Singur: Tata sees rivalry at work

KOLKATA: Singur till Wednesday, was a tussle between a fasting lady and a chief minister. The issues at hand were two: farmland acquisition, which was the more immediate one, and the chances of setting up an automobile factory — which depended entirely on whether the immediate issue got amicably resolved.

On Wednesday, a third dimension got added: Ratan Tata’s comments on television to a news channel. The equation now looks something like this: Immediate issue, Ratan Tata’s comments; secondary issue, farmland acquisition; a distant one, the coming up of the factory. Mr Tata in the interview said: “The West Bengal government is very keen to have the project. The issue has been politicised and it had the backing of some of the Tata competitors. And he would not pull out of Singur just because of the pressure that was being created.”

The comments came as a big relief for the embattled state government, for which it was quite reassuring that Mr Tata has decided to stay put. But as for the Trinamool Congress, Tata’s remarks seemed to have let the proverbial cat out of the bag over the strategic issue of funding of any political programme.

The ultimate result was utter chaos, and nowhere else was it more visible than in the Trinamool middle order. With its leader on oxygen support, no other party functionary came forward to lift the haze vis-à-vis Tata’s comments.

While one senior leader threatened to douse kerosene on his body and go up in flames, another “advised” Mr Tata to join politics. Yet another called him a “don”. It was pretty obvious though that the Trinamool middle order was completely rudderless in its approach in Mamata’s absence. The NDA, which faces elections in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, did its bit to add to the confusion by asking President APJ Abdul Kalam to intervene in Ms Banerjee’s hunger strike programme.

Tata’s TV interview was pretty straightforward. Sample this:

* “Let me just say it is not just political, because I happen to know that some of our competitors are also fuelling some of this fire and they would be very happy if the project got delayed.”

* “If someone held a gun to my head, they were welcome to pull the trigger or pull the gun back, but I will not bow under pressure or threat.”

* “I think the West Bengal government has been very steadfast in its support of the project and it would be wrong for us to say that we will pull out and go.”

* “Why did we go to West Bengal is because we believe in the leadership that the present government has provided. Although the state has a communist government, we felt that West Bengal under the leadership of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is very investment friendly.”

While the controversy rages at one level, ground-level work at Singur is progressing very much on schedule. The Tatas have completed their survey of 997 acres and are all set to start the soil-testing at the site from Thursday.

Government officials are compiling data on the 387 acres that Trinamool has identified as controversial. If officials are to be believed, Trinamool’s figures and official records aren’t exactly matching in many cases, which is why the government is burning more and more midnight oil to get to the bottom of it all.