For whom should we vote?

If people think driving out Tata was Bengal’s first attack on industrialization, they may be mistaken. The proletarian seeds were sown much earlier when the United Front and the later Left Front took over governance from the Congress party. None other than Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy did anything towards industrialization in West Bengal.

Jyoti Basu was the Chief Minister for 23 long years between 1977 until 2000. He was singularly responsible for the decline of Bengal’s industries and the rise of militant trade unionism. All that he could contribute was the dreaded word ‘gherao’ to the English language.

There are several cases of desertions of many generation industrialists from Bengal. If Singhania’s had to close their Aluminum smelter due to labour vandalism, Aditya Birla left Bengal for good after being stripped and paraded on the streets in his undergarments. The JK group and Thapars followed suit within the next month to say bye to Bengal. Many left after that in regularity. Kolkata, the busiest airport with the country’s maximum international flights, went begging for even domestic connections as everyone started distancing from Bengal.

Jyoti Basu would not blink an eye, nor would he go against the labour. Bengal, India’s industrial capital with all the jute mills, many paint factories, pharma giants, textile mills, rubber factories, to-class engineering units, folded up speedily. Shutting down of each factory has rejoiced as another victory of the labour against the bourgeoise. As the number of jobless increased, the government kept the unemployed happy by giving small parcels of lands. The State chose farming over industries, a policy unchanged until now. Despite all these, education thrived, but also student politics grew to be an untamable monster.

Left had bent and sold away many industries, like the Jessop, Dunlop and Standard Pharmaceuticals Ltd., to crony capitalists in questionable deals. Expensive land gifts were made to party sympathizers for little or notional costs.

Basu’s successor, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, tried his best to reverse the rot and bring about the much-needed change and keep pace with India’s overall growth. Many would think that it was Mamata who opposed Buddha Babu. They could only be partly right, as it was a conservative faction within the CPIM party that opposed Buddha’s overtures to industries. They were scared of losing the support of farmers, crucial for their survival. His Nandigram engagement with Indonesian industrialist Salim was faulty and was exploited by his detractors, including Mamata.

Mamata’s capitalization of the 2007 firing in Nandigram did elevate her as the primary opposition leader. She had to keep the momentum and had identified the chinks in the armour of the monolithic left parties having a stranglehold over the State of West Bengal for three decades. Then was the second attack, the Tata Motors episode. I was then at the Writers’ Building when the news of TMC protestors ransacking the WBIDC office came in. The only motto was to stop Tata from setting up the Nano factory and demanding returning the acquired land to the farmers.

Tata Motors offered the much-needed chance. Soon after the announcement of the Nano plant in May 2006, Didi went and sowed paddy. In January 2007, Tata began its construction of the Nano plant and announced that the US$ 2500 car would roll out by early 2008. Mamata Banerjee went on a 25-day fast ending on 28th December 2007. The talks, initiated by the then Governor, Gopal Krishna Gandhi, failed, and Tata announced moving the factory to Sanand, Gujarat.

Buoyed by her success, she romped into Writers’ Building as the Chief Minister of Bengal. What happened after was of merely academic interest. The acquired land had to be returned to the farmers, a poll promise of Mamata, which got into the cobweb of litigation as it moved at the Supreme Court’s usual pace.

The fault of Mamata was bringing in Dr. Amit Mitra, a non-politician, as a Cabinet Minister in charge of finance, Commerce & Industries. He had to parrot the party leadership and offered no path towards a rejuvenation of Bengal, despite his regular jamborees in the name of International Business summits.

The government must understand that Bengal is an industrial pariah. Reversing the present image must begin with a reversal of its draconian land laws, land acquisition for industries, cost, and conversion. None seem easy in a suicidal romance for land among the poor, a fallacy created by crafty politicians.
WTMC and Mamata di had two tenures and ten long years of rule. She promised an industrial rejuvenation within six months of her first tenure in 2011. She or her ministers may not be able to do anything better in the next term either. Bengal must keep politics aside and vote for an Industrial resurgence. Otherwise, we will be the reason for wasting yet another generation. Will we?

Sampath Kumar
intrépide Voix