Comments on: ‘Scientific’ Land Grab and the Lie-Machine http://kafila.org/2007/01/10/%e2%80%98scientific%e2%80%99-land-grab-and-the-lie-machine/ media | politics | dissent Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:48:22 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Elementary Aspects of Popular Insurgency in West Bengal « The Struggle for the City http://kafila.org/2007/01/10/%e2%80%98scientific%e2%80%99-land-grab-and-the-lie-machine/#comment-6286 Sat, 20 Jun 2009 15:53:42 +0000 http://www.kafila.org/2007/01/10/%e2%80%98scientific%e2%80%99-land-grab-and-the-lie-machine/#comment-6286 [...] the state (e.g. the PBKMS) were accused to receiving imperialist funds. We had written repeatedly on Kafila, drawing attention to the manner in which the issue was being misrepresented as one of a battle [...]

]]> By: Elementary Aspects of Popular Insurgency in West Bengal « Kafila http://kafila.org/2007/01/10/%e2%80%98scientific%e2%80%99-land-grab-and-the-lie-machine/#comment-6183 Fri, 12 Jun 2009 12:24:25 +0000 http://www.kafila.org/2007/01/10/%e2%80%98scientific%e2%80%99-land-grab-and-the-lie-machine/#comment-6183 [...] the state (e.g. the PBKMS) were accused to receiving imperialist funds. We had written repeatedly on Kafila, drawing attention to the manner in which the issue was being misrepresented as one of a battle [...]

]]> By: Sohini Mookherjea http://kafila.org/2007/01/10/%e2%80%98scientific%e2%80%99-land-grab-and-the-lie-machine/#comment-1217 Mon, 19 Mar 2007 12:24:40 +0000 http://www.kafila.org/2007/01/10/%e2%80%98scientific%e2%80%99-land-grab-and-the-lie-machine/#comment-1217 Today’s Economic Times carries an article in Kolkata edition in the political theatre section titled Landing beyond Lakshman rekha and this is how the piece ends

“Kolkata was 135 kms away and we were intent on crossing this distance before dusk settled in. With all vehicles under attack, especially Press cars, there was no way you could see where the next hurled brick was going to land. Fun afterall.”

please note the last two words…thought the usage was quite unwarranted…and shows complete lack of sensitivity…are we not writing on the loss of human lives and on such a scale and given the circumstances…or any circumstances for that matter which deserve more respect…

for the whole story one could visit this link…
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1779942.cms?epaper

]]> By: s22.7 http://kafila.org/2007/01/10/%e2%80%98scientific%e2%80%99-land-grab-and-the-lie-machine/#comment-1216 Fri, 16 Mar 2007 08:39:56 +0000 http://www.kafila.org/2007/01/10/%e2%80%98scientific%e2%80%99-land-grab-and-the-lie-machine/#comment-1216 singured and nandigrammed
this i think is the beginning of revolution in india. i really appreciate the courage with which young boys and girls face police brutality. they cannot do this without any conviction which i am sure springs from their ideological commitment. i have seen the SUCI activists give life for a cause they believe is genuine. if not who would fight like that for the reintroduction of English? The cpim is so helpless that it thinks physical annihilation. death can kill a body not an ideology. it will inspire many more. including teh cpim cadres who are now moving over to teh BUPC to resist theland grab

]]> By: Alok http://kafila.org/2007/01/10/%e2%80%98scientific%e2%80%99-land-grab-and-the-lie-machine/#comment-1215 Thu, 15 Mar 2007 09:37:34 +0000 http://www.kafila.org/2007/01/10/%e2%80%98scientific%e2%80%99-land-grab-and-the-lie-machine/#comment-1215 Politics in West Bengal is going for a toss. The so called ruling party CPM is just doing things which are anti-villagers and th every root of them is being at stake.Blocking the roads and media and then piggybacking on forces like state police etc. is completely a sheer sign of frustration. Though it won state elections with thumping majority but their act shows no sense party’s look. The kills which involved women and children in Nandigram was a utter shock to me, the high-handedness of CPM workers and the utilization of police to settle scores with Villagers,shouting that outsiders are howering Nandigram and so, is a cowardly act.Their act is reminding me of the British era in India, we are a Democratic country and every person has his/her right to decide what way he wants to do with his/her property and when its fertile tilling Land, then Govt. shouldn’t drag things into this sort where innocent mob is shot by none but the elected ruling party.It’s high time that Centre Govt. teach this ruling party a lesson or two and book culprits under the court of law. Bhudhhadeb is not the type of person that he pretends to be (definetly not an intellectual), and behaving like a Mad Dog bitten by power, greed and proud not of his countrymen but his own thoughtness, which is blank.

]]> By: Rajesh http://kafila.org/2007/01/10/%e2%80%98scientific%e2%80%99-land-grab-and-the-lie-machine/#comment-1214 Mon, 15 Jan 2007 05:38:15 +0000 http://www.kafila.org/2007/01/10/%e2%80%98scientific%e2%80%99-land-grab-and-the-lie-machine/#comment-1214 More on the reportage of The Hindu at

Singur: The Emperors Have No Clothes
January 12, 2007
http://desicritics.org/2007/01/12/053321.php

Rajesh

]]> By: Apoplexy http://kafila.org/2007/01/10/%e2%80%98scientific%e2%80%99-land-grab-and-the-lie-machine/#comment-1213 Sun, 14 Jan 2007 00:39:10 +0000 http://www.kafila.org/2007/01/10/%e2%80%98scientific%e2%80%99-land-grab-and-the-lie-machine/#comment-1213 Thanks.If you read the blog more. there is a successive civerage of Singur and even before the CPM/sfi violence against left wing student protestors in Calcutta.11 of my friends were taken into custody for protesting against CPM in Calcutta.Today 4 were picked up from a cultural center more moving about “suspiciously”.Leftists and freedom and democracy lovers at all levels must speak out against CPM totalitarianism, as well as expose Congress/BJP likes forces which have even more demonical records.
Just wondering, what do you do?

]]> By: Aditya Nigam http://kafila.org/2007/01/10/%e2%80%98scientific%e2%80%99-land-grab-and-the-lie-machine/#comment-1212 Fri, 12 Jan 2007 10:30:12 +0000 http://www.kafila.org/2007/01/10/%e2%80%98scientific%e2%80%99-land-grab-and-the-lie-machine/#comment-1212 Rajesh: Thanks for filling in on the parts I did not cover. And of course, I also completely agree with your take on this Hindu/Frontline business. Mouthpieces of the CPM, without doubt and equally guilty of twisting facts. A mirror-image of the Indian Express, I would say, as far as covering the CPM is concerned. Apoplexy: Really enjoyed reading your blog and the pictures on Nandigram.

]]> By: Apoplexy http://kafila.org/2007/01/10/%e2%80%98scientific%e2%80%99-land-grab-and-the-lie-machine/#comment-1211 Fri, 12 Jan 2007 07:55:53 +0000 http://www.kafila.org/2007/01/10/%e2%80%98scientific%e2%80%99-land-grab-and-the-lie-machine/#comment-1211 Avery nice article

]]> By: Rajesh http://kafila.org/2007/01/10/%e2%80%98scientific%e2%80%99-land-grab-and-the-lie-machine/#comment-1210 Thu, 11 Jan 2007 09:53:24 +0000 http://www.kafila.org/2007/01/10/%e2%80%98scientific%e2%80%99-land-grab-and-the-lie-machine/#comment-1210 After spreading the canard that the entire unrest in Nandigram was on the basis of `rumours’ of land acquisition spread by `vested interests’, the West Bengal CM has backtracked and admitted that the Haldia Development Authority did issue a notification identifying some mouzas as sites for an SEZ in Nandigram, `without government sanction’.

Meanwhile the Central Committee of the CPI(M), in its latest statement, holds on to the outdated rumour that no notice was issued for land acquisition, technically correct of course, since the HDA notification only identified mouzas without government sanction. With this, the CPM CC wishes to warn `well-meaning individuals’- Romila Thapar, Sumit Sarkar, Rajindar Sachar, Arundhati Roy etc., please note – that they may be falling prey to `disinformation’ by `vested interests’. In the CC’s view, it appears that peasants in Medinipur or Singur, or intellectuals in Delhi, have no minds of their own, and are always ready to be mislead by rumours and disinformation spread by `outsiders’.

Yesterday, the historian Sumit Sarkar, son of the late Marxist historian Sushobhan Sarkar, and himself “a lifelong Leftist” wrote of his trip to Singur (posted on forestrights yesterday). What he discovered directly contradicts the version of Singur published by Brinda Karat in The Hindu, ironically titled “Just the Facts, Please”. Medha Patkar had earlier pointed out that Brinda Karat had got all her `facts’ about Singur from a visit to Kolkata.

Special mention must be made of The Hindu group of publications, which sometimes read like the alternative mouthpiece of the CPI(M), especially when the by-lines read Marcus Dam (The Hindu), or Suhrid Shankar Chattopadhyay or R. Krishnakumar (Frontline). The venerable Editir-in-Chief also pitches in. A New Year’s day full-page editorial on Singur (http://www.hindu.com/2007/01/01/stories/2007010102541000.htm) drew on the same “key facts” and “context” that Brinda Karat was privy to and presented a blatantly partisan picture. Frontline did the same with the same set of `facts’ and hackneyed arguments about the imperative of industrialisation, prophetically titling the piece “Starting Trouble”, and inexplicably prefacing it with a quote attributed to Lenin- “You cannot make an omelette without breaking some eggs”. (http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2325/stories/20061229002003300.htm)
Several broken eggs later, one wonders what the omelette will taste like, if it eventually gets made.

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