Mamta has been agitating against the Tata Nano plant in Singur in W.Bengal. Ratan Tata said enough is enough and shut the plant down and started looking for alternate site, in spite of huge investment that had been made.
Sensing such pull out will doom Kolkota from a business reputation, the state government and IT industry tried reasoning with Mamta but obviously she was holding out a grudge against Tata and for big pay out!
When Tata said, enough is neough…now Mamta’s own party has rebelled against her and taken morcha telling her to go back! They want the plant in Singur because that means job, wealth and prosperity for the region!
That is how democracy is supposed to work! Well done!
Tide turns in shocked Singur, own supporters tell Mamata to stop
Singur, September 3: Enough is enough: Singur’s message to Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee was loud and clear today. For the first time since she launched her dharna against the Tata Motors’ small-car project at Singur on August 24, demanding the return of 400 acres to farmers, she faced resentment from villagers including Trinamool supporters she claims to be representing.
As Mamata egged on her flock from the dais, members of 22 syndicates doing flourishing business supplying construction material to the Tata project, along with villagers, gathered 2 km from the Trinamool protest site on the Durgapur Express and raised slogans against her. They also stopped her supporters from joining her. Of these 22 syndicates, 20 are run by Trinamool men.
The message in the slogans was unambiguous: “Mamata don’t play with the future of this state”, “We want Tata’s factory here and Mamata to go back”, among them.
The feelings were echoed in village after village around the project area on Wednesday, in all of which the Trinamool had routed the CPI(M) in May’s panchayat elections. Of the 16 gram panchayats in Singur block, the Trinamool had won 15. Whether Joymollah, Beraberi, Khaserbheri or Bajemelia, there was disappointment and anger — Tata Motors’ announcement to suspend work having wrought an overnight change.
Kajal Saha, the secretary of a syndicate, said: “Just as I am a Trinamool supporter, there are supporters of other parties also. We are not doing this with the backing of any political party — we just want to tell her that her movement is hitting us where it hurts.”
Another Trinamool supporter who runs a syndicate, Manab Ghosh, added that it is not just suppliers like them who are getting hurt. “Linked to us are the loaders and unloaders, the brickfield workers, the sand suppliers…”
Protesting alongside was Kalipada Mal, a CPI(M) supporter who is a member of another syndicate: “My party did not tell me to come here. As you can see, I am by the side of Trinamool people. There are no red flags or green flags — our movement is apolitical.”
Earlier, two representatives of Kolkata’s IT industry, Ranjan Basu and Suma Mukherjee, went down to Singur to reason with Mamata but were reportedly sent packing. Basu and Mukherjee are part of a group of IT professionals who recently ran a signature campaign in Kolkata in support of the Nano project.
“People want Tata to stay. We want to know why the problem cannot be solved through talks,” said Mukherjee.
The syndicate members complain that ever since the start of Mamata’s dharna, their business has dwindled as contract labourers find it difficult to reach the project site. The Tata Motors’ announcement of suspension of work on Tuesday was the last straw.
Later in the afternoon, the agitators took out a rally against
Mamata, but the strong police contingent stopped them short of her manch.
At Joymollah, one of the villagers, Shanti Santra, demanded to know what Mamata was doing. “Our family will be ruined! We have given up our land for the project. My husband and I were attached to the plant as labourers.”
Thirty-year-old Santra, flanked by women with brooms and lathis, said she was hoping for a Group D job. “If Tata goes out, Singur will be doomed,” she said.
“We never though that Mamata will drive Tata away,” said Malik, who runs a tea stall in the village. “The Tatas should not be forced to leave. The majority of the agitators are outsiders. They should stop the nonsense immediately. We need Tata here.”
The sudden uprising seemed to have spooked Mamata, who called up IGP (Law and Order) Raj Kanojia, for protection for herself and her supporters. Labelling the protests as well as the IT delegation as the CPI(M)’s pressure tactics, she said: “They are trying to sabotage our agitation. The boys and girls of IT support CPM, I will never talk to them.”