After a lot of ‘Yes-Yes’ and ‘No-No’ to the Nano project of Tata Motors by Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, solution to the Singur land row seemed to be in sight late Sunday night.

The negotiations between the government of West Bengal and Mamata Banerjee facilitated by Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi seemed to reach a meeting point when Mamata announced the suspension of her agitation following the decision to constitute a committee to work out the modalities of settlement for the Singur land row within a week.

The compromise formula worked out by the West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Mamata Banerjee includes allocation of land-for-land to farmers who refused to accept compensation for some 220 acres of land as part of the rehabilitation package.

While nothing is quite final, this seems to bring down the curtain on the Singur land row at least for now. Tata Motors has not responded to this announcement till now. It is not clear whether Tata would be interested in going ahead with the Nano project and, if so, to what extent.

The dilly-dallying by Mamata and her about turn during the course of the negotiation has done little to infuse any confidence in the parties to the agreement. In view of this, there is nothing to indicate that Mamata would not go back on her words and rake up this issue again after sometime.

Things came to a head when Mamata declared on August 19, 2008 that the Tata Motors plant cannot come up at the cost of Singur farmers and demand that 400 acres of land acquired for its ancillary units be returned to them.

Mamata was under the impression that she had Tata Motors under her thumb as they had already invested rupees 1,500 crore out of the total investment of rupees 2,000 crore. Tata Motors chairman Ratan Tata’s threat to pull out of Singur in spite of this heavy investment must have rattled her.

Mamata, however, went ahead and laid siege of the Nano plant and blocked the highway. Her supporters included Naxalites who threatened the employees of Tata Motors to keep away from the plant. Work at the Nano plant came to a standstill and Tata Motors began to study the possibility of relocating the plant.

The West Bengal government invited Tata Motors to set up their Nano project in Singur and acquired the land for them. Tata Motors had no role in it. Therefore, the West Bengal government should have ensured that the land is free of encumbrances.

If there was ever a problem with the land acquisition, Mamata should have fought it out with the government. Tata Motors has been dragged into this because it is a soft target.
Legitimising the role of the state in facilitating land acquisition, the Supreme Court has pronounced that a project which can generate large scale employment has to be treated as one serving public purpose.

Since Nano is a budget car priced at rupees one lakh a piece, it is imperative that the ancillary units be set up nearby. That would cut down transportation costs and reduce logistic problems. Therefore, if the ancillary units have to be moved, the mother plant too would have to be moved. This is not something peculiar to Tata Motors. All the automobile industries have their ancillary units next to them for obvious reasons.

The grievances of the farmers must be redressed at all costs. There are no two ways about it. But, when Ratan Tata came to know about this land row and the unwillingness of some farmers to part with their land, he offered to come to an amicable settlement with them. It was Mamata who scuttled the possibility of negotiation on this count.

Mukesh Ambani came out in support of Ratan Tata, Tata Motors and the Nano project. The result was that Reliance retail outlets in West Bengal were attacked. This is Mamata’s didi-giri for you.

In the meantime, Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh also joined Mamata to express his solidarity with her. This too might have a political overtone. One wonders if he would have come and joined hands with Mamata if this factory was owned by Anil Ambani.

Though a few corporate giants such as Videocon have invested in West Bengal during the past few years, the Nano project was to open the floodgates of investment in West Bengal. Many big time players were keenly watching the progress of the Nano project.

The Nano project is not to be viewed as just an investment in West Bengal. It would generate large scale employment, promote trade, develop infra-structure and help the state earn revenue by way of taxes and levies. With the kind of treatment meted out to them, West Bengal may have kissed goodbye to huge corporate investments.

One of the reasons why the Singur issue came to such a pass is because the West Bengal government did not want to come down heavily on Mamata and her supporters. Nandigram is still fresh in our memory where the Trinamool Congress hijacked
the agenda of a non-political organization called the Bhumi Uchched Pratirodh Committee who were fighting against land acquisition and used it to throw out CPI(M) supporters (which was close to 80 percent) out of Nandigram.

CPI (M) managed to retrieve Nandigram but not without burning its fingers. It had to suffer heavy losses in the panchayat elections that followed the Nandigram fiasco. The ghosts of Nandigram must still be haunting them.

A lot has been discussed and written about the Singur land row. But, this has thrown up a very important question which has been missed by most of them. Tata Motors was being forced to pack up after it had invested rupees 1,500 crore in the Nano project. Mamata and her 100,000 strong supporters squatted in Singur and blocked the highway for two weeks. They may just get up and walk away after causing a loss of rupees 1,500 crore to Tata Motors. Who will make good this loss?

Rupees 1,500 crore is a lot of money. Is nobody accountable for causing such a huge loss to a company which is not at fault? The contribution from the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund for the 23 lakh people affected by Kosi floods in Bihar was only rupees 1,000 crore.
Can we let a politician go scot-free after causing a huge loss?

All was well with West Bengal before the CPI(M) came to power in the late 1970s. By the end of seventies most industrial units in West Bengal closed shop following uncompromising trade unionism. That was dada-giri (bullying by big brother). Now, three decades later when the CPI (M) has realized the importance of industrialization, Mamata Banerjee has decided to make things difficult for industrial projects. In the last thirty years, all that West Bengal seems to have done is to evolve from dada-giri to didi-giri!