Singur: why snatch away fertile land from farmers?


Many people are actually supporting the eviction of farmers from the (very fertile) land which has fed them for years in order that a state-of-the-art automobile factory can come up. What needs to be realised is that technological progress at the cost of human and ecological tragedy is worthless. And those supporting the government's and the automobile manufacturer's actions need to understand that this is both a human and an ecological tragedy. How this is a human tragedy is very easy to see. Suppose, one fine morning you are driven out of your job (don't jump and say 'I'll find another one') since (rather like a spaceship blasting away the earth as it was obstructing an inter-galactic highway in H2G2) a huge palace is being built where your company stood -- and by a turn of circumstances your only job in hand is being a sweeper in the palace. If you find this a helpless situation, maybe you will see the plight of the many farmers who are being robbed of their livelihood. As for the ecological part, it is even more simpler. We don't feed on automobiles. By using fertile land for such purposes we are actually robbing our children of food.

Here's a nice and long documentary on the issue by Sumit Choudhury, a documentary film-maker:


And here's the latest video report from Singur, courtesy IBN