The Hindu Business Line : Wages of 300 acres

The dust has settled down on the Singur issue — more accurately, the 300 acres on which the fate of the people depended — and it is time West Bengal looks ahead and tries to fathom what is in store for it on the growth front. Specifically, there are many, many 300 acre-plots, contiguous or otherwise, which will continue to be cultivated in the State, yielding handsome, and not so impressive, returns for those tilling them. But will they bring industrial growth and prosperity for West Bengal? After all, the State must grow to survive, and it has not been doing that on the industrial front (no matter what Government statistics may indicate) for well over three decades.

Grave setback

Of course, a controversy over just 300 acres should never be the end of the “growth” story anywhere in the world, leave alone West Bengal. Certainly, the enforced flight of the Tata Nano small car factory from the State is a grave setback for the people of the region, which is bound to delay the State’s industrial revival, if nothing else. Indeed, as the Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, said so appropriately the other day, the Tata-project battle has been lost, but the war for West Bengal’s industrial development continues — and, of course, it has to be won at the end of the day. But it is clear now that it can be won only if the political “leaders” of the State get together on the larger issue of economic growth for West Bengal, as opposed to their fight with each other for political power.

This is the heart of the problem facing West Bengal today in stark contrast to the situation prevailing elsewhere in the country. One has the strong feeling that in no other State would the withdrawal of such a prestigious project have taken place because, at the last moment, politicians would not have allowed it. If one has to have recourse to simple logic, the argument would go something like this: If the Opposition parties in West Bengal were to come to power after the next Assembly elections, the Nano project would continue to be a feather in the cap of the State. So why make sure that the feather is flung out of the window just because a political opponent is helping to give birth to it?

Poverty of politics

Actually, this leads on to a far more serious problem which, as it appears, is again limited to West Bengal politicians, namely, the state of politics in the region. The simple truth is that the current crop of political “leaders” cannot look beyond their noses when they try to consider the future implications of policy decisions taken today. Sometimes, one wonders, whether such exercises are at all attempted by those who aspire to “lead” the people. If they did, projects like Singur would have been set up a long time ago and, secondly, Singur itself would not have happened in the way it unfolded.

So where does this leave the people of West Bengal — specially the small motley group of farmers on whose behalf the Singur battle was fought and lost (if the State’s overall interest is taken into account)? Will these hapless victims of “democratic functioning” get back their land? Will other, big investors — who make all the difference when quantum jumps are required — show an interest in the State in a hurry? A poverty of politics is choking the people of West Bengal. The irony is that they are themselves to blame for their plight!

RANABIR RAY CHOUDHURY

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