Farms to factories

•It feels good to read your editorial of ‘Bengal can’t go slow’. It is a somewhat optimistic understanding of the Nandigram situation, which I believe was triggered by the low tactics of the opposition. While we are against land-grabbing, at the same time we cannot ignore Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen’s observation that “Industrialisation anywhere in the world has to depend on farm land. A time comes when farm land faces the law of diminishing returns. In such a case, industrialisation must take place on agrarian land or farm land as it is same anywhere in the world”. He also stresses the fact that proper compensation must be given to the farmers losing their land.

In Singur, a fragmented opposition has lost its voice. It is quiet there now. Nandigram, where a chemical hub has been vetoed by the government itself, is also slipping from the clutches of the obstructionists and those who love to fish in troubled waters. Peace reigns there now. But the subversive forces are still around and looking for an opportunity to strike. Dr Asoke Mitra, the noted economist, once wrote, “To create troubles is a natural instinct with the opposition, as it has no solid agenda in hand.”

— Pradip Biswas

Kolkata

Modi basics

•Old habits die hard. This is a relevant axiom for persons like Narendra Modi. With only one week to go before the first phase in the Gujarat polls, Chief Minister Narendra Modi seems to have gone back to his basics. Addressing a rally in Mangrol in southern Gujarat, it wasn’t just his campaign slogan of ‘Gujarat Jeetega’ that the CM chose to mouth, but a justification of the controversial Sohrabuddin fake encounter. “Sohrabuddin had got what he deserved,” he implied. It seems that Modi attaches little value to human life and he leaves no stone unturned to polarise the people of Gujarat along religious lines, yet he claims he dwells in the hearts of five crore Gujaratis.

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