When Tata Motors Ltd declared that the Nano car project would be set up in Singur near Kolkata, I could not believe it. When almost all the major industrial units have run away from west Bengal I could not understand whatz the interest in setting up one here. May be Ratan Tata was impressed by Budhadeb Bhattacharya’s interest in bringing the state back on track. Or that the Haldia port very accessible from singur would be helpful in cutting the transport costs, in case they want to export the car to other countries.
At the time the announcement was made I was in Kolkata. From the day I stepped in the city, I loathed my stay there. From non availability of clean and economical food to horrible public transport to unfriendly people, the place has been a living hell for me. Not only me, my colleagues who are not from the city, the state and nearby places waited for an opportunity to run away. When this is the case I could not understand the reason behind the Tata group’s new found interest. As expected the project ran into troubles right from the word ‘Go’. And the news I was expecting to come sometime surely came yesterday.
Tata Sons Ltd Chairman Ratan Tata on Friday told reporters in Kolkata that they would pull out the Nano car project from West Bengal, if the tense situations in Singur do not subside. “We have invested fifteen hundred crores in west Bengal till now. Do not think that we have no choice than to continue with the project. If we really feel that we should leave, we won’t give it a second thought”, he informed. Ever since Tata Motors decided to set up the plant at singur near Kolkata, there were violent protests from the trinamul congress and also farmers from whom the west Bengal government took the land. Trinamul congress president Mamata Banerjee did not lose any opportunity to politicize the issue. Not even this time. She responded that no body wants the Nano Car project to go from west Bengal and at the same time they are not going to fall prey to the black mailing tactics of tatas. If they wish to go, no one is going to stop them. At the same time she alleged the West Bengal government is responsible for the current situation in singur.
I do not know how the chairman of Tata Sons Ltd felt but this response irritated me. This is not the way to speak to a person who represents a company that is very much a part of the Indian Industry’s success story ever since independence. If tatas really pull out the project from west Bengal then it is a severe blow to west Bengal Government and Budhadeb Bhattacharya in particular who is trying to put Bengal back on the industrial map.
When this is the situation in West Bengal, other states are falling over each other to invite Tata Motors set up the project in their states. Though Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy caught in cauldron of Chiranjeevi mania might not have got the idea to invite them to set up their unit in the state, Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka and Orissa have already given a red carpet welcome to Ratan Tata. Sources close to the Tata group say that the Karnataka stands a good chance for setting up the project in Dharwad.
Orissa with its long history of tribal wars against Tata Steel projects too do not want to lose the opportunity. Reading this news, many of you might have thought what Chandrababu Naidu would do when Tata talks of pulling out of West Bengal. He might have gone and met him with a proposal even before anyone might have thought of reacting. Infact it is Chandrababu Naidu himself who brought this atmosphere of the state governments taking the initiative to woo industry.
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