December 2007 Edition
..........People ask: Is Buddhadeb any different from Modi?
Rita and Umesh Anand
New Delhi
ARMED Marxist cadres have overrun villages in the Nandigram area of West
Bengal’s East Midnapore district to beat into submission people who have
been refusing to part with their land for a chemical hub and a Special
Economic Zone (SEZ).
Between November 6 and 10, the cadres, using guns and bombs and reinforced
by criminal elements, put an end to opposition by the villagers.
Nandigram was blockaded and the carnage was brief and brutal. It left some 40
people dead and several thousands are reported either missing or homeless.
Senior Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leaders have justified the
recapture of Nandigram on national TV. West Bengal’s Chief Minister, Buddhadeb
Bhattacharya, said it was an “eye for an eye” and that the villagers had been “paid
back in their own coin”.
Prakash Karat, senior CPI(M) central leader, said Maoists were behind the villagers and had to be evicted with violence. But the use of armed CPI(M) cadres to butcher innocent people while the police and the entire government machinery looked on has made thinking Indians fear a model of governance that doesn’t differentiate between party and State. Huge protest rallies have been held in Kolkata and addressed by Medha Patkar, champion of the disenfranchised, who was earlier refused police protection and, together with other activists, beaten up by CPI(M) cadres when she tried to go to Nandigram.“The CPI(M) must realise that its cadres can’t do what they like and declare‘The Red Sun has risen’ because when that happens the Sun of Democracy sets on the other side,” Medha Patkar told Civil Society after finally entering Nandigram.
Interview with Medha Patkar : ‘Nandigram has the peace of a graveyard now’
Interview with writer and activist Mahasweta Devi :
‘Not Maoists but CPM goons’
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Umesh Anand
THIS magazine has often been seen as being soft on the Left. We have been happy not to deny it. We don’t subscribe to the Left’s ideology, but we do believe the Left represents that space which is needed for the health of our democracy. It is therefore a sad day for us and so many others when the CPI(M) and its Left allies undermine their own credibility as they have done by letting cadres loose against the villagers of Nandigram.
What is the difference now between Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and Narendra Modi? The people protesting on Kolkata’s streets, as also in Delhi and Mumbai and on the internet, are liberal-minded citizens who evidently don’t agree with what the CPI(M) and its allies have done in Nandigram. The current outbursts are also perhaps part of a growing dissatisfaction with the CPI(M)’s rather old fashioned leadership which has mortgaged itself to its illiterate cadres and cannot fathom new paradigms of empowerment, globalisation and sustainable growth. CPI(M) leaders need to ask themselves why from Nandigram to the JNU student elections and the once sympathetic film and theatre fraternity in West Bengal they are running into so much opposition. Where is the new talent in the party?
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Rina Mukherji
Panaji
GOA’S golden beaches are lined with shanties and garbage. Sand dunes, once the hallmark of Goa’s seaside, are disappearing. Everybody agrees tourism is responsible. Goa has a population of 1.3 million but it gets 1.6 million tourists every year. Sand dunes are nature’s first defence against the mighty sea. Rows of dunes protect the hinterland from fierce winds and prevent erosion. As sea levels begin to rise because of global warming, sand dunes will be needed more than ever. There is also the lurking danger of tsunamis. While erosion is eating away coastlines, tourist footfalls have flattened sand dunes at Miramar, Panaji’s city beach. Beautification drives by municipal authorities removed vegetation instead of encouraging it. Sand on the beach had nothing to hold it down. Gusts of sand would blow on to the road alongside. There were times when roads around Miramar Circle had to be closed since there was the threat of accidents due to windblown sand. City authorities spent a lot of money on men and machines to clear the road of sand. “We had to spend Rs 10 lakhs annually,” says Elvis Gomez, Municipal Commissioner.
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Susheela Nair
Kasargode (Kerala)
IN 1996, Gul Mohammed, a businessman, returned from the Gulf to his village in Kasargode district of Kerala. He found his people dejected and worried. Many families were on the brink of starvation. The flourishing beedi industry had collapsed and farm incomes had declined. Gul Mohammed met the crisis head on. He showed people in Padanna, Valiaparamba, Cheruvathur and Trikkarpur villages of Kasargode how they could earn an alternative income from mussel farming. Incomes rose and everybody’s morale got boosted. Gul Mohammed is now starting a theme village called Oyster Opera in village Padanna with waterfront cottages where you can amble around and watch fishing all day. It is a fascinating sight to see women diving and fishing for oysters, wild clams and green mussels cultured on rafts along the Valiaparamba backwaters of Kasargode. The contentment on their faces is discernible as they fling their catch into their canoes.
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Vidya Viswanathan
Ghaziabad (UP)
BALDEV Gulati could be just about any small businessman in
Ghaziabad’s collapsing industrial estates. A few hands, modest
turnover, low profits. But the truth is Gulati is a messiah
in his own right. Visually challenged, he has started a spice business
which employs 50 differently abled people like himself.
The spices go by the name of NP Masale, the brand coming from
Gulati’s company, Navprerna, which supplies spices to retailers,
households in Ghaziabad and institutions like the India Habitat
Centre and Hotel Broadway. “This is not just a business. It enhances our visibility in society,”
he explains. “Physically challenged people buy ingredientsfrom
wholesalers. So wholesale traders treat them with respect
and negotiate as equals. We deliver to housewives and caterers
who negotiate with us. So mobility increases and that changes
attitudes in society.”
Gulati’s employees are mostly unskilled people. Earlier, he ran
a unit which made candles that float on water. Disabled people
from villages were employed for 15 days. They underwent training
in work ethics. Then they were assessed to find out if they
could report on time and work productively for eight hours a day. After that, Gulati found them employment in industries in
Ghaziabad.
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Shuktara Lal
New York
NEW York has the most extensive public transport system in the US so it isn’t a surprise to see rickshaws sailing through a busy street. New Yorkers call the vehicle a ‘pedicab.’ The rickshaws are popular with tourists. It enables them to see and learn about the city in a slower, languorous and more intimate manner. Buses and taxis are too hasty. The subway, of course, doesn’t even qualify. So rickshaw drivers double up as tour guides and give tourists detailed descriptions of New York hotspots like Times Square, Central Park and downtown Manhattan. Rickshaw drivers are mostly affiliated to pedicab companies in the city. Two such agencies are the Manhattan Rickshaw Company, established in 1995, and Main Street Pedicabs. But there are others.
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