The Hindu Business Line : Tata’s threat

If at all there is a case of investment going sour, one need not go farther than Tata’s small car plant in Singur in West Bengal to find it. From the very inception, its location on 1,000 acres of acquired land had provoked violent agitations on the ground of fertile agricultural land being put to industrial use and 400 acres of land having been acquired allegedly without the farmers’ consent.

The Trinamool Congress, headed by Ms Mamata Banerji, had been demanding the return of land forcibly taken away from the farmers, thereby depriving them of their sole means of livelihood.

Mr Ratan Tata, unable to put up with the fouled up atmosphere, has talked of leaving the State. Already some States have eagerly welcomed him, promising generous concessions and facilities.

With the bulk of the Singur project outlay of Rs 1,500 crore already spent and with the prospect of the Nano car rolling out in the next few months, Mr Tata will be belying his reputation for business acumen were he to scratch everything in West Bengal and start the whole thing afresh elsewhere at enormous cost. His threat looks more like a way of jolting the State government, the Left combine, the Trinamool Congress and the Opposition, in general, into quickly finding an amicable solution to facilitate the smooth running of the project.

However, for that reason, it should not be taken lightly. Even if the Tatas do not leave, there is the danger of their painful experience driving away other investors who had been lining up with nearly Rs 193,000 crore (as per the estimate of the Federation of Indian Chambers and Commerce and Industry).

For the predicament in which the State finds itself, the Left Front Government, particularly, the Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, is largely responsible. The first mistake was that a party like the CPI(M) which prides itself on having its ears to the ground and on reflecting the feelings of the toiling masses, failed to keep itself on the right side of the farmers by sounding them out before going in for large-scale acquisition and conveying their unvarnished assessment to the Government.

Master plan

Compounding this mistake, the Government too failed to take people’s fears into account; on the contrary, it gave the impression of going all out to induct the Tatas in a hurry by adopting the tactics of intimidation and pressure with the help of the police. A prudent and sensitive Government would have taken into confidence all other political parties, especially those in the Opposition, on the merits and implications of the Singur project, and would have also placed before them the master plan it had in mind for a harmonious and mutually sustainable development of industry, agriculture and other important sectors of economic activity. Instead, the Government thought that its say-so on the virtues of industrialisation was enough to convince the people.

Going by the public statements of Ms Banerji, roughly 2,000 families of farmers and farm-hands dependent on them seem affected by forcible acquisition, as contended. Even half of this is no small number.

The best course would be for the Tatas to surrender the 400 acres and use their ingenuity to improvise with the balance; if that were not practical because parts of the plant have already come up on some of the disputed land, whatever acquired area it is possible to release should be returned to the farmers, and adequate compensation paid for loss of livelihoods and the uprooting of families.

Negotiations to this end have an excellent chance of success if Mr Jyoti Basu takes a hand in view of the great respect in which he is universally held.

B. S. RAGHAVAN

Related Stories:
We may pull out of Singur if protests continue: Ratan Tata
Nano suppliers also to pull out if Tatas shift from Singur
States vie to house Nano project
Singur plant project will continue, says Bengal Industry Minister

More Stories on : Politics | New Projects | Cars | Tata Motors Ltd | Offhand

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