By Girish Nikam

Politics, they say makes strange bedfellows. And we thought we had seen enough of this in this country during the last decade. But the last week’s spectacle in West Bengal seemed stranger than fiction, where people and parties holding extreme and conflicting political views, seemed to have converged.

While it was not at all surprising that the fading firebrand and Trinamul Congress chief Mamta Banerjee was visited and supported by the BJP’s compromise president, Rajnath Singh as she fasted fighting for the Singur farmers, what really made strange bedfellows was that the extreme left in the form of Naxals, who seem to be regrouping after years in West Bengal, also made common cause. And to add to this strange bedfellows were the two fiery women of the NGO world, Medha Patkar and Arundhati Roy!

Could there have been a more strange mixture of people having same opinion on an issue?

But stranger things are happening on the entire controversy surrounding the Tata Motors project in Singur, about 40 kms, from Kolkata. The other day, just after the BJP boycotted the Parliament over the arrest of Rajnath Singh while he was moving towards Singur, atleast half a dozen MPs belonging to BJP stormed into the Central Hall, and openly shook hands with CPI (M) MPs.

“Whatever may be our party’s stand, Boss, we are with you as far as this project is concerned”, they said without batting an eyelid.

And turning towards this columnist, one of the BJP MPs said, “Boss, can you imagine, we (BJP) are opposing this project! If we were in power, we would have been proud to own this!”

As if this contradiction within the BJP was not enough, a little later an MP belonging to one of the smaller parties of the Left front walked in. Addressing this columnist, the MP said, “I don’t know what Mamta is doing, but we (his party) are also not happy with what these CPI (M) people are doing in Singur. They are not addressing the problems of the landless agricultural laborers of the area, and they are also not telling us, what they intend to do. We are in the Government (in West Bengal), we are also in the ministry, but they don’t give us any details of what they are doing”, the Left MP fumed!

As if these contradictions were not enough to confound anyone, a sign of the confusing times we are living in, a senior Congress leader who was a former Union Minister and multi-time member of the Lok Sabha, narrated his experience during his meeting with the Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh recently.

“He is not at all excited about these 8 and 9 percent GDP growth rate. He told me `unless these growth rates can trickle down to the masses and end poverty and deprivation we cannot celebrate all these growths’. I was so happy because before I could express my reservations about the growing gap between the rich and the poor, he himself spoke about it”, the senior leader remarked.

Coming back to Singur, can one imagine, the Marxists who virtually had a monopoly over the usage of certain jargons, like calling all other parties, “bourgeois” are now being thrown the same word back at them in Bengal?

Marxists who have always prided on their commitment to the agriculture and farm sector, and the land reforms they had ushered in which resulted in their un-interrupted reign in that State for last nearly 30 years, are now being charged with being anti-farmer, and more interestingly pro-capitalists!

How did this come about? Last we had heard was that the Left front in Bengal was anti-industry and that during their reign they had successfully managed to drive the once-thriving industry out with their choking trade unionism.

�

They were also anti-capitalists and therefore no capitalist wanted to invest in that State. How did a situation like this come about?

We all know that the Left front was piqued by this anti-industry image it had acquired, and ever since Buddhadeb Bhattacharya took over as the Chief Minister over five years back, he ushered in a more healthy outlook not just in his own Government but in the party at the national level too. It had not been easy for him, considering the decades of mindset of the comrades he had to contend with.

Having finally managed to convince them and after evolving an industry-friendly policy, he embarked upon wooing the industrialists not only from India but also abroad. For the last couple of years, many industrialists and even software majors started moving in or atleast showing keen interest in the State.

Tatas were one of the many who showed interest. And they were shown five sites, of which they chose the one in Singur, as they needed good connectivity to the seaport and airports. Obviously as the detractors charge, the 900 odd acres, which they chose, was not all-barren land. But it is now an era of competition, and if industrialists don’t get what they want, they will move to another State, which is ready with open arms.

Yet, the Left front government, managed to work out quite a unique rehabilitation package. Apart from a compensation of Rs.8.5 lakh and Rs.12 lakh per acre for mono and double crop areas, for the landowners, the 237-recorded sharecroppers are given 25 percent of this price, which has not happened anywhere else in the country. The Mamta and company’s demand is that there are over a thousand other landless agricultural labourers who will not get any compensation. But according to the Government, the number is only 170.

Anyway apart from the compensation, 1,812 landholders and landless labour of the area who lost land, will be trained by the Tatas, for machining, electrician, fitter and such other jobs, to be employed later in the new car factory. Forty women are already being trained for sewing gloves to be used in the factory. More women are being trained for employment in the catering section of the factory. The West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation is bearing the cost of training and the trainees are also getting a stipend of Rs.500 per month.

Yet contradictions and strange bedfellows continue to dog the Marxist Government in West Bengal. And we continue to live in an increasingly confused world. How else does one explain Mamta championing the cause of West Bengal farmers and Marxists stoutly defending the capitalists! Times are a changing!

03/12/2006