Ok, finally TATA has said ta-ta to West Bengal. Nano is going to some other ’safe place’ as Ratan Tata has ‘officially’ declared the suspension of all works at Singur plant. All overseas engineers have already left for Japan/US and TATA is trying to absorb remaining employees in other projects across the country. The decision, though unfortunate, isn’t very surprising considering TATA’s track record of pulling out of projects enmeshed into hostile politics (Remember the original Banglore Airport project?).

Mamata Banerjee, energized by her good show in Panchayat elections of the State and an apparent anti-Left wave, is trying to use Singur, local administration of which is under her control, as a springboard to launch herself into power. But now that TATA is moving out, will her stand backfire? Because Nandigram was different. The general public opinion was sympathetic towards farmers & tribals there. But the current mood suggests that general people of the State, a generous 85% of them, want the Nano to roll out from Singur Plant (Ref: Survey by Assocham, published in Business Standard). The loss of job opportunities will further add to the resentment in young Bengalis, who are feeling like pawns in hands of politicians. And the current Left regime, though highly guilty of letting the issue get out of their hands, might walk away clean putting all the blame on Mamata. At the end of it all, whoever might come out smiling, but the damage has already been done.

What started as a petty altercation between the State Government and land-owners dissatisfied over the amount of compensation, has turned with the intervention of political games by Mamata Banerjee, into something grave enough to raise serious & bigger issues. It’s not just the question of TATA’s 1500 crores of investment or vendors’ 500 crores of commitment, nor the fact that reallocation of plant will result in inevitable delay in the proposed launch of much-awaited dream car of masses. Bengal’s credibility amongst the industrial class and thus its future is at stake. Just when West Bengal, freshly coming out of the shadows of ‘militant trade unionism’, was looking at brighter skies with many business groups looking at it as a favoured investment destination, Singur misfortune has put the clock back.

After two decades of so called free-reforms & delicensing, if a squeaky-clean group like TATA faces an exile thanks to some pointless politics, the possibility of industrialists queuing up to set up their shops in the State looks pretty bleak. A.M.Naik, Chairman of L & T has already raised the concern, “If TATAs pull out of West Bengal, it will adversely affect investment in West Bengal“. Many others like Chnadrajeet Banerjee (Director General, CII), K.V.Kamath (CEO, ICICI Bank), Pawan Ruia (Chairman, Dunlop India) aren’t denying this possibility.

TATA’s prestigious Nano project, often labeled as ‘banner project’ is being watched by the entire world and this political drollery has resulted into some stinging criticism from Western Media. “The project to build world’s cheapest car,” New York Times writes, “has driven into a quintessentially Indian ditch“. True that the prepossessed Western Media need not be given prodigious weightage. But the serious question it has raised cannot be ignored altogether either. Calling the incident as a slap on the face of Brand India, the paper wonders, “Which foreign company will want to come in when India’s most respected group cannot set up industry in a state?” Not such a nano-problem for sure!