Pain, Politics and the Maruti Plant

Despite huge claims and over the top promotions of Gujarat being a crusader of development, the fact remains that over the years it has indulged in nothing but crony capitalism which have affected farmers the most. India’s largest car maker Maruti Suzuki seems to have run into some unexpected starting problems with its launch in Gujarat. While labour unrest at Maruti’s Manesar plant in Haryana dominated the headlines last year, farmer protests against the Gujarat government’s allotment of land for the plant has already started making news. The latest example being the massive protest held on Independence Day while Narendra Modi was making big claims in his speech at Lalan College. According to news reports, over 5,000 farmers participated in the public meeting at Dalod village, situated 15 km from Hansalpur, where the plant is to come up.

With the state government’s notification late last year of the Mandal-Becharaji Special Investment Region (SIR) spanning across 44 villages (Hansalpur being one of them), there emerged a mass farmers movement opposed to being included in the SIR. The government, following a meeting with protesting farmers in July 2013 announced (on 14 August) that it would drop 36 out of 44 villages from the SIR. Hansalpur, which was also strongly opposed to the SIR, was one of the eight villages that weren’t dropped. While dispute over the land allotted to Maruti is separate from the campaign against the SIR notification, opposition to it has now become part of a bigger land agitation movement that has emerged from the anti-SIR struggle in the region by farmers under the banner Zameen Adhikar Andolan Gujarat.

Hansalpur’s sarpanch Ajamalbhai Thakor told Firstpost that while residents of the village were strongly opposed to being part of the SIR, they had no objection to Maruti setting up the car plant provided the government met their demands. “We are not against Maruti plant coming up here. But we have a few demands from the government. We have asked the government to retain a small part of the allotted land for development of our village for the purpose of building schools, colleges and hospitals. Also, the paths connecting our village to neighbouring villages go through that land. The government should ensure that the car plant will not cut us off from other villages and block our access.” Asked if Maruti had begun any construction on the land, Thakor said some work on fencing of the land had begun but nothing else.

However the most important cause of conflict is three-year long legal dispute over land (which is now part of the Maruti plant land) between the Hansalpur’s Maldhari community and the state government. “Farmers have been cultivating on this land for over 60 years. They also use this land to rear their cattle. The Maldhari community depends on this land for their livelihood and will be badly affected if they lose it,” said Thakor. The dispute, say litigants, began even before the 600-odd acres (of which the disputed land is a part), was allotted to Maruti.

Explaining in more detail the legal dispute over the land, Babu Nagori, a resident of a neighbouring village who is helping the farmers of Hansalpur fight the case in court said, “The dispute is over 207 acres of land which is, in fact, cultivatable land. You can see with your own eyes, crops being grown on the 207 acres. In 2010, we filed a case in order to correct the mistake made in 2004 when computerisation happened. This chunk of land was mistakenly marked as uncultivated land. We have submitted land records to the high court which proves that this land is farm land. We have paper proof.” Nagori says the case has been filed by 10 affected families which represent about 120 people of the village.

Underlining the point that the land dispute pre-dates the allotment of land to Maruti, Nagori said, “The case was filed in 2010. The plant came in 2011. Even though the case was pending, the government gave our land to Maruti.” Nagori clarifies that they are not opposed to the Maruti plant coming up in Hansalpur. “We have no objection to Maruti. But farmers have a right over their land. The 207 acres is farm land. What the government does with its land is its prerogative. But farmer who cultivate the land are owners of the land and they have rights over it. We are not against Maruti. We are happy if they come.” It is a fact that poor tribals and farmers have always paid the price in the name of the nation’s development but yet they have happily accepted it. In such a situation it is the government’s responsibility to look after their rights but the Modi led government seems in no mood for it.

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