Called the People’s Secular Democratic Front, this alliance, The Indian Express has found, is a group of parties with little presence in the state, NGOs and Naxalite groups with agendas that couldn’t have been more dissimilar.
This cast of characters seems to have walked out a Left-inspired script: one is into sanitation, one is headed by a graduate of, ironically, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences who was once funded by the Ford Foundation, another works on adult education, one monitors “electoral malpractices.”
These groups brings two strands together: a strong anti-industry line — which Mamata doesn’t — and an ardent anti-CPM stand which plays right into Mamata’s identity. Naxalites and former Naxalites walk in and out of these NGOs both as members and supporters. Some of the “political” groups don’t even have an office, one claims the support of 700 people across the state, another got barely 100 votes in the Hind Motors union elections. These groups joined Mamata in Nandigram and scenting success there — the government abandoned its SEZ plan — they are now emboldened in Singur.
Because they don’t have to face voters, they have taken a hard line. So much so that as there’s talk of “mediation” in the air, they have come out to say they will continue the agitation even if Mamata backs out.
The principal characters:
•Paschim Banga Khet Majur Samity: This NGO held up bus loads of engineers and staff working at the Nano site on August 28 and it was after their threats of intimidation that Tatas decided to stop sending staff to the plant. It’s headed by Anuradha Talwar, 49, a graduate of Lady Shri Ram College in Delhi and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Her husband Swapan Ganguly is secretary of the organisation.
Talwar and Ganguly established an NGO Gana Samhati Kendra in 1984 in Badu, North 24 Parganas. Talwar says that with funding from the Ford Foundation, they ran a project on healthcare and sanitation in villages. In 1987, they established the Khet Majur Samity, a trade union body, which they claim has no political affiliation.
The Samity monitored NREG progress in the state and exposed failures in its implementation. Today, the NGO runs an 11-acre “collective farm” and claims it is funded by collections from locals and donations. Eight acres are used for farming — which Talwar says sustains the residents — and three acres is for homestead. An estimated 115 locals live here, eating out of a mass kitchen that runs throughout the year.
“Industry is more powerful than agriculture,” says Talwar. “So agriculture and industry cannot sustain simultaneously. Industry always destroys agriculture. Industrial pollution will engulf agricultural land. So we are fighting to save agriculture from the Tata Motors plant in Singur.”
Clearly, Mamata has raised no such objections but Talwar is beside her at every public function and openly claims that Mamata asks her for advice on all matters involving the Tata project.
•Gana Mukti Parishad: An NGO headed by Sunanda Sanyal, a former professor who fell out of CPM’s favour, this group has exposed fake electoral lists. Former Secretary of the state Land Reforms Department Debabrata Banerjee is also associated with this NGO. Sanyal found in the Singur campaign a visible forum to take on the CPM and rushed in. During the last elections, he had actively campaigned for having NGOs as observers. Asked about his funding, Sanyal said: “We get donations from friends.”
•National Alliance of Peoples Movement: Medha Patkar’s group has made repeated trips to Singur and Nandigram attacking farmland acquisition for industry. Initially, Patkar had her own programme but during the current phase of the agitation, she now shares the stage with Mamata and works in tandem with Talwar’s NGO. After Narmada, the NAPM has identified imperialism and globalisation as its enemies.
•Samhati Udyog: An alliance of no less than 10 organizations, including the Association for the Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR), NAPM, Khet Mazdoor Samiti, Mazdoor Kranti Parishad, Nari Atyachar Virodhi Manch, Ganapratirodh Mancha and the Bandi Mukti Committee. It was its secretary Samar Das, a former Naxalite, who began the first “survey” in Singur in June 2006 on the status of landlosers. His survey forms the basis of Mamata’s arguments but she fell out with him after the state government called him for direct talks. “Even if Mamata Banerjee opts out of the agitation, we will continue it,” he says. Samhati Udyog was also involved in Nandigram and claims to be working on rights of sharecroppers, minimum wage and distribution of pattas.
When asked about his sources of funding, Das declined to comment.
•Group For Rural Alternative Movement: Barely a year old, its secretary Mintu Dey says that all members are “Naxal-minded persons” from around Jadavpur University. The NGO was formed specifically to organise and support the farmers’ agitation in Singur.”There is no question of a compromise regarding Singur. If Tatas leave, so be it,” said Mintu Dey. Asked about his group’s funding, he said: “We get money from well-wishers and small collections from sympathizers.”
•Jana Sangharsha Samity: Set up during 1975 as part of Jayaprakash Narayan’s Nav Nirman movement, its single-point agenda today: socialism. Secretary Himanshu Mukherjee admits that the group has no “definitive” sphere of work. “We believe in socialism. Tatas should go back. That is the solution to all the problems in Singur,” he said.
•Belur Shramajibi Hospital: Another 25-year-old NGO, it set up a hospital in Belur, Howrah. Secretary A K Saha says the NGO takes care of the “health needs of the farmers of Singur.”
“We collected money from local people and workers of Belur area to build the hospital. We are not bearing any cost of this makeshift stage in Singur. We run the organization with public collectons,” said Saha.
•Naxalite groups: Four Naxalite groups are part of the 21 of Mamata’s Singur alliance. One of them is the “CPI(ML)-state organising committee,” a breakway group of Kanu Sanyal’s CPI(ML). It comprises just three leaders who were expelled from the CPI(ML) after they joined Mamata’s agitation in December 2006: Pradip Banerjee, Purnendu Bose and Dola Sen. They claim to have 700 “followers” in the state.
Bose became the convenor of Mamata’s People’s Secular Democratic Front. The CPIML (New Democracy)’s Singur unit is headd by Paltu Sen, a trade union leader based in Uttarpara in Hooghly district who got about 100 votes when he contested the Hind Motors trade union elections in 2007. The other party is CPIML (Jana Shakti) led by Alok Mukherjee based in Birbhum. He rarely comes to Kolkata. The party has no office or any public activity but has set up a camp in Singur.
Another organisation is United Students Democratic Front which is a Naxalite faction. Mazdur Kranti Parishad is another Naxalite party with some presence in Hind Motors and some other factories in Belghoria, North 24 Parganas. Among other parties are the Indian Union of Muslim League, Janata Dal United, Samajwadi Party, Samata Dal. These parties have almost no presence in the state but each one has its own score to settle with the CPM. For example, the Samajwadi Party, ridiculed by the CPM for voting with the UPA in the trust vote, has found its platform to get back — in Singur.