It was 16 February 1966. A young 12 year-old boy was in the procession along with his schoolmates and teachers who were demanding kerosene oil from a fair-price shop. Hundreds of students of Basirhat area (in 24 Parganas) came out on the streets as they could not continue their study after sunset due to non-availability of kerosene oil from ration shops. Not only Basirhat, Baduria, Hingalganj of 24 Parganas, but 38,000 villages of West Bengal witnessed the same situation for months together. Basirhat-Swarupnagar area had a glorious history of the Tebhaga movement which taught them, unless you get organised and start agitation, you would not get a single litre of kerosene oil. So, the agitation started on 16 February. When the students took out the procession, they were immediately surrounded by a heavy contingent of police forces. It was the time of the Congress regime. Prafulla Sen was the Congress Chief Minister who took lessons from another Congress Chief Minister Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy who taught them that processions and agitations should be tackled with ‘tough hands.’ Prafulla Sen had his own experiences of tackling lakhs of hungry processionists in Calcutta in 31 August 1959, because he was the Food Minister of Dr. Roy’s cabinet during those turbulent days of the late ’50s. Dr. Roy, Mr. Kali Mukherjee (Home-Police minister) and Prafulla Sen’s police forces killed 80 hungry people on 31 August 1959. So, in ’66 Chief Minister Prafulla Sen gave permanent directives that agitations for food and kerosene shortage should firmly repressed. Nurul Islam and his schoolmates had no idea that police would open fire over a peaceful procession of school children. But it happened. And Nurul died in police firing that day. But Chief Minister Prafulla Sen misunderstood the strength of the dead Nurul Islam. The spark Nurul ignited engulfed the whole of Bengal in 48 hours. The great food movement of the ‘60s dethroned Prafulla Sen from CM and consigned him to the dustbin of history. The first United Front Govt. of Ajoy Mukherjee and Jyoti Basu came to power in West Bengal in 1967 riding the tide of the food movement of the ’60s.

40 years have elapsed. August, September and October of 2007 are witness to another food movement in West Bengal. The first sign of starvation deaths came from the Amlasole village of West Midnapore in 2005. Around ten people of the Lodha and Sabar tribes died out of starvation. These incidents of starvation deaths have come to light from time to time in WB for the last three years. The poor and marginal people, the SC/ST, minority community and the agricultural labourers are the worst victims of the faulty public distribution system (PDS) of essential commodities. Except rhetoric, there is no real development either on the agricultural front or on the industrial front in these remote areas. The entire developmental fund targeted for these have-nots are siphoned-off by the local panchayet leaders in connivance with the local ruling party bosses and the police-officials.

Then the situation became grave when the entire PDS collapsed throughout the state. One incident after another helped break the social and political hegemony of the ruling party, the CPI (M). First came the resistance of the Singur people against the forcible land grab by the Left Front Govt. for the Tatas. The resistance struggle of the Singur people emboldened the masses throughout the state. Wherever else the state govt. tried to grab farm land, people of the area came out on the streets and resisted it. The students and youths and the progressive intelligentsia came in support for the struggling peasantry. Then came the calculated mass killings of 14 March in Nandigram, where the state govt. tried to grab thousands acres of farm land for an SEZ.

The resistance struggle of the Nandigram people delivered a major blow to the socio-political hegemony and the political terror tactics of the ruling CPI (M) leadership. The rank and file of CPI(M) of the Nandigram area also joined with the masses, against the state government’s terror. Clearly the poorest of the poor people who were once the CPI (M)’s social base in West Bengal, the SC/ST people and the minority people (agricultural labourers, the small and marginal peasants and the share-croppers in the class-sense) are the vanguards of the Nandigram resistance struggle. Singur had taught them unless you drove out the bankrupt leadership of the local CPI (M) party, you would not be able to sustain the resistance struggle. The lessons of the Singur and Nandigram struggles are catching the imagination of the toiling people of the rural Bengal. The ration movement is the culmination of the people’s anger against the disgracefully corrupt bureaucracy. The movement against the corrupt ration dealers opened up the true nexus of the corrupt political leaders-police-administration-panchayat leaders and the ration dealers.

The movement first started in the Indus-Sonamukhi area of the Bankura district in the months of August-September this year. Like wild fire it then spread to Birbhum to Purulia to West and East Midnapore. In the month of September-October similar movements started in Murshidabad and Barddhaman districts. In Ketugram of Barddhaman the toiling people gheraoed the corrupt ration dealer who is also a CPI (M) party member who has not distributed food grain rations from his shop for the last several months. The local party secretary of the CPI (M) called upon the police forces which on arrival opened fire. Dhanu Das (32 years) an agricultural labour, died in the police firing. Dhanu is the first martyr of the food movement of 2007. Before Dhanu’s death, similar incidents of firings took place in Barjora of Bankura district. When the masses gheraoed the ration dealer, the dealer’s son opened fire from his two-storied building in which several people including one school student were injured. In Sonamukhi block the APL/BPL/A-A people were not getting their food grain rations for more than 18 months. When the village people marched in thousands toward the ration dealer’s house, the dealer took shelter in a local party conference of the CPI(M). When people marched to the conference hall to make their demands of the ration dealer and the panchayat pradhan, both of whom are the members of the CPI(M) and took shelter in the conference hall, 100 party cadres came out with lathes and swords and the clash ensued. The police came and arrested the agitating masses but not those who attacked the masses. On 21 September our party called a 12-hour Bankura Bandh. SUCI also supported it. Trinamul Congress opposed the Bankura Bandh called by our party. The opposition leader of the state assembly, who is also a TMC MLA, visited Sonamukhi-Borjora area and offered some monetary help to the victims. The people responded, “We are with Leftists and we cannot take help from a right-wing leader”. Our bandh call got tremendous response and it was a complete success. A party delegation led by Com. Jayatu Deshmukh (SCM) and Bablu Banerjee (DCS, Bankura) visited Sonamukhi area and talked to the local people. Thereafter, we organised an extensive political campaign throughout the district of Bankura. In Onda and some other places we also gheraoed the ration dealers and led mass deputations to the district food officials and BDOs. Similar mass agitations were organised in Napara (2) of Dhubulia block of Nadia district on 7 October 2007, more than a thousand people gheraoed the ration dealer and the dealer was forced to give some food grains as compensation. On 5 October in Medtala of Purbasthali block of Barddhaman district, the panchayat member of our party led a gherao of the Panchayat office and the Panchayat Pradhan asked the ration dealer to give Rs. 3 Lakhs as compensation. On 6 October 2007 people led by our local party unit took out a procession in Kelhai of Khargram block of Murshidabad district. Similar block-level agitations were organised by our party in Baburhat in Jalpaiguri, Naihati (Rural), Habra Block-2 and Gaighata of North 24 Parganas. In Dhanekhali-Belmudi area more than 700 agriculture labourers closed the panchayat office and then blocked the main road for several hours. The BDO-SDO and police officials came to the spot and asked our comrades to open the panchayat office and clear the road-block. The police and the administration had to beat a retreat seeing the mood of the agitating masses. The Panchayat Pradhan was forced to declare 100 days work to 8000 people under NREGA. Ration-rage got intermingled with the movements for 100 days work under NREGA. In Balagarh of Hooghly and Baganan of Howrah district organised mass protests against faulty the PDS. On 12 October the party’s state committee organised block-level protest demonstrations which got a tremendous response in several places. In Siliguri of Darjeeling district, 500 people demonstrated near the district food department office. In Kolkata, comrades demonstrated before the state food department office. Here the party delegation met the under secretary of the dept. and submitted a memorandum. Mass meetings organised in different places of the state got good responses. Our party had demanded the resignation of the state food minister. The memorandum submitted by us has several demands:

• • 1. The corrupt ration & kerosene dealers should be arrested and their licences be cancelled.

2. The party and panchayat members, corrupt officials who are involved in these malpractices should be arrested.

3. The police personnel who are involved in the killing of Dhanu Das, the martyr of this food movement should be punished.

4. Ration & kerosene shops to remain open for 5 days a week.

5. All party monitoring cells to be formed in panchayat levels.

6. The govt. should ensure that the APL/BPL/A-A people get their food grains from the ration shops and daily intake-output chart of the ration shop should be hanged outside the shop.

The movements against ration dealers have started in the district of Bankura, now it spread to Haroa and Kakdwip regions of South Bengal. Thousands of masses are spontaneously coming out on the streets to gherao the ration dealers. It started by the APL card holders who are not getting their stipulated 500 gms of wheat per head fortnightly. Now the BPL/A-A card holders and those who have no ration cards have joined the movement. Just like the earlier food movement of the ’60s, the masses’ involvement in the movement is spontaneous and they have to face the state machinery and the political goons of the ruling party – this time the CPI(M). People have also beaten the political goons and the police personnel in retaliation. Several people were injured and many false cases have been lodged against the agitating masses. But nothing can stop the hungry masses from joining the movement.

The PUCL filed a case by PIL in 2001 (WPC No. 196 of 2001) in the Supreme Court against the pilferage of PDS foodgrains. The Supreme Court gave a historic judgement recently. The judgement says, “… The amount involved, we are told is in the neighbourhood of Rupees thirty thousand crores annually … in view of the almost accepted fact that large scale corruption is involved and there is hardly any remedial step taken to put an end to this. The ultimate victim is the poor citizen who is deprived of his legitimate entitlement of food grains. The Public Distribution System is intended to ensure that citizen gets the food grains at a reasonable price keeping in view his economic standards …”.

What is the actual position of PDS in West Bengal. The table below will give you a correct picture:

Table I

Ration Diversion from APL/BPL/A-A-Y

National average : Rice--36% # Wheat--31% # Sugar--23%

Bihar : Rice--44% # Wheat--64% # Sugar--47%

AP : Rice--15% # Wheat--19% # Sugar--16%

West Bengal : Rice--40% # Wheat--34% # Sugar--24%

(Tata Economic Consultancy Services Report 2006)

The CAG report of 2006 also says, “The flour mills have made profits of 83 crores 76 lakhs by diversion of APL wheat from the ration shops in WB”. The total amount of pilferage taken place in the PDS in WB is near about Rs. 2000 crores in 2006. Who shared such profits?

Table II

PDS Diversion (Rs. in crores) All India (2006)

2004-05 --- Rs. 9,918.71

2005-06 --- Rs. 10,330.28

2006-07 --- Rs. 11,336.98

Table III

The malpractices in six states in PDS food grains (crores) (2006)

Diversion to open market

UP : 3,289.71

West Bengal : 1,913.75

MP : 1,038.69

Assam : 958.78

Rajasthan : 665.71

Maharashtra : 435.80

(Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Distribution Annual Report, 2006)

The corrupt ration dealers, the local police station officers, the panchayat bosses and the party leaders are the real beneficiaries of these diversions. The three member monitory cell comprising panchayat representative, a highly ‘distinguished’ person of the village and the food department official give clean-chit certificates weekly to these ration shops. The Food Inspector, the sub-inspector, the district controller, sub-divisional controller who are responsible for the monitoring process of the ration shops constitute the main nexus of ration malpractices. This food movement of 2007 in West Bengal has targeted this nexus in their agitations. CPI(M)’s proud boast used to be that “what Bengal does today, India will do tomorrow”; i.e, that the Left’s alternative model of rule (its pro-poor governance and secularism in particular) would be adopted by the nation in future. Ironically, CPI(M)’s Left model of rule has become a replica of that of ruling class regimes: with SEZs, state repression at Singur and Nandigram; pampering of corporates and pauperising of the poor; rural hunger and even starvation deaths, and state repression. But in the matter of people’s resistance, indeed, the rural poor and democratic citizens of W Bengal are showing the way. Nandigram became an inspiring model of anti-SEZ struggles in other states – and now the ongoing militant food movement in W Bengal is emerging as a model of struggle against siphoning off of PDS rations.