The Nano plant: 11 yrs later, BJP on her tail, Mamata Banerjee changes gear

Next up are the panchayat polls, for which the State Election Commission has already started preparations, and then come the Lok Sabha polls in which the BJP last time stunned the TMC with its surge.

In the 2011 Assembly elections, Singur had been the TMC’s prime agenda, apart from another agitation against land acquisition led by the party in Nandigram. Her win had marked the end of 34 years of Left rule.

Ironically, accused of being obstructionist in opening up to business, the Left was at the time trying to recast its image, and the Nano plant was a showcase investment for its government. Around 1,000 acres of farmland had been acquired for the project.

After the Tatas moved out and Mamata came to power, the land was taken back following a court order. In the 11 years since, the TMC government has succeeded in returning the land to its owners, but only partly.

On Wednesday, Mamata said: “There are people spreading canards that I drove the Tatas away from West Bengal. I did not force them away, but it was the CPI(M) which drove them away… You (the CPI-M) forcibly took land from the people for the project, we returned that land.”

She also said that her government had since set up “so many projects”, but never taken any land forcibly. “Why should we take land forcibly? There is no dearth of land here.”

Referring to the Tajpur port project of the Adani group and the Deucha Pachami coal mine project, the CM said: “We welcome industrialists. There is no discrimination in Bengal. We want each and every industrialist to invest here.”

Standing beside her, Singur MLA and minister Becharam Manna, who was part of the Singur agitation of the TMC, repeated the same.

A file photo from Mamata Banerjee’s hunger strike against the Tata Nano factory at Singur in December 2006. (Express photo by Subham Dutta)

Among the first to attack Mamata was former TMC MLA from Singur Rabindranath Bhattacharya, who was also part of the agitation. Before the 2021 Assembly elections, he quit the TMC and joined the BJP.

Asserting the TMC’s role in stalling the plant, Bhattacharya said: “We set up a protest stage at the Singur factory gate, which forced the Tatas to shut the factory there.”

The CPI(M) leadership accused Mamata of resorting to falsehood. Central Committee member Sujan Chakaborty said she should receive “a D.Lit for lying”.

CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, an advocate, said: “Everybody in Bengal is witness to what Mamata did, including the so-called fast during the Singur movement… I was a witness when the Trinamool government fought the case in the Supreme Court. The whole state is witness to the fact that she drove out Tata Motors from Bengal.

Lok Sabha BJP MP Locket Chatterjee quipped, “After her claim that the CPI(M) forcibly drove out the Tatas, Mamata Banerjee may now say that she did not want to become the CM but the CPI(M) forcefully made her.”

West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury also attacked Mamata. “She not only showed the doors to Tata Motors in Bengal, but later the Tata Motors factory was destroyed by her government with a dynamite blast. Then, CM Mamata Banerjee ceremoniously handed over the land to the farmers. She is clearly not speaking the truth. After 11 years, she is saying this.”

In 2016, after the Supreme Court order ordering the return of the land taken for the Tata project to farmers, Mamata had tweeted just before a programme to mark Singur Day: “Today marks the anniversary of the historic day when our Govt of #Bangla handed over to farmers the parchas of land forcibly acquired in Singur. We reiterate our commitment to the welfare of farmers, alongside promoting industry. My humble pronam to Maa, Mati, Manush.”

Before the Assembly elections in 2016, CM Mamata said in an interview: “I am willing to talk. They (the Tatas) can set up a plant on 600 acres of land at Singur.”

A senior leader of the TMC admitted that changed circumstances were behind Mamata’s statement. “In 2011, our party came to power with the push provided by the Singur and Nandigram movement. That time our main challenge was to return farmland to its owners. But now our main challenge is to create employment opportunities and get industry.”

He added that the Singur movement would always be “a positive part of our political history”. “After the Singur and Nandigram movements, the TMC got a new identity in West Bengal as well as in the whole country.”

The leader also referred to the pressure on the TMC on account of its leaders facing various corruption cases, including over the job scam, and the party’s efforts to recast its image ahead of the panchayat polls. Mamata made an oblique reference to the same in her speech, saying she would continue providing jobs to the people, but that there were forces “creating hindrance”.