THE new chief minister of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi coalition government, Uddhav Thackeray, soon after taking office, has made the welcome announcement that the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train Project of the BJP central government will be subjected to a thorough review. This announcement is the result of the consistent struggle waged by the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) and the Bhoomi Adhikar Andolan (BAA) against the bullet train project for the last few years. A thorough and objective review, if it is really made, can lead to only one result – the cancellation of the bullet train project, lock, stock and barrel. 
As is well known, the Modi government is hell bent on pushing ahead with its infamous Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train project with Japanese collaboration. It is trying every trick in the trade to grab the land of poor and middle farmers in Maharashtra and Gujarat, many of them adivasis, who will never get the chance to use the train. The Modi government is doing this by spreading the white lie that farmers from Gujarat have already sold land to it, or by luring them with hefty compensation, or by dangling the blandishment that the government will build schools, hospitals, roads in their villages and so on. But the farmers who have land as their only source of livelihood, have refused to sell it at any cost.
WHY THE OPPOSITION TO THE BULLET TRAIN?
The AIKS and BAA have opposed the bullet train project from its inception for valid reasons.
Firstly, 612.19 hectares of good agricultural land in Gujarat, 398.91 hectares in Maharashtra and 7.52 hectares in the union territory of Dadra and Nagarhaveli will be acquired. A considerable part of this land is cultivated by adivasi peasants. The land acquisition that this project will entail will lead to permanent loss of livelihood for thousands of peasant families. That is the reason why farmers in both Maharashtra and Gujarat are up in arms against it.
Secondly, the economic viability of the bullet train is suspect. The plane fare from Mumbai to Ahmedabad is around Rs 2000. The bullet train fare was first announced as Rs 3000 but it could well increase. Feasibility studies say that the fare cannot be lower than Rs 5000. The time taken by the bullet train from Mumbai to Ahmedabad would also be thrice the one-hour flight time. In terms of both expense and time, why would anyone prefer a bullet train to a plane? If the project fails economically, the subsidy that would have to be given to this white elephant would inevitably be thrust on the people in the form of rise in taxes. 
Thirdly, the project has a whopping cost of Rs 1.10 lakh crore, of which Rs 88 lakh crore will be a loan from Japan, of course repayable with interest. This total amount is three times the current health budget of the union government. With the Indian economy in recession and crisis, can the country afford such a massive expense on an unnecessary project? 
Fourthly, the bullet train project will help only the Indian corporates and their Japanese counterparts and the contractors lobby. The corruption and kickbacks to the ruling party are self-evident. The project is a clear case of collusion between corporate interests and state power, at the expense of the common people.
Fifthly, this white elephant is being proposed when the entire Indian railway system is in crisis. The series of railway accidents, neglect of safety concerns, the lack of modernisation, the privatisation drive, declining amenities show the totally skewed priorities of the rulers. Mumbai city itself is witness to the sad tragedy of hundreds of lives lost on railway tracks in accidents due to massive overcrowding in local trains. The massive amount that will be spent on the bullet train can and must be spent to revamp the Indian railways.
Sixthly, there is the steep environmental cost. Thousands of mangroves and other forms of biodiversity are slated to be destroyed to accommodate the bullet train project. Unsurprisingly, hardly any reliable environmental survey has been conducted by the rulers.   
Lastly, the elitist nature of the project is clear. It will cater only to a small section of the rich, and even that is doubtful given the economics cited above. It is nothing but an attempt to showcase vanity projects and convey a sense of false prestige to cover up the abysmal failure of the BJP government of Narendra Modi on all vital fronts over the last five years.
CONSISTENT STRUGGLE FORCES REVIEW   
The opposition to the bullet train and other similar projects has been snowballing during the last two years. On August 9, 2017, a huge joint rally was held at Talasari in Palghar district by different groups against the proposed land acquisition for the bullet train, Mumbai-Vadodara Expressway, Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor and so on.
The massive AIKS-led Kisan Long March from March 6 to 12, 2018, took this up as one of the important issues, to which the state government assured in writing that there would be no forced land acquisition for the project.
On March 14-15, the first state conference of the BAA was held at Palghar and it resolved to oppose these projects. As per the call of that conference, on May 17, thousands of farmers including adivasis held a protest at Azad Maidan in Mumbai on this and other issues.
One of the biggest protests against the bullet train and the expressway took place on May 3, 2018 at Dahanu in Palghar district. The CPI(M) and AIKS held a 35,000-strong Nirdhaar Rally.
The Dahanu rally was organised: 1. To oppose tooth and nail the land acquisition moves of the BJP central government for its pet fancy projects – the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train and the Mumbai-Vadodara expressway. The state government had given in writing after the Kisan Long March that land would be acquired only with the consent of the farmers. But it had violated this by beginning surveys for these projects and issuing threats to peasants. 2. To keep up the pressure on the BJP-led state government to implement its written assurances about giving land rights under the Forest Rights Act (FRA) and other demands. 3. To demonstrate the resolve to continue the struggle in order to consolidate and expand the CPI(M)-AIKS base in Thane-Palghar district.

A month later, on June 3, 2018, a large convention against the proposed Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train was held at Palghar by the Bhoomi Adhikar Andolan (BAA). The joint organisers were the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), Kashtakari Sanghatana, Shoshit Jan Andolan, National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), Gujarat Khedut Samaj, Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti and others. All political parties that were prepared to publicly oppose the bullet train project were invited. All the speakers gave a commitment that their parties and organisations would oppose the bullet train project and the Mumbai-Vadodara Expressway project tooth and nail and would ask their MPs and MLAs to oppose them in both parliament and assembly. A resolution was passed unanimously by a show of hands that not an inch of land would be given by peasants for these anti-farmer and pro-corporate projects of the Modi regime.
Many farmers whose land is being surveyed also spoke in the meeting. They shared their experiences of how the government is trying every possible way to ensnare them, by luring, threatening and also trying to create a split in the villages. But the land being their only source of income, is not for sale at any cost. The farmers reiterated their strong resolve not to sell the land and to fight collectively against the rulers. They suggested many interesting ways to drive out the surveying officers from their own experience.

On September 11, 2018, a meeting of the BAA was held at Dahanu in Palghar district. It was well attended by leaders and activists of AIKS, CITU, DYFI, AIDWA, Kashtakari Sanghatana, Agri Yuvak Sanghatana, CPI(ML-Liberation) and by the farmers from Dahanu, Talasari and Palghar tehsils who are in danger of losing their land in the project.  

On October 15, 2018, a national convention against the bullet train was held in Delhi, in which many national leaders and MPs of parties opposing this project – CPI(M), CPI, Congress, NCP, RJD, SP and others participated.

With the election of Vinod Nikole as the CPI(M) MLA from the Dahanu (ST) assembly seat in Maharashtra in October 2019, the struggle against the bullet train will get a further boost. Earlier this month, a BAA meeting was held in Mumbai and it decided to revive the struggle.

Both in Maharashtra and in Gujarat, peasants from several villages have begun their resistance. Officials coming to conduct surveys for the bullet train have been driven away. The gram sabhas of several affected villages have passed resolutions opposing any form of land acquisition for the bullet train project. The Vasai-Virar Municipal Corporation which is controlled by the Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (BVA) has also passed a resolution opposing the bullet train project. This united struggle against the Modi-led BJP regime will surely be intensified in the days and months to come.