Nandigram Lies: Media Caught With Pants Down

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Comrade radicalhypocrite (I am not using the word comrade here in any derogatory sense; instead, since radicalhypocrite has himself or herself ended his/her comments on both occasions on this site with the words “comradely yours” I am taking those words at face value and I am using the word comrade in good faith and in all sincerity) has commented upon my earlier post and I think he/she has raised some important issues which should at least be discussed if not debated as well. This post is, therefore, addressed to comrade RH.

Comrade radicalhypocrite,

While I do respect your right to differ with me I don’t see why you should have any objection to debates and discussion unless you agree with the stand taken by Mamata and BUPC that there can be no discussion and debates, only gunfights, bandhs and Bangla Achal. Since I don’t believe any issue can really be solved through gunfights, bandhs or Bangla Achal I would like to continue the debate/discussion if only to educate myself. I hope you will at least grant me the right to get educated. After all there is no downside to that as debates never killed or harmed anybody although they can certainly educate.

First, let me clear up some misunderstanding. When I referred to commie haters I was not referring to you but to all those who indulge in commie bashing even when they have no issues on which to do so. That’s why I gave the example of Krishna and mentioned that comments by such people require no comments. The very fact that I was commenting on your comment proves that I do not believe you belong to that category of commie haters. That is also the reason why I would like to continue this discussion (in case you are not happy with the word “debate”). Hence, you may continue to differ with me with no fear of being subjected to “improper adjectives” although I will surely try to prove in the following paragraphs that you are utterly and thoroughly confused and that what you are talking about has no relevance to the real world in which we live. And, I will also certainly hope that through this discussion both of us will get educated. Please do not make it an ego trip since education ends when ego takes over and rationality, logic and facts become irrelevant when ego rules the roost.

To come to your three precise points.

Point 1: On land acquisition.

There are actually several points in this one point if I have understood you correctly.First, you say there should be no industrialization since it always involves displacement of agricultural populations. I am ignoring the comments on Africa etc because they are not germane to the issue in the present historical context.

The reason: such industrialization “is centred on the 19th-century notion of historical ‘progress’ formulated by some British economists who saw everything as dispensable to the forces of capital, and without the slightest feeling for individuals, populations and the ecology.” You have also quoted Marx’s Capital first volume and Engels’ The Condition of the Working Class in England in support of your views.

While Marx and Engels did condemn the painful dispossession of farmers from their lands for industrialization were they at the same time condemning the development of capitalism based on industrialization? Were they calling for a struggle to oppose industrialization and support the maintenance of pre-industrial feudalism? Didn’t they also oppose the Luddites despite being sympathetic to them? Did they also oppose the “notion of historical progress formulated by British economists” or did they make it very clear that historical progress will inevitably mean that everything in the world will become “dispensable to the forces of capital, and without the slightest feeling for individuals, populations” (they were not bothered about ecology as they had not been able to predict the horrific consequences of industrialization at that time in history) – what we today call globalization?

I think The Communist Manifesto (and much of M&E’s writing) is mainly about how capital will bring under its fold the entire world and in the process create the forces that will bring about a revolutionary transformation of the relations of production from capitalist to post-capitalist communism. Please correct me if I am wrong.

The last 160 years of history since the publication of The Communist Manifesto has proved almost verbatim whatever M & E wrote about the development of capitalism (I am not talking about the part dealing with the inevitability of communism which we can discuss some other time) and this development I think has taken place irrespective of whatever notions of historical progress that British or for that matter any economist had. In fact, more than any British economist including Adam Smith and Ricardo, the earliest champions of free market capitalism, it was M&E (they were by no means British) who claimed that feudalism will be replaced by industrial capitalism all over the world because of the laws of history, which they called historical materialism.

Even all this is not important. The key question is if not industry then what? Since industrialization and progress has become synonymous in this real world in which we live  what other notion of progress are you suggesting we should adopt? In any case, how do we wish away the last three hundred years of the history of industrialization and capitalist development? How do we now overnight create a world where there can be any kind of progress without industrialization?

You can’t and it is a given that we are living in the age of capitalism whether you like it or not. Perhaps you are nostalgic about going back to feudalism but I do not see how we can achieve that. I too would like to go back to feudalism provided I could be a big landlord because then I would be able to live peacefully in some rural hamlet, maybe Nandigram beside the river Haldi, amongst nature and all the birds that I love to watch and observe so much, there would be many serfs who would do all the work and I would simply live on their toil while indulging in all the time-honoured passions – wine, women and song. A very desirable way of living maybe but somehow it seems to me somewhat impossible and unrealistic.

No, I don’t think that is quite possible anymore and whether we want it or not and like it or not we are living under conditions of capitalism and just as industrialization will take place so will there be capitalism in agriculture as well.  And that means the farmers you are talking about will not remain farmers for too long – the big capitalist farmer (even if somehow no industries come up and the anti-industrialization forces represented by people such as you manage to halt the industrialization of West Bengal while it goes on in the rest of the country and the world) will soon displace all the small and marginal farmers from their lands and they will be converted into either landless labourers or will become industrial workers or will join the army of unemployeds. Do you want the farmers of Nandigram and elsewhere in this country to try to hold on to their small plots of land as long as they can till they get finally displaced if not by the CPI(M) then by the forces of history irrespective of whichever political party is in power? Or do you think by halting industrialization you can also halt capitalism as a whole and all forms of economic development so that the farmers of Nandigram will continue to live ever after with their small and marginal land holdings?

There is a small difficulty there as well. Even if we assume that by halting industrialization you can also halt the process of capitalist transformation of agriculture and you can somehow have a totally frozen economy that will eternally remain like this, do you think the farmers of Nandigram really want to be frozen with their small and marginal land holdings eternally? Don’t you think they too want to get rid of their crushing poverty as soon as possible? Don’t you think they too would want economic development? You may be rich enough and maybe enjoying all the benefits of economic and capitalist development such as access to the Internet, TV,  an opportunity to get yourself decently educated etc etc (things that you surely have although there must be many other industrial products that you use – watches, refrigerators, perhaps even a/cs and cars and what not but since I do not know about them let me stick to what I know) but don’t you think the farmers of Nandigram or for that matter elsewhere in West Bengal, India and the world also have an equal right to enjoy the same privileges?

But then you will argue that you are only against industrialization but not against some other notion of “progress” and “advancement”.  Since you have not defined what this other notion could be and since no one else in the world (British or Indian or for that matter from any other country) has as yet come up with any new economic theory that provides a model of progress and advancement without industrialization we have to assume that this notion exists only in your imagination. Well, one can’t argue with imagination.  And, I suppose the poor farmers of Nandigram can become as affluent as you are simply by imagining that they have become so even as the unstoppable forces of history displace them from their lands and convert them into rural and urban proletariat.

Second, it seems to me that your critique of industrialization somehow revolves around  the threat to the environment and ecology. On this you are on solid ground and I agree fully with you that industrialization is a sure way of destroying the environment and the fact that we Humans as a species are heading towards extinction is mainly because of industrialization and development of capitalism over the last 300/400 years. But then what is the alternative? What is a sustainable model of progress and advancement? It is possible to suggest such sustainable models based on the concept of “limits to growth” but any discussion on those lines have to be based on accepting that capitalism and industrialization is the model that exists now and what is needed is a global revolution for the entire human species to dump this model of development and adopt another new model that will have to based on (a) collective/community ownership of global resources by all the people of the world, and (b) the concept of “limits to growth”. Saying this is easy but exactly how this is to be achieved in practice is a very complex issue – an issue that I am trying to think and write about here and like me there are at least hundreds of thousands of people around the world who are thinking and writing about this. You too can think and write but if you do so by denying the existence of the existing model I don’t think whatever you think or write will have any practical relevance. This new world will exist only in your imagination.

Third, you have left an escape route to free yourself from all the above criticisms. You will argue that you are neither against industrialization nor are you denying the existence of capitalism, in fact, you are a big critique of this “racketeering and profit-making”. You only want that this industrialization take place in fallow land and you are convinced that there is enough such fallow land. You also seem to be opposed to forests being converted to industrial land. That means you are specifically demanding that any industrialization must be done only on fallow land.

I think the West Bengal as well as all state governments and the Indian government  will readily listen to you if you can identify “enough fallow lands” that can be converted into industrial lands. They are desperate about finding such lands and they will give you a hero’s welcome if you can identify “enough fallow lands” for them. I am sure the West Bengal government at least is not interested in creating problems like Nandigram and Singur if they could find enough fallow lands for industrialization.  Or, do you think like our venerable Didi that the West Bengal government’s single point agenda is to somehow displace farmers and put them into poverty and deprivation as a matter of deliberate policy? That there are “enough fallow lands” in West Bengal where industries can be set up but the West Bengal government and the CPI(M) is not interested in utilizing them  simply because they have found a new way of rigging the polls and beating Didi at the hustings by deliberately displacing thousands of farmers from their cultivable lands? That is why despite the existence of fallow lands they are deliberately targeting triple cropping and double cropping lands so as to displace the owners of these lands and convert them into the proletariat who will now readily vote for the CPI(M) since it is the party of the proletariat.

Is that what you are trying to say? That again seems a little far-fetched – a part of the imagination syndrome I have mentioned above – because (a) wherever possible the West Bengal government is trying to utilize fallow lands for industrialization as they have done with the Jindals, (b) they are trying to use Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping to try and identify such fallow lands. But the hard reality is that in West Bengal at least there is very little fallow lands.

Finally, your dogmatic assertion that there can be no acquisition at all as you “don’t agree with any of the notions of compensation packages, recompenses, and those termed unfortunate collateral damages.”

This is absolutely Didi speak despite your strenuous attempts to disassociate yourself from her brand of politics. First, you don’t want industrialisation because it is oh so horrible capitalism where racketeers and profit-makers and real estate sharks will have a field  day plus it will destroy the environment and ecology. Second, if there is any industrialization at all (since a complete no-industrialization policy will not find any takers) it should be done on non-existent fallow lands which again really means no industrialization because there are not “enough fallow lands”. And, finally if the West Bengal government is unable to find “enough fallow lands” then again no industrialization since you like Didi will not agree to any acquisition at all whatever the compensation. So, on the whole no industrialization. Period.

Thus, what you are saying tantamount to: we in the cities as well as all those privileged enough to presently enjoy the fruits of industrialization will go on enjoying those fruits but all those not so privileged, all those small and marginal farmers and all those who can get employment and livelihoods only through industrialization will have to remain satisfied with whatever they have or do not have. No development for them, no hope for a better future for them. Wow! Excellent politics! In the name of protecting the interest of the poor farmers what you are demanding is that they remain poor forever because you claim that is in their interest but industrial and economic development is not! You will live and prosper because you are already enjoying the fruits of industrialization but they will not! If this is not the height of reaction, pray what is?

In case, however, you are not that reactionary and you want all to live happily and you too want industrialization, progress and advancement whichever way you may define such terms then you will have to agree to (a) the inevitability of industrialization and capitalist development till we can complete a global revolution and find some alternative to environmentally unsustainable industrialization and inequitable and unsustainable notions of progress and advancement although in the meantime we can work towards more sustainable and equitable systems and struggle to create a new more equitable and sustainable world order but till then capitalist development will not stop whether you or I like it or not, (b) that such capitalist development and industrialization will happen inevitably on non-fallow lands as West Bengal is a land-scarce state (I can give detailed statistical information about how land scarce West Bengal is but since all the information is already in the public domain I don’t want to waste my time fishing it out and presenting it here – you can do some research yourself and convince yourself that West Bengal in particular and India in general is truly land-scarce and there is not, I repeat NOT “enough fallow lands”) (c) the only way to stop the painful displacement of farmers from their lands for industrialization – something that you have rightly pointed out has always happened in history hitherto – is by controlling the process not by free market forces but by the state, (d) that if some model of working out such compensation along the lines suggested by me is adopted then this “painful” process can actually become a “pleasurable” process.  Already, with regard to SEZs the Central government under public pressure and pressure by the very same CPI(M) that you so dislike has begun to veer round to a model of compensation which is similar to what I have suggested although not quite as far going as I have suggested.
Hence, I will again ask you to carefully read what I have written about compensation for non-fallow lands when such lands are converted for industrial purposes. I agree with you that a one-time payment for such lands however high it may be is not enough. The compensation package must comprise such elements that will ensure that the people whose lands are being converted have the first charge on the benefits of such industrialization not just on a one-time basis but for ever. Hence, I have proposed a model as to how this can be ensured and how the farmers who lose land can be given a compensation package that will ensure that their existing means of livelihood is replaced by an even better, I repeat better, means of livelihood. I have not, I repeat NOT supported the compensation package offered for Singur. In fact, I have criticized it but you are still harping on my use of the phrase “best package” simply because I have tried to point out that although the compensation package for Singur was not good enough at least it was better than whatever other states have offered to displaced farmers, that means I have tried to say that the CPI(M) is better than all other ruling parties in all other states on this issue, which, of course, is not acceptable to you as you are dogmatically determined to vilify the CPI(M).

It seems to me that your dogmatic rejection of any kind of industrialization has led you to completely ignore what I have actually written about compensation since a sure sign of dogmatism is a closed mind which refuses and avoids discussion and debate and which refuses to accept new ideas and new thinking.

Regarding SEZs let me state clearly that I do not support the concept of SEZs at all but I do support industrialization since that is the only model of development that we now have. But yes, there is certainly a need to create a more environmentally sustainable production system and this can be done with a very low level of industrialization if we can do away with the present military-industrial model of capitalist growth since much of today’s industries can be done away with once all armies are disbanded and all arms production is halted, that is all industries that produce “destruction” goods and services or inputs for producing such goods and services are closed down and instead the whole world switches gradually (or suddenly) to producing only what I call “existential” goods and services – that is only those goods and services that people need to consume to exist.

So, please do not confuse the critique of the military-industrial combine of modern capitalism with the need for industrialization in West Bengal. West Bengal certainly needs industries to generate incomes and employment for the benefit of the people of West Bengal at this point in time although we can certainly carry on  a struggle against the production of “destruction” goods by the military-industrial combine of modern monopoly capitalism.

Point 2:  On the nature of the struggle in Nandigram

Whatever you have written on this point has no relation to reality or truth:

• The BUPC was not formed after the March 14 killings nor was it formed in reaction to those deaths. It was formed long before that, long before there were any deaths or any violence.
• The police did not fire on a peaceful religious gathering to kill 13 people irrespective of whatever APDR, or all India fact finding team or Medha Patkar may say because the police firing was visible on TV and TV footage exists where the policemen are clearly seen being fired upon although in front of them they could see only women and children who were being used as a human shield and the people firing on the policemen hid behind these women and children like cowards . The footage exists and anybody who saw the news at that time should be able to remember that there was no police firing on any so-called peaceful religious gathering. The footage can even now be retrieved from the archives and checked again. Nobody can get away by lying about this hard fact.
• No Lakshman Seth or his henchmen went and forced some arbitrary people to vacate their homes or lands, beat them up and harmed them. Not a single real person can be produced who had to vacate his home and land by Lakshman Seth’s henchmen before the BUPC was formed. I challenge you to produce one single person who was evicted from his home and land before the formation of the BUPC.  In fact, if such an event had actually happened it would have surely gone to court. And, the media, ever hungry to vilify the CPI(M), would have surely reported about such legal action. Since there was no actual notification for acquisition of land if someone had been actually evicted from his land or home he or she would have surely sought relief from the legal system and would have surely got such relief. Instead, the truth is, from the time the possibility of a notice for land acquisition had arisen and even before it was actually officially put up or implemented, the BUPC began to drive out CPI(M) supporters from the Nandigram area, made them homeless and burnt their houses and forced them to become refugees. These are facts that the anti-CPI(M) media, the APDR and the all India fact finding team did not find. May I ask why?  But that this is what actually happened is now coming out in the same lying media – quite unintentionally of course. For example, the most rabid of anti-CPI(M) newspapers, the Ananda Bazar Patrika says in its screaming main headline today (November 13) – “New refugees from terror-free villages” – which is an admission that there were “old” refugees. Why did they not write about these “old” refugees before? Who had made these people refugees? Or is it quite alright to make CPI(M) supporters refugees as I suppose they are not human beings and do not count but if anti-CPI(M) hoodlums flee the area in fear of some imagined retaliation then they become refugees for whom we must ooze with sympathy when in reality they have voluntarily fled from the area and voluntarily become refugees despite assurance from the CPI(M) that they would not be harmed simply because they know the kind of atrocities they had committed earlier and therefore, were afraid that the CPI(M) will now give them back what they had done to the CPI(M) supporters.
• You have mentioned “when was the last time you found a Bangali peasant sporting an AK-47? And riding on a motorbike, throwing bombs at random, raping like sadists their own village folk?” – my, my, were you there comrade? Did you see all that? Who says all that? Any photographs?  Any evidence or proof?  Or just uncritical and blind belief in propaganda? The only photographs or footage so far made available by the media showed the BUPC people firing at random and throwing bombs – not a single CPI(M) cadre has been caught on film firing guns or throwing bombs. How come? You guys are really funny, I have to say. Pure figment of the imagination. Can you give one single bit of proof or evidence to support all that big talk? No sir, I am sorry you will never find any proof or evidence simply because it never happened and all that you are spouting  by rote is all that  you have been fed by the media and the anti-CPI(M) propaganda machine. AK-47, ha! Do you have any idea of what an AK-47 can do?  You simply cannot hide the evidence of using an AK-47! This is just plain silly like the bullet that hit Didi – she is so illiterate, uneducated and foolish that she does not even know that a rifle’s cartridge is found where the rifle is fired from not where the bullet goes! And you believe such obvious  balderdash! Even to lie convincingly you have to have some knowledge and intelligence but Didi and her propaganda machine does not even have that.
• Today’s (November 13) newspapers are comical. All of them have screaming headlines about Red Terror and CPI(M) supporters riding into Nandigram on motorbikes with guns slung on their shoulders, houses razed to the ground, hundreds of people killed but no one will ever know about them etc etc. Even editorials on the carnage done by the CPI(M)’s Red Army. Ha! Again totally without evidence – totally! Instead what evidence have they themselves provided? The pictures of CPI(M) supporters riding motorbikes show no guns slung on their shoulders – I tried very hard to find the guns in the excellent quality pictures printed by The Telegraph but could not find any although the headline alongside says “Bearing guns and flags, Red army roars in” (emphasis mine).  Motorbike riders yes, but no guns. Ditto for The Times of India’s picture on Page 1 bottom – motorbikes yes, but no guns. If the reporters concerned and their photographers did not see the guns and could not photograph them how do they know  that these mobike riders had “guns slung on their shoulders”? I suppose the Red Army cadres told them about the guns and these cadres must have also bragged about the hundreds they had killed with those guns? What utter rubbish! Similarly, there is just one single photograph of a burnt house carried by Hindustan Times and in the absence of more burnt houses they repeated that picture twice – once on Page 1 and again on Page 4 of HT Live – you don’t even have to look carefully to realize that it is undoubtedly the same house. Why? Couldn’t their photographer take pictures of all the hundreds of houses burnt? The Telegraph refrained from carrying any picture because I suppose they found that the only so-called burnt house visible had already been photographed by the HT photographer.  Ditto for Times of India – no pictures of burnt houses. Only the ABP has a picture of another house although it is quite possible it is the same house as photographed by HT. Most probably the one and only burnt house photographed was burnt by the BUPC and probably belongs to a CPI(M) supporter. In fact, the only burnt houses in Nandigram are those of CPI(M) supporters which is the obvious reason why the media simply did not have the guts to use pictures of those burnt houses because their game would be exposed the very next day. Similarly, no pictures of people injured or killed except for one picture in the Times of India of an injured person lying on a SSKM bed – not in the Nandigram area. So, the evidence about hundreds of burnt houses boils down to picture of one single burnt house repeated twice in one newspaper and in another newspaper another picture of again only one single house – no evidence at all of hundreds of houses burnt. Or do these media guys want us to believe that all the burnt houses were put back into shape and all evidence of burning was also removed by the CPI(M) cadre within the seven days of operation Nandigram? Again what utter nonsense! Similarly, for dead people and the hundreds (or is it thousands?) of people killed by the CPI(M) for which of course, no documentary evidence is needed since there is a convenient escape route. The reports on killings have all been qualified by the phrase “we shall never know” – all newspapers have used that phrase. Why? If you kill thousands or even hundreds or even tens of people or just one single person how is it that no one will know? How did the CPI(M) manage to silence all the people who could have known the people killed? Each human being whether he lives in a rural or urban area always knows at least hundred other people (friends, relatives, acquaintances) who will get to know if he or she is killed. At least a few of these friends, relatives, acquaintances would surely be living far away from the Nandigram area and safe from the CPI(M)’s so-called Red Army.  So how will the CPI(M) silence all those people who would be aware of the existence and then sudden non-existence of even one person. How can the CPI(M) hide the fact of killing if they have really killed anybody. And how come the CPI(M) did not kill any of the actual leaders of the movement since all of them are hale and hearty according to newspaper reports? They should have been killed first. How come the TV media has not been able to show any TV footage of the so-called carnage by the CPI(M) over the last few days? STAR-Ananda’s much hyped “Hell In Nandigram” based on the footage brought by a photographer who apparently went in and took the footage under life threatening conditions only showed BUPC people firing away at random and throwing bombs – it failed to show a single CPI(M) cadre firing back or throwing bombs or burning or looting or raping. But what hype and what a glib narrative by Mr Suman Bullshit about spine chilling terror unleashed by CPI(M) cadres although they failed to capture even one such cadre in their footage – yes STAR-Ananda is certainly terrifying, as terrifying as Goebells – no doubt about that and they and their lies represent a positive danger to civil society and should be completely banned as a media house. Of course, people like you will never raise any questions because as long as the newspapers and the media say things against the CPI(M) you will blindly believe it to be true irrespective of whether there is any evidence to prove this truth or not. Of course, this is not new. The media did this earlier too with regard to Nandigram when they said thousands killed and hundreds raped etc but their lie was caught when Anindita Sarbhadhikary produced a documentary by going inside Nandigram and documenting the reality. But of course, I am quite sure you have not bothered to see or know about that documentary because it is an article of faith with you that the CPI(M) terrorized and killed people and hence you need no proof or evidence. So, even today (November 13) for all their screaming headlines the three top English language newspapers and the topmost Bengali language newspaper has almost zero documentary evidence to prove that what they are claiming about CPI(M) terror and Red Army carnage is based even on an iota of truth. The deliberately misleading media have been caught with their pants down and they have drowned in their own petard. There is a limit to misleading people and spreading false canards but they cross all limits because these newspapers know there are many gullible people like you who will believe anything written against the CPI(M), evidence or no evidence – after all you already know what the CPI(M) is like so why need any proof? Just keep repeating the lies ad nauseum and it will become the truth. Why ask for any evidence or proof? So, even over the last few days although CPI(M) cadres managed to silence the guns of the BUPC it has not carried out any carnage, it has not killed any innocent unarmed people, it has not burnt down any houses. The whole thing about Red Army terror and carnage is a complete and total fabrication by the media – a figment of their virile imagination – as is proved by their own total lack of documentary evidence.
• Regarding Tapashi Malik, who says the she was killed by the CPI(M)? She was obviously killed by the TMC because they had a motive – they could make an issue out of it and so they chose an unsuspecting hapless young girl to carry out their heinous crime. The CPI(M) had no motive because by killing her they would only end up making their lives difficult and without gaining anything else in return – the land acquisition was already over and nothing could be gained by killing her. This is obvious and plain as daylight. But you have the CBI declaring she was killed by the CPI(M). Holy cow – the CBI! Who does not know that the CBI is controlled completely by the political bosses at the Center? And what better way to keep the CPI(M) under leash than to get the CBI to blame them for the killing. How much arm twisting can be done by this simple expedient. Now the CPI(M) is giving it back by not cooperating on the nuke deal. They will ultimately agree to the deal but only after the Congress gives in to their demands which may even include freeing of the CPI(M) functionary blamed for the Tapashi Malik murder. Just wait for a few more days. That is what I mean by the structural conditions of fascism – all parties have to be fascist in such a situation merely to survive – this political horse trading can be done only through fascist methods. Oh, how gullible can you guys be? If you have any doubts about the CBI just wait till they file their report on the Rizwanur case – then you will know how truthful the CBI is.

Except for the last point, all of the above are incontrovertible facts and beyond debate unless again you want to imagine them to be true or believe them to be true as articles of faith, in which case, of course, you  require no evidence or proof. I am sure even the last point will turn out along the lines I have indicated because in the end the truth will be out. So, it turns out that all that you have written about the movement at Nandigram is nothing but the figment of your imagination or rather a result of Goebellian propaganda – it is unconnected to reality and there is no truth at all in any of your assertions.

As for the leadership issue – I never said an individual was giving leadership, rather I have said there was collective leadership provided by TMC, Jamait and some Maoists. Of course, neither the CPI(M)’s Red Army nor the CRPF nor anybody will find the Maoists now because they are no fools and they must have gone underground from the moment they realized that the blockade will not work anymore.

Only fools like Didi can say and demand that Maoists be caught and produced to prove their existence. In case you still want to claim that there were no Maoists then why did someone like the writer Abul Basher claim on TV day before yesterday that there were Maoists in Nandigram and he had personally talked to some of them? In case you do not know, Bashar was himself a Maoist at one time and I do not find any reason why he should lie on TV about the presence of Maoists.  Moreover, even this mealy mouthed media has time and again reported about the presence of Maoists. Even the CRPF has also found evidence of their arms and presence although they have all left the area.

And, as for the jibe against Lenin, well again it is a figment of your imagination that people organize themselves on their own without any leadership. It has not happened historically or in the present times anywhere in the real world in which we live although it may happen in the imaginary world in which you live.

Point 3: On governance

Again utter confusion. Mamata is bad, CPI(M) is bad, the entire system of governance is bad. So what do we do – live in an imaginary world of good governance? Or are you saying we have to carry out some kind of revolutionary change to bring about a system of good governance since whoever is elected to power now will provide bad governance? Or are you saying the system of parliamentary democracy is bad? Or are you saying that there should be some kind of benevolent dictatorship – a favorite solution of most middle class reactionaries? What exactly do you mean by “the problem is not with who does the governing, but with the system of governance itself”? What system do you want?

Again if you have read what I write you would have realized that I am discussing present reality where parliamentary democracy is a given, where every few years we have to elect a government, and, in these circumstances when our choice is limited, the CPI(M) is the lesser evil. The other parties are worse. Or do you have an alternative? Is it the Congress? The BJP? Or is it TMC? Which party do you recommend we should vote for in the next elections? Or are you saying we should boycott elections and join the Maoists?

Yes, CPI(M) is bad – I have no problems with that, at least for argument’s sake. But which party is better? Which party should we vote for in the next elections?

I am sorry comrade radicalhypocrite! I think you are utterly confused, totally misguided and a hapless victim of Goebellian propaganda against the CPI(M).  Just exercise your critical faculties and ask for proof before you believe all the bullshit that the media writes routinely about the CPI(M). I have said time and again that the CPI(M) has many faults and is far from the ideal party that we may want. But unfortunately such ideal things exist only in the imagination, not in the real world. The real world is all about less than ideal and we have to make a choice out of all the less than ideal things we have in reality. As long as the system of governance remains parliamentary democracy and as long as there does not come up any new party which is somehow better than the CPI(M), we have little choice but to elect the CPI(M) again and again and again because the rest of the political scumbags are even worse. That is the hard reality whether we like it or not.

Seven elections over 30 years has only proved that irrespective of what morons like Mamata may go about claiming. In the last elections despite polling being held over five days spread over nearly a month and heavy presence of central forces and central observers and Election Commission observers  – the people came out in droves, waited in queues  for hours together braving inclement weather, generated a voter turnout of over 80% and gave the Left Front a thumping victory only to prove that it is they who elect the Left Front – the CPI(M) does not win by rigging. When that last plank of rigging was taken away Mamata had no other option but to take the help of the Maoists and try to use force and capture territory that could not be captured by democratic processes and elections.  Hence, Nandigram. So, irrespective of what you and I say the people know who is their choice and their choice is the Left Front warts and all.

In fact, the previous commentator you have mentioned in support of your views is none other than Life’s Elsewhere and if you read his comment carefully then you will realize  that what he is saying is that CPI(M) is bad but since there is no alternative to the CPI(M) at this moment we have to hope for some kind of cultural revolution within that party or wait till a proper alternative becomes available.  And we need to react so that either we can pressurize the CPI(M) to rectify its mistakes or somehow help to create yet another better political party over and above the hundreds that already exist. And since neither you nor Life’s Elsewhere is talking about the Maoists I suppose you are not recommending that we all become Maoists. I think in such a situation the only realistic approach is to work as vigilantes and keep pressurizing the CPI(M) to rectify its arrogance and insensitivity (to the extent that such arrogance and insensitivity undoubtedly exists). The fact that the party is still responding to public pressure as seen from the Rizwanur case or the backtracking on Nandigram land acquisition still holds out some hope that with proper public vigilance (without falling victim to the Goebellian propaganda of the Opposition parties and the media by always exercising our critical faculties)  we, the people, can make a difference. We have to make a difference if we want a better tomorrow! But there is no place for uncritical acceptance of whatever lies that the likes of Mamata Bannerjee or the elite-run mealy mouthed media routinely dish out!

Comrade, I will end with a humble request that please think critically and ask for proof before you start believing all that you are told. And please don’t confuse issues – capitalism and industrialization is the present reality whether we like it or not although we can and should certainly struggle for a post-capitalist tomorrow where the present model of capitalist growth – the military-industrial combine – can be replaced by a more sustainable communist existential society based on a more sustainable and equitable model of “progress” and “advancement”. This is a different issue and it has nothing to do with opposing industrialization in West Bengal today. At this point in time and irrespective of a general critique of global capitalism, industrialization in West Bengal is in the public interest and all the forces of reaction that are trying to disrupt this process of industrialization and development are out and out anti-people and should be firmly opposed. I hope you will now quit the camp of reaction and join the camp of progress!

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