Battleground Nandigram - A result of social churning

Saumitra Mohan
Deccan Herald. 16 March

The police, who were at the receiving end again, were left with no other option but to open fire in “self-defence”.

In the history of West Bengal, March 14, 2007 shall be remembered as a momentous day for all negative reasons, when about 18 people fell prey to police firing while many more were injured. These people were those agitating against the so-called acquisitions of land for a proposed Special Economic Zone for Salim Group, an Indonesian multi-national company, in the remote Nandigram village of East Medinipur district. Police, administration and government, naturally, were all roundly criticised for the sanguinary fall-out. But we need to put certain things in perspective before better being able to appreciate the compulsions of use of force over there. Memory fails one when one tries to recollect such “brutal” police action in West Bengal in the recent past, except during the hey days of Naxal violence in the sixties. Administration and police as an inalienable part thereof has been reasonably very disciplined and liberal, while dealing with such agitations. In fact, often it has been accused to be too soft or liberal as being a Red bastion, it cannot be seen to be against the same proletariats whom the government claims to represent. So, what were the compelling circumstances which led to the so-called indiscriminate firing by an otherwise calm police force? Let’s go back in history. As mentioned above, when Nandigram villagers got to know that the government is proposing to acquire land for industrial purposes, like Singur, they became very restive. The same was expected because it happens to be an area with considerable opposition support base. The opposition naturally grabbed the issue for its mobilisational politics and accordingly agitations began against government’s supposed attempts at forcible land acquisitions, even though the same was still on the drawing board and no formal declaration of such intent was communicated by the government.

So, people were made to see the smoke where there was no fire. Pursuant to such belief, there were great agitations leading to skirmishes between the police and the public in January in Nandigram, where a sub-inspector of police was brutally lynched to death while many policemen were injured during the mob attack. Not much was heard of police action against the people. Police remained its restrained self. Since then, the villagers, led by the vested interests, not only dug up and cut off all the approach roads to the village, but also did not allow anyone from the administration or police to visit the village. Not only this, hundreds of people with contrary political colours were made to flee the village and camp outside. For almost two months, Nandigram became a place where the government had ceased to run and it became an enclave immune to any state power. All attempts to bring these people to come out and discuss the problems across the table failed notwithstanding government’s assurance that no land shall be acquired there without popular concurrence. Every time, someone from the administration or the police tried to visit the village, he/she was seen to be coming to take their land or so they were made to believe. Police also needed to enter the village to establish peace not only to rehabilitate the people, who had fled their home and hearth, but also to ferret out the culprits, who had indulged in criminal activities including killing of a police officer in January. So, when the police again tried to enter the village to take control and to establish the rule of law there on March 14, the tension had been brewing in an already volatile Nandigram. Police remained very restrained to begin with against a mob of thousands of people armed with crude weapons, bombs and firearms and tried everything possible in the circumstances including use of tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons but the same was to no avail. When pushed to the wall, following mob violence leading to injury of many policemen, the police were left with no option but to open fire in “self-defence” as also argued by the chief minister himself. One would do well to remember that it was the same police, which was criticised when a senior police officer of the rank of additional superintendent of police was killed by an agitating mob during the Greater Cooch Behar agitations last year in north Bengal.

State power suffering regular reverses at the hands of an armed mob intent on taking law into its hands is not left with much choice. If the same does not happen, the fear of law would go with the state’s surrender of its monopoly over the legitimate use of force. While everyone including the West Bengal Governor has condemned the incident and believe that the same was avoidable, one would say that such things become imperative when vested interests are out to fish in troubled waters and shut all doors on dialogue. One hopes that the CBI inquiries as ordered by the Calcutta High Court would bring out the truth and take to task those responsible for the unfortunate turn of events. Last but not the least, one would say that West Bengal is actually experiencing a social churning these days, trying to jump from one phase of history to the other, from being an agrarian society to being an industrial society. And mind you, change is not without its costs. As they say, there is no gain without some pain. One just hopes, that such bouts of pain would become less and less with every passing day.

(The writer is Additional District Magistrate, Hooghly, West Bengal)