Monday, October 27, 2008

Pain with the thousand teeth

The Tatas have moved out of Singur. Many would term this as very unfortunate, especially for the state of Bengal. One persons loss is anothers gain and Modi quickly stepped into the opportunity to prove that his politics and plans go beyond Hindutva. Ofcourse the economic trajectory does not cancel out communal trajectory.
I would try to be optimistic of the entire episode and say whatever happenned has just taught a lesson to everyone. In a developing economy like ours, more and more projects are going to be undertaken, lots of infrastructure needs are hopefully going to be addressed in the coming decade. And all of this is going to require lots of land. And we still do not have a proper land acquisition policy/ people rehabilitation policy in place!
Why should the poor farmers lands be acquired without their consent? Why should a Mamata Banerjee or a Medha Patkar be criticised? May be none of them is really interested in the farmers cause and it all is a political goodwill gaining exercise, but the issue is extremely critical.
The fact of the matter is that there has been no proper handling of these issues. 12624 farmers were to lose their land in Singur. The so called protectors of the marginal farmers, the Communist Party themselves were becoming exploiters of the down trodden. You may have grand plans for the betterment of your own people in the future, but it is equally esential to have immediate plans of action for their present well being. Be it Kashmir, Naxalism, LTTE or Kargil, unfortunately for India there is no coming to consciousness without pain. Its time India Inc, the State governments and the Central Government take a leaf out of the whole Singur episode and work towards a well laid out development plan for the country.
That which is escaped now is only pain to come. Lets wake up in time for this.