Introduction to 5 minute news story on the struggle in Nandigram, West Bengal, India
By Dave Pugh
(You Tube link to view/download/copy/present this story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY4Xl2MNWuI)
This five minute news report from Al-Jazeera gives some background on the anti-displacement struggle at Nandigram in the state of West Bengal. It includes interviews with some of the survivors of the March 14, 2007 massacre by police and armed cadre of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which supported the Special Industrial Zone at Nandigram.
Nandigram is a block of 38 villages located 150 kilometers southwest of Kolkata. The 440,000 villagers living in Nandigram are mainly lower-caste Hindus and Muslims and work as small farmers, garment workers, laborers, fishermen and shop owners.
In January and March 2007, tens of thousands of farmers and villagers at Nandigram rose up to defend their land and livelihoods. As a result of their determined struggle, the people of Nandigram stopped the plans of the Left Front government in West Bengal to build a giant chemical complex on their land, which would have displaced 95,000 villagers. The people drove the police and the armed cadre of the CPI (Marxist) entirely out of the Nandigram area for 11 months. Even after two large-scale armed assaults by the police and CPI (Marxist) goons that killed 25 people in March and November 2007, the people of Nandigram have continued to stand their ground up to the present.
This struggle has radically transformed the political terrain in the growing struggle against the hundreds of Special Economic Zones and other industrial and mining projects that are being planned and built all over India.
The ILPS Campaign against Forced Displacement in India involves the struggle in Nandigram and dozens of movements across West Bengal, Orissa, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Maharastra and other states. These struggles enjoy the support of the anti-imperialist, revolutionary Maoist and progressive left in India. However, in West Bengal this movement has been opposed by the so-called Left Front West Bengal government led by Communist Party of India (Marxist), which has advocated a parliamentary road to power for decades.
In the neighboring state of Orissa, dozens of industrial and mining projects threaten the land and livelihood of tens of thousands of villagers. These projects include a huge steel plant planned by the south Korean steel company POSCO, and a Tata steel plant in the Kalinganagar area, where Orissa police shot down 15 tribals in 2006. Since then the organized people have successfully stopped construction on the steel plant.
An ILPS activist from the Bay Area, Dave Pugh, recently went on a three week fact-finding trip to five Indian states to learn more about the anti-displacement movement. While he was returning from the Kalinganagar area in Orissa on August 12, he was detained and interrogated for 8 hours, while his translator and guide were arrested on the trumped-up charge of being Maoist activists. Two other anti-displacement activists were arrested the same night and held on similar charges. Two of these four anti-displacement activists have been released on bail, while the other two are facing serious charges that could result in decades in jail. Letters of protest demanding dropping all charges on the "Orissa Four" will let the authorities in Orissa and India know that people around the world are watching these cases carefully.
Urgent Action Needed to Free Anti-Displacement Activists in Orissa, India
On August 12, four anti-displacement activists in the state of Orissa in eastern India were arrested and charged with being "suspected Maoists." This trumped-up charge is being used in Orissa, Chhattisgarh (Dr. Binayak Sen) and elsewhere in India to hold anti-displacement activists in prison for long periods of time. One of the four arrested activists, Amin Maharana, was tortured by the police for five days before he was produced before a court of law.
Two of these activists served as translators/guides for David Pugh, a U.S. teacher who spent three and a half weeks gathering information about the anti-displacement movement in India. Pugh is a member of the International Campaign Against Forced Displacement that was launched in June 2008 by the International League of Peoples? Struggle (ILPS), and traveled to India on a fact finding mission.
As a guest of Visthapan Virodhi Jan Vikas Andolan (VVJVA--People's Movement against Displacement and for Development), Pugh travelled across five states in central and eastern India visiting the sites of proposed industrial and mining projects, Special Economic Zones and real estate developments. He spoke with hundreds of villagers who are threatened with displacement and with many dedicated activists who are helping to organize the people's resistance.
On the night of August 12, the car he was traveling in was pulled over by local police for a traffic-related reason. Nevertheless, Pugh, his translator Protima Das, his guide Pradeep and their driver were taken to a police station for questioning. For the next eight hours, all of them were interrogated, first by the local police superintendent, and then by the chief police official of the state of Orissa. The latter was particularly hostile, accusing Pugh of being an "anti-government agitator" and Protima and Pradeep of being part of the Maoist underground in Orissa without any evidence. Pugh was released to his hotel at 4 am. As a result of phone calls and emails sent by civil libertarians, VVJVA supporters and foreign friends, Pugh was able to leave Orissa without further harassment.
Devendar Das, a member of the Central Council of VVJVA, was picked up from his house on the same night. He was presented to the press by forcing him to sit in the same car in which Protima and Pradeep traveled along with Pugh. Later Protima, Devendar Das and Pradeep were charged with serious political crimes that can result in many years behind bars in India's repressive political climate.
"This is an outrage," Pugh said. "Protima and Pradeep are guilty only of being anti-displacement activists and introducing a foreign friend to the realities of India's villages and the devastating impact that capitalist 'development' will have on tens of millions of people in India in the coming years."
On the same night, Amin Maharana, another member of the Central Council of the VVJVA and an anti-displacement activist in Orissa, was separately arrested by the police. For five days Amin was tortured and held incommunicado, raising fears for his life. It has become common in Orissa, as in other neighbouring states where the Maoist forces are strong, to torture activists during interrogation and then kill them in the name of an "armed encounter." Amin is also facing trumped up political-criminal charges.
Thus, there is an urgent need for all democratic and freedom loving organisations and individuals to demand that the Orissa police immediately withdraw the trumped up cases against Amin, Protima, Devendar Das and Pradeep, and that the Orissa authorities should issue a public apology for unjustified harassment of anti-displacement activists.
For information about the ILPS International Campaign against Forced Displacement, write info@no2displacement.com
For information in the U.S., write friendsofindianpeople@yahoo.com. Please CC your emails to us.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
(1) Call the nearest Indian embassy or consulate.
(2) Call or email the following addresses and phones in Orissa and New Delhi:
1. NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION
Faridkot House, Copernicus Marg,
New Delhi-110001, India
+1-11-23385368
+919810298900 (mobile)
E-Mail covdnhrc@nic.in
2. Shri Akhil Kumar Jain
Chief Executive Officer of the National Human Rights Commission
91-11-23384856 (O)
Secretary General?s Email: sgnhrc@nic.in
3. Special Rapporteur
Sikkim, West Bengal, Orissa, Andaman & Nicobar Islands
Email: dsarangi@yahoo.com
4. Chief Secretary of Government of Orissa:
0091 -674 - 2536700 (Phone)
0091- 674 - 2536700 (Fax)
Email: csori@ori.nic.in
