Heartburn in CPM at Nano’s Mumbai launch

There was heartburn and regret at the CPI(M) office in New Delhi as the Tata Nano was launched in Mumbai. “This was an opportunity that got out of our hands a long time ago,” sighed one staffer.

Politburo member Brinda Karat was less philosophical. “If the Nano is getting launched from Gujarat instead of West Bengal then the opposition in Bengal, and the unholy Congress -Trinamool Congress alliance is responsible,” she said. “It is for the Congress, which talks of growth rates, to explain how it could be in league with a party which opposes development at all costs,” she said.

A senior politburo member said he could not get over the symbolism of Nano. “Imagine that the world’s cheapest car would have rolled out of a state that has been a communist bastion for over 35 years,” he said. “Now, Narendra Modi gets to hijack all that,” he said.

The Nano project was to be the CPI(M)’s way of making peace with industrial capital.