NANDIGRAM, India (Reuters) - It's the peak harvest season, but not a single sheaf of paddy grows on Abu Tayeb's land, testament to a hollow victory for farmers in eastern India who fought to keep big industry off their land but now face ruin.
By Bappa Majumdar
NANDIGRAM, India (Reuters) - It's the peak harvest season, but not a single sheaf of paddy grows on Abu Tayeb's land, testament to a hollow victory for farmers in eastern India who fought to keep big industry off their land but now face ruin.
Across the fertile plains of Nandigram in the state of West Bengal, vast stretches of farmland stand empty, in places whole fields destroyed.
Empty bullet and tear gas shells are strewn around, and crops of mustard, potato and aubergine are contaminated by gunpowder.
!ADVERTISEMENT!Months of violent confrontation between the cadres of West Bengal's ruling communists and villagers opposed to an industrial project on their land has turned Nandigram into a battle zone.
"We had to run as bullets were flying all around us," said farmer Kuntal Maiti, recounting the conflict with communist supporters.
As some angry farmers took up weapons to fight a government plan to build a chemicals complex on their land, agricultural production in Nandigram came to a standstill.
The government backed down, but the violence continued as communist vigilantes launched a wave of attacks this month to punish the renegade villagers.
They threw farmers off their land, stole crops to teach them a lesson, and the few who were spared were ordered to give an undertaking that they would never again support an anti-communist movement, locals said.
"We agreed to pay a fine and put up communist flags on our fields, but we think it's too late," said one of a group of farmers who had lost their crops.
A COMMUNIST BETRAYAL?
Today, without a harvest, hundreds of farmers and their families face starvation. Many villagers have begun working as domestic servants or daily-wage laborers in nearby towns.
Hundreds have not been able to return to their homes or fields, which have been captured by government loyalists, and they now live in dirty, makeshift camps.
Communist activists keep a close eye on all activity in the area, which is virtually out of bounds for outsiders, including aid agencies.
"I have lost my land and my house was burnt down," said Rubur Islam Khan, a Nandigram resident.
Hungry and living in fear, the farmers accuse the communists of betraying their cause for the sake of industry.
Three decades ago, when the communists first came to power in West Bengal, they took on the state's powerful landowners, dividing up the land and earning enduring popularity with the rural poor, who returned them to power election after election.
With agricultural growth rates slipping, the communists made their own accommodation with the changing times, reinventing themselves as business-friendly.
And that meant shifting farmers off their land to make way for factories, and in the process, antagonizing a large chunk of the traditional support base among poor peasants like Tayeb.
"The communists promised us rights and freedom to cultivate our land, but betrayed us, while the opposition used and ditched us," Tayeb said
Naren Dey, the communist agriculture minister, admits the farmers have paid the heaviest price.
"I have asked my department to assess the extent of damage to cropland sustained in the conflict," Dey said. "We will do something about it."
(Editing by Krittivas Mukherjee and Rosalind Russell)
