“The struggling farmers of Singur achieved what 552 MPs could not - they turned the colonial-era (1894) Land Acquisition Act into a piece of scrap paper”, said Tapan Batabyal, CPI(ML) State Committee member and veteran activist of the Singur movement, addressing a peasant gathering at Singur. “The CPI(ML) resolutely stands by Singur’s long-standing struggle and should the farmers decide to take over their land, the revolutionary left will march alongside”, announced State Secretary Partha Ghosh in Singur on 12th December.

Six years have passed since the Singur movement which marked an exemplary struggle against land grab in contemporary Indian politics. But even after such a long wait, the farmers are yet to get their land back. Trinamool Congress, which came to power riding on the Singur-Nandigram wave, stands exposed with its mask of commitment to Singur farmers torn to shreds. The CPI(M) is back at its old game of using the farmers’ resentment against the TMC regime to argue in favour of the Tatas. At such an important juncture, CPI(ML) organized a rally to reiterate its resolve to continue the land struggle with renewed zeal and pledged commitment to the demands of the farmers, bargadars and agricultural labourers of Singur. Hundreds rallied with the Party’s march from Kamarkundu railway station to Bajemelia. Slogans demanded - 1) return of acquired land to all farmers, irrespective of whether they were initially ‘willing’ or ‘unwilling’ to part with their land; 2) Exacting compensation from the Tatas as penalty for destroying farmland in the name of industrialization; 3) payment of a one-time compensation of Rs. 7 lakhs to all affected farmers, bargadars and agricultural labourers sans discrimination based on political ‘colour’; 4) ensuring political freedom of activists and mass movement workers.

CPI(ML) leaders present at the rally paid tributes at the memorials of martyrs Rajkumar Bhul and Tapasi Malik. They accused the TMC government of doublespeak, corruption and irresponsible handling leading to the current legal imbroglio and pointed out that corrupt and sectarian faces of the likes of Becharam Manna of Singur or Anubrata Mondal of Loba - have and will continue to be rejected by the masses. Politburo member comrade Kartick Pal announced that the CPI(ML) will contest the upcoming Panchayat elections in Singur and Haripal. In a separate solidarity message to the struggling farmers of Loba, the State Committee has underlined its land policy - no acquiring of farmland, demand for policy to preserve agricultural land, protection of natural and mineral resources from the corporate-industrialist onslaught, declaration of coal and other mineral resources as national resources.