Indo-US Nuclear Deal Would be Signed by Blood of Nandigram Peasants

The stand-off, on the Indo-US nuclear treaty, between the ruling party in India is about to go away. There are enough indications that the Left is softening it's stance on the nuclear deal. Government sources have indicated that they are starting first stage of talks with IAEA.

Lets refresh the memory - After years of hard work in the background, by politicians, lobbyists, and NRI forums, US agreed to cooperate with India on Nuclear technology. After months of diplomacy and hard bargaining, a treaty was formulated.

US put certain clauses in the treaty which were not liked by the Communists in India.
And they pressurized the Indian government to go slow (actually stop) the work on the treaty, or they will stop supporting the government. Without the support of communists the government would fall and the country would go into a mid-term poll - which does not suit the ruling Congress party.

It's important to note that apart from Communist party in India, the other unhappy parties were China and Pakistan who openly expressed their views. It is widely believed, that Communist Party of India was playing on the tunes of its ideological masters in China who would not want a stronger India.

The government wanted to address the concerns of the communists, and a steering committee was created to facilitate the dialogue. The committee has senior members from the Congress as well as from Left.

There have been multiple meetings of this committee but all were fruitless. Left has not changed its position. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister and Sonia Gandhi conceded saying that saving the government was more important than the nuclear deal.

Suddenly, the left is softening its stand. The sudden flexibility is not coming from the meetings of steering committee.

It's coming from burning Nandigram, a small village in West Bengal where poor have raised their voice against the land-grabbing by the communist government that wants to create Special Economic Zone (SEZ) on their land to allow the rich to set up industry on the land.

For years, communists have been enjoying the power in West Bengal. The reason is - they have a strong support base, which is maintained and nourished by allowing the communist cadres to enjoy power. The communist ruled state keeps it's eyes close while their cadres loot the poor peasants.

Those who came along get the good treatment and those who resented or opposed the communist rule were punished. During elections, these cadres have been violently forcing the people to vote for communists. Those who did not buckle, some of them got killed or amputated, their houses and properties burnt.

This is the way communists have been ruling the state of Bengal with an iron fist for decades. After Jyoti Basu, their new Chief Minister, Buddhadev Bhattacharya, put on a velvet glove on this iron fist - by maintaining the face of reformist and thus maintaining a good rapport with the media and the elite and educated sitting in the society.

He has been pro-industry, and SEZ was a plan to attract industrialists to the states. SEZ require huge pieces of lands, so land consolidation was required and for that government approached the peasants for their land.

The poor peasants did not want to sell their land fearing that it will take away their only source of livelihood - the piece of land they own. Then, with the help of state machinery and their carders, the Communists started land grabbing, which was opposed by the peasants, and it resulted in the violence. Historically, the cadres never had to see any opposition, but this time the peasants were united under the umbrella of Bhumi Uchchhed Pratirodh Committee (BUPC). They successfully resisted the cadres and push them back.

Nandigram became a war-zone, where some part was controlled by peasants, and the some part by Communist cadres. With the help of government machinery, and support from their leadership, communists were continuously consolidated their positions, and probably waiting for a green signal from their political masters before they struck the hell on the peasants.

Communist leadership was desperate. It was one of the rarest incidents in the decades of communist rule in West Bengal where communist establishment was challenged, and their cadres were put on back foot. It was a direct blow to the communist establishment as their authority was challenged by the poorest of the poor. It was an insult to their power - how could such a poor class challenge such a mighty regime? The Communist leadership has decided to teach the peasants and their supporters (BUPC) a lesson, and make an example of Nandigram. So, they armed their men, and given them a free hand to massacre of poor peasants of Nandigram.

It's been reported that the cadres fired more than 5000 rounds of bullets, killing many people (whose bodies were then disposed secretly). For days, cadres ran this campaign killing people and burning their houses.

During this violence, state machinery has been mock spectator. Communists, who are running the state government, kept supporting their cadres, and the country were kept at a distance from Nandigram.

NGOs and reporters were not allowed to enter Nandigram, and activists like Medha Patkar were beaten up.

Alarmed by the situation, Governor of West Bengal Gopal Gandhi criticized the communist government and called the Nandigram – a war zone. The pressure was also mounting from the rival political forces, and the certain sections of the media - like BBC who reported regularly on the conditions in Nandigram. With the state-wide protests, the state government is on the backfoot now.

This is a unique situation. The party that almost toppled the government in center and took the whole country as a hostage is now in defensive mode. And it's all because of Nandigram. For Congress party that rules in the center, it's the right time to take the advantage of this situation. For months, Congress has been silently endorsing communists on Nandigram issue. This tacit support allowed the communists to continue the oppression. Now that their own actions have brought their back to the walls, Congress would try to take the advantage of this situation.

Pro-Congress media has already swung into action. CNN-IBN, who kept mum for day while cadres rampaged through the violence, now found video recordings of the violence and massacre. I wonder why they did not report a single line on their website, while BBC-Hindi was reporting heavy violence in Nandigram. Probably they were waiting for the orders from their political masters in Congress.

I am sure media has more such reports, hidden somewhere temporarily. These will come out in a days to come. The pressure is mounting on communists, and it's working.

Central government has sent one company of para-military forces to Nandigram.
This is not enough to control the situation completely and unarm the two sides, but it will definitely give the Center an opening into Nandigram, that will loosen the grip of cadres on the area, and, potentially, more stories of the communists’ violence can come out.

Communists are already in damage control mode. Buddhadev is unrepentant, but still understands the urgency of the situation. He is meeting with the Governor and also in touch with the Prime Minister.

Communists are in a tight spot. In coming days, they would need central government, and Congress Party on their side. And Congress is going to leverage the situation in forcing the left to allow Indo-US nuclear deal to pass. There are enough indications of this trade-off, and seems like it's going to be finalized soon.

For many reasons, Nandigram is going to be very important in history. The poor and peasant unrest is going to spread across the country. With the government more than content with 8-9% growth, the next elections might show some very interesting results. And if left looses seats in that, Nandigram is going to be the biggest reason. The interest of the poor and the industrialists are going to conflict more and more as the industrialization spreads. It's the first major clash between the people and the forces of capitalism (It's an irony that communists in West Bengal are serving to the agenda of capitalists).

I am very sure that, the biggest fallout would be that Indo-US nuclear deal would be signed soon. It would be inked by the blood of poor peasants that were killed in Nandigram by Communists party cadres.