This was going to be a slightly longer piece, but given the developments of last evening, the longer piece will have to wait a bit. Ratan Tata’s decision to pull out of West Bengal filled up television screens by late last evening. Star Ananda, which has so far been a model channel among the generally useless electronic and print media, began to show its true colours soon after that. The mood was generally one of despondence, of grief at an opportunity lost. Will they ever trust Bengal again?, was the worried refrain. True to its tradition, this morning’s Indian Express published two articles- an edit and an opinion piece- raising this and other issues. The Times of India in its timeline of events wrote that ‘Naxals’ had obstructed activities in the plant.
Maybe it is unfortunate that a flagship project was aborted (if indeed that is what happened.) But those singing foolish elegies for the Nano- those who believe that the protestor’s were a ‘motley crew’ of self-righteous vanguards- are painfully off the mark. If one wants to trace the origins of the problem, one has to go back to the authoritarian and anti-democratic manner of the acquisition in 2006. Repeatedly, reports by a variety of independent groups has examined and exposed the false promises and myths on which the official version of the actual acquisition and the supposed future employment generation rode. By ten-thirty last night Star Ananda was showing pictures of tyres being set afire in Singur. Their reporter spoke to angry ‘willing peasants’- or so we are made to believe. These ‘peasants,’ three of them, repeated verbatim the line: Tata hobe na to konoi shiplo amra hote debo na (if Tata doesn’t happen, we won’t allow any industrial project.) And of course we are to believe that these are ‘willing peasants’ and not CPM cadres planted at the site. This is exactly why I’m still sceptical about the abortion. None of the critics of the protestors, nor any other observes- except the protestors themselves- seem to think that corporate bodies are political players too, and not merely money-making machines. Open whispers of the Tatas shifting the first batch of the Nano to Pantnagar began a long time back. The packing up and leaving could very well be just another step in this complicated political theatre. Is this why moments after Ratan Tata’s announcement Industries Minister Nirupam Sen publicly said that the land acquired in Singur will not be returned and will instead be used for some industrial project? Is this why the Tatas seem to prefer leaving Singur rather than allowing their agreement with the West Bengal government to become public? And does not the CPM stand to gain politically in some sense from this withdrawl? Will they not win middle class sympathy and use that to further thrash their ‘regressive’ and ‘primitive’ opponents?
The problem with debates that erupt in this fashion is that they end up looking more like fist-fights. And then, even the most self-aggrandising upholders of civilised conduct are found longing for a little more violence. This perhaps, is the reason why, in a piece accompanying its lead story this morning, The Indian Express, our most vitriolic CPM basher is found nostalgically stating that this is the first time in 30 years that LF clout in the state has failed.
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On another note, some trivia.
Did you know:
If the Home Minister, Honourable Shivraj Patil, spends time on his looks instead of blasting out Terror networks, everyone tears him to shreds. But if he sits back for a month and offers idle threats to the Orissa government as it oversees the rapes murders destructions of Christian lives and properties, no one whimpers. After all, what’s at stake? Neither shilpo not AK-47s.
Cheers.
