The Hindu Business Line : <I>Resolving Singur's crisis </I>

The name of an obscure village, Singur, in the Hooghly district of West Bengal, has been ricocheting round the nation following the `satyagraha' launched by the Trinamool Congress chief, Ms Mamata Banerji, and the indefinite fast undertaken by her, protesting the acquisition of nearly 1,000 acres for the setting up of the Tata Motors' small car factory.

She had been objecting to the proposal right from the time the location of the project came to be known some three months ago and the State Government must bear a part of the blame for letting the agitation assume such serious proportions.

Complacent attitude

It is ironical that the CPI(M), the driving force of the Left Front, with all its experience of conducting people's movements, should have failed to note the warning signs of brewing trouble. In fact, the first visit of the representatives of the Tata group to Singur to inspect the lands proposed to be acquired was said to have led to ugly scenes when the local people tried to obstruct them and demonstrated their resentment and anger. The party's venerable patriarch, Mr Jyoti Basu, had at the time reportedly admonished the State administration for not taking the people of the village into confidence about the Government's intentions and plans

One cannot rule out a heavy admixture of party rivalries in the Singur agitation since the CPI(M) is the bete noire of the firebrand leader of the Trinamool Congress. Knowing that she is not one to miss any opportunity to make political capital of whatever issue comes in handy to embarrass the State Government, the Left Front should have been prompt in countering her allegations of large scale take-over of farmland for the project and of misusing the police to resort to threats and physical force against the unwilling owners. Instead, it adopted a complacent attitude, content to summarily dismiss the allegations as born out of political animosity, helping them gain a degree of verisimilitude even among people sympathetic to the Left Front's efforts.

Retrieving the situation

The abrupt and, to an extent, abrasive, responses of the Chief Minister to criticism, and the impression he has given from day one of wanting to go all out to smoothen things for the Tatas, has only served to create further misunderstanding.

Other than in some editorials and articles by Messrs Sitaram Yechury and Benoy Konar, published in People's Democracy, there has been no cogent and authoritative exposition of the stand taken by the State Government. These, too, do not explain why the Tatas were not prevailed upon to set up their project in really backward districts (Bankura, for example) suffering from chronic unemployment, where wastelands are available for development and utilisation.

Even now it is not too late. Instead of talking to media by fits and starts, the Chief Minister and the Left Front Chairman (Mr Biman Bose) should jointly hold media meets in Singur and Delhi to remove apprehensions and explain convincingly the strategy and approach for maintaining the balance between agriculture and industries.

The old British colonial methods of imposing Section 144 CrPC to rob the citizens of access to complete information on activities carried out in their name and with their tax money are out of place in a genuine democracy. The political confrontation in West Bengal is doing no good to the State and the sooner it is brought to an end, the better.

B. S. RAGHAVAN

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