BJP set to sharpen 'lost industry' narrative in Bengal with PM Modi's Singur rally

Kolkata: Politics in West Bengal appeared to have come full circle as the BJP chose the land, where the Tata Nano factory once stood in Singur in Hooghly district, for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's January 18 rally, making a renewed push around the state's chequered industrial past and missed economic opportunities.

Gearing up to go full throttle on its poll campaigns to take on the TMC, BJP leaders are hoping that Modi's Singur address would include a generic vision on the path to attract big-ticket investments to Bengal, piggybacking on the lasting perception that the state has remained industry-starved since the exit of the small car project.

The site chosen by the party for the PM's rally, months ahead of the assembly polls, is overtly symbolic and best suited for the party's messaging to debunk the TMC regime's performance in attracting business and share its counter vision to reviving industry in Bengal, if it comes to power.

"Almost no farming activity happens at Singur's Nano site because the character of the land was changed from agricultural to industrial. In Bengal, we need a comprehensive land policy to attract heavy industry, which is the only way to retain home-grown merit and stop brain drain and forced migration of the workforce. That policy should include making farmers direct stakeholders in industries for which they would need to give up land, if required," state BJP president Samik Bhattacharya told PTI.

Rejecting the "agriculture-industry coexistence theory" promoted by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Bhattacharya said big industries can only be set up on farmland, as 82 per cent of land in the state is held by small farmers.

"Bengal enjoys a unique topographical advantage of rivers, a sea and two immensely mineral-rich states in its neighbourhood. Investors can be easily lured here if we can render the state’s lower judiciary free of political pressure to extend impartial judgments for business houses during litigation," he said.

Intense farmers' protests, led by the then opposition TMC, against forcible acquisition of fertile agricultural land by the Buddhedeb Bhattacharjee-led Left Front government escalated to violence, arson and clashes, forcing Tata Motors to pull the plug on the Singur project in 2008 and relocate it to Gujarat when Modi was the CM there.

"I once mentioned that if somebody puts a gun to my head, you either pull the trigger or you take the gun away. Because I have not moved my head, I think Ms Banerjee has pulled the trigger," an exasperated Ratan Tata, then Tata Sons chairman, had said, while officially announcing the Singur pullout on October 3, 2008, identifying Banerjee as the sole cause for his decision.

The exit marked a watershed moment and reshaped Bengal's politics and industrial landscape, ultimately catapulting Banerjee to power in 2011 by ending a three-decade Left rule while simultaneously leaving the state struggling to shed its anti-industry image.

BJP MLA and economist Ashok Lahiri, while insisting that the abandoned factory plot in Singur can only be salvaged by fresh industrialisation, maintained that granting shares to landholders in industry could "complicate matters".

"Instead," Lahiri suggested, "The farmers owning small plots can form their own cooperative or even a company and consider giving amalgamated land parcels to investors on long-term lease or offer them up for sale."

"It is a win-win situation for both sides, especially in Singur, where time has proved that the proposition to revive agriculture on a plot where land usage had already changed due to the building of factory sheds was unworkable to begin with," he said.

The TMC dominated Singur's political map for over 25 years, with the party registering back-to-back wins in state polls since 2001.

The party, however, remained dismissive of the renewed focus on Singur.

State minister Chandrima Bhattacharya recently said, "The highest court said land acquisition in Singur was wrong. Where were these leaders when farmers were beaten, and land was forcibly taken?"

CPI(M)'s young gun Srijan Bhattacharya, who unsuccessfully contested the Singur seat in 2021, said agricultural output of Bengal's fragmented land parcels has "exhausted longevity" and that there is no shortcut to land acquisition other than making owners parties to the takeover process.

"The government must take the owners into confidence, offer them the highest possible compensation and the best possible rehabilitation before acquiring land for industry," he said.

Bhattacharya questioned the BJP's "credibility" in raking up the industry narrative before the polls on the grounds that the party had thrown its weight behind Banerjee's anti-factory agitation all those years ago.

A section of industry insiders in the state said that while the Singur experience may have marked a pivotal point for investment reluctance, the "final nail in that coffin" was driven in March 2025, when the TMC government enacted a law to retrospectively cancel industrial incentives, promised since 1993, citing lack of funds for welfare schemes.

"Unless a party addresses this key issue, no amount of promises can revive investor confidence in the state in the wake of losses some major companies are suffering because of this new policy," an entrepreneur said, requesting anonymity.

In its pre-poll 15-year performance report card, the TMC government, however, claimed that Bengal is among the country's leading states in the number of registered companies, with an average profit hike of 546 per cent per factory between 2011 and 2024.