A Great Leap into the unknown, or a false step?

A new rural reform in China that claims to bridge the gap between city and village has lessons for Singur-scarred Bengal, writes Ashis Chakrabarti To sceptics, it may end up being China’s very own Great October Counter-Revolution. Or the Great Leap Backward. For the ruling communists, it is the next big thing in China after the reform initiated by Deng Xiaoping 30 years ago. Both sides generally agree, however, that the rural reform the central committee of the Communist Party of China unveiled last month is going to transform China’s villages and farmers — one way or the other. The Chinese story has plenty of lessons for both Singur-scarred Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and farmer-embracing Mamata Banerjee. Let us first have the official version of China’s new rural reform. It allows the farmers to “lease their contracted farmland... [read full story]