Left off the truth

Goebbels is credited with the statement that if you tell a lie often enough, it becomes the truth. Had it not been for West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's decision to come out with the truth on the events at Nandigram, the CPI(M) would probably have got away with its insistence that the killings over the acquisition of land for the Salim Group's proposed Special Economic Zone had nothing to do with it, but was the handiwork of the opposition parties who were spreading rumours about the impending land acquisition. The Haldia Development Authority had said that no such notices were given and this was reiterated by the CPI (M)'s Politburo the next day. Sadly for the party, and such is the coordination it has with the chief minister's office, a mere hour after the top CPI (M) body made this statement in the capital, the chief minister made his statement that the Haldia Development Authority had indeed issued notices for land acquisition, and that he had asked them to withdraw these notices! Mr Bhattacharjee then spoke of how no land would be acquired without the consent of the villagers, of how the government would talk to each and every gram panchayat, and so on.

These events reinforce what this newspaper has been arguing, that the government should have no role to play in land acquisitions except for zoning of land-use, since its involvement makes the land acquisition process a lot more lengthy and also politicises matters. It is worth noting that there has been no political protest over the huge land acquisition done in recent months by DLF and Reliance Industries in Haryana-on a much bigger scale than is the issue in Nandigram.

The events at Nandigram will raise questions in the minds of all businessmen waiting to get land for a variety of large projects, since what is evident is that the hold of state governments is not half as great as is generally assumed. It is also obvious that, in such a surcharged atmosphere, few other state governments will be able to muster the courage to acquire land on a large scale for industrial projects. The events at Nandigram may, therefore, hold back large industrial and other projects in the country.

That apart, what is striking about the events at Nandigram is that the Left has managed to get away with what is impolitely called lying, and there hasn't been too much of a furore over this. This should have been expected. For instance, when trade union leaders refuse to allow the Employees Provident Fund Organisation to invest in the equity market, few question its wisdom or even dare to ask how pensioners are expected to live from the vastly lower returns the EPFO will get if it is to be restricted to investing in just government and government-approved bonds. Most criticised the BJP when it was interfering with the universities, but there's hardly been a murmur when the Left does the same thing in West Bengal. And, if you move away from the domain of economics, as the Sachar report showed, despite the Left parties' enthusiastic espousal of secularism, Muslims in the state are perhaps amongst the worst off in the country. These are uncomfortable truths the party would do well to confront.