*are these points described in this article valid? esp about the leaders involved in the struggle? *
* * * * * * *CHENGARA LAND STRUGGLE* *A Conspiracy That Apparently Precedes Another Nandigram* *Jiju Alex* A GRAND conspiracy is being contemplated by certain elements owing allegiance to religious forces along with Naxal-Maoist groups in Kerala to thwart the historic efforts of the ruling LDF government to provide the downtrodden sections with land and houses, on a massive scale. That it is a conspiracy has become clearer of late with several reports on the real endowments of the so-called *landless* activists of the *Chengara* strike coming out. There are telling evidences to substantiate that these unlawful act of encroachment is aided and abetted by imperialist forces in collusion with the anti left forces mentioned above. However, in elite media and among the liberal intellectual circles, it is being deliberately portrayed as a landmark struggle for land reforms, redistribution of excess land and ever so many other radical transformations in Kerala. This section of the media leaves no opportunity to celebrate this incident as an indication of some grave crises in the agrarian sector in Kerala and that it is going to be a harbinger of greater changes in agrarian relations, something that a CPI (M) refuses to implement. They try to accuse the CPI (M) of anti peasant and anti working class attitudes by citing *Chengara* strike as a symbol of its subjugation to the rich and influential sections of the society. This is evidently a distorted version of the affair that deserves to be refuted. It is nothing but a premeditated attempt to tarnish the face of the LDF government and the CPI(M). The *Chengara* agitation was started on August 3, 2007, by two organisations that claim to be of dalits and adivasis under the common banner of *Chengara bhoosamara aikyavedi samathi*, for grabbing and distributing the land of Harrison plantation, Chengara, Pathanamthitta district. Now, almost about a year since then, the agitators have literally seized the area rendering hundreds of plantation workers jobless. The agitation was initiated under the guise of an innocent demand for land for the landless dalits. The occasion of launching the struggle is particularly significant since it was the time when the LDF government had emphasised its resolve to grab all the unlawful possessions of the land mafia across the state. It is widely known that the LDF government is seriously pursuing this with a view to create a land bank, which could be duly distributed to dalits, adivasis and other landless people. As we understand it clearly now, the agitation has other intentions, much greater and far-reaching than what they say. They intend to divert the attention of the public from the visionary steps taken by the government and attract a section of apolitical intellectuals towards a non-issue to create chaos and unrest in the state. The initial steps of the struggle somehow or the other resemble the covert sprout of a Nandigram model debacle. One of the startling observations regarding this struggle is that these organizations receive substantial monetary assistance from several domestic and foreign agencies such as the Ford foundation, USA. This struggle would have been justifiable if the LDF government had shown an iota of aversion to the cause of landless dalits and adivasis in the state. In fact, the LDF government has already announced its commitment to the concerns of the poor and initiated many a landmark decision to safeguard the interests of the landless. One major step towards this direction has been the unprecedented resolve to find out all illegal possessions of the land mafia as stated earlier. This has been widely acclaimed as the most daring step a government could ever take. No UDF government has attempted it before. The LDF government has been largely successful in cracking down the land mafia and grabbing unlawful possessions, without letting these steps go into irresolvable legal complexities. When a government, which is unambiguously committed to such serious concerns rules the state, why should someone come out with a struggle on such a non-issue? It is in this context, we doubt the intentions of the *Chengara *struggle, which is sponsored by forces of dubious backgrounds with the support of Naxals and Maoists. Though there had been constant attempts to provoke the police and create untoward incidents, which could flare up, the government has maintained exemplary restraint and foiled the efforts of the *samara samithi*. The agitating groups now show signs of disintegration as evinced by the several voices of dissent from within the group. Initially, followers were enticed by assuring that each one would get five acres of land if they contributed Rs 1500-3000 to the organisers of the struggle. Many people, even from neighbouring districts had ventured to participate in the struggle in response to this promise. Interestingly, almost every one of them has own land and home. Now, with the realization that it is a dream quite unlikely to be materialised, most of them have lost faith in the intentions of the leadership and the agitation is gradua lly subsiding. The socio economic profile of the participants of the struggle is testimony to the wicked intentions of its sponsors. While the struggle proclaims to be a genuine response of the landless poor to get endowments for minimum subsistence, most of the participants own assets worth more than minimal. For instance, Thankamma, an active participant of the struggle owns a house in her 20 cents of land as a beneficiary of the housing project of the Grama Panchayat. Nany, another participant has 10 cents and a house. Recently she has bought five more cents. Karunakaran owns 40 cents and is well off. Thankappan has sent her wife to the gulf and lives comfortably in his own house. While Ammini, unit president of the samara samithi has her own house, Valia Karuppel Sasi, unit secretary of the *samara vedi* has two houses in his possession. Kunju Pillai, another ardent participant has 1.5 acre, adjacent to *Chengara* estate. His two sons have also their own houses. Soman reached the agitation camp leaving his house locked. He has built this house with the financial assistance from a housing project of the Block Panchayat. He had motivated people in his neighborhood to join the struggle by promising each one five acres of land. His children now stay with his brother. Soman who is a rubber tapper left his job in anticipation of getting five-acre land and Rs 50000, as reported by him. Konthanalil Sasi who has motivated many people to participate in the struggle is the beneficiary of *Janakeeyasoothranam*, the people's plan programme that provided him with a house. He is alleged to have collected money from these people. Similarly, several participants are beneficiaries of some or the other developmental projects of the government or the local body. Poovallimuruppel Bose, who owns 30 cents haS built his house with the help of SC Development Corporation, also participates in the struggle for more land and money. Kallungal Kunjukunju is a beneficiary of SC Corporation and he owns two houses and 35 cents of land. About two dozen people of Chittar in Ranni assembly constituency also camp at *Chengara* to participate in this struggle. This list is not complete. However, it would be queer to look at the case of the agitation's most vigorous leader Laha Gopalan, who spearheads the movement. Gopalan, a retired employee of the KSEB has one acre and nine cents at Aruvappulam Panchayat (survey No.540/1/1/328, 540/11/328/130). He says that he bought it with the money he got in connection with his superannuation in the KSEB, which amounted to Rs 4 lakhs. When the credentials of the leaders were exposed, one of the women leaders Thattail Saraswathy resigned from the organisation. She also owns 1.5 acre arable land which she bought by taking loan from SC Corporation. Paradoxically, while 90 per cent of the agitators have either home or land, 70 per cent of the plantation workers, who have lost job since the agitation, have neither home nor land. Recent interpretations of the ultra left groups and left liberal intellectuals argue that the plantation workers should also join the strike and grab the land. The participants of the agitation unscrupulously tap the rubber trees and sell out latex worth thousands of rupees to meet their huge expenses. Moreover, fearing a setback, the organisers of the agitation forcibly prevents the participants who have decided to dissociate with the struggle from going out of the camp in the estate. Those who fall sick are also not allowed to leave the place and be treated. The organisers fear that if people were allowed to leave, they would leave the agitation altogether, and forever. However, the forces that have fuelled this spiteful campaign have not conceded defeat. Bolstered by rich funding sources, there are all-out efforts to rekindle the lost vigour and revive the struggle. A section of the media is still creating confusion among the public through contorted interpretations. They try to establish that the government of Kerala is not responsive to the clamour of poor dalits. Moreover, several questions as to whether the CPI (M) has departed from its inherent ideological positions have also been raised. On the contrary, they have neither bothered to acknowledge the foreign aid that the agitation receives nor tried to condemn the impropriety of such an action against a government with favourable attitude to their demands. That the agitation has foreign connection became evident when the Israeli youth spotted at Chengara revealed on interrogation by police that he works for the Israeli peace movement tiblin, which is now under the surveillance of RAW and he is an activist of Global Democracy, a World Bank organisation. *Deshabhimani*, the CPI(M) daily, unearthed the foreign connection in the agitation. In fact, the *sadhu jana vimochana samyuktha vedi* leads the struggle at the behest of two organizations, one based at Delhi and the other at Thiruvalla, Kerala. These organizations have been at the forefront of the issue right from the beginning. They purposely internationalized the agitation to spread canards against the LDF Govt across the world. They are eager to blow the issue out of proportion and ascribe ideological and human rights dimensions to the incident. They also spread pre-mediated stories on ''atrocities'' against dalit women by the local trade union activists and estate workers, which is a damn lie. Solidarity- an organisation that supports the agitation- in its publication viz. "update collective" made an appeal to the funding agencies to provide financial aid to a great social movement involving 45,000 poor families who are desperately struggling to get land and house in Kerala. They had also furnished addresses and phone numbers to send money. A website of the Dalit Foundation says that in Kerala, they give donations to *Navachethana*. New York based Ford Foundation is one of the international agencies that finance *Chengara*agitation. Human Rights Foundation, another organisation that help the struggle receives money from several European agencies and the World Christian Council. Delhi based Dalit Forum have openly admitted that they have close liaison with Dynamic Action, the agency which spearheads the agitation against the LDF government Kerala Home minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has expressed the doubt that *Chengara* agitation is thriving on money from abroad, considering the methods of the struggle. It is noteworthy that unlike what had happened at *Muthanga *during the UDF regime, the government of Kerala exercises exemplary restraint in handling the agitation. It has never tried to forcibly remove the protestors from the estate. The LDF, led by the CPI (M) seeks to deal with the issue pragmatically by offering land to all the landless and the poor in the state as a matter of its committed policy. LDF convener Vaikkom viswan observes that the sole aim of *Chengara* agitation is to defeat the efforts of LDF govt. to distribute land to dalits and adivasis. The chief minister has reiterated his commitment to grab unlawful possessions from the land mafia as early as possible and distribute them to the poor. In spite of all these promises, proven repeatedly through daring steps, the *Chengara* struggle is still on, to malign a progressive and pro poor government. Its intentions are dubious and do not have any justification, ideologically. Rather, it marks a political maneuver that apparently precedes another Nandigram. http://pd.cpim.org/2008/1005_pd/10052008_19.htm --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send email to greenyouth@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
