Nandigram (West Bengal): Twelve years after the anti-land acquisition movement changed the political landscape of West Bengal when the three-decade-long Left Front rule ended and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) came to power, many locals in the cradle of change, in this village, feel ‘disenchanted and forgotten’. They are now yearning for another change.
Nandigram in East Midnapore district along with Singur in Hoogly district, were considered to be two pillars which laid the foundation of the TMC government led by Mamata Banerjee in 2011.
Nandigram falls under Tamluk Lok Sabha constituency and will go to polls May 12. The bloody agitation over land acquisition for a 14,000-acre chemical hub project by Indonesia’s Salim Group which started in January 2007 led to the death of 14 people in police firing in March, the same year. It was during the then Left Front government’s rule. Riding on anti-land acquisition protests, the TMC dislodged the 34-year-old Left Front government from Bengal in 2011.
But eight years down the line, social disparity, development and fortune for a ‘selected few’ have not only angered the locals but also forced some to think of an alternative.
“What did we get out of the anti-land acquisition movement? We were used as pawns in TMC’s political fight. We still live in abject poverty. Had there been an industry, we would have at least got jobs,” said Haripada Mondal, a sharecropper who was part of the ‘Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee (BUPC) when it was formed in 2007 to protest against the land acquisition.
Mondal represents more than 80 per cent of farmers of Nandigram who are marginal and engaged in subsistence agriculture and earn Rs 200 daily. They live in abject poverty, with most of their children venturing out of the state in search of jobs in Gujarat, Mumbai, and Odisha.
But the picture is different for the rest of the 20 per cent of farmers’ who have doubled their income in the last few years by engaging in shrimp farming. Co-incidentally, most of these farmers are active supporters of the TMC in the area. The farmers with large landholding have converted their agricultural land in water bodies and have started shrimp farming since 2012 leading to huge profits.
“Most of them who now roam around in SUV cars and have made three-storey buildings, earlier had a tough time in getting two square meals a day. Where from did they get so much money? We feel betrayed,” stated a farmer, pointing at the house of a local TMC leader.
Although there has been development in the area such as readily available drinking water, 100 per cent electrification, bridges, proper roads, hospitals and schools, the alleged corruption by some TMC leaders seems to have angered the masses.
The local TMC leadership dubbed the anger of masses as nothing but a result of ‘false propaganda by the BJP and the CPI (M) in the area’.
“It is a baseless allegation against TMC. We have worked tirelessly for the development of the area. We will defeat this propaganda and win by a much higher margin,” said Dibyendu Adhikari, the TMC candidate from the Tamluk Lok Sabha seat.
Local TMC MLA and state minister Suvedu Adhikari, one of the main architects of the Nandigram movement, said the party has nothing to worry as its vote share is intact.
“It is CPI (M) which is losing its votes to BJP. If CPI (M) can’t hold on to its support base, then it is not our fault,” Adhikari, who is also a former MP from this seat (2009-2014), stated.
According to the state BJP leadership, in order to stall its growth, the TMC had allowed the CPI(M) to reopen its party offices in Nandigram after a gap of 12 years. The allegation has been denied by both the TMC and the CPI(M).
The Congress has fielded expelled CPI (M) leader Lakshman Seth, a three-time MP from this seat, who had recently joined the party after a short tenure in BJP.