It may sound unusual to many readers, when I write about possible ‘naxal’ movement in Gujarat. For most people and politicians of India, Gujarat has largely remained a naxal free state, enjoying seamless growth. But behind the rosy growth story of Gujarat, it seems that a horrendous ‘naxal’ type movement is slowly evolving.
When we decide to look at naxal like movement in Gujarat we have to put two hypothesizes right. First, naxal movements do not always carry red flag and two; naxal movements are socio-economic reactions to contemporary problems faces by ordinary people and has nothing to do with political ideology. Political ideologies can utmost provide voice to the anger brewing among the people and can to an extent channelize the anger to achieve certain objectives.
Idea here is not to prove that Gujarat is a naxal affected state and the movement has become widespread. But the point raised here is that the policy makers need to recognize the symptoms evident which indicate that if the matter is not taken seriously, we will add another state in that infamous list.
Gujarat is suffering from an agrarian crisis similar to the one faced by the nation at large. Voracious economic growth and industrialization has adversely affected the land, the crop and the livelihood of numerous communities across the length and breadth of the state. Soaring land (price) appreciation and inadequate water supply has provoked farmers to sell their land for commercial, industrial and residential developments. Such inorganic growth coupled with corrupt administrative mechanism has resulted in wide spread contamination of land. This has resulted in growing anger among various farming communities who have voluntarily chose to stay with farming as their means of livelihood.
Such contamination is observed almost across the state and is more evident in the areas where the pace of industrial growth is high. Farmers from Kutch have been protesting on this issue for years without any hearing from the development fanatic government at Gandhinagar.
The whole issue took a serious turn last Sunday, when villagers from a remote village of Chikhli in the district of Junagadh stormed the proposed unit of Gujarat Heavy Chemicals Ltd. (GHCL). According to police, a mob of 1,500 villagers set ablaze the company's office which housed several equipments, including the company's tractor-trailer and electric motor worth Rs 7 lakh. The violence was triggered off after several pleas of the villagers around Chikhali to stall the construction of the GHCL unit were ignored. Villagers had opposed the salt plant, citing fears that it would turn the water bodies of their village saline.
Armed with iron pipes, bats, sticks and sickles, the assailants barged into the company premises and started destroying the company's property. Security guards hired by GHCL fired several rounds in the air to disperse the crowd. However, the move backfired as the crowd got more agitated and went about setting ablaze tractor, trailer, and electronic motor. Though the fate of the plant and the residents of the area is sill not clear, the anger among the community is growing.
Intentions of the company and government were made clear when, the firing did not find mention in the case registered by Navabandar police station on the complaint filed by the company representative.
Though, administrations can ignore such incidents by saying that they are ‘stray and few’, sharp increase in such violent outburst of people clearly indicates that there is increasing discontent among people against developmental initiatives which are not inclusive. Gujarat is not known for such incidents and unusually high-coordination shown by the villagers is a matter of deep concern. This anger can very easily be wrongly channelized. Such incidents have occurred in past and no concrete actions have been taken by authorities to eliminate the root cause of the problem. Land is distributed indiscriminately to large industrial houses for setting manufacturing plants where often the safely, environmental and social accountability standards are compromised.
Authorities at Gandhinagar need to learn lessons from such incidents and should never commit mistake of taking them lightly. Large scale naxal movements which country is facing today had similar beginning. Authorities should not forget that Gujarat has vast tribal under-developed adivasi belt which has remained prone to naxal activities. It is because of grass root non-governmental movements that have managed to keep villagers away from violence to demand their rights.
When we decide to look at naxal like movement in Gujarat we have to put two hypothesizes right. First, naxal movements do not always carry red flag and two; naxal movements are socio-economic reactions to contemporary problems faces by ordinary people and has nothing to do with political ideology. Political ideologies can utmost provide voice to the anger brewing among the people and can to an extent channelize the anger to achieve certain objectives.
Idea here is not to prove that Gujarat is a naxal affected state and the movement has become widespread. But the point raised here is that the policy makers need to recognize the symptoms evident which indicate that if the matter is not taken seriously, we will add another state in that infamous list.
Gujarat is suffering from an agrarian crisis similar to the one faced by the nation at large. Voracious economic growth and industrialization has adversely affected the land, the crop and the livelihood of numerous communities across the length and breadth of the state. Soaring land (price) appreciation and inadequate water supply has provoked farmers to sell their land for commercial, industrial and residential developments. Such inorganic growth coupled with corrupt administrative mechanism has resulted in wide spread contamination of land. This has resulted in growing anger among various farming communities who have voluntarily chose to stay with farming as their means of livelihood.
Such contamination is observed almost across the state and is more evident in the areas where the pace of industrial growth is high. Farmers from Kutch have been protesting on this issue for years without any hearing from the development fanatic government at Gandhinagar.
The whole issue took a serious turn last Sunday, when villagers from a remote village of Chikhli in the district of Junagadh stormed the proposed unit of Gujarat Heavy Chemicals Ltd. (GHCL). According to police, a mob of 1,500 villagers set ablaze the company's office which housed several equipments, including the company's tractor-trailer and electric motor worth Rs 7 lakh. The violence was triggered off after several pleas of the villagers around Chikhali to stall the construction of the GHCL unit were ignored. Villagers had opposed the salt plant, citing fears that it would turn the water bodies of their village saline.
Armed with iron pipes, bats, sticks and sickles, the assailants barged into the company premises and started destroying the company's property. Security guards hired by GHCL fired several rounds in the air to disperse the crowd. However, the move backfired as the crowd got more agitated and went about setting ablaze tractor, trailer, and electronic motor. Though the fate of the plant and the residents of the area is sill not clear, the anger among the community is growing.
Intentions of the company and government were made clear when, the firing did not find mention in the case registered by Navabandar police station on the complaint filed by the company representative.
Though, administrations can ignore such incidents by saying that they are ‘stray and few’, sharp increase in such violent outburst of people clearly indicates that there is increasing discontent among people against developmental initiatives which are not inclusive. Gujarat is not known for such incidents and unusually high-coordination shown by the villagers is a matter of deep concern. This anger can very easily be wrongly channelized. Such incidents have occurred in past and no concrete actions have been taken by authorities to eliminate the root cause of the problem. Land is distributed indiscriminately to large industrial houses for setting manufacturing plants where often the safely, environmental and social accountability standards are compromised.
Authorities at Gandhinagar need to learn lessons from such incidents and should never commit mistake of taking them lightly. Large scale naxal movements which country is facing today had similar beginning. Authorities should not forget that Gujarat has vast tribal under-developed adivasi belt which has remained prone to naxal activities. It is because of grass root non-governmental movements that have managed to keep villagers away from violence to demand their rights.
No comments:
Post a Comment