The Communist party of India (Marxist) on Friday accused Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee of not only ensuring the exit of the Nano car project from Bengal but facilitating its relocation in BJP-ruled Gujarat and said such politics also needed to be relocated for the prosperity of the state.
Banerjee has not only ensured the exit of the project from Bengal "but being the loyal steadfast ally of the BJP, she facilitated the project's relocation in Gujarat.
"Remember, she continued to remain with the National Democratic Alliance and, thus, in a way endorsed the communal carnage unleashed in the state by Bharatiya Janata Party's Narendra Modi government," party Politburo member Sitaram Yechury said.
In an editorial in the forthcoming issue of CPI(M) organ 'People's Democracy', he said, the Trinamool Congress, "with the mere support of less than ten per cent of the owners of the acquired land, who have not taken the compensation cheques, adversely affected the future prosperity and improved livelihood for a large number of people in the area."
Claiming that adequate protection had been provided to the project, Yechury also took the Tatas to task for taking the "stand that unless everybody cooperates, they are not going to continue to remain in Singur. One can, surely, disagree with such a position.
"For, after all, no one can say that they shall build their house in a locality only when all others living there give an assurance that their house will not be burgled.
However, like Mamata Banerjee, the Tatas have an equal right to take an unreasonable position," he said.
Maintaining that the net result was that Bengal and its people were "denied, temporarily and only this particular project," Yechury said the "corporate media, despite the stark realities of why the Tatas shifted from Bengal, cannot refrain from their usual CPI(M) bashing."
Replying to a question as to why the Left Front government acquired only arable land for the small car project, he said "the answer is simple. There is less than two per cent of land in West Bengal which is barren."
On another issue raised by some sections as to why the state government did not ask the Tatas to give stake in the car company to the land owners, he said this could not be done under the present law enacted by British in 1894. "What we require is a new central law for land acquisition."
He said his party had been demanding that this "anachronism" must be immediately removed by bringing a new law that should take into account compensation, including providing a stake in the future project not only to the land owners but all those dependant on the land for livelihood.
Unfortunately, the CPI(M) leader said no new law has seen light of the day in the last four years when the drive for Special Economic Zones has intensified across the nation.
Describing the current opposition was "a negation of the people's mandate", Yechury said the "disruptive violence mounted both in Nandigram and Singur were basically political in nature.
"Through these movements, the TC and others opposing the Left are seeking to consolidate their support base. In the final analysis, it is for the people of Bengal to decide on the type of politics they would want," he said.
