Between the lines...

Today Maharashtra, Gujarata, Karnatka are most industrialized states of India but it was not like this always. When India got independence in 1947, west Bengal was the leading industrialized state of India. During British rule Industry flourished in West Bengal for many reasons, Bengal has abundance of natural and mineral resources, availability of cheep and skilled labour, it is close to port, basically all the ingredients for industrialization to take off.

Industrial growth of west Bengal got momentum after India's independence and till 70s west Bengal was way ahead from rest of India. In the 1970s and 1980s, the state’s industrial sector had been plagued by Industrial unrest as well as by central government’s licensing policy. During this period Indian worker class was also getting more and more aware about their rights and were demanding improvement in their working conditions. Trade unions were being formed, policies and rules were formulated to safeguard worker interests. This was transition period for worker-owner, employee-employer relations. West Bengal was leading rest of India in this also mainly due to popularity of communism and socialism in educated lot of west Bengal.

During the 1970s and 1980s, severe power shortages, strikes and a violent naxalite movement damaged much of the state's infrastructure, leading to a period of economic stagnation. In 1977 communist parties led by CPM won the state assembly elections and formed the first Left Front government on June 21, 1977. The Communist Party championed the rights of peasants, workers, employees, women, students, teachers, refugees from the erstwhile East Pakistan, SC, ST and the poor and the oppressed and introduced many social reforms. But Left’s pro worker policies encouraged militant trade unionism which in turn resulted in industrial unrest and strikes, bands, dharnas became order of the day. This industrial unrest slowly acted as deterrent to industrial growth and several industries moved out of west Bengal and cancelled further expansion plans.

The state's economic recovery gathered momentum towards later part of 90s when CPM realized that state is lagging behind other states in industrial growth. This economic recovery got further momentum with the election of a new reformist chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya in 2000. Many industrial houses announced the plans to set up factories/plants/offices in West Bengal. This included the announcement by Tata to set up car manufacturing plant at Singur to produce its lakhtakiya car nano.

Tata’s nano project attracted huge attention from local and global media and general public and therefore state of Bengal has lot to gain if first nano car comes out from Singur. But there is problems with land acquisition and displacement of farmers at Singur. Because of this dispute surrounding displacement of farmers, If Tata has to move out of west Bengal, it will be huge disappointment to west Bengal and its industrial aspirations. So leaders of government, CPM, Trinmool Congress(TMC) and farmers have to look beyond short term political gains and agree on a deal which takes into account interests of all the parties. Nano is very important not only for Tata but for west Bengal and India. It can be a vehical riding on which India can be a global auto leader in coming 10-15 years.

Labels: car, CPM, economy, nano, singur, Tata