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Allowing opposition political forces to put the Tatas' much-awaited Nano project under siege has been a slap in the face for West Bengal's Marxist government and its inability to handle a crisis, especially in rural areas - the heartland of the Communist Party's vote bank. But it is here that the opposition is scoring points: Nandigram and now Singur being cases in point.
The word Tata is synonymous with commitment and progress and by exhibiting its lethargy the government has turned the other way in the face of development and wellbeing of the people, should the project have gone through. The current talks being held to salvage a solution to this crisis and an India-wide backing for the Tata Group by its contemporaries has shown that the labour force in West Bengal, or Singur, the site of the undertaking, would have benefited immensely.
The farmers on whose land the project was built, would have profited, thanks to rising land prices since it was announced. Rehabilitation, or realistic compensation, is the need of the hour. The Tata pullout, if complete, will seriously affect the fortunes of Brand Bengal, both in entity and finance, and deter other blue-chip investors.
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