SEZs are abhorrent

Whats this crap about SEZs? I find the concept of "Special Economic Zones" abhorrent. It betrays an elitist mentality. First, the people who have lived in these designated zones for generations are suddenly non-grata and kicked out for no fault of theirs. And then there is this pseudo first world country enclave that comes on later.

I don't understand the concept. The US or for that matter, most countries of Europe don't have any such "special economic zones". All factories, production plants, etc, are all distributed throughout the countries. And when a factory comes up, its not like the local population gets kicked out of their homesteads. In fact, such job centres try to include the local populations and it is a symbiotic relationship that benefits both.

If the US and the advanced countries had managed to do it in an inclusive manner, then why couldn't India manage that? In spite of all the Gandhian talk of "the heart of India lies in its villages" and the usual rhetoric we hear, it seems like the village dwellers are ultimately given the short shrift.

Now the argument might be made that we cannot locate factories and job centres at arbitrary locations because we don't have infrastructure. In other words, special economic zones can concentrate production in a small area and therefore would make infrastructure easier.

I find this argument specious. Isn't it the job of the government to provide infrastructure to everyone in the first place? Since the government has slacked off on this basic responsibility in 60 years of democracy, now it wants to grab some land and make up for it by kicking out its residents?

The US and European countries did this and any factory/economic centre didn't need to be set up inside any specially demarcated "zone" to get the basic infrastructure. In fact, since the governments were expected to provide good roads, power, water everywhere, it was easy for industries to come up according to the one elastic parameter, labour. The governments didn't treat any parts more special than the others.

I was angered by what happened at Nandigram. I hope some of the key players in promoting these SEZs face the wrath of the displaced villagers (in whatever manner), and I think they fully deserve it.