997 acres of multicrop land in Singur area of Hoogly district (West Bengal) is the arena where an exposure of those who mouth leftist slogans while very much being representatives of ruling classes, is on and much more effectively than lengthy theoretical discourses. It is one more arena where peasants of India are giving a fight to forcible displacement from agriculture and from their lands. It is an arena which proves that all sections of ruling classes, wherever in power, are willing to go all out to act as brokers of corporates and MNCs, against the interests of the peasantry and of agriculture.

997 acres of multicrop agricultural land are being acquired under the hated, colonial Land Acquisition Act 1894 from a peasantry who is resisting the acquisition. The explanations being offered by the CPM led Govt. of West Bengal as well as PBMs of CPM through newspaper articles are the same as those of Govts. in other parts of the country. They don't answer anything, just like the answers of the BJD-BJP Govt. of Orissa about Kalinganagar.

CPM led WB govt. and CPM spokespersons have all failed to explain why Land Acquisition Act has been used by the state govt. to acquire land for a private corporate house. If, as Budhadeb Bhattacharya asserts, a one lakh car is a peoples car, can this be accepted as the CPM definition of who are the 'people' of the country for whom their 'people's democracy' is targeted? It effectively knocks out the entire landless, small and perhaps even middle peasantry, and the vast sections of working class.

CPM led West Bengal Govt. explains that it has given high compensation for the land- 9 lakhs per acre for monocrop land and 12 lakhs per acre for two crop land. Instead of working on the land throughout the year, the money can be shut in the bank and the only 'work' required is to withdraw the interest. Is this the way the peasantry looks at land and agriculture? What about the people's contention that Singur land is multicrop land and the known tendency of all govts. to undervalue lands during acquisition? What if the peasantry do not wish to give up their lands for a Tata project, regardless of amount of compensation? Whose 'private' rights will the CPM led Govt. support, that of the peasants to their land or of the Tatas to beckon up what they choose through hired servitors- CPM led W. Bengal Govt. has already chosen, and is playing the role of Tata's goons to the hilt.

While the CPM led West Bengal Govt. claims that the Govt. has received consent letters for the acquisition of 950 acres of land from the peasantry and the owners of the remaining 47 acres can be 'rehabilitated' (not left alone), the Jami Rakha Committee of Singur has contested this. Reports cite a figure of 464 acres where farmers are yet to accept compensation. Will the Govt. like to answer if 20,000 police and thousands of other Tata guards (read CPM cadres) were needed to flood Singur, sequestrated in the area and warded off by Sec. 144 from surrounding areas, to forcibly fence merely 47 acres? Was the rape and murder of Tapashi Mullik, an 18 year old activist of Jami Rakha Committee necessary to bring to heel only the landowners of 47 acres? Why is the CPM led Govt. not allowing leaders of other organizations to enter the area and hear from the people that they had consented to Budhadeb's fancy 'industrialization'? Or is CPM afraid that the so-called consent will vanish into thin area if the curfew like conditions are lifted and the people left free to air their real feelings? Why are the CPM leaders so afraid of the people who they claim have voluntarily given away their lands? If it was so, why did CPM resort to using Land Acquisition Act which does not give the people the right to say no?

It is probably too late in the day to expect the revisionist chieftains to be bothered about growing food insecurity in the country and not to hand over multicrop land to Tatas. Though food availability in this land of vast population is steadily declining, revisionist leaders like their counterparts of other ruling class parties look forward to their place under imperialist sun. Their regime is to grant relief to the MNCs and corporates and destitution to peasants and workers. This is their new Marxism devoid of all traces of pro-people 'dogmatism'.

CPM led West Bengal Govt. claims that by giving the 400 sharecroppers a share of the money for the land (obviously only to the registered ones) and five years of consolidated minimum wage to agricultural workers (reportedly 1500 come over annually from Burdwan to work on these lands throughout the year) it has fulfilled its commitment towards the people. Would it care to answer, where do the displaced go? Will these newly born homeless, deprived of employment not add to the army of unemployed and underemployed? Will their lives not face social uprooting? And by the way, why do the 'Left' Front leaders extend support to tribal protesters at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi who demand 'land for land'?

The Fightback at Singur

The Singur Jami Rakha Committee was formed locally in Singur by the villagers to fight back attempts of the State Govt. to forcibly acquire land. While some might have accepted compensation, specially absentee owners, there is large section which is fighting the acquisition. This much is clear firstly from the extent of repression and isolation which the West Bengal Govt. used to force fencing and which it is using to defend it. So many local people need not have been arrested under Section 307 if only a tiny fraction of land was being disputed. It is the widespread opposition of the people to the acquisition which is prompting Trinamool leadership to take interest in this struggle. It is a fact that Trinamool, a ruling class party, is the dominant force in the area and in the Jami Rakha Committee. All ruling class parties support the pro-imperialist new economic policies, but the widespread opposition of the people to displacement is promoting some of them to join the struggle like Trinamool in Singur.

The first attempt by Tata to survey his 'promised lands' had ended in a fiasco for Tata who was gheraoed by the villagers and made to promise not to return, obviously a patently false promise like Tata's other promises to bring benefits to the people. So now the CPM led WB Govt.'s apparatus and forces have gone in his stead. What West Bengal "Left' Front Govt. has done in Singur in service of Tata is in no way less than how the BJD-BJP Govt. of Orissa worked for the same corporate house in Kalinganagar or Mulayam Singh govt. for Ambani in Dadri.

02.12.06: Severe police repression was unleashed on the villagers of Khaserberi. The police with the help of CPI(M) cadres carried out severe repression by entering the houses of the leaders of the Krishi Jami Rakhsa Committee . Those  houses were specifically targeted  who have declined to give up their land. The entire people of the country witnessed the barbaric act of the police beating up of the activists of the movement which reminded of the police beating on the workers of Honda at Gurgaon. The police went berserk firing tear gas shells, rubber bullets, breaking doors, entering bathrooms and breaking sanitary pans and even kicking the food which was being prepared at homes. A total of 48 people were arrested out of which 16 were women including a 65 year old woman. Four of these people were seriously injured due to police repression and were treated at Imambara Govt. hospital under police supervision. It is alleged that torture by the police continued in the jails also. Case under sec 307 i.e conspiracy of murder was made against those arrested. Besides cases for illegal gathering, resisting work of govt. officials  etc charges were also framed against them.

Instead of enquiring into the death of the village youth or taking steps to withdraw the false FIRs lodged on Sept. 26, the West Bengal Govt. pressed ahead with forcible land acquisition. In the last week of November a massive police force was concentrated in Singur and entry of people into the area checked. On December 1, '06, Section 144 was imposed in the entire area, 20,000 policemen flooded it along with CPM cadres in the alias of security guards and forcible fencing was carried out. Newspapers carried photographs of protesting peasants; alongwith the 20,000 police, the Sec. 144 which remained in place for weeks, the heinous murder and rape of local 18 year old activist Tapashi Mullik- all this hardly substantiates CPM's contention of a willing peasantry bending over backward to be displaced and unemployed for the sake of CPM-Tata's 'people's car'.

The other constituents of the West Bengal Govt. have performed public expatiation by criticizing the CPM in West Bengal and passing a resolution urging police to be restrained. With that they carry on within the Govt., having freed their 'conscience' while continuing to enjoy privileges of power, benefits of land acquisition even of handing over multicrop agricultural land and of 'people's car' in the process. They remain with CPM, albeit giving it some kicks when the opportunity affords itself.

CPM leadership, throttling the voice of all opposition and not permitting any other party except themselves to hold meetings in Singur, claims that it is the outsiders who are fanning trouble and it is the Naxalites who were 'to be blamed' for people's resistance to fencing on December 2. With people of Singur not permitted to raise their voices, they are speaking on their behalf, falsely of course. Mr. Sitaram Yechury, speaking in Parliament, also insinuated that other industrial houses may be behind the struggle of peasants. Current band of leaders of CPM have learnt all the tricks of the trade of ruling class parties. Choosing revisionism in youth, in age they have become downright reactionaries.

Trinamool Congress is playing the dominant role in Jami Rakha Committee in Singur having been re-elected from this assembly constituency in the last elections. After the resistance to fencing on December 2, 2006, Trinamool leadership has shifted the focus of struggle to Kolkata where its leader Ms. Mamata Banerjee is on hunger strike. It is the struggle of peasants of Singur and the support they get from peasants from other areas in Bengal, democratic organizations and people of the state and outside that will determine the outcome of this struggle in the immediate context.

CPI(ML)-New Democracy has been steadily supporting the struggle of Singur peasants under the leadership of Jami Rakha Committee. Our leaders and cadres have been lending active support to this movement. We have tried to combine the support to the struggle of the people at the ground with an exposure of the CPM Govt.'s policies. We have resolutely opposed giving agricultural land for industry, MNCs and corporates and steadfastly exposed the new economic policies followed by Central and State Govts. We have taken the struggle against displacement as not only a propaganda slogan but a programme of concrete struggle. Our approach has been not only to conduct propaganda campaign but to participate in these struggles. As appropriately noted by the resolution of our CC "These struggles are a concrete challenge to the new economic policies and drive of the Central and state govts. to accelerate the pace of these policies."