India / Singur seething as farmers clash with police, Medha whisked away

By Indian Darkness / updated on 5.Dec, 06

Kolkata, Dec 2 Singur, the proposed site for Tata Motors' small car project, reached a flashpoint Saturday as farmers clashed with police during fencing of acquired land even as West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya vowed to facilitate the unit in the disputed farmland despite protests.

Atleast 80 people including policemen were injured between cops and the farmers resisting fencing in the area earmarked for the Tata Motors small car project.

Farmers fought pitched battles with police in the fields of Singur in Hooghly district, about 45 km from Kolkata as the administration sent a huge police force there to take the physical possession of the land.

A huge contingent of police - At least 5,000 police and paramilitary forces - had already been deployed in the area as administration apprehended that such a violent resistence could take place in response to the forcible acquistion of farmers' land.

Women and children in Beraberi, Khaserbheri, Gopalnagar and Singerbheri villages were beaten up by the advancing policemen, alleged farmers' organisations. The adult males of the villages had fled their homes Friday night itself fearing arrest. However, police claimed the aggressive villagers attacked them with acid bulbs and arrows.

Police liberally used tear gas on the villagers and fired rubber bullets. A huge pile of harvested paddy caught fire in the clashes.

Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Raj Kanojia said: 'The police were attacked with acid bombs and arrows and many of us, including women cops, were injured.

'The police had to chase the villagers and arrested a few. The crowd was aggressive,' Kanojia stated.

Saturday is the second day of land acquisition.

Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Patkar, who was intercepted on her way to Singur, managed to reach the area by dodging the police but was stopped when she tried to enter a village at Khaserbheri where women and children were allegedly tortured by policemen.

'When I visited a village at Beraberi I found women crying. Police unleashed a havoc in the village and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) cadres were there too. Women were molested and handled by men police,' Medha alleged.

'They arrested us without even telling on what ground we were arrested. I was not there to incite people,' said Medha.

Social activist Medha Patkar, who suddenly appeared on the scene, was arrested by police along with her associates and sent back towards Kolkata even as Trinamool Congress supporters blocked road and rail after news spread that police had unleashed terror on women and children in the villages.

According to Medha, the Land Acquisition Act of 1894 is a British legacy and until this law is amended, all procedures and processes of acquiring land for industrialisation should be suspended.

She had also requested earlier the West Bengal Government to make public the project report, the Memorandum of Understanding, and the correspondence between the Government and Tata Motors as well as other industries.

"The Government must involve the local community in a dialogue, a right guaranteed to them under the 73rd Amendment," Ms. Patkar said. "The system of Prior Informed Consent must also be followed by every single government."

On 28 August, Justice Pranab Kumar Chattopadhyay of Calcutta High Court on Monday had directed the State Information Commissioner to supply information to the cultivators of Singur in Hooghly district of West Bengal, who have sought certain information from the State Government.

Trinamool Congress legislator Rabindranath Bhattacharya said about 1,000 policemen swooped down on the villagers. Many women were beaten and many others seriously injured.

'This is the second phase of our agitation that began seven months ago. Now they are trying to take possession of our land. I am sure this agitation will not be restricted to Singur alone but will spread all over,' he said.

According to Singur Krishijami Bachao Committee (Save Singur Farmland Committee) convenor Becharam Manna, 'It is a shame to democracy. Our women were assaulted and children beaten up by the cops. Everyone was hit with batons.'

Manna denied that the villagers attacked the policemen with acid bulbs or arrows.

Buddhadeb Bhattacharya said the car project would continue despite all opposition and claimed that the police were attacked with knives and provoked leading to the action.

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, who was forcibly stopped on her way to Singur for a rally Thursday, asked her party MLAs to head for Singur.

'We will not allow fencing by force. The chief minister unleashed his goons in the garb of policemen,' she said later.

Banerjee, who was in Islampur in north Bengal for an election campaign, rushed back to the city even as life was disrupted by the Trinamool activists who blocked road and rail, including the city's lifeline Howrah Bridge.

Several Maoists, including students from the Jadavpur University, and Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) party workers also were arrested in Singur while in Kolkata students of the prestigious Presidency College took to streets and courted arrest.

Footage captured by Bengali news channel Kolkata TV showed policemen used teargas and beat up villagers. It also showed women and children breaking into tears and in anger as police took possession of their villages. Section 144 of the Indian penal code has been imposed in the area.

The farmlands owners, who mostly live in the city, have sold the land to the government for the Tata Motors small car project. The protesting villagers are the tillers or sharecroppers, especially the unrecorded tillers, who work on the land and have a close association with it. They stand to lose their livelihood and homes with the land acquisition.

Buddhadeb Bhattacharya claimed that 927 of the 993 acres needed for the Tata Motors plant has been acquired, but Mamata Banerjee said at least 531 acres are with the farmers.

'There was no need to send so many policemen if the land was in the possession of the government,' Mamata told the press.

Left Front partners today criticised the police action on villagers protesting against the fencing work for the Tata Motors car project at Singur, even as Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee defended it. CPI State Secretary Manju Kumar Majumder said his party did not support the police action at Singur. "We condemn it. The police should have shown restraint." General Secretary of Forward Bloc Ashok Ghosh and RSP MP Manoj Bhattacharya, MP, said the police "should not have behaved in such a way".

At Siliguri, condemning the police action, veteran Naxalite leader Kanu Sanyal warned that all Naxal factions would unite and carry out an "armed struggle" at Singur. Sanyal, the General Secretary of the CPI(ML), said the Naxalites would call a bandh next week in protest.

Largely confined to Bengal for past six months, the Singur issue begins reverberating at the national level. The ruling CPI(M) party now realiases that the 'police excesses' on the farmers are rapidly turning public opinion against the government.

In Delhi, CPI(M) MPs are at unease. A little more than a year back, on July 25, 2005, the same kind of police atrocoties on workers of Honda factory, in Gurgaon, were vigorously reprimanded by the same party the same way the oppositions are protesting, in Bengal, against their actions on the farmers. *

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Update 5 December, 10 PM

Medha Patekar who was forcibly detained in a guest house in Dankuni, is finally arrested by the police as she was determined to rush toward Singur on foot today in the evening. She is brought in to Koklkata in police custody. Medha threw an open challange to the government administration saying that she cannot be stopped, by any means, from going to Singur. As a citizen of India, she has the natural right to go anywhere she likes.

This is quite an awkward situation for the Leftist govrnment who has no prior experience of facing resistances from a civil right activist of Medha's stature. Moreover, other civil right activists like Mahasweta Devi, also an internationally renowned author and Jaya Mitra, a well-known environmentalist, also joined hands with Medha and aggressively participated in the Singur struggle.

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*It will be interesting to cite in this contexte "CPI(M) Team’s Findings On Police Brutality In Gurgaon"


Gurgaon reminder: Leaders blissfully forget, History doesn't

CPI(M) Team's Findings On Police Brutality In Gurgaon

Following conclusions have been drawn by the team of CPI(M) leaders comprising Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat, leader in Rajya Sabha Nilotpal Basu, Haryana state secretary Inderjit Singh and Haryana CITU state vice president Balbir Dahiya, which visited Gurgaon on July 26 to take stock of the situation arising from the brutal police attack on workers of Honda factory.

1. The brutal lathicharge was resorted to when thousands of workers were sitting peacefully in the mini secretariat premises in front of the DC office. This was pre-planned as the workers were kept sitting under the pretext of negotiations for nearly half an hour till additional police reinforcements were mobilised to launch this savage attack. The DC, Sudhir Rajpal personally participated in the lathicharge as evidenced in press photos wearing a helmet, police protection jacket and wielding a lathi in his hands.

2. Most of the injured have received serious head injuries and broken arms, an ample proof that the severe lathicharge was resorted to on unarmed workers and that workers could not escape due to the location being encircled by boundary wall and further encircled by huge police force.

3. Those injured were first taken to police station, given extra beatings and then only taken to the hospital in police vehicles

The TU leaders and activists were arrested by the police under false cases of serious criminal nature. Those injured among them were not treated and kept in detention at an undisclosed location for more than 24 hours.

4. The total number of injured workers is actually more than 500 and the authorities are counting only those who were brought to the hospitals. The rest of the injured received treatment on their own, in private clinics or at their respective homes.

5. The authorities did not reveal the names/ list of those under arrest and those who were taken to various hospitals by the police, like to Satna hospital, a place about 30 km away from Gurgaon. Due to this the relatives, particularly women relatives, were running around in utter desperation. Only when the Party MPs insisted, a list of 61 arrested workers was furnished by the police. The MPs then asked the authorities to make the list public through the media but the same has not been done till date.

6. A police officer was found using obscene and filthy abuses to one such aggrieved woman, Birmati.

7. In order to scare away the agitated relatives and those attending the injured workers, the police resolved to lathicharge and use of teargas repeatedly at the civil hospital. Even media persons present on the spot were manhandled to prevent them from giving a live coverage.

8. The entire Gurgaon city is being terrorised by the police who are dragging the residents and shopkeepers from their homes and shops and beating them up. This way there is total jungle raj prevailing even now.

9. It is amazing that the DC has described the arrested TU activists as outsiders although all of them are office bearers of various trade unions working from Gurgaon.

10. The team is of the firm opinion that a confirmed nexus between the Honda company and district officials is existing and that is why the company is openly throwing to wind all labour laws. The higher authorities are working in complete tandom with the company officials. To exhibit and exercise this total loyalty to the Honda company, the highest district officials have trampled under foot not only the trade union rights but the human rights also as seen in the unprecedented and indefensible magnitude of the police brutalities. These officials have been further found indulging in rousing regional characteristic feelings in most notorious manner to divert the unity of the workers belonging to Honda company. This scenario seems to be an ironic dress rehearsal of the emerging picture which the MNCs of imperialism are actually seeking to repeat in a big way under the whole gamut of liberalisation policies.

11. In the opinion of the team, the most urgent and necessary action must be to remove those district officials who are prima facie responsible for the inhuman atrocities and be tried for criminal conduct. For this no inquiry is required. The arrested workers and their leaders must be released unconditionally. The seriously injured workers must be suitably compensated. All workers of Honda company must be allowed to join through lifting of illegal lockout. All labour laws and trade union rights must be strictly adhered to. The already declared judicial enquiry should expose the unsavoury nexus between the company and the government officials. (INN)


Gurgaon police violence against workers

Multinational -- local administration nexus assaults democratic rights of labour

On July 25, 2005 Gurgaon police beat up thousands of workers in the premises of Mini Secretariat that is the office of the Deputy Commissioner of Gurgaon district. This incident took place in full glare of television and print cameras that amply testifies to the brutality and absolute disregard of all human rights and decency by the Haryana police. PUCL General Secretary Y P Chhibbar deputed a three member fact finding committee to report on the matter.

The members of the committee were Dr. Pushkar Raj, Secretary PUCL, Shri Mahipal Singh, General Secretary PUCL-Delhi, and Shri Dharambir, Member Executive of PUCL-Delhi. Following is the report of the committee.

Background of the incident

The Honda Motors and Scooters, (Honda), a Japanese multinational automobile company has a huge manufacturing plant at about 30 km from Delhi at Manesar that falls in Gurgaon district of Haryana State. There are about 3000 workers who have been working for years in the company without a major unrest.

It was reported that in recent times the workers were not happy with the behavior of one of the Vice-Presidents of the company who is known by the name of Hiroshe. He reportedly kicked a worker Rajesh who works with Weld shop department on December 16, 2004. The workers felt humiliated and protested against this inhuman treatment of one of their fellow worker. But the management brushed aside the issue saying that the workers should be more careful in their interaction with company officials, specially the foreign ones. Not very long after this incident Hiroshe tossed the turban of a Sikh worker who felt so humiliated that he did not report on work for a couple of days.

The workers again protested but were coerced into silence. Given these major and a few other minor incidents the workers decided that they should have an employees union that could protect their collective interests. They initiated the process of coming under an institutionalized umbrella and initiated the formalities of forming an union named `Honda Employees Union. Its registration came into being on May 30, 2005. The union became affiliated to the AITUC, the trade Union of CPI.

The management resented the move and began a strategy to sabotage the union.

It is reported that first the management tried to engineer a split in the union. But when it did not work they decided to resort to lockout for the existing worker and announced a fresh recruitment drive.

Workers version

PUCL spoke to a large number of workers. In the report they have not been named due to possibility of future harassment at work place. Following is the workers version on the whole incident.

The workers of the Honda who report to duty at 7:00 in the morning and get conveyance at designated places did not get any conveyance on June 27. When they reached the place of their work by their own means they found a posse of police inside and outside the gate of the factory and a big lock on the main gate. Beside they found a notice on the gate that those who would give an undertaking of good conduct will be permitted to enter the factory premises. In other words it meant that those who `will not participate or become a member of the employees union will be permitted to enter the factory.

By 8:30 AM almost all the employees had come and gathered in the park in front of the gate of the factory. They all decided that all of them will give the undertaking of `good conduct and will not participate in the union activities. The management had not anticipated this development. They had expected a split among the workers. The management therefore at 1:30 PM announced through loud speakers that services of all the worker stand terminated forthwith and no worker should come into the vicinity of 100 meters of the factory. There were a large number of police (around 150) to implement the threat of the management.

The next day the management of the Honda company began recruiting new workers from the rear gate.

The workers told the PUCL that the District Commissioner (DC) Mr Sudhir Rajpal himself went to some nearby villages and announced that there is a recruitment drive going on in Honda and they should go for employment. When the workers were asked as how do they know that the DC had himself gone to nearby villages announcing about the recruitment they responded that a large number of them are from the same neighboring villages and many people who came to seek the employment in the company were from these villages. The workers also told us that the management also inserted an advertisement for fresh recruitment in the company in a Hindi daily Daink Jaagaran.

These developments caused bags of worry to the workers. They daily came with the food boxes in their hands and gathered silently into the park in front of the Honda factory. They hoped for a process of negotiation that would lead to their entry into the factory. Meanwhile the union leaders continued to talk to the District Commissioner and the Labor Commissioner for settlement of the dispute between the workers and the management. The management never invited the workers leader for negotiation (so the workers leaders were all OUTsiders?). They always preferred talking to workers through the government officials (the INsiders!!).

After a few days it was reported that the management agreed, through the government officials, that they will take the workers in a group of 400 each. The workers agreed. But the management went back on their word. Later the management told the workers that they will take them back in a group of 100 each. The management further said that they will not take back the suspension of 50 and service termination notice of four workers who were punished for lack of good conduct. The workers did not accept these terms of the management.

Further, it has been a rule in the company that those workers who come through a series of tests and are put on two years of training, are absorbed in the company after completion of the said training. But recently the management terminated the services of 40 workers who had completed the said training. The workers asked for their right of employment to be protected under the rules as it was a difficult proposition for these workers to get job after investing two years for the company for which they aspired to work.

It was in this background the workers decided to hold a rally on July 11 to impress upon the district administration the need for implementation of their demands. They were supposed to gather near the residence of the Deputy Commissioner. But the district administration imposed section 144 near the residence of the DC from the night of 10 July itself (look at the awakward similarity in modus operandi between Sigur and Gurgaon!). Consequently about 6000 workers, (these included workers from other factories also as a mark of solidarity with the Honda workers {again OUTsiders, goddamn!}) gathered at Kamala Nehru park the next day, where AITUC leader Gurudas Das Gupta and Amarjit Kaur (are they employees of the Honda Factory?) addressed the workers. The DC and the SDM came there and received the memorandum from the workers.

The memorandum called upon the district administration to prevail upon the Honda factory management to take the workers back on work. Gurudas Das Gupta assured the workers that he will speak to the concerned authorities in Chandigarh too and if the demands of the workers are not met they will gherao the Parliament on July 28, 2005.

But before approaching the Parliament as suggested by Gurudas Das Gupta the workers once again wanted to appeal to the district administration by way of a rally and for that purpose they gathered at Kamla Nehru park on July 25 at around 9:30 am. They were about 2500 to 3000 in number and their union leaders addressed them. After that they resolved to march to the Mini Secretariat, the DCs office, in a single file form so that the traffic is not disrupted.

Nearly half way down near local Industrial Training Institute (ITI) the police stopped them. The leaders of the workers argued with the police that they were going towards the Mini Secretariat in a peaceful manner to give a memorandum to the District Administration and were not causing any public disturbance. The police officer in charge, Jag Parvesh Dahiya, responded that there were orders from above not to let the workers go further. The situation got tense as police threatened force. The ensuing melee resulted into stone pelting from the side of the workers and burning of two government vehicles (The workers instigated the violence!! Did the same happen in Singur?). Sensing trouble and their numerical inferiority the police withdrew from the scene. The workers later resumed their march towards the Mini Secretariat.

The Mini Secretariat is a huge building set in the middle of barricaded parks on its left and right side. The workers reached the Mini Secretariat and sat under the shade of trees in a barricaded park on the left within the compound of the Secretariat building. The workers became apprehensive as they saw a very large number of police force and the DC and the SDM wearing a full safety kit. But then they thought that there was no cause for worry ( But didn't they pelt stones on the police a while ago?) as there was no possibility of a confrontation as they merely wanted to submit a memorandum to the concerned officers. They relaxed under the shades of trees as their leaders were in the process of handing over the memorandum to the concerned officials.

It was at about 2:30 when suddenly the police pounced on them with big sticks and lathies. They began beating the sitting workers while they had no escape route. They were surrounded from all sides as the television cameras and print media have very well recorded. They were beaten like pulp resulting into severe head and limb injuries. Around 700 workers were injured, about 100 of them seriously. The injured, irrespective of their nature of injury, were dragged and dumped like felled wood in vehicles and were taken to local civil hospitals where there was an immediate shortage of beds. As many as three workers shared one bed. As more and more injured workers were brought in the hospital arrangement to treat the seriously injured proved lacking. In the process of shifting the workers, the police pocketed the cash, mobile phones, gold rings, and chains that a large number of the injured were wearing.

The workers did not get any medical attention or treatment worth the name in the local civil hospital. Three days after the incident when PUCL team visited the hospital not even a single worker, who was the victim of police brutality, was in the hospital. The injured left for private clinics and hospitals for medical treatment. Later some of he workers with fracture injuries were shifted to Bhondsi district jail on the basis of false cases that had been registered against them.

Police version

SSPs office and Deputy Commissioners office declined to speak to PUCL as they said they were proceeding on leave. PUCL spoke to the city police station officials. They said that the workers who were going to the Mini Secretariat became violent near ITI. Asked as to why they became violent they added that when there are so many people they are prone to violence. In order to control and disperse them the police resorted to laathi-charge and tear gas. According to these police officials the workers pelted stones and burnt some vehicles including a police vehicle. DSP head-quarter, Shri Jag Pravesh Dhiya, sustained injuries in the incident. Asked if some one else was also injured they feigned ignorance. Asked about the nature of injuries sustained by the said DSP the police said that though he was admitted for treatment at Kalyani Hospital on July 25 he was discharged on the same day and is on duty since then. They further said that the police withdrew from the scene after these incidents and workers began their march towards the Mini Secretariat.

According to the police the workers marched to the Mini Secretariat with the intension of burning it down. The workers were merely prevented from doing so.

The two FIRS were lodged against the workers in the city police station. One FIR was registered on the complaint of DSP (HQ) Jag Pravesh Dahiya on the Mehrauli Road incident in which he was injured and public property was damaged. Under the FIR no. 436 dated 25 July 05 under section 148, 149, 332, 353, 435, 427, 188 (IPC) 307 (IPC) 283 3-3/1984 PPD Act sixty workers were named. Another FIR No. 437 was lodged on the complaint of Balwan Singh, Inspector, SHO City Gurgaon, on the incident of Mini Secretariat that happened at about 3 oclock on the same day. The sections of this FIR according to police are 148, 149, 332, 353, 188, 427 (IPC). The same sixty people who were named in the earlier FIR were named under this FIR also.

When the concerned police officials were asked as how it was possible that the workers who were injured in laathi-charge near ITI could be the same who took part in violence, if any, on the part of workers at Mini Secretariat, they had no plausible answers.

Managements version

It was a difficult exercise to get someone from the management side of Honda Scooters to speak to the PUCL team. Nevertheless with repeated telephonic persistence we could get the management perspective on the incident. Vivek Vishwaanathan of Personnel Department of the Honda Company told PUCL that it was wrong to say that there was a lock out. He said that there were growing incidents of indiscipline that had resulted into fall in production of the unit. He said that the company reported loss of as many as 23000 units in the month of June.

Asked why the workers were resorting to such indiscipline, was it because their grievances were not addressed satisfactorily, he said that he had no comments to offer.

Mr Vishwaanathan further added that on June 25 the management restrained workers from entering the premise because they wanted them to sign an undertaking of `good conduct. When told that all the workers were ready to sign the such undertaking on the said day , he said it was not true. When he was asked whether the managements action was in response to the workers forming the union, he said it was not true. Since the management was tired of fall in production it wanted to reign in the workers through its own in-house mechanism. Asked why there was a large presence of police on the day of the alleged lockout, Mr Vishwaanathan said that they apprehended trouble from the side of workers therefore the police was called as a preventive measure.

AITUC version

AITUC leader Mr D L Sachdeva confirmed the allegation of the workers that there was a constant harassment of the workers and quite a few of them were suspended and the services of a few terminated as they began the process of unionisation.

He further said that once the union was registered they approached us for affiliation and we accorded them the affiliation. He alleged that their intervention to break the dead lock was largely ineffective because the administration was uncooperative and colluded with the management against the workers. He said that the management never showed any reconciliation gestures and they seemed bent on retrenching the existing workers and recruiting the new ones on a set of rules that would curtail workers democratic right to organise and raise voice against any wrong doing on the part of management.

Conclusion

The workers of Honda were insulted and humiliated by the management occasionally and that caused them to decide to organise themselves into a Union and protect their self respect and dignity so that they could resort to a collective action in case of gross misdemeanor in relation to any of their co-workers.

The management having got wind of initiation of process of unionization by the workers resorted to stop it by initiating inquiries against some, suspending others, and dismissing a few. It was an act of intimidation and sabotage against formation of the workers labor union in the company. When it did not succeed and the labour union came in existence the management resorted to the lockout and decided to replace all the workers through fresh recruitment.

There seems prima-facie open collusion of the local civil and police administration with the management against the workers. The management could not have taken such a big decision to retrench 3000 workers in one go without the open support of the local civil and police administration. The presence of a large number of police force on the day of lock-out testifies that the local senior civil and police officials readily obliged the management by sending the asked police force.

There were stray incident of violence at Mehrauli Road as the workers were marching towards the Mini Secretariat because the police tried to stop them there. It is not ruled out that there could have been some anti-social elements and onlookers in the crowd who had nothing to do with the demands of the workers. As it is, the image of police in public is at lower ebb and some people might vent their anger against them if they are sure that it would pass as an anonymous act. However, it cannot be ruled out that some workers were involved in these anti-police violent incidents. But it was not a planned action on the part of the workers. It was a spontaneous reaction by retrenched and harassed workers who were being stopped from registering their protest. Had it been a planned act by the workers they would not walk three kilometer in the sun to reach the Mini Secretariat to face the same policemen whom they had beaten or chased away.

The workers were persuaded to march and reach the Mini Secretariat for the memorandum to be received by the Deputy Commissioner and here the police in order to teach a lesson to the workers gheroed them and beat them mercilessly leading to serious internal and external bodily injuries to them. It was a planned act of state violence against the unarmed workers as the district administration had mobilized a large police force from the neighboring police stations and all the police and civil officials were wearing the full safety kit .

The cases against the workers are foisted. As two FIRs that were filed against the workers have identical names though there is a gap of three kilometers and four hours between the two incidents. It seems that the police already had a list of workers who had to be slapped with cases.

Recommendations

A time-bound (maximum three months) inquiry by the NHRC should be setup so that the accountability for the brutal attack on the unarmed workers is fixed and the criminal cases should be initiated against the guilty police and civil personals including the senior officers who supervised the use of violence against the workers. As is amply clear from the above report the cases against the workers have been concocted. Therefore all the criminal cases against them in various police stations should be withdrawn forthwith. Those workers who have been injured in the incident must be provided with all the possible assistance in their medical treatment beside monetary compensation for the deceitful and brutal attack consequent to the exercise of their democratic right.

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Battlelines drawn in fortress Singur

Aloke Banerjee, HT

Kolkata, December 4, 2006

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has bluntly turned down Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s offer of talks to resolve the Singur imbroglio, saying no dialogue is possible till the government stops the acquisition of fertile land.

The Trinamool’s refusal was provoked by the chief minister’s announcement on Monday that though he was looking for dialogue with political parties, the Tata Motors project was non-negotiable and he was open only to suggestions on the revision of the rehabilitation and compensation package for evicted farmers.

An angry Mamata, who began her indefinite hunger strike on Monday, extended moral support to the Socialist Unity Centre of India-sponsored 24-hour Bangla bandh on Tuesday and announced a series of programmes aimed at direct confrontation with the government. After a meeting with the Krishi Jami Raksha Committee — the 20-party alliance led by her — Mamata announced that all main roads across the state would be blocked for two hours on Wednesday. Throwing a direct challenge to Bhattacharjee — who said Section 144 remain ion force in Singur for 20 more days — Mamata said a huge “March to Singur” would be organised on Thursday, defying prohibitory orders. “We will see how the police fires at us and how many of us they can arrest,” she said.

Bhattacharjee said fencing of the project site would be completed by Tuesday. “I had a talk with Ravi Kant (Tata Motors managing director) today. We are ready to hand over the land. Now the future of the project depends on them,” he said.

According to Mamata’s followers, her decision to spread the struggle beyond Singur is shaped by the realization that no further resistance is possible in Singur since the fencing is almost done and the area is crawling with policemen.In Singur, policemen cordoned off the entire area and fencing work went on in full swing even as some villagers began a hunger strike demanding a stop to the land acquisition. Police were deployed even inside the villages and outsiders were kept out. Even social activist Medha Patkar and BJP president Rajnath Singh — in the state to show solidarity with the Trinamool — were not allowed into the area.

In Kolkata, two Revolutionary Students’ Front activists vandalised an authorized Tata Motors showroom on AJC Bose Road. They entered the place, confirmed it was the Tata Motors showroom and then smashed the window screens and put up posters, shouting slogans all the time. They then walked off.

The Singur issue also travelled all the way to Parliament, where BJP members protested the arrest of party president Rajnath Singh in the state, where he had gone to show solidarity with the Trinamool Congress. The protests forced the presiding officers of the two Houses to adjourn proceedings.

Email Aloke Banerjee: alokebanerjee@hindustantimes.com

VP on Singur

On Friday, former Prime Minister VP Singh shot off a letter to CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee not to intervene in the sale of land and allow the farmers themselves to negotiate if they wanted to.

In the letter to Bhattacharjee, Singh said that the state government should not be involved in acquiring land for industrialists. Instead, industrial houses should directly negotiate with farmers.

"The industrialists and industrial societies need to approach the farmers directly in case they need the land of the farmers to set up their projects. Why is this intervention by State Government for acquiring farmer’s land? Whay cannot industrialits to be told to go and negotiate the prices with the farmers," Singh questioned.

He wrote that beside the future of the farmers, the livelihood of farm labourers would also be in question if the deal is clinched. "With the cessation of farming activities these labourers depending on farming activities will be rendered jobless. They will neither get any compensation, nor will (they) be able to get in any job. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a rehabilitation package to the labourers of the village," Singh said.

Singh also informed the CM that the villagers of the area have told him about a large piece of barren land barely a few kilometres away from the proposed site that could be used to set up the project. "It is my strong perception that the barren land available should be given to Tata Motors project," Singh said.

Protests spill to Delhi with Arundhati Roy lending support

After Medha Patekar, now it's Arundhati Roy joining the fight against CP(I)M land-grabbing programme in West Bengal. She joined protesters outside CPM headquarters in New Delhi on Thursday, 7 November.

She put forward several questions on the issue.

1) Why has no other place been given to the Tatas instead of fertile Singur?

2) Why is the govt not making the deal with the Tatas public?

3) Why the left which believes in "Workers of the world unite"- slogan, has suddenly turned against OUTsiders?

"Do you need a visa to enter West Bengal?" Arundhati Roy derides.

Expressing solidarity with the farmers of Singur in West Bengal who are resisting the State Government's move to acquire land and give it to Tata Motors for setting up a car manufacturing plant, noted author and activist Arundhati Roy on Thursday warned that such policies would ultimately force the marginalised to take up arms.

Addressing a press conference after participating in a protest outside the Communist Party of India (Marxist) office here, Ms. Roy said Singur was not an isolated case.

There was a connection between incidents such as Kalinga Nagar firing, the Narmada dam project and Singur as, in the name of development, people were being displaced without adequate compensation and a comprehensive rehabilitation plan.

`They speak the same language'

Criticising the stand of the CPI (M) Government, Ms. Roy said it was ironical that the same party once used to be among the most vociferous on such issues. "There is unity now in the political class. Whether the Government or the Opposition, they are all speaking the same language — either overtly or covertly," she said.

Stating that it was always easy for the Government to claim that the local population had given its consent for acquisition, Ms. Roy said people like landless tillers and sharecroppers would never count in official records.

Rejecting the State Government's contention that "outsiders were fomenting trouble in Singur," Ms. Roy said this is a "stale strategy" that the Governments have used several times in the past to discredit popular opposition. "It is not worth even a thought," she said.

CPI (M) leader's response

Earlier, recounting the turn of events at a meeting with CPI (M) Central Committee member Neelotpal Basu here, Editor, Mainstream, Sumit Chakravarty, expressed anguish at the senior leader's response.

"At the meeting we apprised Mr. Basu about how the police barged into the house of Bharti Das, owner of 1.5 acres in Singur who refused to hand over her land, and beat her up violating all human rights norms. All that Mr. Basu had to say was that the `police is police and that is the way they behave'," said Mr. Chakravarty.

Dismissing suggestions that people like Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar and Ms. Roy were against development, Mr. Chakravarty said in the present case there was no objection to the setting up of the Tata factory but there was no justification in the Government acquiring prime agricultural land.

"In the meeting (with Mr. Basu), we were told that the Tatas were shown five locations that included waste land and industrial areas which were lying in disuse. But they chose Singur because it had certain advantages in terms of infrastructure. If the Government wants development why doesn't it give the company land in backward areas where real job opportunities could be created," he argued.

He said civil society was protesting only because there was clear evidence of the local population resisting the Government's action.

`Amend laws'

Lawyer Prashant Bhushan said there was a serious need to put pressure on the Government for amending the land acquisition laws as they cannot be used to snatch land from the poor and give it to private parties.

Social activist Surendra Mohan said the Tatas had created a flourishing township on barren land in Jamshedpur in the early 20th century. "Why can't they take the same risk now? They are certainly a much more bigger corporation now," he said.