Kolkata Street Riots -Trouble in Nandrigam
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Kolkata (Calcutta),
West Bengal,
India
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Trouble has been afoot for some time in Kolkata. More truthfully, its always just below the surface here. I have attempted to make sense out of it for weeks reading the newspaper, with little success. Today riots broke out in several areas of Kolkata (none close to me) to protest the state government's police action to "retake Nandrigam" in which 10 unarmed demonstrators were shot to death in October. Last March, 14 others were killed the same way.
Here is the thumbnail as best I can piece it together (there may be misconceptions at play, however). The Communist Party has been in control of the government of West Bengal since independence and has amassed LOTS of power. Politics are brutal here. Nobody plays fair. Nobody pretends to be nice. It's about as down and dirty as you get in a democracy, if you can call it a democracy. With the rush of western companies coming into the Indian commercial scene, there is ample opportunity for abuse of autocratic power, and an apparently irresistible opportunity to amass more money, more power for those who have it.
Factions, opposition parties, do exist. They are vocal. But they also take their lumps. And their hands aren't clean either. Neither are their motivations. Everybody manipulates the poor to serve their own interests. Anyone coming to power is not likely to do anything for the poor.
The government of West Bengal has been taking land from peasant farmers, giving them almost nothing for it, to then turn around and sell it to the mega-corporations at a hefty profit. It also takes in fat taxes from the companies, while offering very little support services in terms of improved roads, etc. The farmers, quite naturally, have been upset, and the political opposition has taken every opportunity to keep them inflamed and to use them to its own advantage. Last March, 14 unarmed demonstrators were shot. Many of the government's supporters were run out of town. Their homes were sacked, their families beaten. And they were never allowed back in.
In October, the government decided to "retake Nandrigam" from those who were in control and keeping "our people" out (according to the chief minister). 10 more unarmed demonstrators were killed. A campaign of murder and intimidation of supporters of the opposition ensued and the government's "people" were brought back in to reclaim their homes.
The bad blood runs deep. Intent for revenge on both sides is intractible. And the intelligentsia and artists have taken to demonstrating against the government sanctioned blood bath and its apparent campaign to permanently ensure that there will be no opposing party in Nandrigam for decades to come, if ever.
Apparently the federal government is pretty powerless to defend those citizens the state will not protect.
Kolkata feels all of this pretty intensely, though Nandrigam is 3-4 hours away. So there were lots of angry young men in the streets today brandishing iron rods, throwing acid bulbs and molotov cocktails, burning and smashing up vehicles (ambulances and school buses included), beating bus drivers, passengers, and journalists -- all in protest of Nandrigam. Riot police were understandably cautious, given the consequences of what happened in Nadrigam to the government. They shot lots of tear gas canisters, but to little real effect, since the rioters would dash down sidestreets and exit somewhere else to continue the fray.
There won't be any photos in this entry...I am not that brave or fool hardy.
