Gandhigiri

The standoff in Singur is not hopeless. None of the major players involved really wants the Tatas out of Bengal: not Mamata Banerjee, not Ratan Tata, not the Left Front, and certainly not the people of Bengal. Yet there is every chance that the situation is slipping away towards a less than optimal solution from everyone8217;s point of view. Mamata is very close to losing control of the forces of negationism she has unleashed; the vanguard of the agitation is now being taken over by a motley group of Luddites, radical agrarian populists and Maoists. These are not people who will ever feel the need to seek some middle ground 8212; for some of them the middle ground does not exist. The small window of opportunity in which we are now must be seized.

Some moves in that direction are already visible. The West Bengal government has expanded its compensation package for the farmers holding out; and, in an indication that it recognises that the conventional opposition is in danger of losing its grip on the situation, has taken the first steps towards convening an all-party meeting on the issue. What would help is for Mamata Banerjee to be provided a face-saving alternative, some manner in which she can retreat from the absolutist position which she has staked out, while preserving some dignity and being able to declare victory.

This is where Gopal Krishna Gandhi, the governor of West Bengal, comes in. His willingness to chair a meeting between Trinamul and government representatives is welcome. Gandhi enjoys wide acceptability among the middle class; and his stand during the Nandigram agitation means that he is not seen even by Mamata8217;s most rabid supporters as a lapdog of the Left. The Left8217;s recalcitrant establishment needs to back its chief minister as he includes Gandhi in the process, rather than worrying about whether a neutral mediator is needed at all, and if the constitutional head of a state is in a position to mediate between the state government and its opposition. In actual fact that is one of the reasons why an apolitical head of state is useful 8212; constitutional impasses, or when two factions are not talking to each other are the occasions when the president in Delhi, the queen in England, the governor in Kolkata have a major role to play. There is room for the mainstream parties to this dispute to accommodate each other; the governor merely needs to provide respectability to that accommodation.