Saying Ta Ta to TATA

Oh! What a circus it has been. Will they? Won't they? Will they? Won't they? This has been the question on everybody's minds over the last 4 months. TATA is being forced out of West Bengal (well they better leave if the highly anticipated Nano is ever to see the light of day) and to add insult to injury, their deadline to meet the Nano roll out seems all but impossible...and the first year target of 3 lakh cars, well, lets not even go there. The ongoing impasse at Singur has also made Tata Motors' top vendors extremely uncomfortable, prompting many of them to either announce a pullout or a significant scaling down of operations in West Bengal. Bengal stands to lose not just the mother plant but 56 ancillary units and the jobs they would create as well. The agitation has also resulted in the scaling down of Nano targets for this calendar year.

The Players

• Mamta Banerjee- Who leads Trinamool Congress is leading the protesters and farmers and has demanded the return of 400 acres of land
• Ratan Tata - Chairman of Tata, who must be wondering what the hell he was smoking when he decided to set up shop in West Bengal
• Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee - The CM of West Bengal who has made a total mess of the situation and is helplessly seeing other industries pull back from his state
• The Farmers - who are blindly following anyone who will give them money for their land

Agitation and Political Drama
The Govt of WB acquired around 1000 acres of farmland in Singur so the Nano plant could be set up by Tata. The trouble started after the Left Front-led Government offered compensation in return but some villagers complained that they had not received their dues. Sensing political opportunity, Mamata Banerjee jumped in to score some political points and she started demanding the lands be returned, which she alleged was forcibly taken from "unwilling farmers" to build ancillary industries adjacent to the main plant. The government is countering that it is too late to give the land back, that the project is too important for the state economy, that giving hundreds of acres back would essentially close the Nano project at Singur. In all, around 400 acres of land is still being fiercely disputed out of the 1,000 acres acquired by the State Government. Violence was encouraged and the farmers unwittingly became pawns in the political drama that has been unfolding over months and which only seems to be getting nastier by the day. Demonstrations and indefinite protests were staged and Tata's employees were attacked as the whole country watched with surprise as to what was happening to one of India's biggest corporations.

Give us the Money - Strangely it looks like over the last 2 weeks, more and more farmers are just collecting cheques from the state govt and giving up their land. Then there are many more who are trying to re-negotiate their land prices and want more money. At the same time, Mamta Banerjee is throwing more tantrums and staging more protests. She has even set a one week deadline for the govt to resolve the issue and is calling for the govt to step down since it has failed. While the farmers want money, it looks like mamta wants as much political mileage as she can get while claiming to fight for the unwilling farmers. Unwilling farmers?? What unwilling farmers.

This is certainly a strange case as it looks like the left, which has historically been against changes, are in front championing investment and reform, while the opposition (read Congress and BJP), who have always complained against the leftists for being against reforms, are trying their best to stop the development of the project in the state. As I write this, it looks like TATA has been offered 1000 acres by Karnataka in addition to Maharastra aggressively courting them as well. In all, 12 states have rolled out the red carpet to TATA, while the govt and opposition are continuing to fight with each other demanding the other step down.

This critical issue can only be solved by politicians with a commitment to India’s development and not by opportunist politicians who are just raising slogans to score quick cheap points. We need good opposition just as much as we need good government. At this time, I don’t think we have either...at least in the state of West Bengal.