JOIN USSickle and hammer in battle for Bengal's farmland in Singur
“How much land does it require to build an automobile manufacturing factory on? Should people then only drive cars?” Bharat, with an inquiring frown, asked, motioning to the walled sprawl of 997 acres of fertile farmland that was acquired and then turned over to the Tatas so it could produce a fleet of pint-sized cars for the country’s growing middle class.
The manner in which land was acquired in village after village under Singur police station some seven years ago turned into a matter of red-hot contention in 2006 when the land losers were mobilised by the Trinamool Congress, setting off crippling demonstrations, occasional violent conflicts and growing support for that party’s chief Mamata Banerjee.
On the other side of the conflict is the CPM and West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya for whom the Tata’s Nano plant in Singur, about 42 km west of Kolkata, was to be the beachhead for the resurgence of industrialisation that the Marxists so systematically and thoroughly destroyed since it came to power in 1977. When the Leftists won the Assembly in 2006, Bhattacharya campaigned on a pro-industry slogan of ‘Destination Bengal’ – his dream to resurrect the state by inviting investments and create jobs.
But Singur now — as it was then — is emblematic of the clash of two economies: one that is being aggressively courted by Bhattacharya and his party, and the other a more traditional way of tilling the land which, in Bharat’s words, never ever “betrays” as a “factory might”.
With elections in this rich and fertile Gangetic belt scheduled for May 3, the voters of both Singur and Nandigram, some 200 km away in East Midnapore district and the site of the massacre of 14 farmers in police firing on March 14, 2007, are eagerly awaiting that date when they would like to punish the CPM which has been accused of railroading peasants to part with their land – sometimes forcibly -- in these two farm belts that have become synonymous with a peasants’ uprising.
The bulk of the peasantry here has clearly thrown in its lot with Mamata whose ‘Ma, Maati, Maanush’ rhetoric has purchase in the rural areas, though not in urban Kolkata. And yet there are lingering doubts whether she will be able to turn her face completely from industry. That suspicion stems from the candidature of former chief secretary Manish Gupta whose business interests with a few Tata companies have raised eyebrows even in Trinamool circles that he would be the party’s segue to the corporate world.
The TMC’s manifesto claims to “revive West Bengal’s industrial glory with a three-pronged strategy” that would involve: Broad and deep focus on micro, small and medium enterprises; restart and remodel closed PSUs across the state; and attract large investments in sectors such as engineering, steel, tea, jute, textiles and other areas of manufacturing, mining, power and food processing.
Needless to say the Trinamool platform has been belittled by Bhattacharya who, in meeting after public meeting, has described it as “immature and childish” and “far removed from the socio-economic situation of the state”. Bhattacharya admits to the “mistakes” in the past, but is firm on the industrialisation course.
Mamata counters that by claiming that Singur “has got a rail factory” and promises that more such projects would be in the offing if her party forms the government.