India 360: Farming or industry?

New Delhi: The Left Front government's battle with farmers of Singur region in West Bengal to acquire agricultural land for a Tata small car plant is taking on mammoth proportions.

What is extremely ironic is the ruling CPM's confrontation with the farmer, considering the backbone of the CPM rule has been its famous land reforms - Operation Barga in particular, which gave ownership rights to the share cropper.

Now the CPI-M's success with land reforms in Bengal appears to have boomeranged for those resisting acquisition of farmland for Tata Motors' proposed factory in Singur are landless sharecroppers - the very class that the CPI-M had backed and strengthened through successful land reforms.

Trinamool Congress chief, Mamata Banerjee, has taken up the cause of the farmers with the backing of the BJP.

Rajnath Singh, came out openly in support of the Trinamool Congress, but was stopped from visiting Singur. He was detained by the police leading the BJP supporters to block the Singur-Kolkata highway.

However, the government though is standing firm and says that the land will be given to Tata Motors within the month of December as promised. So is the CPM abandoning the farmer? Is it the landless sharecropper who is bearing the brunt of industrialisation?

Are we losing the balance between agricultural land and industrial growth?

This was the question that was being debated on India 360. On the panel of experts were CPI-M's Nilotpal Basu; Director School of Convergence, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and MP All India Trinamool Congress, Dinesh Trivedi.

Sagarika Ghose:The compensation package of the Left Front government given to the farmers of Singur are exemplary - for each acre of single-crop land Rs 9 lakh and for each acre or multi-crop land, Rs 12 lakh. Registered bargadas - those part of Operation Barga - have all got 25 per cent of the price of land they used to plough, there are 1,200 other categories, which all will get compensation. 180 categories are undergoing training and others will get jobs in Tata Motors factory. Now this is an exemplary model of rehabilitation given to the farmers. Mr Trivedi, why then are you engaging in this noisy protest?

Dinesh Trivedi: Is there any compensation for life? All these farmers are asking is the right to life. If tomorrow I come and say you get lost, I am giving you compensation, give me your office here - it’s your choice, where you want to give it or you don’t want to give it. Are we in an independent India or are we in Tiananmen Square?

The clippings that I have seen on television all remind me of the Tiananmen Square protests. It is that come what may, get lost, I am going to kill you, let it be to the farmers attitude. If the farmers are willing and happy to sell, it’s their choice. Today India is post-independent country; we are not an era of Mughal Raj or in that matter, British Raj.

Sagarika Ghose: Nilotpal Basu, your government is basing itself on the backbone of the West Bengal farmers. Now the very constituency where Operation Barga was started is the one you are abandoning for the quest of private sector investments.

Nilotpal Basu: I think, I must disabuse your audience about the facts that you have given in your report. First of all, the farmers are not protesting. These are the people, who do not have land but a small section are having a certain sense of uncertainty about what happens about their future. Because, so far as land owners are concerned, 96 per cent of the land owners have actually have given their consent.

Sagarika Ghose: What about landless shared croppers?

Nilotpal Basu: There are no records of landless shared croppers, but we have informally conducted a survey and located 130 of them. They are making applications, of which 60 applications have been examined. And so far as the landless are concerned, we say that, what packages have been worked about in Singur, that will be the model for the country, because 1,800 people have registered. Out of which, the first of 180 people have undergone training, apart from this, there are women groups, who are undergoing training in tailoring.

Sagarika Ghose: So, you are saying it is exemplary. Is there any deep hypocrisy though in the part of CPI-M? When Sitaram Yechury went to protest against the Reliance SEZ in Navi Mumabai, there he protested about the landless farmers - how they were deprived of their rights. Here CPI-M even not allowing the protesters to go to the site, they are actually keeping protesters away by police raj!

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta: Section 144 is imposed so that Rajnath Singh is kept out, Medha Patkar is kept out. Look, the problem is really a bigger problem. Agriculture not only not profitably, it is growing much slower than the rest of the economy - whether it is industry or it is services sector.

Secondly, any industry, when it comes up any part of India, especially the large industrial unit, it is unrealistic to expect that it will only come up on a barren land even on a single-crop land. So you are bound to take some parts of lands, which are fertile, which are multi-crop land.

Now the question is on compensation. Are they been compensated adequately? Here again, the problem is one of credibility. As in case of Medha Patkar, people don’t believe what the government says. So, I think it will be a real test case for the Left Front government. It is going to be a very crucial point.

We all know that if a car factory comes up, it has a downstream impact, ancillaries come up - it could create jobs. All politicians and parties - CPI-M, BJP, Congress - whoever is in power wants job creation. So, it is going to be a test case.

You remember, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee announced on May 13 this year that West Benagl's Left Front has got this amazing breakthrough and that Tata was coming into the state. For him it is a prestige issue, for the CPI-M, it is a test case.

I think Singur is very very interesting, because whether West Bengal can act, show that you can provide farmers, including landless farmers, a compensation package, which will be the best in India, as what Mr Nilotpal Basu is claiming, it will serve as a model for the country. And more importantly there is the bigger issue of industry and agriculture, whether you can set up industry on the fertile farmland - because there is no other way, you have to.

Sagarika Ghose: You have to set up industries on fertile farmlands and there is no other way but to give compensation and make farmers stakeholders perhaps in the industrialisation process. Here is a quote of Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, where he said, “Please let Tatas come, please let Ashok Leyland come, please let Mahindras come, because West Bengal is desperately in need of jobs”. Mr Dinesh Trivedi is the Left Front sentencing the small farmers to death?

Dinesh Trivedi: Yes, I think that the death sentence has already been announced and is implemented in speed. You know Sagarika, it is a very sad day today. The reason I am sad is because now I want to know whether West Bengal is a part of India or not? Today, you require visa to go to West Bengal. I mean I am quite amazed that in post-independence India, you stop people from going and visiting!

Nilotpal Basu: I am saying, a small group of people are there, who have been insighted, but still rehabilitation package have been worked out, they are been given training and unfortunately people are going from outside.

Dinesh Trivedi: If you are talking about free market economy, let Tatas, or whoever want to purchase the land, negotiate with farmers. The governmenthas no business to interfere and forcefully take away the land from the farmers.

Sagarika Ghose: Why is the government forcefully interfering?

Nilotpal Basu: It is not forceful interfering. 95 per cent of people have given their consent letters, 75 per cent of the people, including shared-croppers have accepted their compensation cheques. And for acquiring such a big plot of land, it is not possible to do individually. There is a schedule to be made by 2008 that the car has to come in the market and we also do not know if there are any inter-corporate rivalries involved in this, because that schedule is very important. And for the choice of land also, it is the choice of the Tatas.

Dinesh Trivedi: Do you want to subsidised Tata by farmers? It is a laughing stock, how can you expect farmers to subsidise Tatas?

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta: This has become a test case for Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's government. His whole programme depends upon this. I think both sides has points which are valid. Now one thing, if Tatas are buying land, yes you should compensate the farmers. I won’t be surprised, if the govt actually increases its compensation, because they have that deadline to meet. Now, I think it is hypocritical to say that people can’t come there and protest. Get your cops, get people who support Tata Group, let them organise a counter protest.

Sagarika Ghose: So, the handling of the protest is not proper, it is mishandled?

Dinesh Trivedi: Have an independent body of, may be, 10 people and have an independent on-the-spot study and find out who is right and who is not right. We are ready to do that.

Nilotpal Basu: We have told that this entire escalation of violence and vandalism is unfortunate.

Sagarika Ghose: Here is the end of discussion on private sector verses the right of farmers. The Singur Tata Motor plant is a test case for industrialisation of the West Bengal state. Will Buddhadeb manage to push it through? One will just have to wait and see the twists and turns of the politics of industrialisation over the next few days.

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