Right from its inception, the proposed small car project of Tata Motors in Singur, West Bengal has come under a cloud with even the Calcutta High Court now questioning the West Bengal Government’s land acquisition policy and asking the state to file a fresh affidavit on the Singur land acquisition. Given that the High Court has slammed the state government for using “fraudulent methods” to acquire land, it is now becoming obvious that the compensation procedure for land acquisition has not been hundred percent transparent. While rightly or wrongly, the present land acquisition at Singur has become overly politicized, the issue in question deserves proper political attention because any policy decision in this regard will have ramifications beyond the proposed Tata Motors plant at Singur or Nandigram, the site for the Indonesia-based Salim Group’s Special Economic Zone (SEZ), witness to several rounds of violent protest by the locals since the last two months.
No doubt, the court order will come as a huge embarrassment for the West Bengal Government and the ruling Left Front must explain how such a large chunk of the land in Singur was acquired ‘illegally’ by the government. The charges that the government had lured some landowners and farmers, who refused to part with their land, with more money so that they hand over their land for the project, is not only unfortunate but is unethical. Whether it is Singur or any other place, majority of farmers and landowners are illiterate and the politicians or government officials take due advantage either to deliberately keep them in the dark by not divulging details or lure them to part with their land rights.
It will be now advisable for policy makers both in the Centre and State to work out a clear cut method of acquiring land needed for development or other big project without in any way exploiting the poor and illiterate whose livelihood in all probability is rooted to their land and the rights they enjoy over it. For those in the periphery of economic development, land is the only means of livelihood and this right cannot be taken away to satisfy the profit motive of big industries. Rather the government should encourage acquisition of barren lands after due consultation with the local community while staying clear off the more productive farmlands. It is precisely because the land at Singur comes under the category of a productive farmland, there is so much opposition to the Tata car plant.
There is a larger debate to the current controversy over Singur and the answer to this is important for the future of India’s wellbeing. Because a majority of people in India still depend on agriculture for their livelihood, the farming sector has to be encouraged and some kind of safety net thrown in. And since land is the economic base, this must be protected from market forces. Industrialization is equally important but it has to be done not by killing the farming sector but in a way that fosters co-existence and to improve the lives of everyone, whether farmers or industrialists. Both industry and agriculture can flourish together. As such, the problem goes much beyond Singur and must take into cognizance the recent apprehensions being raised by the UPA Chairperson herself about Special Economic Zones (SEZ) and how productive farmlands need to be ‘protected’. At the end, the problem itself calls for an informed debate.
