West Bengal Assembly elections: In Singur, it's welfare schemes vs industry

The discontent of 2,000-odd land losers to Tata Motors’ Nano factory in Singur had become the centre of Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee’s political campaign in 2008.

The rural hamlet — about 40 km from Kolkata — was split between those in favour of the “karkhana” or factory (tagged willing land losers) and those against (unwilling). Violent agitations had followed and then an indefinite siege that ultimately led the company to pull the plug on manufacturing its small car there.

Cut to 2021. Splinter groups from the “willing” and “unwilling” camps have galvanised under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with the common cause of bringing back industry; the Communist Party of India (Marxist) is trying to regain lost ground on the same plank. And there are Banerjee loyalists who live off her kindness, making Singur a cauldron of interests.

The 997 acres of prime land along the National Highway allocated to the Nano factory — the focus of a poll pitch — is hardly recognisable. In a landmark order, the Supreme Court had set aside the acquisition of the land by the Left Front Bengal government in 2006 to help Tata Motors set up its Nano plant in Singur. In keeping with the court directive, the land was returned to its original owners and cheques distributed to the “unwilling” farmers. But five years since, the land is largely unkempt with patches of lush green peeking in between.

Banerjee had promised to make the land cultivable and said at a public meeting in Singur recently that the government had spent about Rs 1,500 crore towards it. But how much is cultivable? The truth varies, depending on who you ask in Singur.

Udayan Das, a “willing land loser” and convener of the Singur Shilpa Bachao Committee – a Left-leaning pro-industry outfit – puts it at 50-70 acres; Mahadeb Das, an “unwilling land loser” and from the Trinamool Congress (TMC), pegs it at 300-350 acres.

The “unwilling” land losers were a small batch of people, relatively speaking. Of the total land losers, they were less than 20 per cent. But Banerjee had put all her might behind them and the movement brought the curtains down on 34-year Left rule.

The Lok Sabha elections of 2019, however, signalled a change in Singur; BJP’s Locket Chatterjee had a lead of more than 10,000 votes in the assembly segment of Singur, part of the Hooghly Lok Sabha constituency. On winning, Chatterjee had said that getting the Tatas back would be her priority and it captured the imagination of the people.

Subrata Ghosh, 35, has been camping in Singur for the last 10 days to campaign, albeit for CPI(M)’s Srijan Bhattacharya, who has promised to set up an industrial project on the factory land.

After completing a master’s in commerce from Burdwan University, Ghosh had worked on Tata Motors’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects in Singur; it lasted for about three to four months. Once, the company relocated, Ghosh moved to Kolkata in search of a job. In Singur, his is not the only story of dashed hopes, though.

Udayan Das says many of those who were on the periphery of the Singur Shilpa Bachao Committee joined the BJP ahead of Lok Sabha because they wanted “poriborton”. Though the saffron party is the main challenger here, fielding 88-year-old Rabindranath Bhattacharya -- who had once led the Singur movement for the Trinamool -- could be a dampener. He is pitted against the Trinamool’s Becharam Manna, a prominent face of the movement.

The BJP’s main theme in Singur is industry and jobs, in sync with the mood. At a recent roadshow, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that the BJP government would ensure that small, medium and large industries were set up in Singur. CPI(M) candidate Srijan Bhattacharya, a twenty-eight-year-old student leader, feels vindicated. “Our slogan for industrialisation was not wrong. If the CPI(M) wins, we will bring back industry on the factory land because it is not suitable for agriculture,” he says.

On the last day of campaign on Thursday, Bhattacharya was accompanied by film director Anik Dutta, of Bhooter Bhabishyat fame. “Everyone knows that the CPI(M) was pro-industry. If they perform well, then a signal will go out that Singur has changed its mind,” said Dutta.

In Singur, everyone is riding the industry plank in varying degrees. Banerjee, however, has her welfare schemes to rely on, and there are beneficiaries galore.

Nineteen-year-old, Tamal Ghosh, a first-time voter, recounts how his elder sister got Rs 50,000 courtesy Banerjee – under the Kanyashree (financial assistance to girls for pursuing higher education) and Rupashree (a one-time financial grant of Rs 25,000 for adult daughters’ marriage) schemes – ahead of her marriage.

A young widow, Chandrani Maiti, has practically survived on the schemes and the 16kg rice at Rs 2 a kg (free since the lockdown) and Rs 2,000 a month (special allowance for the “unwilling). As have sharecropper, Chandi Maiti, land owner, Nityananda Satra, and so on and so forth.

Yet, the need for industry in Singur is not lost on Banerjee either. She has said that agro-based industries would be set up first and then big industries, as well.

In an election, largely dominated by divisive politics of communalization and “bohiragoto”, Singur’s fight largely rests on two pillars: demand for industry and Banerjee’s social schemes, as it goes to polls on Saturday. Unlike Nandigram that saw a high-voltage campaign focused on religion-based identity politics, “Jai Shri Ram” is a footnote here. Possibly because the minority population is one-third Nandigram’s.

But lest anyone forgets, there is the occasional miking “Jai Shri Ram, Jai Shri Ram; Paanch bochor diye dekho, Kemon lagey Ram”.