Tata's and Singur

For many Indians Tata is a name of trust. Tata's have always been identified with sound values and known to care for the society. A company / group with greater social values than any other Indian company. May be Birla's will come close to this tag. But what is happening in Singur is something that is going against the name of Tata.

Singur is a highly fertile region with two rivers running through the area. At times when nation's food security is questioned here we are allotting 1000 acres of highly fertile land at a subsidised cost to make cars. Mamta Banerjee who is leading the protests has brought the work at Tata's factory at Singur to standstill. Now Tata's are making noises of withdrawal from Singur and from the state of West Bengal. The Media and the Sultans of Industry are all gaga about how it will affect the investor sentiments and why it is bad for the state and the country. It certainly is a bad publicity for WB and India but then who erred in the first place. Not the people of Singur or Mamta but the West Bengal Government. Now that the mistake is made and also Mamta and the Singur protestors have toned down their demands, I fail to understand the move of the socially conscientious Tata to withdraw from the Singur.

The recent offer of Singur protestors is very reasonable. They want Tata to return only 400 acres (out of 1000 acres) earmarked for ancillary units for the Nano car project. In return they are asking Tata and the WB govt to take the 500 acres of land lying just opposite to the Tata's Nano factory. All that is required to connect two sites is an overbridge or an underpass across the national highway.

Why can't Tata see the reason and also the call for keeping agriculture alive in one of the most fertile lands? Is it because WB government can't acquire the 500 acre land because they belong to ruling CPI(M) men? For the first time I doubt Tata's sincerety to the social cause.