INDUSTRILIZATION IN WEST BENGAL
AND THE NANO-TATA INCIDENT
INTRODUCTION :
Anyone reading the history of India might wonder to know the following :
(01) Even though the whole of India was supposed to fight against the
British regime (1757-1947 AD), only a small section of the Indians
living in Bengal (East and West) played the prime, brilliant and
exemplary role in this revolution. (Excepting Bhagat Singh, most, if
not all of the heroes of '47 Liberation were Bengalees).
(02) Even though poverty, in one form or the other reigned all over
India during say, 5th to 19th C AD, Bengal basin has always been
considered as the basin of wealth and prosperity. (N.B. The few
famines of this land were the creation of the rulers). During this
period wealth was dumped in and around Delhi because it was the seat
of the rulers.
Consider a five Kilometre by five Kilometre square area in India. If
this land is in a provinces other than Bengal, you may find a thin
growth of tamarind or babla trees where only a negligible percent of
land is arable, a bigger percent, covered with rock and a still bigger
percent, formed of non-fertile soil. So, annual production may be few
Kilograms of tamarind and so on. But if the same land is situated in
any part of West Bengal, and the habitants are industrious, every year
you may find a production of huge quantity of rice, meat, fish, fruit
etc. This is the reason why Bengal was so prosperous and hence
attractive to the foreigners.
With such a brilliant past West Bengal has turned to a land of poverty
and brainless people. Ironically both have been made possible by CPM,
the political party ruling the country for over three decades. Even
though the Bengalees felt pride for the intelligence of their
ancestors, those in CPM could not find any local or Indian solution to
political activities. So, they brought the peculiar "system of
politics" from a foreign land. And the political system the so-called
intelligent people of CPM brought to West Bengal was so worthless and
inefficient that it has already expired in the land of its birth. At
present it is producing the worst results in West Bengal. At the time
of its initiation in West Bengal the reputed CPM leaders declared that
"all, excepting Marx and Lenin were bad". Thus, in their opinion the
prudent and intelligent persons (like, Vidyasagar, Jagadish Chandra
etc.), political leaders (like, Chittaranjan, Subash etc.), poets
(like, Rabindranath, Sharat Chandra etc.), singers (like, Hemanta,
Chinmoy etc.) were 'bad', and only those with 'communist Chappa' were
good. They taught the people to hate their "fathers" and to have
profound love for the selected alien persons. They however, allowed
the puja festivals (even though it does not go with the Communist
ideology), because their cadres could collect money (chandabazi)
through it. They highly encouraged "Kali puja" in which their cadres
got wide scope of drinking. They gave generous licenses for liquor
shops.
There is no record any here in this world where a country could
achieve progress by hating its own sons, ideas and culture. CPM
endeavoured to do the same and now they are learning the truth through
painful experience.
CPM AND INDUSTRIALIZATION :
At present the popular saying is "West Bengal urgently needs
industrialization" and "the (probable) foiling of Tata-Nano project at
Singur is a death blow to this mission". There is no dearth of
"curses" for those whom CPM think as enemies of this project.
If the people responsible for foiling a single project of
industrialization is to be cursed for "genuine reason", WHAT SHOULD
THE PEOPLE DO TO THE POLITICAL PARTY THAT TARNISHED THE INDUSTRIAL
BASE OF THEIR COUNTRY FOR A PERIOD OF OVER THREE DECADES ? The party
that smashed the backbone of industries for three decades suddenly
became a great "LOVER". Even a fool can understand, they have a
different intention in mind. Nothing good can ever be expected from
such a heinous political party. If West Bengal wants to be
industrialized, the country has to wait for the death of CPM.
RATAN TATA AND NANO-SINGUR CASE :
After Ratan Tata was criticized for the failure of their
super-ambitious project in Bangladesh along with the probable failure
of the Singur project, someone from that company has published a
rejoinder. In this rejoinder they have mentioned the long list of
their companies and many of their achievements. Tata is a large
company of India and no one would ever deny that. Large companies are
credited for two major reasons : (01) Creating jobs for the local
people and (02) Earning foreign currency from abroad. Since Tata is
engaged in manufacture of motorized vehicles they have wide scope of
earning foreign currency through export. In this case their export
activities may not be considered that bright. This author worked in
Nigeria from 1982 to 1988. At that time he could not find any Tata
vehicle (Bus, Truck etc.) there, even though there was no dearth of
large vehicles from Ashoke-Leyland. Bangladesh is one of the big
consumer of Tata bus and Truck. After liberation (1971) it happened
due to their lobbying. But Tata's buses soon proved their comparative
inefficiency when Japanese, Italian and other European buses started
pouring in. As on 2000, Tata sold 5 pick-up trucks in Bangladesh. One
such pick-up was purchased by Khulna University and they had to suffer
the worst from it. Still today, there exist demand for Tata bus and
truck in Bangladesh. However, it exists not because of their quality
but for lower price. Those who cannot afford higher price sacrifice
quality.
The extremely long list of Tata's companies indicate that it is a
large company. It is natural to expect from the established and
renowned companies. What more is expected is prudency. Utter failure
of their project in Bangladesh in 2008 after huge spending, lobbying
and publicity definitely proves lack of prudency. A careful analysis
might reveal that their Singur project was prepared mostly for earning
profit from the Indian people. If Tata starts producing Nano in say,
November, 2008, by November 2009 the world would get the scope to know
its "quality" and "performance". Even though the design (look) in fact
is "Ugly" (in the true sense of the term), the body is feeble and
engine, less efficient and short lasting (due to extremely low cost)
we know there would not dearth of its customers in India, specially in
West Bengal. This is the age of advertisement. When nice looking
film-stars would be shouting "It's nice" the common people would rush
for purchasing it. And after one or two years they would understand
the fact that in a country like India it is not possible to produce
sturdy, durable and efficient car at Rupees One lac each. But by that
time Tata might have earned good profit, but people would have bad
experience and Tata, bad image. By losing their contract in Bangladesh
Tata has already lost image that they would need years to regain.
CONCLUSION :
In West Bengal the British were the first to establish industries.
After they were gone those were purchased by the Indians. Some of
those were changed to meet the ever changing needs of time. Then
Indians from other provinces established industries here. Most of
those were established in the urban areas. Even though the use of
river as cheap cargo route compelled some industries to stay near
water at the early stage (i.e. immediately after 1947), later the
dependence on land vehicles made it possible to establish those far
away from the rivers. After CPM rose to power, their policies and
activities made the established to die due to artificially created
labour unrest. Many of those industries still await in the urbanized
areas with the skeletal remains of structures and machineries. Many
however, have been transformed to houses, shopping centers etc. Thus
the land once acquired for industrialization have later been used for
trading or habitable purposes. The government of west Bengal never
thought of using the previous industrial sites for new industries. It
is known to all that in comparison with the old type of industries,
many of the modern types are relatively hazard free. India is a vast
country with the need for huge quantity of food to feed the people. As
days are going on, food is becoming increasingly scarce, where even
money would not be able to procure it. In such a situation, it should
be the prime duty of each and every government to produce food within
its territory. Even though communism beats the big sounding drum that
it assures the essential items for all citizens, the CPM has
government has not done that. On the other hand they have rendered
millions of labours jobless by closing the industries. Snatching away
land from the land owners in lieu of "surety of jobs" by the
industrialists is, by now a shameful program. It has already been
proved through the suicide of a farmer, who left this world with the
"surety of job" and "regular income" assured by Tata.
Let us consider a land with area, one kilometre by one kilometre in
Singur. Let us compare its potentiality of growth before and after the
development of Tata-project. In the following Table the double
characters indicate unknown numbers.
ANNUAL PRODUCTION POTENTIALITY OF THE CHUNK OF LAND BEFORE TATA PROJECT :
Rice - ss Tons, Pulse - yy Tons, Vegetables – rr Tons, Fruit 1 – cc
Tons, Fruit 2 – ff Tons, Fruit 3 – hh Tons, Fish – tt Tons, Meat – kk
Tons etc.
Uncertainty : Production may be hampered due to flood, draught, disease etc.
ANNUAL PRODUCTION POTENTIALITY AFTER TATA PROJECT :
Car - ss Nos. Jobs for local people – kk nos. Jobs for non-local
people – ww nos.
Income for Tata company – Rupees jj millions. Tax paid to the
Government – Rupees dd millions.
(Income from export may not be possible from the cars of "Nano" standard).
Consumption : Considerable quantity of electricity, water etc.
Uncertainty : Production may be hampered due to labour unrest,
uncertainty regarding company's profit etc.
In comparison between the above two, it is almost definite that the
land owners would opt for the first one, i.e. no project. But now the
situation has been superseded by events and the factory has already
been established. Now there is no point in recreating arable land out
of the established factory, even though uncertainty is the ironic
reality. By this time one landless person with the "Surety of job and
monthly income" from Tata-authorities sensed uncertainty and committed
suicide. Uncertainty however, shall reign supreme till CPM is in
power.
While these are the problems with the land owners, Tata also has got
their own problems. Without being an expert it is not difficult to
predict that the company will not be able to produce sturdy, durable
and efficient car at this price. Also, they would have to tackle
frequent labour problem so long CPM is in power. In such a situation
Tata may try the following :
(i) They may produce the first batch of Nano car, that might satisfy
their own program, WB government's ego and some peoples' expectation.
(ii) They can release the first batch of cars on road as 'experimental
cars' and wait for 5/6 years to see their condition and efficiency.
(iii) By this time they may start producing alternate items in the factories.
(iv) They may handover unnecessary land to the original owners.
By doing this Tata may be successful in achieving local people's
sympathy and cooperation. During this time they can go for improving
the design of the car and may probably go for electric car, that
consumes no fossil fuel. If luck favours then, after 4/5 years they
may get a government formed by another party. In that case the fear
for labour unrest would vanish forever. Not only Tata, no
industrialist should think of West Bengal a safe place for investment
in the industrial sector so long the CPM is in power. The country's
industry can grow only on the grave of CPM.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PROF. BIJON B. SARMA, HEAD, ARCHITECTURE DISCIPLINE, KHULNA
UNIVERSITY, BANGLADESH.
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