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by IANS |
New Delhi, Jan 17 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Singur visit on Sunday has brought hopes back for many farmers in a region whose return to the national spotlight underscores a persistent dilemma in Indian development policies -- how to reconcile agrarian rights with industrial development.
Nearly two decades ago, CPI-M leader and the then West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee tried to introduce industrialisation to a state that had survived largely on agrarian politics and domination.
The urban bhadralok, too, was happy till it lasted.
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee coined the slogan "agriculture is our foundation, industry the future", amid his statements like "money has no colour" and "reform, perform, or perish" -- many of which made his comrades see red.
In this aim, Tata was invited to Singur in Hooghly district to set up a manufacturing unit for the small and affordable Nano car and Malaysia's Salim Group to set up a chemical hub at Nandigram in Purba Medinipur.
The then Chief Minister -- in his hurry to change a monolithic, underfinanced state -- failed to realise the emotions connected with land.
State acquisition -- sometimes forced -- to transform fertile farmland to a contested industrial site led to severe resistance.
Incumbent Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee may have succeeded in capturing that emotion to win a political point 18 years ago, but created a narrative of lost industrial opportunity.
Then fighting the Left Front government, Mamata Banerjee found support from activists, former Maoist and other breakaway Communist leaders, theatre and film personalities, authors, and other intelligentsia -- taking the stir from rural to urban and semi-urban parts of the state.
Several of Singur's residents today feel politically used and economically betrayed, a sentiment that has lingered and now fuels renewed expectations as national leaders return to the site.
Its transformation and then to a symbol of resistance is well documented.
The Tata Nano project required nearly 1,000 acres of multi?crop land, and the acquisition triggered a sustained agitation.
Singur and Nandigram episodes became a cornerstone of the Trinamool Congress' rise and a defining moment in the state's politics.
For the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the memory of the Tata Nano's exit is reframed as a cautionary tale about missed investment and stagnation.
Today, the site remains merely a patch of fallow land and a political landmark that helped reshape West Bengal's modern politics when Tata pulled out Nano project from West Bengal to Gujarat in 2008.
Local reportage describes soil degradation, wild growth over returned plots, and failed cropping attempts that left families dependent on precarious, low?paid work or migration to cities.
The immediate aftermath of Tata's withdrawal was a mixture of legal battles, political triumphalism, and long?term economic disappointment for many residents.
The Supreme Court later ordered the return of land to unwilling farmers, but the physical and economic scars persisted.
Large stretches of the acquired land remained uncultivable, with concrete remnants and incomplete infrastructure making farming difficult.
Only parts could be restored for agriculture, and many who had expected factory jobs found themselves without the promised alternative livelihoods.
By choosing Singur for Sunday's event, the BJP is promising a reversal of that history, a message aimed at voters who still associate the village with both grievance and unfulfilled promise.
For the BJP, Singur is an opportunity to recast the narrative of 2008 as a story of lost development that can be remedied by a change of government.
For the Trinamool, it is a reminder of a movement that delivered political power and legal vindication.
Singur's story has since been used in successive political campaigns.
While it helped Mamata Banerjee to topple a long?standing regime, shaping her image as a populist champion of tillers, it now serves the BJP as a symbol of missed development under the current Trinamool Congress government.
It is to be seen whether promises translate into durable gains for farmers and the local population. But Singur remains hopeful.
--IANS
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