Dear comrade, Nandigram’s Left critics get a letter from Buddha

“West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has written to persons like Sumit Sarkar and Romila Thapar, explaining procedures that the government rightly followed in acquiring land for industrial projects in Singur and Nandigram,” CPM politburo member Sitaram Yechury said.

Bhattacharjee is learnt to have set out in his letter the land-acquisition procedure and the compensation being handed out.

It may be recalled that Sumit Sarkar, in his critique of the West Bengal government’s industrialisation policy published in this newspaper on January 9, said that “the West Bengal government seems determined to follow a particular path of development involving major concessions both to big capitalists like the Tatas and multinationals operating in SEZs.”

He went on to say: “… the strange thing is that these… are things which Left parties and groups as well as many others have been repeatedly and vehemently opposing. No less a person than the CPM general-secretary, in the course of last week, made two-three statements attacking SEZs. The CPM has been at the forefront of the struggles against such developments in other parts of the country.” Later, in a joint statement, Thapar, Roy, Dreze, Sarkar and others said the situation in Nandigram was “likely to be repeated across the state if the policy continues to be executed as it has, without consideration for human rights, democratic procedures and livelihoods.”

They had also called for an all-party peace committee in West Bengal to ensure an immediate end to the “forcible acquisition of land.” The West Bengal government had also come up with a status report on report on Singur.