the left and the proletariat

oil on A3 oil paper
2007

background:

Under pressure of globalisation, Indian government is in a rush to set up huge multinational industries in India.The land being acquired for such Special Economic Zones [SEZs]is farming land. Usually the provisions for rehabilitation of displaced people [in millions, in India] are very poor. Most of these lose their traditional means of livelihood, have no other skills and are rendered poorer and homeless.Many farmers commit suicides.

One such SEZ was planned for Bengal - a state in eastern India. Incidentally, this state has been ruled by communists for the last thirty years - the so-called anti-capital pro-poor party.

On March 14,2007, the state government police attacked the protesting farmers and killed 14 of them.

The painting records this event.

There are many such SEZs proposed all over India and a great debate is going on in the country whether international capital should encroach on indigenous people's way of life.

Irony is it is the 'left' who are killing the proletariat in India.

[Update :The 34 year old rule of the criminal Communist Party of India [Marxist] came to a deservedly inglorious end on May 13, 2011 in the state elections, with even the Chief Minister biting dust.]