With the zeal of a new convert, West Bengal’s communist-turned-capitalist chief minister has been pushing hard for big industrial projects. This ‘industrialise or bust’ approach has led to distinctly mixed results: while on the one hand, he and his government have been lauded for reversing decades of capital flight out of the state, they are now squarely in the dock for trampling all over the aam admi while acquiring farmland for industries.

The latest carnage, last week, at Nandigram has seen the total body count tripling since the first deaths after protests began last year. But the real tragedy is that the violence has been repeated, indicating that lessons have not been learned.

Next door, Orissa has faced a similar challenge. The similarities are striking: both states have reformist chief ministers who have led their coalitions through re-election victories — in itself unusual in India’s anti-incumbency politics. Both CMs have been credited with turning around their states’ battered economies, both have attracted massive investments, and both, sadly, have been faced with the death of protesters by police firing.

But it is the differences between Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Naveen Patnaik that are of great significance and which may hold lessons for those seeking a way forward from this quagmire. I must disclose that as a BJD MP from Orissa, I am not an entirely disinterested party. But I have seen some of these differences first hand and believe it is important to understand them.

After the Kalinganagar firing in January 2006, Orissa faced the stark prospect of large investments coming to a grinding halt, not least because of the subsequent blockade by protesters that crippled transportation to and from the area. What was worse was that the predicted cooling-off period after a spate of heightened protests did not materialise anytime soon. And the situation was further exacerbated by the influx of professional protesters from other parts of the country, who were happier to stop industrialisation than to seek solutions.

... contd.