The Hindu Business Line : Reading Singur

New Delhi must treat Singur as a national, not State-level failure, to create an enabling environment for an open and fair transfer of land for industry.

It might be tempting for some of those affected in Singur to read victory in a deadlock or even closure of the Nano car project; they should resist it. As things stand, the various stakeholders have a seven-day respite as the State-appointed committee ponders the area and location of land that is to be returned to the displaced. This is the best time for them to consider the long-term ramifications of any outcome other than the one most desired by the State Government R 12; the resumption of work at the Tata Motors plant. An outcome of this sort would be not so much a victory for the State Government over the Trinamool Congress as a gain for all the stakeholders — the farmers, the State Government, Tata Motors certainly and, yes, even the Trinamool Congress.

Just why everybody would benefit would be clear if one considered a scenario in which the Tatas’ current position carried the day and the plant was shifted to some other State. If that were to happen everybody loses. The farmers standing by the Trinamool Congress would return to their lands presumably, but to a dismal future definitely. The Trinamool Congress would have lost an historic opportunity to blaze a trail for other distressed landowners elsewhere in collective bargaining. West Bengal would stand to lose far more than either, with the Tata pullout encouraging others to reconsider — as Infosys is reportedly doing. But the Tatas too would lose, not just on account of the delay that relocating entails but in a more pernicious way. Farmers and disaffected groups elsewhere in the country could read Singur as evidence that the interests of industrial capital and their own are irreconcilable, thus fostering an atmosphere of tension in large swathes of the countryside. The entire nation would suffer a deep wound through its heartland of the kind that China is suffering with rising rural disaffection and, in parts, violent unrest.

An amicable agreement, however, needs a context, a compass that can steer the stakeholders in the right direction. That context is present more by default since the Land Acquisition Amendment has been waiting for Parliament’s nod long after the provisions have been publicly debated. Parliament now meets in October. Late as it is, New Delhi must push it and the accompanying Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill without any delay. New Delhi must treat Singur as a national, not State-level failure, to create an enabling environment for an open and fair transfer of land for industry. That is the only way it can ensure the next stage of industrial growth.

Related Stories:
Work suspension at Singur will continue: Tata Motors
Hectic parleys to break Singur impasse
Singur issue: Bengal Governor hopeful of outcome by Monday
Work at Tatas’ Singur plant hits a roadblock

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