#dnaEdit: Whose victory?

The Supreme Court verdict on Wednesday, declaring the Singur land acquisition in West Bengal by the former Left Front government “illegal”, leaves all interested parties in the case affected in varying measures. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee may feel happy and vindicated by the judgment, but it will do little to assuage her abiding concern: getting big-ticket investments for her state. Bangla, as it is now called, has been on a decline, industrially, since the CPI-M-led Left Front came to power in 1977. With the Tatas burning their fingers in this much-publicised fiasco, other business houses have been extremely wary about stepping into Banerjee’s territory. She has been trying desperately to woo NRIs and industry captains through investment meets, only to draw a blank. 

The Tatas — for whom the judgment came as a hard knock — are fighting another case against Trinamool Congress (TMC) government in the Supreme Court pertaining to the Singur Act of 2011. The group had suffered losses for the investments made in Singur. Not only was the project delayed, the factory had to be shifted to Gujarat for work to commence on what was then called the cheapest car. Finally, when Nano did roll out, it proved to be a disaster for the automobile major.

Where does the verdict leave the CPI-M, which is now staring at an existential crisis in the very state it had ruled for 34 years? The irony is stark: The very support base the Left had created with the revolutionary land-redistribution system had turned against it during the Singur agitation. Having been in power for far too long, the party had become much too complacent to read the writing on the wall. It paid the steepest price by losing touch with the grass roots. For Banerjee, the Singur movement became the dream vehicle to relaunch her moribund political career. She merely took the opportunity that the-then chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had served her on a platter. Bhattacharjee had aspired to create an industry-friendly image of his party that was originally responsible for the state’s pitiable condition. The CPI-M’s militant trade unions had made industrial strikes a defining feature of Red politics. The inevitable result was the flight of capital from Bengal. The Tata factory in Singur was tom-tommed as a significant step in the new direction — one that would boost investors’ confidence. But Bhattacharjee’s arrogance had clouded his vision and led to his party’s downfall. In 2011 assembly elections the Trinammol Congress rode to power on a landslide victory. 

The most important stakeholders in this case, the farmers, do not have much to celebrate over the apex court judgment, either. Ten years later, they find their land covered with fly ash and buried beneath a layer of concrete left by the Nano factory —a barren stretch unfit for cultivation. For the soil to regain vitality — if it’s at all feasible — the tillers will have to wait for a few years. The judgment has a sliver of a silver lining for the peasants who willingly gave up their lands for the factory. They will not have to return the amount of compensation that the Tatas shelled out. But, for all of them uncertainty looms large over their means of livelihood.

The Singur verdict doesn’t have a winner; hence, there is no chest-thumping or celebratory fireworks. Banerjee’s smile and relief are only temporary. She has to return to the onerous job of selling investors a lucrative dream, even if there are no takers.