The Singur anti-land acquisition protests to build the Tata Nano car plant on 997 acres of multi-crop land propelled Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress (TMC) from being in the opposition to becoming the chief minister of West Bengal in 2011. The BJP is now using Singur as a trump card to garner voter confidence by promising to bring back Tata to set up industry if the saffron party comes to power. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Singur rally on January 18 is just the beginning of bigger promises.
“Modi welcomed Nano with open arms (in Gujarat). If you go to that area, it has become an automobile hub,” said Union minister Sukanta Majumdar.
“Industry will come to Bengal with the help of Narendra Modi. The land that brought Mamata Banerjee to power will also mark the end of her atrocious tenure. Prime Minister Modi is coming now, and in the future, Tata will also return. But for that, Bengal needs a change of government,” he added.
The BJP leader appealed to people in Singur to come to PM Modi’s rally.
In 2023, the TMC government had helped to clean up the once acquired land and make it cultivable. However, work stopped later and members of the anti-land acquisition protests in Singur had reached out to the Centre to help clean up the land which is lying vacant, with parts of it unusable for cultivation after initial construction of the Tata Nano plant.
“We want cultivable land to be used for farming, industry can come up on the rest of the land. There will be difficulties but we will lend our support. We informed the government and we have decided to appeal to the PM from Krishi Jami Raksha Committee (KJRC),” said Doodh Kumar Dhara, former leader of Krishi Jami Raksha Committee.
Dhara went on to explain that 300 acres of land is being used for farming while his appeal is to clean up another 300 acres to be used for farming. The remaining 400 acres can be used for industry. The Supreme Court had ordered the state government to return the acquired land to original land owners.
Whether the BJP plans to set up a car manufacturing factory on the same land or another area is not clear. For now, it is the saffron party’s appeal to the people of Singur to attend PM Modi’s rally, and believe in his promise. “The PM is our PM too and we will give him the message that farming and industry should co-exist. We wanted it then, we want it now too,” added Dhara.
TMC hit back at BJP’s claims of setting up industry in Singur. “Singur was never about Tata or industrialisation. The Tatas are heavily invested in Bengal. Singur was about a larger struggle, led by Mamta Banerjee against the principal of a state for acquiring multi-crop cultivable land, and giving it to private industry,” said TMC’s Kunal Ghosh.
“Since 2019, a large number of Left Front voters have been voting for BJP. It is an attempt to bring more Left-oriented voters to BJP’s fold. This is a symbolic gesture on behalf of BJP to send them the message that BJP’s politics is not all about religious polarisation but there are industrial attempts also. If BJP comes to power, there will be industry in West Bengal, large scale investments will come like those during former Left CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharya’s regime,” said political analyst Udayan Bandyopadhyay.
“Mamata Banerjee is trying to encourage investors to invest in West Bengal. She has been doing this with enough enthusiasm. Somewhere in the MSME sector the situation has improved a bit. But in terms of large capital intensive investments, we have been lagging behind many states. We have to improve in this sector also. In that sense, perception should change. It is not that perception will change if BJP comes to power,” added Bandyopadhyay while giving references of BJP not showing as much promise of industry after ruling Bihar, Assam and other North Eastern states.
Ending the 34-year-rule of the erstwhile Left Front government was no small feat, but driving out one of India’s biggest industrialists Ratan Tata and Tata Motors out of the state to Gujarat, ruled then by Narendra Modi as CM, went against Mamata’s state. To get big companies to set up industries in West Bengal has been a tough task despite networking opportunities like the Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS) held annually. It is not just about PM Modi vs Mamata, but now with Singur, also about big industry vs small industry.
