Tatagiri

Amarnath, Singur, Kandhamal - problems pile up. In a vibrant democracy with gross inequalities, people deploy their identities to register their claims.

Amarnath, Singur, Kandhamal8212;problems pile up. In a vibrant democracy with gross inequalities, people deploy their identities to register their claims. One can be a Kashmiri and suddenly become possessive about land one does not even own, like Omar Abdullah, not wanting an inch of Kashmir8217;s land to be sold. It was not sold in any case, but let that be. So the Jammu Hindus demand what has already been available all these years for use. People die as these clashing identities are displayed; the accompanying intimidation and violence are part of the democratic package. As the authorities dither or await their advantage, people suffer. Eventually everyone gets exhausted and we get back to where we were three months ago but faces have been saved.

Kandhamal is more tragic since the Bajrang Dal is a Fascist organisation which kills. So the senseless murder of a Hindu leader is the occasion for attacking Christians yet again. Houses are burnt, Churches are torched. The Maoists butt in to claim they did it. The police flail about ineffectively, looking over their shoulders to check if their political bosses are with the murderers or with the victims. Time drifts, people die. Life is cheap. The political bosses at the State and the Centre will act when they can clearly see which way their advantage lies. Time is in plenty, supporters8217; lives are expendable. Pay a compensation of a few lakhs. Who cares?

Singur is different. There are layers upon layers of complications; it is like peeling an onion. The decades of pursuing a deliberately anti-business policy8212;because Revolution is hastened that way8212;meant total dependence on agriculture and despair about the future. So farmers cling to land; they cannot see that the future could be different, at least for their children, if not for them. Buddhadeb Bhattacharya wants investment and is trying hard. He is hated by the CPI-M headquarters; the comrades were taught at JNU that Capitalism is Imperialism and the sooner we get rid of it, the better.

Ratan Tata is a businessman, one of the best in the world and from a tradition of caring industrialisation going back a century, even before the Bolsheviks came to power and spawned a dysfunctional philosophy. He took a gamble on the 8216;progressive state8217; of West Bengal. He gave it not a routine investment, but the most exciting innovative product India has been associated with. He did everything legally and with government support in West Bengal.

But he ran afoul of the politics of claims and counterclaims. Mamata Banerjee is a politician. It is her job to get votes, regardless of costs. That is democracy, like it or not. So she resorts to Fascist tactics of gherao and intimidation. Nothing new there. The CPI-M invented these tactics and used it in Nandigram. Mamata wants her revenge and she is willing to lose a few lives if that is the price for an election victory.

The problem will be solved, perhaps within a week, perhaps after six months. But Ratan Tata is not an idle politician who can wait. He cannot sacrifice the lives of his employees. He is a responsible person and more humane than most politicians. His decision to shift Nano out of Singur shows that he values his workers8217; lives. He is not into identity politics. He has an urgent job at hand and he has to keep his word unlike any politician in India to his customers and his competitors. He has much more to lose than just money if he fails to deliver.

This is not a culture Indian politics is capable of grasping any longer. Tata did right in getting out and letting those who do not value time or lives, whatever their rhetoric, solve the problem. He will lose a lot of money, of course, but he has kept his employees safe and his chance of meeting the Nano deadline alive.

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I hope he is not tempted to go back to Singur. If he does and Mamata, by any chance, comes to power, he will be hounded again by her and the CPI-M, who will demonstrate outside his gates.