The police action in Nandigram is reminiscent of the worst excesses of earlier colonial governments. A phalanx of police, 5000-strong, shoots at a human shield. Thirteen die. Many are seriously injured. Are we the East India Company? Is land for development to be acquired by brute force? Nandigram is a clarion call. It will be disastrous if we don’t take correct lessons from it. And it is very plausible we won’t. Because mostly, the political and media view on Nandigram is sadly skewed.

The facts are these. Two months ago, the CPM government announced the acquisition of thousands of acres of agricultural land for an sez to be set up by the Indonesian Salim Group. Villagers seeking clarity from officials were first lathicharged, then shot at by the police. Three people were killed. The locals — CPM supporters for 35 years — retaliated by breaking roads and culverts, cutting off access to the area. Since then Nandigram has lain in a state of siege. Cut off from within by villagers. Gheraoed from outside by CPM cadres. At first, CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharya seemed to retract, announcing no project would come up there without local consensus. Obviously, he has lost that wise impulse for democracy.

Set aside the seemingly complex arguments about sezs, industrialisation, and forceful land acquisition by the State. Ask the most rudimentary questions first. Why does the State rampage repeatedly against ordinary citizens with such impunity? Even if it is faced by a “law and order” (sic) situation, why use real bullets? Can the State be excused a single unnecessary death? What are the cardinals that separate us from dictatorships?

Every time there is a peoples’ backlash against some unwelcome corporation or autocratic governmental initiative, why do we hide behind the lazy spectre of Naxal influence? Or the more convenient term gaining fashion now — “outsider support”? Who is an “outsider” in India? Are dissenting intellectuals or activists from Kolkata or Chennai to be deemed “outsiders” in Nandigram? What does that make the Salim Group from Indonesia?

The issue in Nandigram may or may not be about Mamata Banerjee and Naxals and outsiders. It definitely is about an undemocratic approach to development.

We would do well to collectively look that in the eye.