The Communist Party of India (Marxist) controlled Left Front government of West Bengal has vowed to press ahead with plans to allow the building of an Indonesian owned chemical plant in the state following the massacre of Nandigram peasants opposed to its development.
Officials put the death toll at 14 but many eye witness accounts say up to 100 people were slaughtered as police opened fire on demonstrators in March of this year. Stories have since emerged of women being gang raped and bullet riddled bodies being dumped in local rivers.
Nandigram had been earmarked as a Special Economic Zone (SEZ), where foreign investment would be encouraged by exemption from local taxes, duties and red tape. But local peasants and activists objected, resisting the forced acquisition of 14,000 acres of agricultural land which is home to 29 villages and a population of 40,000 people.
For two months villagers manned barricades and dug up roads to prevent the state government forces advancing, but 4,000 heavily armed police backed by party activists from the ruling CPI(M) eventually smashed their way through, taking control of villages and brutally suppressing any signs of resistance.
The Stalinist CPI(M) controlled government, which ordered the attack, has been in power in West Bengal for some 30 years. However, while it retains the support and loyalty of workers, the urban poor and peasants, it has privatised, deregulated and dismantled public services and social programs. It has reduced agricultural subsidies.
In 2002 West Bengal became the first Indian state to effectively outlaw strikes in information technology and information technology-enabled industries. In central Indian politics the CPI(M) are valuable supporters of the ruling Congress Party-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) coalition – a government committed to neo-liberal “reform” and a “strategic partnership” with the US. The SEZs are currently key to its plans to attract foreign capital and promote export-led growth.
Since 2005 the government had approved 60 sites for SEZs around India but a huge outcry following the events in Nandigram massacre has led to another 300 applications being put on hold.
The incident has been a huge setback for the Stalinists in India. The building of a new chemical plant in West Bengal may well bring some new money into the region, but it is highly unlikely to benefit the workers or masses of poor peasants, who are witnessing at first hand the true nature of CPI(M) market reforms.