No Nano

For a man of such intellect, wisdom and abilities, it wasn't expected of Mr. Ratan Tata to learn it the hard way. That ambitious business ventures and unsubstantiated assumptions do not go hand in hand is one of the basic tenets on which the world of business decisions rests. So when, of all places, Mr Ratan Tata handpicked WB to house his ambitious mass-car project, I was shell-shocked. Being a Bengali by birth I should have been proud of it. But my predominant Indian identity, my enthusiasm to see the lone upcoming world-class product of Indian genesis make its way to the world market and my living experience through the three decades of "mass liberation" in WB made me apprehensive of the fate of Mr Tata's pet project all thanks to his - if I am pardoned for saying - disinformed and misplaced trust on WB. I prayed for divine intervention as a way to help save the Nano-project from a global embarassment by moving it out of WB. So, it came as nothing less than a boon to me, when in a corporate press release a couple of days back, Tata Motors conveyed its decision to move out of WB.

With the unfolding of the present fiasco, most people are visibly annoyed with Mamata Banerjee. Quite understandably, given the heat of the moment, the anger should be directed at who else? But an analysis putting the entire blame on Mamata would be skin-deep in comparison to the deep-rooted issue plaguing WB for over last three decades. There is no denying the fact that Mamata has added fuel to fire in the current crisis. In her capacity as the lone opponent figure of any prominence in WB, she has over the last three decades, tried every option available at hand to derail the "communist" jaggernaut. But for an overwhelmingly ignorant and apathetic mass, whose conscience has long forgone to petty short-term gains advanced by the communists, and thanks to a well-oiled machinary of leftist cadre army, each of Mamata's attempts has met with virtually no result. With nothing yielding much of a result, her latest move has been to try using the trick of her very detractors. A perfectly understandable political gameplan it is, but sadly for her, once again, thanks to her adamancy and whims, she has managed to paint her own self with all the blames, even as the communists escaped with flying colours thanks to Mr Bhattacharya (CM) and Mr Sen (Industrial Minister)-'s much publicised efforts of "industrialization".

Let us revisit WB's history over the last four decades to get an idea of where the problem has its roots. In WB, exclusive SEZs were demarcated and setup some 35 years back by Dr B.C. Roy in places like Durgapur, Asansol and Kalyani and some demarcated areas in Kolkata. There was a time some 30 years back when there were many MNCs whose headquarter in Asia was in Kolkata. And that was when the rest of India was still learning to spell "industrialization". Then came the communists with their idea of agriculture based economy. "Land Reform" was performed to allocate lands to small agriculturists who were deemed to vote for the party for generations and be the sole wheels of economy. State patronage to existing SEZs were not only withdrawn, their functioning were made difficult by the introduction of militant trade unionism. So industries either shifted base or simply perished. The unemployment created out of this was directed to establishing layers of dalals between the small agriculturists and the market. State patronage was extended to these dalals with an aim to perpetuate holding to power. The gameplan was simple but effective. As industries died and jobs became scarce, newer and newer layers of dalals were invented and put in place by party think tanks, with a nominal pre-condition of party allegience, not only to divert anger and frustration over unemployment but also to create means of living, albeit with complicated economic outcomes, so that the beneficiaries would owe their political allegience to the communists for decades to come, not because of ideological affiliation, rather for their own survival.

Over time that layer kept fattening itself cutting on the agriculturists' income and pushing them towards alternative livelihood, thus creating a massive downfall in agricultural yields. Yet, as an annual face saving exercise for their imported Chinese ideology of agricultural economy, year after year, fake agricultural land demarcation reports submitted by the state government to the centre kept referring to inclusion of more and more acres of flood plains into minimum-two-yield category. A claim that under successive Congress and allied governments at the Center neither got verified, nor was questioned - a fact that pinpoints at a deep-rooted unholy alliance between the communists and Congress - something that Mamata had to face expulsion from Congress for, for having pointed out.

An ever-increasing crunch in agriculturist vote bank - the sole factor determining policy decisions in Indian polity - led to an increased apathy in the communist policy-makers towards any move to boost agricultural economy. Added to that was the utter ignorance and "know-it-all" attitude of self-professed communists. So, even as Punjab, Haryana and other states sought to use cheaper energy alternatives, improved irrigation facilities and newer bio-technological inventions in boosting their agricultural yields, WB communists yet again thought otherwise. And as good political dividends from patronising the "dalal" class kept pouring in election-after-election, "dalal" driven economy slowly took over agricultural economy as the communists' idea of mass liberation.

Recently, 30 years later, the communists have realized, like most other things, how badly they have bungled up here also. So they want to roll back. But cleaning up their own mess in Durgapur, Asansol or Kalyani would be suicidal, as that would imply changes in labour laws and that would imply a direct confrontation with the millitant trade unions, without whose active support they would soon be extinct in WB. So instead of revamping Durgapur, Asansol and Kalyani they now need NEW SEZs. But where? Well, well!! in those lands that they themselves have been claiming to be high-yield agricultural lands in their yearly agricultural land demarcation reports. That's how Singur and Nandigram came into picture.

Now that is, in summary, WB's real story. To blame Mamata entirely for the current state of affairs in WB is like blaming the (non-availability of) rats when the cat stole fishes from the kitchen closet.

I wish there was a magical way this simple truth could have been driven into my hardheaded Bengali brethren. But since that doesn't exist, I sincerely wish that the TATAs, BIRLAs and AMBANIs leave them to rot. Because unless they rot and perish, how is anything good going to usher in.