Lessons from Singur

*Saumitra Mohan


The Singur controversy in West Bengal is showing no signs of subsiding and settling down. And with the opposition further ratcheting up its the politics of protests and agitations, one really needs to do some thinking as to whether it is advisable to allow the same to continue till the cows come home. With the Opposition not responding to the saner appeals of dialogue and discussion, the agitprop revolving around land acquisitions in Singur and Nandigram is increasingly getting out of hand and is more than a law and order problem now.

While nobody denies that the Opposition’s has the right in a functioning democracy to register its voice of protests, but the same should not be reckless and at the cost of the interests of the state.

One just has to take a peek at some of the statistics to know as to how West Bengal has been faring in the developmental rat race. Constituting ten per cent of the Indian market, the state today has an annual consumption expenditure of about US$ 26.37 billion. Country’s most rapidly growing industrial region, West Bengal, today, is the third largest economy in the country with a Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) of US$ 23 billion at current price. It is second only to Karnataka in per capita growth (5.4 per cent), well above the national average (4.2 per cent) and is next to Maharashtra in terms of companies established (72,437), with a paid up capital of US$ 8,834 million.

Even more interesting is the fact that the per capita incomes of West Bengal and Maharashtra, after excluding the two metros of Mumbai and Kolkata, have come fairly close. West Bengal's per capita income, after excluding Kolkata, is Rs 12,671 while that of Maharashtra's without Mumbai is Rs 13, 897. It has the second highest Compounded Average Growth Rate in the country i.e. 5.49 per cent against a national average of 4.4 per cent. The Compounded Average Growth Rate of West Bengal’s real NSDP stood at 8 per cent between 1994 and 2004, thereby outperforming the national GDP growth. Today, the state has an industrial growth rate which is 1.1 per cent higher than the national average. The growth trajectory is, indeed, brilliant by any standard.

Against this background, one would submit that while the Opposition definitely has a right to oppose governments’ policies, but the same should be principled and responsible rather than opposition and politics just for the heck of it, and without any care or concern for the interests of the common people.

One would do well to remember that it was the sanguinary Naxalite movement of the sixties which had not only negatively impacted the image of West Bengal but had also led to the flight of capital and industries from the state. Now that when the government is trying to make up for the lost time in its bid to catch up with the rest of the country, sustained law and order problems coupled with politics of bandh and strikes would nix all such attempts. At a time when the economic turn-around of the state seems just round the corner, a no-holds-barred politics of irresponsible opposition is queering the pitch.

Believe it or not, this is how land has been acquired all these past years throughout the country. So, if at all the opposition had any point to make, they have already done so. Today, we do have a wider debate raging in the country about the advisability of continuing with a colonial Land Acquisition Act, 1894 and about the sundry issues revolving around land acquisition for a ‘public purpose’. The issues which the Singur controversy has thrown up also include the advisability of the government acquiring land for private industries, the definition of ‘public purpose’, the issue of preventing industries from acquiring more land than is actually required for a particular project, the advisability of acquiring fertile agricultural land, the need to have a suitable land policy including updated land records, and the advisability of establishing industries by displacing already settled people.

The Opposition and many observers feel that a popularly elected government has much better things to do than getting into the act of acquiring land for private industries. They also feel that government had better focus more on development of basic infrastructure and favourable policy back up rather than ‘acting as agents of private industries’. But mind you that a popularly elected government can not just sit idle at a time when other states of the Indian Federation are going out of their way to woo private industries. The government has to take proactive measures to successfully compete against others as is being done in West Bengal.

Now with the hindsight, one can definitely say that from now on, if at all, the governments intervene into some such land acquisitions, proper homework ought to be done beforehand including building a broad consensus among those concerned including the Opposition and putting in place a proper rehabilitation policy for those affected and displaced by the proposed acquisition. On the other hand, the opposition also needs to be more responsible than it has been so far and should respond to the appeals for ‘reasonable’ dialogue and discussion as and when requested to.

One would do better to know that the change never comes without its costs. If a baby is born, the mother would necessarily have to undergo the labour pain. So, Singur signifies momentous changes in the history of West Bengal and as such vested interests of different kinds would do their best to resist the same but one is sure that labour pain is what it is, the labour pain. It would go once the baby of change materializes and settles down. Today, Singur is more symbolic than anything else. It signifies the intractable desires of Bharat to make peace with India and coexist as dignified equals with other members in the Comity of Nations.
*Saumitra Mohan is an IAS officer presently working as an Additional District Magistrate, Hooghly in West Bengal.
(The views expressed here are author’s personal views and do not reflect those of the Government.)
Address for correspondence:
Saumitra Mohan, IAS, Additional District Magistrate, Office of the District Magistrate, Hooghly-712101.
E-mail: saumitra_mohan@hotmail.com.
Phone: 033-26806456/26802043(O)/26802041(R).
Fax: 033-26802043.
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