Nandigram- take on another take
Anirban has posted a reply to my blog on Nandigram. And when it is Anirban, it has to be something more than ordinary. As expected he has put a new angle to the entire issue, without going into haven is going to fall mode. Also Anirban has considered a larger picture, not only confining to Nandigram. He has considered all SEZs in a whole.
If I pick up the concerns and put them to perspective they are like this
1) With food scarecity looming large as threat, converting agricultural land would mean aggravating the problem
2) SEZs should happen only at non agricultural land, if infrastructure needs to be developed there, wait till that happens.
I have different view on both these issues.
I would start with the second point. Anirban is partially correct when he says necessity of converting non-agricultural land to industrial lands. However, it is like chicken and egg story. If we wait till infrastructure be developed before we leap into industrialization, it would be too late and may not even take place. Also if I consider a state like west Bengal, where most of the land it fertile agricultural land, this solution is simply not practical. If an atmosphere of Industrialization is not created, infrastructural development would not take place. So if need be, fertile land has to be used for creating a positive environment. Once industry starts settling in, parallely, development plans for non agricultural areas to be taken up. Otherwise business houses would move into other places and the chance of reviving state’s economy would remain unmoved.
On the other point of food scarcity, I find the concern misplaced. With industrialization settling in, people would have more and more money to invest into newer technologies of cultivation, which would increase productivity manifold. I read in an article about agricultural advancement in South Asia that in countries like Vietnam & Indonesia, they can produce more than double food grain than us from the same area of farmland. It is like upgrading manufacturing facility to produce more from the same factory. If we really consider agriculture is an industry, we have to start thinking it like one.
Lots of negativity, concerns and fear of unknown would try to bog our mind. But we need to break free from all these deterrents, sacrifice short term comfort for that long term gain, which we are aspiring for since last so many years!!!
1 comment:
It pains me to see that an essential issue is missed by most persons regarding Nandigram.
Though the issue started out of the State governments attempt at taking over agricultural land, what happened on 14.3.2007 had nothing to do with that issue. It was a reaction of the CPI(M) to the fact that its supporters had been expelled from a village in a State completely under its control. The CPI(M) could not digest this fact and at the urging of Benoy Konar and others the CM permitted use of police cover to recapture Nandigram by the CPI(M) hoodlums. Nandigram is yet another example of the use of the State machinery by the CPI(M) to establish its presence by force and to exterminate the presence of the opposition.
This is a crime against the Democracy of India. The CPI(M) should be banned from contesting any elections in the next 10 years for this crime. And the President's RUle should be applied to West Bengal. For, if the relevant article of the Constitution cannot be applied to this situation, I cant think of any situation when this can be done.
So I call upon all people concerned with the Nandigram issue to raise two demands.
1. Impose Presidents Rule in West BEngal and revive democracy, prune and correct the elements in the State Government and the Police that has favoured the CPI(M) and teach them that their responsibility is to the Government of India and its people and not the ruling party.
2. Ban CPI(M) from participating in any elections in the next 10 years for its crimes against democracy.
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