The Hindu Business Line : From afar, gloomy Singur watches Nano roll out

From Singur As the world’s most-awaited car, Tata Motors’ Nano was launched in Mumbai on Monday, gloom descended on Singur from where the car was originally to roll out. The Tata low-cost car project, which was to change the industrial face of an investment-starved West Bengal, had to move out of the State as pressure mounted from the Trinamool Congress-led Krishi Jami Jiban Jibika Rakshya (protection of farmland, life and livelihood) Committee (KJJJRC) — a group of “reluctant” land losers and small parties/outfits.

Of the 13,000 people affected by the project, some 2,200 were “reluctant” farmers, unwilling to part with their land. The Trinamool Congress agitation for over two years may have forced the project out of the State, but it also left practically all the people of Singur in a lurch. Not only have the “reluctant” land-losers lost both land and compensation, their agitation has deprived the 11,000 willing to give up their land of a better future the project promised to bring.

“I fail to see what they (the Trinamool Congress) achieved from this. Who has benefited? How has it helped create employment opportunities? How has it helped the younger generation? It has only tarnished the image of the State both within the country and abroad,” the West Bengal Industries Minister, and Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader, Mr Nirupam Sen, said at a press conference in Kolkata on Monday, following the launch of Nano.

‘Destructive politics’

Lashing out at the Trinamool Congress, he said that nowhere else in India is such “destructive politics” being pursued. “I feel sorry for the people of Singur. They had cherished a dream for a better future, and now their dream is shattered, and they are in despair,” he said.

For the 2,200-odd families, the satisfaction of seeing the Tata project depart from the Singur was short lived. For, just because there will not be a Nano factory anymore does not mean they will get back their land.

The “unwilling farmers” whose land is trapped within the factory boundary walls can yet redeem some of their loss , by claiming compensation. “If we do that, then that would be the end of the struggle,” a ‘land-loser’ told Business Line. The Opposition has been persistent in keeping alive the spectre of the Tatas. Villagers of Bajemelia, whose homesteads stand almost adjacent to the factory walls, have been made to believe that the Tatas will be back with the “dreaded” small-car project. “Who told you they have left?” a farmer asked with some belligerence; “If they have left, why is there still a boundary wall? Why do the police harass us if we try to get in?” he demanded to know. The villagers of the region spoke on the condition that their names are not mentioned.

Political ploy

The Trinamool’s ploy appears strictly political — to keep alive the agitation though fully aware that nothing will come of it to benefit the agitating farmers. In January 2008, the Calcutta High Court, upheld the West Bengal government’s land acquisition proceedings in Singur for the Nano project, ruling out any “colourable exercise of power” by the State government.

Besides, Supreme Court rulings are categorical that the land once acquired through the Land Acquisition Act, even if it is not required by the State government for public purposes, cannot be returned to the erstwhile owners but can be used for another public purpose or resold in a public auction and the proceeds used for some public purpose. Not many farmers are aware of this. The Trinamool manifesto, released by Ms Mamata Banerjee, on Monday, reiterates the demand that land belonging to the “unwilling farmers” be returned to them.

But realisation is beginning to dawn on some farmers of Singur and with that despondency is setting in. The Trinamool Congress has also probably realised that it really has no solution for the farmers. “I really don’t know what shall become of us anymore,” a farmer of Singur told Business Line.

At the press conference following the release of her party’s manifesto, Ms Banerjee was uneasy addressing questions on Singur. “We don’t care for Nano. I don’t want to discus it,” she said. She even shifted the blame for the Tata’s departure onto the CPI(M)-led Left Front government. “The Tatas left because of the CPI(M) not because of us,” she said. .

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