The Singur jam

The Pioneer Edit Desk Both Mamata, Buddha need to reverse Two determined -- and perhaps over-determined -- political entities, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Ms Mamata Banerjee, president of the Trinamool Congress, have led the Nano car project to a political cul de sac. The stand-off near the half-built Tata Motors manufacturing plant in Singur, in West Bengal's Hooghly district, is continuing unabated simply because neither side knows how to back down. Of the 997 acres of agricultural land acquired for the project, the Trinamool camp claims 400 acres belong to farmers who don't want to sell, whatever the price. The Left Front Government claims the figure is actually 193 acres. The truth is perhaps somewhere in between. Whatever the quantum, the fact is the small, scattered holdings of unwilling farmers cannot possibly be returned to them without jeopardising the entire car-making venture. The holdings making up the 400 (or 193) acres spread across the entire area earmarked for the mother unit and its ancillary facilities. The Trinamool Congress has informally spoken of the fact that 500 acres of land, flood-prone but almost equally valuable in terms of agricultural productivity, has been acquired by three business groups on the other side of the highway, right opposite the proposed Tata industrial zone. There have been suggestions that part of this 500-acre area be used to compensate farmers who don't want money but want to continue with their traditional occupation, and whose fields are in the way of the Nano plant. The three business groups who will so lose out could be offered an option in Uluberia, in nearby Howrah district. The Uluberia land is already in the possession of the West Bengal Government and specifically identified for industrial use.

If the contours of the deal are clear enough, what stops it being finalised? The answer lies in the CPI(M)'s tradition of obduracy. Having initially used cadre muscle and police batons to force farmers to part with their land, the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Government is unwilling to admit that its methods were wrong. It wants to tire out Ms Banerjee, rather than make a peace offering lest this be interpreted as surrender. On their part, the Trinamool leaders have taken the somewhat cynical position that they can ignore the English-language media and the urban elite, who are in any case not Ms Banerjee's voters. The rust belt underclass that has always been the Trinamool base can now be combined with a restive south Bengal peasantry to form a potent political combination, or so is the calculation.

Despite his posturing, it is a fair assumption that Mr Ratan Tata will not easily walk out on Singur. From cheap land very close to a metropolis -- and alongside a modern, recently-built highway -- to a 10-year sales tax holiday, Tata Motors has been given a good deal by Mr Bhattacharjee. Yet, an inordinate delay in getting the project up and running is not going to help West Bengal's image. Like the CPI(M) in the 1970s, the Trinamool Congress is in danger of sending out the same "cholbe na (won't do)" signals that converted West Bengal, in one generation, from an economic heavyweight to an industrial backwater. For all its angularities, the Tata Motors challenge is an important one. If Bengali politicians show the sagacity and statesmanship to meet it, other investors could come in. If not, new India will write off old West Bengal. Link to Pioneer