ABSTRACT
An article entitled ‘Reflections in the aftermath of Nandigram’ was published in the Economic and Political Weekly in its May 5 issue in 2007. The name of the author was not disclosed in the journal. It was written by a ‘CPI (M) supporter’. The author argued, ‘it would be factually incorrect to suggest that the government of West Bengal has been the most aggressive in pursuing the SEZ policy compared to Maharashtra, Haryana, or Gujarat’. After two weeks (on 26 May 2007), a rejoinder in the form of a letter was published in EPW by Siddhartha Guha Roy, which quoted the official announcement made by the Secretary of Industries of the Government of West Bengal on June 12 regarding SEZ in the state (memo no. 1825/JS/ DC/2003). The West Bengal SEZ Act was passed in the state Assembly in 2003 (two years before the Central Government had enacted the SEZ Act), although there was no concrete move on the part of the state government to create such zones until 2006. In 2006, a vast area in Nandigram in East Medinipur district was earmarked for a chemical industry. A massive peoples’ resistance followed, forcing the government to announce that there will be no SEZ in Nandigram. Acquisition of agricultural land for large and medium industries, however, continues in West Bengal with the colonial Land Acquisition Act of 1894.
