17 down, 11 to go

That is how the harried poll-managers stationed in the state must be thinking after yesterdays violence stricken polling in Nandigram went underway. They must be genuinely itching to pack their bags and head home at the earliest given the politically charged atmosphere in these hamlets of industrial disuse. Singur being the twin brother was uncharacteristically "quiet" on poll-day which further stokes fears of a bloodbath in the event of electoral setback for one party or the other when the results are declared. If Nandigram was any indication the later phase of polling will see a re-run of the "There will be blood"-routine in many other parts of the state. Political opponents are keeping their fingers crossed and bombs handy for any eventuality. If the CPI(M) wins there will be, in all possibility, a political witch-hunt unseen in its ferocity in rural Bengal or for that matter anywhere in the country. And in case the Trinamool-Congress combine wrest the initiative, the Left will have finally ceded ground in one of their strongest bastions. Whatever be the outcome there will not be any graceful losers this time around for too much is at stake.

This morning, all newspapers report an impressive 75% voter turn-out in the state - beating the national average by a good margin. In other states it would have meant the anti-incumbency factor at work but not here. Though the Trinamool Congress seems certain of partially stalling the CPI(M) 's vaunted voting-machinery one cannot be so sure till the results come out on the 16th.
Come 13th and it will be Kolkata's turn to make it count and I hope people come out in large numbers to vote - that the bangali bhodrolok finally overcomes his ennui and 'make his mark' early in the morning than let the mid-day sun intimidate him into inaction (like always).


In other news, I yesterday heard a seasoned Leftist hollering about, among their other achievements, how they catapulted West Bengal to the No.1 spot in both agriculture and industry. The jaywalker in me balked at such misinformation in the name of campaigning but the sight of hundreds of others turning a deaf ear to such pre-poll bragging quickly made me realize how the city dweller ignores all that's irrelevant and potentially dilatory to his plans of reaching home early. Politics can wait till one returns home and sits around a fresh brew of tea and friends when it can gladly resurface to make for a round of entertaining and informative political adda. Not before that should it figure in their minds.

Time is Running Out.................

Without even bringing one's self to deconstruct Mamata Banerjee's career graph in politics one will surely acknowledge that the basic traits that have defined her over the years have been her vehement anti-CPI(M) stance, populist appeal, sympathy for the suffering on one hand, with political vacillation, lack of vision and complete absence of policy gracing the other.


She has had her share of followers and political space, having the Union Railway Ministry to initiate the reform mantra being the high-point of it, but, today she needs to introspect deeply to salvage pride for herself and spare West Bengal the ignominy of being branded a
- 'Investor's Grave'.


Singur is a lose-lose situation for her now. Only she has to realise it.

Even if the Tatas pack their bags, lick their wounds, count their losses and go off to Karnataka in search of a favorable climate what have the unwilling farmers, the champion of whose rights Didi has modelled herself into, stand to gain ?

I reckon, "Nothing!"

The Land Acquisition Act forbids re-allocation of acquired land to its former owners. The State Govt. surely isn't going to amend an act so as to accommodate the political/moral victory of its opponents. To let the unwilling farmers have what they lost to the Nano will need Didi to come to power in the next Assembly Elections ( which I don't need to say seems ' improbable' to stay on the safer side). How realistic does that sound ?

Also having refused the compensation-cheques for their land the first time around and Didi thwarting their opportunity of grabbing onto the renegotiated compensation (which was a much better deal than the previous offer) the unwilling lot will soon find difficulty in making their ends meet. No wonder chinks have started appearing in their ranks.

Now is a good time to grab the maximum offered amount and have the Nano meet its deadline, rolling out of Singur. Serious ramifications, both politico-economic and otherwise can then be averted. Both for the Left Front and the Trinamool.

The Front will mobilise its publicity machinery and bludgeon Didi's fiery rhetoric to a whimper. She will cry herself hoarse on injustice being meted out and yet nothing will reach the people. The Left is too good at that. It will quietly count its losses, brain-storm, strategise and hand her a electoral debacle she will find hard to balance with both her hands.


Didi might not sense it right now but, the stigma of having driven a monumental opportunity for the state will haunt her in the future like nothing else. She will effectively alienate the 'upwardly mobile' middle class and garner few votes from the farmer-front torn between old and new loyalties. If the Singur plant is closed down it might well send the Agnikanya ( fire-woman) to 'cool it a little' in the unforgiving anonymity of political wilderness come the next elections.
It is now that she must decide if pride may well take its place before the eventual fall comes snapping at its heels.



photos: gettyimages.com

Singing The Singur Sopra'NANO'

As the 'Battle for Singur' rages a different kind of war is being fought out in all its raucous fierceness, far removed from the front lines - that inside the decorated drawing-rooms in Kolkata. The well heeled saheri babus are frothing at their mouths at the outrageous way in which Mamata Banerjee is pushing the entire state back by decades. Some suggest we may end up in the 'Ice Age of Industrialisation' if the Tatas say 'ta ta' to our offered land. Some even speculate the circumstances precipitating a tragic eventuality of another blood-bath in the image of Nandigram. In one word people are really getting worked up now. But then, every one has their reasons for the same.


A moment of thought for the farmer whose land was forcibly taken away from him- The land which he worships, the land which has nourished generations and still hold promise to provide for his children. The land that means much more than the amount stated in the compensation cheques being handed out. To those farmers the opinion of the urban elite is as alien in nature and as repulsive in content as the Octopus Meze served in some upmarket Vegas restaurant. And there can be no two ways about that.

Now for some other pointers.


Ratan Tata, the seasoned businessman that he is, will weigh his options in the light of feasibility under the circumstances. Two thousand crore rupees just cannot be allowed to flow down the drain. Add to it the tremendous promise and publicity that the 1-lac Nano has already generated and you are looking at a very ignominious exit for the first family of Indian industry from Bengal. I reckon his threat is not final. But it is also far from being hollow. The fact that his press-release was timed to perfection helps build pressure on the Trinamool to climbdown from their '400 acres' demand. And till the last reports came in the ice was thawing at places.
For the Tatas, Nano is a prestige issue. Singur isn't. They will do everything to meet their date of the first rollout of the car. A lot depends on it for them, their credibility, bankability and brand status. So, other car-plants (the one in Pantnagar is in the fray) might chip in to 'make the Nano' for them whereas the Singur land gets mired in inextricable political and legal battles in the wake of a complete pullout.

A very important point to note here is that the entire stretch of land that has been acquired( i.e 997 acres to be exact) cannot be doled back to the former holders, unwilling or otherwise according to the recent Land Acquisition Act. So a pullout will only end up being a Pyrrhic victory for the Trinamool Congress that may or may not translate into votes in the coming elections. The political edge will also get reasonably blunted in the urban fronts. Anxious parents in Kolkata have already started propounding conspiracy theories behind their wards' joining dates for TCS getting inordinately delayed. They fear the 'Singur fiasco' behind it all. Ridiculous but true.



The CPI(M) will go all out to project Mamata as 'anti-industry' and 'anti-development' and they will surely have some followers on that issue. Buddhadeb Bhattacharya's 'perestroika' though strongly contended as a policy measure in Alimuddin Street and Delhi will then gather sympathisers as does all reformist lost causes. He will be summarily sidelined and his backers will find it increasingly difficult to pursue his vision for West Bengal. As a whole we will revert back to being a regressive agri-intensive economy and feature at the end of the 'List of Highest Revenue Earning States' and pretend that its only because of the darned alphabetical order thing.


And to end what I started with. All these doesn't at all bother the average farmer. If it does, the state needs to awaken them to the fruits of industrialization first and impress upon them its advantages and gains. If there is a vision it is apparent that it is not shared and hence, this monumental fracas. We cannot afford to forget that we are still a nation of the poor majority. And the poor hardly have vision beyond their arm's stretch. We haven't yet progressed that far so that we could forget that reality.



photos: googleimages