. Since January 2008, the prices of two major inputs namely cold rolled steel and rubber have decreased by 28 p.c. and 19 p.c. In addition to this, the government has slashed the excise duty from 16 p.c. to 8 p.c.. Moreover the price of crude oil has also decreased by over 51 p.c. in the said period.

Second, TMC has an opportunity to mobilize funds, at a negligible cost, by asking the prospective buyers of Nano to place deposits in advance. This has been made possible at a time when the company has been facing severe financial crisis. The Economist (March 26, 2009), has estimated that prospective Nano customers are expected to place deposits worth up to $1 billion with Tata Motors at the time of placing order for the car. The company will retain that amount, without paying any interest, for at least three months before the first phase allocation of limited numbers of cars are complete. And those willing to be considered for the second batch will be paid interest, below the market rate, after one year. Had TMCs launched Nano, as scheduled before, in the month of November 2008 at a time when the economy was worst hit, the Tatas could not have been successful in mobilizing such a huge sum of money at a negligible cost.

By July-August last year, Tata management could realise that the impact of the global recession would be severe. It may be recalled that the crude price per barrel went up to $147 in July 2008.Certainly that was not a conducive situation to launch a motor car targeting price sensitive middle-class clients. They were just looking for an excuse to delay the project and buy some time- till the economy showed some signs of recovery.

Like other steel and automobile companies across the world, the Tata companies have also been affected adversely by the super recession the global economy had been passing through for the past one year. For them, the problem got more harsh due to some expensive acquisitions in the overseas market. After the takeover of European steel major Chorus by Tata Steel, Tata Motors acquired the British auto firm Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) in June 2008, paying a hefty sum of $2.3 billion. Since then, sales has fallen 22 p.c. production has been slashed by 60 p.c. 1800 jobs have been cut and Tata Motors have pumped in $1.2 billion of working capital into JLR. As the condition did not improve, in March the company has approached the British government for a loan guarantee of $730 million. Added to this, back home, the sales of the Tata Motors heavy vehicles have fallen by 60 p.c. (may be to utilize the excess capacity, Nano is being assembled in their Pantnagar
plant).

All these factors have put the company into a severe crisis and their credit rating in March 2009 has fallen to B3 from B1. Moreover, for the first time in recent past, Tata Motors incurred a loss of $54 million (approximately Rs 270 crore) in the quarter ending in December 2008. It has been reported that this year Tata Motors faces a funding gap of at least $3.4 billion. Out of this, $2 billion has to be repaid by June 2009. During such a financial crisis, Nano has emerged as a savior.

Decision to abandon the Singur project has helped TMC extract huge concessions from the Gujarat government also. To understand the strategic move of the company, we shall have to reexamine closely some of the major political events those occurred immediately before the move. The official Left had withdrawn support from the UPA government in the center; signs of a prolonged global recession were getting prominent in every passing day and in West Bengal, the LF government, the main sponsor of the project was under severe political pressure due to pathetic performance in every aspects- political, economic and social. Civil society organizations were on the street seeking justice against atrocities of the ruling party. Competent managers of Tata Motors, through their accurate assessment of political environment and timely intervention had turned a threat into a huge advantage. Under the changed situation, keeping in mind the future plan of their dream car, they realised that Gujarat could be the only other state which could be made to compete against West Bengal. The Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi was contacted secretly and he fell victim to the ploy immediately. Thus, Tatas succeeded in extracting huge concessions from the Gujarat government also. Probably the benefits were much higher than the prohibitively large concessions, details of which are yet to be revealed, they had obtained from the West Bengal government.

This strategy to extract maximum benefit from the competing states was not new. As observed elsewhere above in this article, in the 1990s, the US auto giants General Motors and Ford had successfully implemented this strategy to obtain maximum concessions from the provincial governments of Brazil. Analyzing the impact of such investments on local economy, G.H Hanson (2001) in his paper, Should Countries Promote Foreign Direct Investment?, had raised a very important question. He asked, if it was true that the benefits of FDI for host countries were insufficient to justify FDI promotion policies, then why did host-country governments continued to offer multinationals special treatment? According to him, there were two main reasons. One, the governments felt compelled to offer concessions given that multinationals subjected their location decisions to bidding by potential host-country governments. Second, promoting such investment, served the interests of host-country politicians. Attracting multinationals either had benefited specific constituencies, from whom politicians derived support, or fitted into the political strategies of empire-building.

The second reason cited in Hanson's analysis aptly explains the political motives of the government of West Bengal and Gujarat in siding with the Tatas in this controversial project. Tata Motors have understood accurately the political interests and compulsions of the state governments. They simply exploited such weakness to their advantage. In 2006 also they successfully implemented the same strategy before selecting the Singur site. At that time, they projected Uttaranchal as another likely contender for the Nano project. The West Bengal government out of desperation, walked into that trap and ended up offering huge economic concessions to the company.

The political compulsion of the LF government becomes more clear when one analyzes the state government's enthusiasm to attract large business houses, including foreign firms, to the state in which over 55,000 small and medium firms have been closed during last three decades. Contrary to the general expectation that the LF government would extend all kind of support to the small and medium entrepreneurs of the state, in reality, they did the reverse. The political logic is obvious. Financially strong local entrepreneurs would aspire for political power which the ruling parties in West Bengal are not willing to share with . As entrepreneurs from other states/overseas countries would remain focussed on business activities only, political risk is much lower in such cases. Maybe, due to same political reason, the number of local entrepreneurs in China is very limited. Foreign capital and transnational corporations are welcome there.

The low price of the car and its unique production strategy that was based on simple and flexible manufacturing plants; global sourcing of automobile parts and rapid introduction of new models have compelled the management to follow an innovative promotional strategy to establish the Nano brand within a very short time , across the country, at a limited budget. Seven months delay in the launch of the car and the associated controversy the project has generated due to the abandonment of the Singur plant, has helped Tata Motors achieve that objective. The production model remains an area of concern for them. Tata motors dream car has a striking similarity with another product, the IBM PC, launched by IBM in 1981. Except for its name, IBM had contributed nothing in that product which had brought in a revolutionary change in the economic and social activities across the world. In that PC, all critical components were supplied by other companies like Microsoft, Intel and Seagate . But clone makers realised trick quickly. They purchased the critical components from the original suppliers, assembled the same as per the standard set by IBM and flooded the market with low priced IBM Compatible PCs. Thus IBM failed to retain its control on the PC market.

Most of the critical components of Nano will be supplied by other companies.. For example, BOSCH will supply the engine, alternators, brakes etc. LUCAS-TVS;TACO;RICO;Sundaram Clayton;Rasandik et al will provide various other critical components.(Hindu Business Line March 23,2009). In future any expert mechanic may assemble a Nano Compatible small car procuring the critical components from the market.

Apprehending this, Tata Motors has reportedly applied for patent protection for over 37 inventions and innovations linked to its Nano. Industry watchers have interpreted this as an aggressive move to protect the low-cost car against imitation.4 But mere patent protection may not be sufficient to stop imitation at the local level. So the Tatas have opted for an aggressive strategy and tied up with 15 national banks to market their dream car. And to establish the brand with a limited budget, from day one they have consciously relied more on fuelling controversies than spending millions of rupees on advertisements. During last one year, the attention Nano has received from the press and political parties was unbelievable. Thousands of tons of news prints and hundreds of hours of prime television and radio time in all the national and regional languages have been used for Nano related news and stories. The more the controversies, the more the mileage for the Nano brand. The timing of the launch on 23 March, just before the election, was also meticulously thought of. Nano has emerged as a major election issue in Gujarat and West Bengal- more in case of the latter. The sarcastic remarks by Mr Ratan Tata, an urbane gentleman , during the launching ceremony of Nano should be analysed as an tactical move to fuel and sustain the Nano controversy.

Gains for the ruling left front The ruling LF has made Nano as one of its main election issues. As it has no other catchy issue to sell , Nano is eloquently in use in election speeches, slogans, posters ; graffitis et al. All its major failures during the last three decades- be it health care; education; industrialization or agriculture- have become secondary. The opposition political parties , to be precise, the leader of the opposition Ms Mamata Banerjee has been made the scapegoat for all the failures of the government and she has been identified as the main culprit for the non fulfillment of the Chief Minister's dream project at Singur. To exploit the general weakness of Bengali middle class towards the losers ( a la Debdas), Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is being projected as a "tragic hero“ a victim of grand conspiracy . How far this strategy would be successful is not known but Nano and Singur, rather abandonment of Singur by Nano, has given some talking points for the ruling parties to speak in the election rallies.

Future of Singur Plant

Most probably, Tata Motors will be back to Singur. It was abandoned only to be back again. If the LF emerges politically stronger after the election, it will return early and will insist on granting SEZ status to the project. If the election result indicates Mamata Banerjee coming to power in the next assembly election scheduled within a year, Tata Motors will agree to restrict the plant size to 600 acres. Rest 400 acres will be returned to the farmers. It should be remembered that Nano's next destination is Europe and then to Southeast Asia via Thailand. In it's expansion plan Singur has an important role to play.

While Ratan Tata is banking on his dream car to bail out Tata Motors from an unprecedented financial crisis, The WB CM is also relying heavily on his unfulfilled ˜dream project" at Singur to sail through the political challenges his government is facing at present. It seems that the small Nano is overloaded with large responsibilities. Will it be able to bear the load?

Lok Sabha elections 2009

http://picasaweb.google.com/insypoo/GeneralElections2009KolkataCampaign Modes of industrialisation -- the main issue on which the elections were fought in West Bengal (more specifically in Kolkata) http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090517/jsp/bengal/story_10980294.jsp Revenge complete, cry for peace and lost land

OUR BUREAU

Sayra Biwi (centre) on Saturday. Picture by Pradip Sanyal Nandigram/Singur, May 16: Left a widow by “CPM goons”, Sayra Biwi will whisper a few words of thanks when she kneels down to pray tonight. “My revenge is complete,” said the 33-year-old, a mother of four, as news of Trinamul Congress candidate Subhendu Adhikary’s victory over the CPM’s Lakshman Seth in Tamluk reached Nandigram’s Bainchabari village. “Now we can hope there will be peace here after all.” Sayra’s husband had been killed during the CPM’s “recapture” of Nandigram in November 2007. Today, she played with abir outside her home. “I have been left to bring up my four children on my own, but at least the CPM goons who killed my husband have been defeated,” she said. “When I pray today, I will thank the Almighty for all that He has done for us.” If Nandigram, in East Midnapore, celebrated, so did villages in Singur, where the land war began. But unlike in Singur, part of the Hooghly Lok Sabha seat that Trinamul’s Ratna Dey Nag won and where many hope that their land will now be returned, all that the villagers in Nandigram want is peace. Nearly 1,000 pro-Trinamul villagers, who fled CPM strongholds and took shelter in Maheshpur High School after being terrorised by party workers for “daring” to vote, want to return to their homes. “We expect Trinamul will ensure peace so that we don’t have to flee our homes any longer,” said Sheikh Saidul Ali, 23, a farm labourer from Satengabari. Ali had left home on May 8 morning with wife Jahanara and one-year-old son. It was the third time he had to flee since the Red Army’s November 2007 assault. “I feel happy that the party that stood by us during our agitation against land acquisition has won,” said Abhijit Samanta, 32, who was injured in the March 2007 police firing. “To start with, it can bring peace in Nandigram.” Trinamul’s victory also meant a change in menu for those stranded in the refugee camp at Maheshpur. “For the past eight days we have been living on rice, pumpkin curry and dal. Today, for the first time, we were served rohu fish for lunch. Trinamul leaders came and distributed sweets,” said Sheikh Aksar Ali, 35, who lives in Ranichak. In Singur, Trinamul supporters burst crackers as victory processions wound their way through Beraberi, Ghoshpara, Sahanapara, Saterbheri and Bajemelia. But for the villagers, uppermost on their mind was the return of the land taken over for the Tata Motors project. “We want our land back,” said one as others nodded. “We want our new MP to ensure that,” said Paramita Das, 43, a housewife in Beraberi whose four-bigha land had been acquired. “We are farmers,” said Haripada Das, 65, another landloser. “We feel helpless without our land. We don’t need factories in Singur.” http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090517/jsp/nation/story_10969760.jsp Nano too small to provide shelter to comrades MEGHDEEP BHATTACHARYYA Another defeat Calcutta, May 16: The Nano lost its second battle today. In October, the Left-led government failed to keep the people’s car project in Bengal. Today, the Left parties failed to rid e it to win urban votes against Mamata Banerjee. In its worst poll performance in over three decades, the Left lost all the six parliamentary constituencies — Calcutta South, Calcutta North, Jadavpur, Dum Dum, Barasat and Howrah — in which its main poll plank was Mamata’s anti-industry image. To counter the Trinamul Congress chief’s Maa, Maati, Maanush chant, the Left had drawn up a poll campaign with the exit of the Nano as one of the central themes. By pitching the world’s cheapest car against Mamata’s giant cut-outs, CPM strategists tried to woo urban vot ers by blaming Mamata for the shift of the Tata Motor’s small car plant from Singur to Sanand in Gujarat. But the strategy of holding Mamata responsible for Bengal’s failure in becoming Detroit did not pay off and left the CPM wondering what went wrong. “In the past few years, the party was getting more acceptable among the urban voters and that got reflected even during the Calcutta Municipal Corporation p olls…. So, we did not expect such a rout in the city and its suburbs,” a senior CPM leader said. Among the six constituencies in and around the city, Calcutta North consists entirely of urban voters while more than 90 per cent of Calcutta South is urban. “Pro-industry stance of a party is expected to woo a majority of urban voters who depend on industry and service sectors for their livelihood. But it seems that hasn’t worked this time and that comes as a surprise,” said a professor of economics at St Xavier’s College. A case in point is Calcutta South from where Mamata won by a margin of 2,19,571 votes by bagging 57.19 per cent votes. Despite the predominantly urban character of all the seven Assembly segments — Kasba, Behala East, Behala West, Calcutta Port, Bhowanipore, Rashbehari and Ballygunge — she got more than 51 per cent votes in each of them. Trinamul’s Sudip Bandyopadhyay also got more than 51 per cent votes in all the seven Assembly segments in Calcutta North — Chowringhee, Entally, Beleghata, Jorasanko, Shyampukur, Manicktala and Kashipur-Belgachhia. The CPM’s Sujan Chakraborty lost to Trinamul’s Kabir Suman by 56,706 votes in Jadavpur constituency by upsetting all party calculations. Though the CPM had expected that the Jadavpur Assembly segment would give Sujan a decisive lead, the poll outcome told a different story. In 2004, Sujan got a lead of over 23,000 votes from this Assembly segment, which came down to around 19,000 this time. “There hasn’t been any split in Opposition votes this time and there has been a nation-wide sweep in favour of the Congress. But it is clear that issues like the exit of the Nano has failed to create much impact among the urban voters,” a senior CPM leader said. Sanjukta Ganguly, a first-time voter in Barasat constituency, tried to explain why the Nano issue failed to prevail over Maa, Mati, Manush. The dentist said she the exit of Tata Motors from Singur had upset her but she did not consider the pullout while casting her vote. “A project’s relocation cannot be a poll issue. Mamata has been successful in projecting herself as a leader who stands by the people and that’s why her party has done well,” she said. The Left’s failure to solve the unemployment problem was a much more important issue. The Left’s role as an ally of the UPA for over four years also cost it dearly in the urban constituencies which supported Mamata’s change chant and gave her a thumping victory. “The only high point for them was pulling out of the government on the nuclear deal issue… Instead of supporting the government from outside and creating trouble on major policy issues, they should have joined the government and done something for the people of the state,” said Deep Banerjee, a techie in his early thirties. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Mamata-Banerjee-Riding-in-on-peoples-car/articleshow/4541432.cms Mamata Banerjee: Riding in on people's car KOLKATA: Cheap cotton saree wrapped clumsily, chappals flapping, hysterical pitch, and eyes smouldering in chronic rage, Mamata Banerjee punches above her weight. She has finally kayoed the Mighty Marxists. She had joined battle as a mauled David. Her Trinamool party's Lok Sabha tally was down to just one, and her Assembly strength stripped to a mere 35, Didi had nothing to lose. She played the wild card -a high-stakes gamble on Singur and Nandigram -and won. Having arm-twisted the CPM into offering a compromise in Singur, she had with typical cussedness stonewalled the gesture.But she refused to blink despite the charges of her sabotaging West Bengal's big chance of industrial salvation. She had shrewdly read the public's anti-Left mood. She went for the jugular. A high-pitched, no-compromise posture on Singur might have put off urban voters, but Mamata knew that, outside city limits, politics was bare-knuckled. She whipped the land-acquisition fear into a frenzy. It was a primeval insecurity guaranteed to make every farmer rise in revolt. She may have driven away the people's car, but she has roared up in style. She carefully kept up her homespun image, refusing to move out of her single-storey, ramshackle Kalighat house. Losses haven't tamed her aggression, or her unpredictability. Instead it has reaffirmed her mantra: if you get an inch, make sure you grab a foot. Mamata has finally humbled the Left Front. She doesn't botch it up, she could well be the rallying point of all those wanting to bring down Bengal's Red fortress. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Trinamool-paints-Kolkata-green/articleshow/4541302.cms Trinamool paints city green 17 May 2009, 0528 hrs IST, Prasenjit Mund & Sumati Yengkhom, TNN It was noon, and abir seller Sreeram Shaw was quietly putting away the red stock under the cart. There was just a mound of green abir on display, which he topped up with another sackful and carefully smoothed it into a peak. “No one will buy red today. None has since morning. The green one was selling well and now more and more people are asking for it,” said the youngster. Beside him, another youth put up his cart on Free School Street. Mantu Shaw had come in late - after seeing the Lok Sabha trends on TV — and he did not bother to bring any red abir. “Bhalo korechis. Lal cholchhe na. Green heavy bikri (Good thing you didn’t bring red. It’s not selling. Green is going great),” Sreeram told him. “This is what they call change, isn’t it,” Mantu replied. On Judgment Day, it seemed Holi had visited Kolkata a second time. But there was just one colour to be seen in the city — Trinamool Congress’ green, from north to south. Mamata Banerjee’s foot soldiers went out colouring everyone green, whether they liked it or not, including Canadian tourists Doug and Toby on Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Road. The duo, volunteers for Missionaries of Charity, looked bemused. “Elections back home are not this much fun,” said Doug. “We were not there for Holi, but now we know what it’s like.” In Kolkata North’s Rajabazar, where CPM’s Md Salim was supposed to be the be-all and end-all, hundreds of Trinamool supporters ruled the streets on bikes. A bunch of them blocked APC Road, zeroed in on a truck and commandeered it. “Gadi ho gaya,” one of them shouted and about 50 of them piled into the back. Green abir was smeared on the bewildered driver and he was made to turn around and drive away for “celebrations”. “We were angry with Md Salim, and we showed him that,” one of them shouted. A loud cheer went up. A group of glum-looking men stood on the other side of the road, with a dazed look. On CIT Road, the north-south divide seemed to have melted. One flank of the road falls in Kolkata North constituency, the other in Kolkata South. In 2004, one side was red — thanks to Md Salim’s landslide win — and the other green, after Mamata’s fourth consecutive victory. Cut to 2009, and there is only the whiff of Trinamool’s ‘joda phool’ on either side. On Anwar Shah Road in Kolkata South, a giant cutout of Mamata wore a fresh garland while a bunch of 20-or so supporters danced under it. They grabbed hold of a CPM supporter - a neighbour in the para - and dumped fistfuls of abir on him. “Why me...,” the CPM man complained. “Ekhon Aamra-i shob (now we are supreme),” the crowd replied. At Hazra crossing - Mamata’s stronghold - Trinamool supporters sped around whooping and honking, three or four to a bike. In North Kolkata, CPM workers quietly made way for a boisterous Trinamool procession past CPM leader Sudhangsu Seal’s house. “The Left’s young electorate has diminished and its impact is clear today,” muttered cadre Anil Das. At Jadavpur University, M Tech hopefuls Appayan De and Jaideep Dutta were discussing the poll results. “We guess the Congress-Trinamool alliance worked. People wanted to see a Congress government at the Centre and Mamata Banerjee as a minister again. They don’t want the Left complicating things,” De said. The feeling was echoed by a bunch of Trinamool supporters in Ranikuthi. “The mahajot (alliance) played a crucial role. People wanted a Congress-led secular government, without the Left trying to trip it at every hurdle. Remember, Mamata was excellent during her terms as central minister, especially when she had the railway portfolio,” said Bijoy Halder. “Assembly chalo is our next cry. We have won the semi-finals. The finals will be held sooner than you think,” said Barun De Mitra, a counting agent for Mamata. At a tea shop, some 20 feet away, sat a group of glum looking CPM men, with multicoloured hair. They had started the day with red abir - until someone dunked a bucket of green abir on their heads. “Dhele diechhe (they have poured it on),” said one of them. (Inputs from Devjyot Ghoshal & Arpit Basu) Sangbad Pratidin

Mamata threatens to resume land fight

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090512/jsp/bengal/story_10951932.jsp

Mamata threatens to resume land fight

OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Over, finally: Mamata at her last rally for this election in Kasba on Monday. (Pabitra Das) Calcutta, May 11: Mamata Banerjee threatened to launch a fresh agitation in Singur after the polls demanding return of the land that she claimed was forcibly acquired, on a day the chief minister sought her apology for the flight of the Nano project from Bengal. “We shall start a movement after the polls demanding that the land forcibly acquired in Singur be returned to farmers,” the Trinamul Congress chief told a news conference at her Kalighat house today. At an interaction with jo- urnalists earlier in the day, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had said: “The Opposition deliberately stopped the project and compelled the Tatas to leave… the Opposition… should apologise.” Mamata said: “Instead of advising me, Buddhababu should himself apologise for his undemocratic actions in Singur… I shall see to it that farmers who have not collected their cheques get back their land.” She iterated the charge that the chief minister had “forcibly acquired” land for the small-car project. “A day will come when Buddhababu will have to carry a poster on his back telling people that he will never grab farmland to fulfil his whims. He will have to return 400 acres (which she says was forcibly acquired) in Singur at any cost,” she added. A Trinamul general secretary said a blueprint had been drawn up for the renewed agi-tation. “We shall call a meeting of the Save Farmland Committee after the polls to re-launch the Singur movement.” Told that the chief minister had termed her party “indisciplined”, Mamata flared up. “I don’t like to take a lesson from Buddhababu about what is discipline and culture. He is a dangerous man who is encouraging violence by asking his police and cadres to unleash terror on the Opposition. A chief minister who does not stick to his oath of office should be sacked.” Reacting to the chief min- ister’s remark that he would not talk to the Opposition on Singur again, Mamata said: “I don’t feel like talking to him.” Bhattacharjee had accused Mamata of indulging in divisive politics because of her repeated claims that Muslims were being persecuted and their land was being grabbed. Mamata said: “If Muslims are being murdered, how can I change their religious identities? Of the 11 people killed since the second phase of the polls in the state, nine were from the minority community. Eleven Muslim brothers were massacred by CPM men in Nanoor in 2000. How can I keep my eyes shut?”

‘Apology’ on CM lips

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090512/jsp/frontpage/story_10951916.jsp

‘Apology’ on CM lips

OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Calcutta, May 11: Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has said he had “apologised” for the Nandigram police firing — the word of contrition slipping out for the first time in the last lap of the general election. “About Nandigram, I apologised after the firing when I addressed a meeting close to Nandigram. I felt very bad about it, I genuinely felt bad. I have always admitted my mistakes — something that my political values demand,” the chief minister told a media conference at the Press Club today, after pausing for a few seconds. Bhattacharjee had more than once described the Nandigram events that led to the firing as a mistake and expressed regret (“dukkha prakash”) but today he used the English word “apology”. It was not clear whether the chief minister deliberately chose the word but the timing was not without significance. The statement came 48 hours before voting in the last phase that covers several south Bengal seats where minority voters have a considerable presence. The violence in Nandigram, which houses many a Muslim family, is said to have compounded the alienation of the minority community from the CPM. The chief minister today referred to what he termed an Opposition attempt to fan communal passions. “Never in Bengal have victims of political violence been identified as Muslim or Hindu nor minorities ever instigated against an elected government,” he said, arguing that Muslims were in a bad shape not in Bengal alone. Referring to the loss of life in Nandigram, a sombre Bhattacharjee said: “Death of people in police firing is unacceptable to the tradition I belong to. It is against the values I have held in my entire political life.” The chief minister repeated that he would not have sent the police to Nandigram had he known that there would be a bloodbath. “I never dreamt that the police would be compelled to open fire. The Opposition was given an advance intimation of the police entry, not to take over land but to repair roads in Nandigram. We had sought their co-operation since the police were scheduled to stay for a day only,” Bhattacharjee said.

Farming and industry

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090512/jsp/frontpage/story_10952011.jsp

Maa, mati, manush: Sounds nice but not for son who won’t farm

DEVADEEP PUROHIT

Calcutta, May 11: Maa, mati, manush-er lorai (The battle for land, which people treat as their mother). If it were merely a slogan Mamata Banerjee had grabbed to massage the Bengali mind that moistens at the mention of Mother and Mother Earth, it would be quite harmless. But in the backdrop of Nandigram and Singur, it is threatening to acquire a legitimacy enabling its supporters to assume the moral high ground in this election and beyond. The argument is that farmland cannot be taken to build factories — a point Mamata keeps hammering in rally after rally to huge applause, though her ostensible opposition is to acquisition by force. “What will the farmer do if land is forcibly taken away?” she asks, playing on emotions. The jump from emotion to economics is but a baby step in politics: that the fertile land of Bengal enables farmers to grow three to four crops a year and takes care of their livelihood. If it were so, why would 45.5 per cent of Bengal farmers dislike what they do against around 40 per cent nationally (Report on Conditions of Work and Promotion of Livelihoods in the Unorganised Sector, prepared by the Arjun Sengupta committee)? Why would a farmer’s son then not want to be a farmer? Mukul Molla’s family owns over 35 bighas in Shalpukur gram panchayat of South 24-Parganas. “I don’t want to soil my hands in the fields. I have a small medicine store and I want to make it bigger,” says the youth. “Most of my friends also don’t want to be farmers.” The report says that the rising cost of cultivation, low prices for farm produce, high risk of frequent crop failure, declining agricultural growth and mounting debts have plunged the farmer into a state of distress. Economists say the crisis is deeper in Bengal because over 65 per cent of its cultivators are small and marginal farmers who have less than two hectares. “Marginal and small farmers cannot make their ventures viable,” says S.D. Tendulkar, the chairman of the Prime Minister’s economic advisory council. In other words, the absence of an alternative to agriculture keeps farmers in perpetual poverty. Seen from this point of view, the cry of battle for land could sound like a fight to keep things as they are. A sharp rise in the number of people leaving agriculture in search of other vocations bears proof of the lack of profitability of farming. Between the 1991 and the 2001 censuses, the share of cultivators and agricultural labourers among main workers (who have work more than 183 days a year) fell by up to 10 per cent . Although green rice fields may inspire Mamata to take up the paintbrush, they hardly symbolise the well-being of rural Bengal. Nominal per capita consumption expenditure, a measure of purchasing power, in rural Bengal is among the lowest in the country . “If the rest of the economy is growing at 7 to 8 per cent whereas agricultural growth can at best be 4 per cent, this is bound to happen. Unless the proportion of people dependent on agriculture goes down, the situation will get even worse,” says Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen. Ratan Khasnabis of the department of management in Calcutta University says foodgrain production growth dropped from 6.9 per cent in the eighties to 2.4 per cent in the nineties in Bengal. The result is the high incidence of rural poverty with around 27 per cent of the people living below the poverty line, which can be countered through productivity increase, diversification of agriculture and creation of jobs outside farms. “But if all field-based development projects are made into a law-and-order issue, we can’t go anywhere,” says a professor of economics at the Indian Statistical Institute. He speaks of the need to expand the Calcutta-Siliguri road, which can spur the rural economy along the route. “Land has to be acquired for this purpose but given the situation in Bengal, that is a tricky issue,” he adds. In the face of threats of unrest, the government has slammed the brakes on the proposed 84km Barasat-Raichak road, running through North and South 24-Parganas. Better infrastructure usually acts as a growth stimulant, giving farmers access to markets, among other things. Mamata claims she is not against industrialisation and development. Her suggestion to use non-agricultural land in districts like Bankura and Purulia and unlock the real estate lying unused in closed industrial units sounds sensible but is hard to implement. Freeing the land of closed factories is a lengthy process, not under the control of the state government. Shifting all industries to Bankura and Purulia has the potential to kick up a fresh round of problems. “You need proper roads to shift all proposed industrial ventures to Bankura and Purulia. To lay roads leading to the two districts land needs to be acquired and that will again be a problem. Then, there will be a problem with the tribal population there, who will have to be displaced,” explains Sen. Latest estimates suggest less than 2 per cent land in Bengal is non-cultivable, which makes decisions on locating new industrial units a difficult task. “There may be problems but the government has to discuss these issues with us. But the problem with the government is they don’t consult us,” says Trinamul’s Partha Chatterjee, who is optimistic that maa-mati-manush will fetch the party more MPs. His charge that the government doesn’t talk with the Opposition is not always true. In Katwa, where the state — and not any private entrepreneur — wants to build a power plant, all parties were called for talks but Trinamul didn’t turn up. Making Purulia and Bankura the sole destination for industries is also laden with the danger of uneven development. Some of these problems could have been bypassed had the government created a land bank or tried to find an answer to the trap of small landholdings and low productivity, ironically a result of its much-acclaimed land reforms. Land reform was almost the first thing the Left did after assuming power in 1977. The bankruptcy of ideas became evident following that. So far, there is nothing to suggest Mamata has any policy measures lined up beyond maa-mati-manush. Given the lack of ideas, it may be a blessing for her that she doesn’t risk being foisted on the seat of power at least until 2011. Agricultural scientist M.S. Swaminathan says the only solution is a proper land-use policy. “Non-farm income has to be increased for better livelihood of the people. A proper land-use policy is the most prudent way to meet that objective.” It is possible to have all the policies in the world — and all very proper — and still not get anywhere until you find a policy against sheer cussedness.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090512/jsp/bengal/story_10951934.jsp

Farmers vote for industry

OUR CORRESPONDENT

Durgapur, May 11: The government will acquire within two months 500 acres from farmers in Burdwan who had themselves offered their single-crop land for industrialisation two years ago. When the district administration issued a notification for the acquisition recently, none of them raised any objection. In a newspaper ad yesterday, it announced the decision to take over the 500 acres. Around 3,000 acres will be gradually acquired for an industrial complex in Ausgram and Kanksa blocks of Burdwan, about 200km from Calcutta. “We’ll verify the ownership documents within the next two months and announce the compensation package,” said additional district magistrate (land acquisition) Asim Bhattacharya. While pledging their land for industry in a memorandum submitted to district magistrate Manish Jain in June 2007, the farmers had sought a job for every landloser family besides cash. Samsuddin Biswas, 62, who owns over three acres, said he did not want his two science graduate sons to become farmers. “I did not pay for their studies to make them farmers. It will be better if they get jobs in the factories that would come up.” He was among those who had petitioned the administration for the industrial complex. “We are happy that the government has finally decided to set it up here,” Biswas added. District officials said the administration had held nine all-party meetings to gauge the mood on the ground and the possible compensation package before issuing the acquisition notice, but Trinamul Congress representatives attended only one of them. The party’s Durgapur president, Prabhat Chatterjee, declined comment. Only about 50km away, in Burdwan’s Katwa where a 1,000MW power plant had been planned, Trinamul leaders also skipped all-party meetings and later fanned anti-acquisition protests. The government has managed to acquire only 350 acres of the 1,000-odd required. In Andal, not far away, the party is resisting acquisition for a Rs 10,000-crore airport and city. However, Ausgram and Kanksa are known to be CPM bastions. Kohinoor Ganguly, a member of the Ausgram II panchayat samiti who had represented the party at the meetings, said everyone there had agreed to the hub. “We had discussed compensation between Rs 8 lakh and Rs 10.8 lakh an acre. Surveys have been carried out to find out how many youths were eligible for jobs and vocational training.”

Anti-Posco stir gets panchayat seal

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090508/jsp/frontpage/story_10931535.jsp

Anti-Posco stir gets panchayat seal

SUBRAT DAS

An anti-Posco protest at Dhinkiya village in Jagatsinghpur. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee Bhubaneswar, May 7: Victory of a member of Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) in the recently concluded panchayat election has fuelled speculation regarding the fate of the proposed steel plant slated to come up in Jagatsinghpur. The proposed Posco project has been pending for over four years now. While pro-Posco groups have been left wondering, the anti-project group, PPSS, is now upbeat after its secretary, Sisir Mohapatra, was elected as the sarpanch of Dhinkia gram panchayat — at the epicentre of the anti-Posco agitation — yesterday. Another PPSS member Prakash Jena was also elected as the panchayat member from the same area. Panchayat polls were held in the area after a gap of two years. On February 21, 2007, when the rest of the state voted for its sarpanch, widespread violence by anti-Posco agitators in the area kept poll officials at bay. Talking to The Telegraph the new sarpanch reiterated his committed to the anti-Posco stand. “It’s a question of livelihood of the locals. I will definitely stand by them,” Mohapatra said. The proposed project, for which Posco signed an MoU with the government in June 2005, has been a non-starter due to consistent resistance by locals under the banner of Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti. Not a single acre of private land, identified for the Rs 51,000-crore project, has been acquired so far because of the agitation. The three panchayats to be affected by the project virtually blocked themselves from the government, the Posco staff and the police officers as villagers erected bamboo blockades. The area also witnessed series of bloody clashes between anti and pro-project groups. Though the anti-Posco agitation had lost its momentum following the arrest of PPSS chief Abhay Sahoo in October 2008, the victory of the samiti leaders in the panchayat poll has obviously given members a moral boost. Also, the present sarpanch and the PPSS second-in-command, Mohapatra, has sworn to prevail upon the government and relocate the project. However, even cynics see a silver lining in the matter. With the Lok Sabha and Assembly poll right around the cornet, the stand taken by local CPI, a party that furiously backed the anti-Posco movement, has softened. Every party has now adopted a wait-and-watch policy to deal with the matter. “If BJD comes to power again after May 16, we will try to resolve the issue (relocation) through negotiation,” said CPI state secretary Dibakar Nayak. He, however, admitted that the release of PPSS leader, Abhay Sahoo, would be the first precondition for the negotiation. Posco authorities are also hopeful that the project would eventually take off. “That the panchayat election was conducted shows that things are moving towards normal. We will now try to strengthen our relation with the displaced people,” said a senior official of the South Korean company. Posco is also looking forward to receiving a Centre and Supreme Court clearance to divert 2,900 acres of forestland that constitutes the a chunk of the total land requirement (4,004 acres). “For us, the transfer of forestland is important,” conceded an official.

The art of not writing

http://infochangeindia.org/Agenda/Reporting-conflict/The-art-of-not-writing.html

The art of not writing

By Shubhranshu Choudhary

How does the media in Chhattisgarh report the conflict between the Naxalites and the Salwa Judum, or the conflict between local communities and corporations? Quite simply, it doesn’t. The pressures on journalists in Chhattisgarh are unique. They are paid not to report stories that are critical of the powers-that-be, whether they are industrial lobbies or state authorities

I was in Bhairamgarh to cover a Salwa Judum rally. Bhairamgarh is a small town in the Bijapur district of southern Chhattisgarh where the State is engaged in a bloody war with the Maoists.

According to the government, the Salwa Judum is a “spontaneous people’s movement” against Maoists; human rights activists call it a brutal State-created militia.

The rally was scheduled to pass along narrow tribal paths deep in the jungle where no vehicle can go. So the Salwa Judum leader Mahendra Karma very kindly arranged for me to ride on the back of a motorcycle.

The bike moved easily through the jungle, weaving in and out of several tribal groups en route to the rally. I discovered in the course of my conversation with the bike rider that he was a local journalist. Indeed, the ride turned into a crash course in local journalism for me.

The journalist worked for one of the top dailies in Chhattisgarh.

“How much salary do you get,” I asked him. “I do not get a salary,” he replied. “Oh, so how do you earn a living?” “By not writing,” was the answer.

Noting my surprise, he clarified.

“Journalism here is the art of not writing,” he said. “I earn around Rs 5,000 every month by not writing.”

I still could not make sense of what he was saying.

“Being journalists, we know who is doing what; the ins and the outs of corrupt practice, and the perpetrators,” he continued. “We get a fee for not writing about the corruption. That is our salary.”

He added: “Not only do we not get a salary, we spend from our own pockets to collect and send the news to the head office. It is still worth our while. There are a handful of journalists in the district headquarters who do get a token salary. But in reality they earn many times more than that.”

“It is an easy profession for making money,” he explained. “As we know good things about the Salwa Judum, similarly we also know all the bad things about the Salwa Judum. But we do not write about the bad things, for obvious reasons,” he added, watching leader of the Salwa Judum, Mahendra Karma, who was standing nearby. Karma is also leader of the opposition in Chhattisgarh.

Almost every newspaper in Chhattisgarh still refers to the Salwa Judum as a “peaceful people’s movement” even though there are numerous reports in the national press about human rights violations perpetrated by the group.

After the rally, I proceeded to Dhurli village to cover a possible meeting between Essar and local villagers. The corporate house was seeking a no objection certificate (NOC) from local landowners to set up a plant.

When we reached Dhurli, a group of villagers approached us and said threateningly: “You must be a broker for Essar.” They spotted our camera, paused a bit, but then added: “All journalists are also brokers of the industrialists. You must leave the village. We do not want to talk to you.”

I was shocked at the level of hatred for journalists in the village.

In Dantewada town, after hearing my story, some journalists explained to me in great detail how much Essar was paying journalists to “keep their mouths shut”. They could not give me any proof, unfortunately.

People in Dhurli had told me: “Tell the government, if they want to take our land they must first kill us. They can take this land only over our dead bodies.”

Back in Delhi, I was amazed to read a report by the Indo Asian News Service claiming that the people of Dhurli had agreed to give their land to Essar. They were so happy with Essar’s rehabilitation package, the report said, that they had written a letter to the government expressing their willingness to give away their land.

The report received prominent coverage by newspapers like The Times of India, The Hindu Business Line and The Economic Times.

It also furnished details of how many people had signed the letter and to whom the letter had been given.

I could not believe it! The story must be true, I thought, if so many papers had carried it.

After reflecting on this for a few days, I could not help calling the officer named in the newspaper report. SDM Ambalgam was shocked: “What letter? And which newspaper are you talking about,” she asked. “I have not got any letter, and no one has agreed to give land as far as I know.” “Have they given the letter to another officer,” I ventured to ask. “No. I am the officer in charge of land acquisition here. Even if they had given the letter to another officer it would have come to me,” she replied. “I can’t believe what you are saying,” she added.

I faxed the articles to Ambalgam, at her request.

She issued a show cause notice to Essar asking for an explanation for the news item. The article also featured a quote from the head of Essar in Chhattisgarh commenting on the “letter from the villagers”.

According to Ambalgam, Essar replied saying it had been misled by the reporter.

Ambalgam was subsequently transferred from Dantewada. No one followed the matter up with the reporter or the newspaper.

That incident prompted me to look more carefully at news items being generated from Raipur in the national newspapers. This is what I found.

The Indian Express carried a report on the front page saying that Naxals had killed three farmers because they had continued farming in defiance of a Naxal ban on all farm activities.

I had not heard of any Naxal ban on farming whilst I was there!

A few phone calls told me that the three people had indeed been killed by Naxals but that the killings had no connection with farming. Farming was on full swing in Chintagufa village, I was told.

“These people were killed because of their alleged connection with the police, not because they were farming,” former sarpanch of Chintagufa told me over the phone.

If I was able to speak to the people of Chintagufa by phone to crosscheck a story from Delhi, why couldn’t journalists from Raipur do the same? I wrote about this in my column in a local daily the following week.

No one took notice of the article. In fact, the very next day The Times of India carried the same old story about Naxals attacking farmers because of the ban.

Some journalists told me, off the record, from which intelligence officer’s desk the story had been generated. But they could not provide any proof. “The officer gave the story only to his trusted ones,” a journalist explained.

In the meantime I had begun working on a story about farmer suicides in Chhattisgarh. I was shocked to find that, according to National Crime Records Bureau figures, Chhattisgarh has the highest number of farmer suicides in the country, each year.

Despite the alarming numbers, and eight years after the state came into existence, not a single journalist in Chhattisgarh had written about it!

I mentioned this in my column. Shortly after, there was an article on the front page of the paper with the headline, ‘Everybody loves a good fraud; untruth of farmer suicides in Chhattisgarh’. The article called the National Crime Records Bureau data a lie, to which, astonishingly, the Bureau did not respond -- a basic journalistic procedural requirement.

My column in the local newspaper was stopped. After years I was suddenly told that my writing was inaccurate and full of lies!

Journalists who do not wish to be named have told me: “We want to write the story of farmer suicides. We can see it happening around us. But the story will go against the government and then the government will stop (publishing) advertisements in our newspapers. So we cannot write the story.”

Kamlesh Painkra’s story

The story of Kamlesh Painkra probably best explains the situation of journalists in Chhattisgarh today.

Painkra was the first journalist to write about human rights violations by the Salwa Judum. Following his report, he was told by the local superintendent of police (SP) to apologise and admit that his story had been a mistake.

When Painkra refused, he lost his job. His brother, who was a teacher, was put behind bars, ostensibly for sheltering Naxalites.

The district administration cancelled Painkra’s licence to sell public distribution system (PDS) grain in the local market for no apparent reason. It was his main source of income.

Painkra was finally forced to flee his home, taking his family with him, when a friendly policeman told him that the police was going to kill him in an “encounter”. They still live like refugees.

No local newspaper reported his ordeal.

I tried to help out by asking a few editor friends to hire him as their Dantewada district correspondent. Painkra now lives in Dantewada after fleeing his home district of Bijapur.

Painkra was hired, but the fine print of his appointment letter was interesting. The letter stated that his salary would be Rs 3,000 a month. It went on to say that he would also have to collect advertisements worth Rs 20,000 every month and that his salary would be a proportion of the amount he managed to collect.

“That means that if the advertising money goes down the salary will go down accordingly,” Painkra explained.

He declined the offer, saying: “If I have to collect Rs 20,000 every month in a town with a population of less than 25,000, you can imagine from whom I will have to collect the advertisements. How can I do any journalism after that?”

Last month, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) bulldozed Painkra’s house in Bijapur to make room for a volleyball ground for soldiers. There were no reports in the papers about this. Painkra’s family was not informed of the demolition. Nor was any compensation paid to them.

The pressures on journalists in Chhattisgarh are special.

Some time ago, the Naxals sent an audio CD to every newspaper office in Raipur. The CD contained, among other things, a recording of a conversation, via walkie-talkie, between the same superintendent of police, Bijapur, who had threatened Painkra, and his deputy.

During the conversation, the SP tells his subordinate: “Keep an eye on the area and if you see any journalists just kill them.”

The government reacted by saying the recording was bogus. Police officials in private accept that the voice was indeed that of the SP and that the Naxals had tuned into his conversation on the walkie-talkie.

No national newspaper covered the news. The SP was sent to work in the State Human Rights Commission.

(Shubhranshu Choudhary is a founder-member of the Citizens Journalism initiative in Chhattisgarh, CGnet (www.cgnet.in))

InfoChange News & Features, February 2009