In Nano ruins, heartfelt signs

The remains of the Tata Motors-proposed Nano factory stands forlorn like the ruins of some archaeological excavation, just off the expressway. The unfinished plant and its moss-laden walls at Singur stands like a city of broken dreams, of heartfelt sighs and unfulfilled aspirations.

Like most causes and folk uprisings, memories of the movement at Singur are fading. Most people have forgotten how the small agricultural hamlet in Hooghly district, barely 40 km from Kolkata, had shown the path for a popular movement against indiscriminate and not-consensual land acquisition in India.

Soon after the movement started at Singur in 2006, after the erstwhile Left Front government decided to hand over 997 acres of precious agricultural land to fuel Ratan Tata’s dream project, similar movements spawned in different parts of the country.

“We have become history and nobody cares about what happens to us. Like the kings and queens of the past we’ve been forgotten,” complained 93-year-old Khagen Biswas, sitting on the courtyard outside his hut on a sunny, winter afternoon.
“The plant could have solved many of our problems but we were happy with our regular life. Each year, we had a bounty in harvest. Then they made us dream and snatched it away almost as if we just woke up from sleep.”

Biswas is representative of the area’s complaints. Singur residents believe that the Left’s plan of setting up the plant was faulty as was Mamata Banerjee's movement that drove away the Tatas once land was already acquired. The movement at Singur paved Mamata’s way to the chief minister’s office. And all promises of returning 400 acres that belonged to farmers unwilling to part with their land yet remain unfulfilled.
In 2012, Mamata as chief minister admitted that Singur was a thorn in her side. “Our only disappointment is the inability to return the land to the unwilling farmers of Singur,” she had said. On the same breath she announced a monthly allowance of Rs 1,000 to the 3,000-odd families of farmers who claim their land was taken forcibly.

She also announced an entitlement of eight kg of rice and pulses at Rs 2 per kg every month, which has become a source of sustenance for most affected families.
After the June 2012 verdict of the Calcutta High Court, which nullified the state government’s legislative move to return the disputed acres, it became almost impossible to get back land through legal channels. After the judgment, several groups visited Singur with the objective to express solidarity with locals but the people of Singur seemed hardly enthusiastic.

These days they look frustrated with the way things have turned out. “Until we get back our land, there’s not much of a favour anybody can do us. We’re caught between living a life on dole and penury. There’s no way out,” said Mahadeb Das, a local peasant leader. He was one of the first to give up his land for the factory. He later retracted his offer and did not accept compensatory cheques from the Left Front government. He has lost out on both counts: not having taken the money and losing his land.

Das joined the Trinamool, believing Mamata  would change things when in power but the edges of his faith seem a bit frayed. Delving deeper one might even find nodes of disappointment and disillusionment with the world around him, something most people in Singur share.