Nano Bhagao Mission – Bengals loss is Gujrats Gain

Shifting of the Tata’s ambitious automobile project, Nano, from Singur in Bengal to Sanand in Gujrat shows the two faces of modern India. One in spite of all sorts of allegations and aspersions is not only showing the zeal and will but is actually marching foreward, while the other clinging to some ancient and fossilized beliefs is refusing to come out of its shell to embrace the demands of the modern surging India. The behavior of the two states, their people and their leaders has shown to the world that in India two opposite forces are always at work, one desperate to merge ahead on the road to progress and prosperity embracing every opportunity that helps it in its mission, while the other despises the beckoning of modern age development and progress. Gujrat and Bengal have done just that in the case of Nano project.

Thanks to the left government of the past, West Bengal had already had a bad name in the world of industries. Many industries both big and small – have been wiped out of the state during the decades of the left rule, mostly due to labor problem, allegedly supported by the leftist. In Buddhadev Bhattacharya, the present chief minister, West Bengal has at last got a die hart CPM leader who is not only industry-friendly, but is also eager to earn for his state a prominent place on the industrial map of India. He could see that industrialization is the road to progress and prosperity for the state. Therefore, he took upon himself to impress upon the big industrial houses to come and invest in West Bengal. He had actually succeeded in turning some big industrialists to the state for whom the name West Bengal itself a nightmare for decades.

Tata’s were one of these industrialists who thought that the “forbidden state” has at last woke up to the realities and is ready to march ahead. Accordingly, Tata group chairman, Ratan Tata, decided to establish an automobile project in West Bengal for his “dream child” Nano – the cheapest car of the world. Mr. Buddhadev Bhattacharya’s government acquired the required land for the factory at Singur and handed it over to the Tata’s. The latter in good faith began working on the project and during the past two years had already invested around 1500 Crore Rupees on the site, erecting buildings and installing machines. Mr. Ratan Tata promised to the nation that Nano will be in the market for sale during the last quarter of this year [2008]. When almost 85% of the construction work for the factory was completed, the Trinamul congress leader Mamata Banerjee suddenly woke up and started a movement against the land acquisition at Singur. Her claim was that about one third of the land acquired for the factory has to be returned to the farmers. The Tata’s worked out that they could spare only about 60 acres of land within the factory area and not about 400 acres as claimed by Ms. Banerjee. The trinamul congress leader would not relent. Meanwhile the security guards of the factory were beaten up allegedly by the party workers forcing Mr. Ratan Tata to change his mind. In a meeting with Mr. Buddhadev Bhattacharya on the eve of durgapuja he declared that he was pulling out of Singur [and of West Bengal!].

While most people in Bengal were shocked at the developments, Mamata Banerjee hailed Tata’s departure from Singur as “a victory of the farmers”. It is not known whether even after so many days of the fateful declaration of the Tata’s to pull out of Bengal the veteran Trinamul leader feels any pangs of conscience, but within hours of Tata’s pulling out of Singur Nano found a new home in Sanand in Gujrat. In fact a host of other states viz. Uttarakhand, Maharastra, Andhra Pradesh, Orrissa and so on were also waiting with open arms to welcome Nano on their soil. But Gujrat chief minister Narendra Modi outsmarted them all by his unique way of functioning.

In Singur, land for the Nano factory was the main bone of contention. Although the West Bengal government made the land available to the Tata’s Ms. Mamata Banerjee and her party made life impossible for Ratan Tata’s men by regular satyagrahas, dharnas, agitations and so on and so forth. In Gujrat, Narendra Modi made the required land available to the Tata’s almost within hours in chharodi and charal villages, 25 Km from Ahmedabad. The tract of land, measuring 1100 acres which has been allotted for Nano factory was part of land owned by Gujrat agricultural university.

Mr. Ratan Tata has re-iterated that despite the loss of so many days, Nano will come out on time [by the year end], although in smaller numbers. In the process Tata’s have lost a huge fortune in Singur. Besides, they had to pay a much higher price for the land too in Gujrat. But West Bengal has lost much more. It is not known whether Ms. Mamata Banerjee and her cohort ever assessed the financial loss that the state and its people have had to bear due to Nano’s exit. A rough estimate stated that about 2000 people would have been employed in the project. Employment for one person per family whose land was acquired for the project was guaranteed. Besides, some 60 to 70 other internationally famed companies were to be involved with the project for producing spare parts, because Tata’s policy was not to import many spare parts from foreign countries. This would have generated more employments. This would have solved the un-employment problem of the state to some extent. Add to this the welfare and development programs like good roads, schools, hospitals, playgrounds, recreation halls, light, water and so on that the Tata’s would have taken up for its employees there and the people of Singur and the satellite areas! According to a moderate estimate, about a crore of Rupees would have then flown in the market of Singur every month. The land prices in Singur and around would have soared up. But due to Mamata’s myopia and her malignant politics all these have now become a distant dream for Singur and its people. But Mamata Banerjee alone is not responsible for this catastrophe. It is the government of the state and indirectly the entire population of the state who have to share the blame. If it was the political compulsion of Ms. Banerjee to go one up against her political adversaries just before the approaching parliamentary election, what prevented the leftist government to take sterner action against the agitators who were in a minority? Then again, what about the people of West Bengal in general and other political parties who remained mute spectators through out? Bengal is known for agitation, protestation and processions at the slightest pretext. It is a pity that during this momentous occasion when history in automobile industry was going to be made on the soil of west Bengal petty politicians for their selfish political motives and personal enmities spurned the offer. What is more lamentable is that there was hardly any agitation, any protestation or any procession from the side of the so-called enlightened Bengalies or from the side or those who were to gain in case the project took off. Bengal and the Bengalies will have to pay dearly for such passivity in future.

Author: Subhash Dey
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