If anyone is to be blamed it is Tata himself.
Why accuse Mamta:
Mamta is not to be blamed for Tata’s retreat from Singur.
Mamta is not against industrialization of the State. She is against “Forcible Acquisition of Land” of poor farmers by the West Bengal Government, which acted like a “bhai” of the underworld, for the industrialist Mr. Tata, took supari to acquire land for him very cheap, paid the land owners peanuts and sacked them forcibly out of their own land in Singur.
It should not be forgotten here that many people from the various communist parties extended their active support to Mamta and even took part in the agitation against Nano. It should also be noted by us, and should not be forgotten in future by us, that there is no official statements issued in favor of Mr. Tata, or Budhdhadeb by CPM politburo. Why Mr. Karat or Mr. Yechuri are silent on the issue. Can they ever speak in favor of the industrialist Mr. Tata. or entire industrialist community? NO. NEVER. It is here Mr. Tata was defeated. He never got a nod from these leaders, he banked only on one man’s promise, who dreamed of becoming the Dang Ziao Ping of West Bengal , poor guy.
West Bengal govt. should have followed international norms of acquiring land for industry. in the USA, the government pays 20 times per year gross produce to the farmers for the audition of the land over and above the existing market price. Even China pays ten times to the farmers beside the existing market price. Here WB govt. paid peanuts. Mamta wanted only 400 acres of the land which was acquired by force, and return it to farmers. and not the entire 1000 acres on which the plant is existing.
Industries and Farming both require heavy investments, and both can grow together, and neither can win by sheer confrontation. Why Gujarat does not have such problems? it is because the Government of Gujarat never indulges in the dealings among the farmers and the industrialists, i.e., do not take “supari” for industrialists to acquire land from farmers and hand it over to industrialist very cheap, like WB has done.
If you still want to blame Mamta after reading this, then I would like to ask a question to all those who are out to blame Mamta. Who created the blood bath at Nandigram which led to the end of a SEZ worth several thousand crores by the Indonesian Salim Group? It was done by ultra-left activists and farmers and not by Mamta or Trinamul. Even after that Tata went ahead with is plans inspite of the open ivitation from Maharashtra. It is to be stressed here that at singur also the same “ultra-left’ activists were in action along with Trinamool activists.
Tail Spark: A blue eyed boy of the Congress High Command, (read-president SG), non-maharastrian boy from Mumbai, who started his career almost on the street, before he joined the Congress and raised to heights recently, has acquired more then 500 acres of land in Sindhudurgh district without raising any eye-brows. Is Shiv Sena or MNS listening?
Posted on September 3rd, 2008 by Ashok Chavda
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