New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Locket Chatterjee will approach PM Narendra Modi to invite the Tatas back to Singur, over a decade after the conglomerate’s bid to set up a Nano plant there was scuttled by farmers’ protests.
According to Chatterjee, it’s something the local farmers desire.
“Farmers have met me and said ‘bhool ho gayi (we made a mistake)’. They want Tata to come back to the area,” Hooghly MP Chatterjee told ThePrint.
“Industry is simply not a focus area of the TMC (Trinamool Congress) and, because of this, there has been no employment generation. They (farmers) have made a representation and I have assured them that I will take this up and ensure Tata and other industries come to West Bengal,” she said, adding, “TMC has no regard for the farmers and their condition.”
The BJP MP said she will approach PM Modi after the Budget session, with a request to bring the Tatas back through a different project, to improve employment generation.
Many Singur farmers now feel that their condition would have improved had the factory come up, Chatterjee added.
“I am seeking time and will hand over the representation from the farmers to the Prime Minister. Only he can help in getting some relief for the farmers. Once the budget session is over we will take this issue up,” she said.
Before the Lok Sabha elections, Chatterjee had met Singur farmers, and promised to take up their plight with PM Modi if voted to power. “Singur has a huge potential and my job is to get the industry back so that the farmers are able to get their life on track,” she told ThePrint.
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A hot potato
Chatterjee’s announcement assumes significance as West Bengal is set to witness a session of municipal elections next year and assembly polls in 2021, with the BJP making deep inroads in a state that was a firm Left citadel until 2011 and has been a Trinamool stronghold since.
It was farmer resentment over land acquisition for the Nano plant in Singur in 2006, and for a special economic zone (SEZ) in Nandigram a year later, that is believed to have sounded the death knell for the 34-year-old Left government in Bengal eight years ago.
The Tatas had subsequently moved to Sanand, Gujarat, and the nearly 1,000 acres acquired by the Left government for the plant returned to farmers on a 2016 Supreme Court order. The Nandigram land acquisition notification was withdrawn by the government in the wake of the 2017 protests, which led to 14 farmer deaths in alleged police firing.
Mamata Banerjee of the TMC had supported the farmers’ protests, and this is believed to be one of the primary factors behind her landslide win in 2011.
However, as reported by ThePrint this April, much of the returned land in Singur remains uncultivable because, though the factory was razed, the concrete debris underground was not cleared completely.
Once a Trinamool stronghold, Singur is now home to a lot of farmer resentment against the party. The Hooghly Lok Sabha seat, where Singur falls, elected Chatterjee on a BJP ticket this election.
From two in 2014, the BJP’s tally increased to 18 of Bengal’s 42 Lok Sabha seats this year, giving a big jolt to the Trinamool Congress. Several defections have added to Banerjee’s nerves, with over 15 corporators and 14 MLAs joining the BJP over the past few months.
The TMC has, meanwhile, tried to project an industry-friendly face, welcoming the Tatas back into Bengal and even inviting BMW to set up an automobile factory.
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Very good. If the BJP wishes to come to power in Bengal, it should lay before the people of the state a vision for its economic resurgence.