Hooghly, West Bengal

Subhas Pal was overjoyed when a 2016 Supreme Court judgment returned his two bighas (0.26 hectares) of land acquired for Tata’s Nano car project in Singur in Hooghly district of West Bengal, around 45 kilometres from state capital Kolkata. Five years later, he is despondent and filled with regret. The once-lush land is uncultivable now.

“I gave the land out of fear because there was a lot of pressure from the then Left government. Many like me gave the land without resistance to avoid becoming targets of the state government,” Pal, who resides at Baraberi village in Singur told Gaon Connection. Like him, over 11,000 farmers from five villages in Singur gave their land for the proposed Tata’s Nano factory, which never took off.  

Today, the ruling All India Trinamool Congress (TMC), which rode to power in 2011 on the back of the Singur protests, is expected to release its manifesto for the eight-phase state assembly polls from March 27 till April 29. Singur — which votes on April 10 — seems forgotten among the din of the 294 constituencies going to the polls. 

The primary battle is between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to which prime minister Narendra Modi belongs, which hopes to make major inroads into the state, and Banerjee’s TMC. The results are expected on May 2.  

Singur stands as an example — fields converted into industrial land were returned to farmers following a fierce struggle and agitation that gained international attention. Singur is the reason why the 34-year-old Left regime, considered undefeatable since 1977 in West Bengal, fell, and Banerjee was catapulted to power in 2011. It is to be seen if Singur will feature in the TMC’s bid to retain West Bengal.

“It was a big celebration when we got our land back. We decided to resume farming. But, our hopes crashed seeing the land. What was once fertile soil on which potatoes, paddy and jute were cultivated had turned into an uneven concrete patch with iron rods and other construction material buried deep,” Pal said.

Pal falls in the marginal farmers’ category (having less than one hectare land) and had to spend a lot of money to make the land fit for farming again. “The yield is no more the same. It’s a huge loss,” he added. 

“It took around four years to make the land fit for farming. I resumed farming last year but the yield is not the same anymore,” 60-year-old Pradyut Das, a resident of Khaser Bheri village, who gave three bighas (0.40 hectares) of land, told Gaon Connection. “I used to annually get 1,800 kilogrammes of paddy and 2,500 kilogrammes of potatoes, besides other vegetables. There’s a fall of 80 per cent in yield. My interest in farming is lost,” he said. 

The agitation, explained

Located close to Durgapur expressway that connects Kolkata to Delhi, the sleepy town of Singur made headlines on May 18, 2006. The then chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya announced in a joint press conference with Ratan Tata, chairperson of Tata Sons, that the state government had decided to locate the Rs 1 lakh-small car project at Singur, and that around 1,000 acres (404 hectares) would be acquired for it. 

Around 11,000 farmers spread across five villages in Singur — Khaser Bheri, Gopalnagar, Sinher Bheri, Baraberi and Joymallah — willingly gave up their land for the Tata Nano project. To compensate the farmers, the state government classified the land into sali (one crop) land and sona (multi-crop) land. Sali owners were paid Rs 2.95 lakh for one bigha (0.13 hectare) of land while sona landholders were given Rs 4.2 lakh a bigha.

However, about 3,000 farmers refused to part with their land and protested, saying the government was forcing them to. On May 25, 2006, they started a massive agitation in Singur, accusing the state government of forceful land acquisition.  

Seven months later, Trinamool Congress Mamata Banerjee started a hunger strike in Kolkata that went on for 26 days. Unhappy with the prolonged agitation, the Tatas finally abandoned the project in October 2008. By this time, work on the factory in Singur was almost complete.

The matter regarding the forceful land acquisition moved to the courts and, eventually, the Supreme Court in its judgment on August 31, 2016, declared the acquisition of 997 acres (403 hectares) of land in Singur for the much-hyped Nano car project as illegal, and directed the government to return the land to the farmers in 12 weeks.

No longer fit for farming

Farmers who got their land back claimed the government had assured them land would be returned in its original form, but the promise was not kept. 

Sanat Das, 43, a resident of Khaser Bheri, was among the first to give up his seven bighas (about a hectare) of land. He said he wanted an industry as it would have generated more jobs.

“We gave up the land without any pressure as we wanted to see industries being set up here. We wanted a decent job rather than toil hard on the field for several hours,” Sanat told Gaon Connection. But, he said that politicians, who promised to return fertile land, cheated them. “It required a minimum of fifty thousand rupees a bigha to turn this back into farmland. We had to borrow money to make it cultivable,” he added.

Farmers pointed out that despite spending the money, the land was no longer the same. 

Singur had turned into a goldmine for landowners over a decade ago, as land prices shot up drastically with the advent of the Tatas. Once the group exited the business, prices crashed. The area close to the Durgapur expressway still fetches a decent price, but there’s no demand in the interiors.

There is great anger and resentment among the farmers regarding the exit of Tatas and the condition their land is in. They are willing to re-sell the land to who offers them a higher price. “It’s now a wasteland. We are waiting for buyers to offer us a good price. We would be happy to sell our land. We got carried away by the words of politicians, who cemented their  benefits and did nothing for us. We are ready for an industry here,” added Pradyut.

Meanwhile, the younger generation and middle-aged generation who built their dreams around the Tata factory are most disillusioned. “Hundreds of youths like me were already recruited by Tata Sons before work stopped. We were getting a starting salary of around twelve thousand rupees a month, which was a big deal in 2008. Now, everything is gone. I earn ten thousand rupees working as an accountant in a private company in Kolkata,” Subrata Ghosh, 35, told Gaon Connection.  

Blame game

The ruling Trinamool party also seems to have got a hint of the public mood on the ground. The party has denied a ticket to Rabindranath Bhattacharya, its four-time MLA from Singur who has been winning since 2001, citing old age.

The political veteran, however, switched sides and got a ticket from the BJP for the same seat. He blamed the panchayat officials for corruption and inadequate work, “It is true that most of the land is yet to be made fit for cultivation. The massive corruption in the local panchayat level has to be blamed for it. Even the goods from the factory were stolen. The matter was brought before the cops but no action was taken.”

Becharam Manna, the Trinamool Congress candidate from Singur, however, said that most of the land has already been made cultivable, “We have so far managed to bring ninety five per cent of the land back into farming. We are extending support to the farmers,” he said. The BJP has been trying to portray the state government as anti-industry.

Political analysts, however, believe it would be a tough fight for the ruling Trinamool this time, “The anger can be gauged from the fact that the ruling party trailed by over 10,000 votes in the Singur assembly seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls when Locket Chatterjee from the BJP won Hooghly,” pointed out Suvashish Maitra, senior journalist and Kolkata-based political analyst.

“Every poll is different, but this fight won’t be easy — especially since the ruling party smelt power for the first time from Singur over a decade ago,” Mitra said.

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