It was billed as the site that would usher in a new era of industrialisation and jobs in West Bengal, an attempt by the Left to pivot towards the market economy after decades of stagnant growth. However, the proposed Tata plant in Singur in Hooghly district ended up bringing down the Left citadel and propelling Mamata Banerjee to power. Now, the barren landscape of Singur just off the Durgapur Expressway, where the Tatas abandoned the project to build the world’s cheapest car, is once again at the centre of Bengal politics.
After Prime Minister Narendra Modi took aim at the Trinamool Congress on January 18 from Singur, questioning its track record on creating jobs and industrialisation, Bengal’s ruling party has scheduled its own rally there on January 28. For Banerjee, the return to Singur ahead of the Assembly elections is now for an entirely different reason: to counter her rivals’ narrative that Singur is symbolic of TMC’s “anti-industry” policies and to push the party’s “pro-farmer” position.
“Industry will only come to Bengal when law and order are restored. A ‘syndicate tax’ is levied on everything here; the BJP will end this, that is Modi’s guarantee,” Modi said last week, while inaugurating and dedicating to the nation a number of railways and infrastructure projects in Bengal, altogether worth Rs 3,250 crore.
Besides its frequently raised charge of “cross-border infiltration” in Bengal, the BJP, which is a more resourceful opponent than the Left ever was, has been attacking the TMC over the state’s limited industrial growth. The BJP claims — as per an answer to a question posed in the Rajya Sabha by state BJP chief Samik Bhattacharya — that 6,688 companies have left Bengal in the last 14 years.
As a result, the TMC has opted to counter this from Singur itself. “Our party chief aims at giving a befitting reply to PM Modi from the very grounds of Singur. Singur agitation and our party are synonymous. Our party chief went on a hunger strike for Singur. Finally, through our agitation, the Tatas stepped back and the Supreme Court order came for the land return. We did it. We are all waiting for her message from Singur,” said a senior party leader close to Banerjee.
According to sources in the state government, Banerjee is scheduled to announce a series of projects in response to Modi’s announcements. “She will announce the second phase of the ‘Banglar Bari’ project, which will benefit 16 lakh families. This project was started by the state government after the Centre stalled the financial assistance under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY). According to top officials, with this project, the CM will also be able to give the message of how the Centre has a step-motherly attitude towards Bengal,” said a senior official.
“The CM may also announce a wire-housing project for the Singur industrial area, which will also send a message that this government is not against industrialisation,” the official said.
The Singur agitation
In the 2006 Bengal Assembly elections, the incumbent Left Front came to power with a thumping majority for the seventh consecutive term. Shortly after the elections, with the CPI(M) having focused its campaign on the promise of industrialisation and employment generation, then CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee announced that Tata Motors would set up a car manufacturing unit to produce its Nano model, for which close to 1,000 acres of land would be allocated.
The land acquisition process started by the government sparked protests from locals in Singur, besides smaller political outfits such as the Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist) and CPI (M-L). Despite the initial protests, the government was able to acquire the land in Singur and Tata was able to start the construction of its plant there.
In late 2006, Mamata began her anti-land acquisition movement against the Left government to “save fertile farmland”. When she was prevented from entering Singur, she returned to Kolkata and launched a hunger strike. Over the course of her 26-day fast, she drew broad support from different sections of society for her movement, including from activists and intellectuals.
In early 2008, Tata Motors unveiled Nano at the Auto Expo in New Delhi, and days later the Calcutta High Court upheld the land acquisition in Singur as legal. Not only did Mamata continue her Singur agitation, but another anti-land acquisition movement in Nandigram over a proposed chemicals industry hub also gave her further momentum to challenge the Left government.
Efforts by then Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi to mediate between the government and Mamata eventually failed, and in 2008, Tata announced its withdrawal from Singur and eventually set up its Nano plant in Sanand in Gujarat, where the Narendra Modi-led BJP government was then in power.
The legal battles
After the 2011 Assembly polls, the TMC stormed to power to end the Left government’s three-decade rule in the state. Her agitations against land acquisitions, first in Singur and then in Nandigram over a proposed chemicals industry hub in 2008, were among the key reasons behind the TMC’s rise.
In her first Cabinet decision after assuming power, the TMC government returned 400 acres of land to “unwilling farmers” who had given up their property for the Nano project through the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act, 2011. Soon after, Tata Motors moved the Calcutta High Court challenging the law, which was later upheld. But Tata again challenged the Court order.
In 2012, a division bench of the Calcutta High Court struck down the Act. But after the Bengal government moved the Supreme Court challenging the High Court order. In 2016, the Supreme Court finally quashed the then Left Front government’s land acquisition for the Tata plant, setting aside the High Court order and directing the state government to return 997 acres of “illegally acquired” land to its owners within 12 weeks.
Despite the Singur agitation and the ensuing legal challenges, Banerjee recently repeated her claim that she was neither against industrialisation nor the Tata project. “I didn’t drive Tatas out of West Bengal. The CPI(M) did. They wanted to occupy land forcibly, and we returned the land,” Banerjee said.
But the CPI(M) claims that the TMC and Banerjee, with support from the BJP, had quashed the Tata project. “Mamata Banerjee not only ruined Singur, but also ruined the dream of Bengal’s youth. At the time, the BJP assisted Mamata Banerjee. Rajnath Singh, the then BJP national president, rushed to Kolkata from Delhi to support Mamata Banerjee. Now, the Prime Minister came and the BJP said he will announce something for Bengal. We have seen that he announced nothing. Mamata Banerjee will also not announce anything because she didn’t do anything for Singur and Bengal for the last 15 years,” said former CPI(M) MP Sujan Chakraborty.