After 'Nano' debacle, TATA to construct cancer hospitals in Bengal

Political circles are wondering whether the two cancer hospitals will be the first step taken by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to bridge gaps with Tata Group getting over the bitter Singur chapter, writes Sumanta Ray Chaudhuri, Bureau Chief (Kolkata), ETV Bharat.

Kolkata: As a leader of the opposition, her persistent stance on the Singur Tata Nano car project opposing the land acquisition of the Left Front, had catapulted Mamata Banerjee to the hustings in 2011, clubbed with the Nandigram firing incident. Her first decision from the Writers' Buildings as a Chief Minister was to return Singur's land to their owners from the Tatas. The same Mamata Banerjee has today struck a deal with the Tatas from her Nabanna secretariat to construct two hospitals in the state. Is there a change in her stance as Mamata Banerjee trudges on through her third stint as Chief Minister of West Bengal?

Before 2006, the principal association of the common people of West Bengal was the iconic building of “Tate Centre” located opposite Maidan Metro station in central Kolkata. The building, considered as one of the important high-rises in the city, is the marketing headquarter of Tata Steel. This building also houses the offices of other Tata Group associate companies like Metal Junction and Tata Metaliks Limited.

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Another association was the annual trip of Tata Group chairman, Ratan Tata to attend the annual general meetings of Tata Tea Limited (now Tata Global Beverages Limited). Every year before 2006, during his annual trips to Kolkata, shared his dreams for big-ticket investment in the state.

The scope came in 2006, the year when the seventh Left Front government was formed in Kolkata following a landslide victory and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee took oath as the Chief Minister for the last time. On the day of his swearing-in ceremony, Ratan Tata met him at Writers’ Buildings and announced the setting up of Tata Motors’ small car project, Nano at Singur in Hooghly district. Political circles felt that this was the first step towards Bhattacharjee’s dream for massive industrialization in West Bengal.

However, the dream did not last for a long period as in 2007 started the movement against land acquisition for the Nano project in Singur. The person leading the movement was Mamata Banerjee as the then opposition leader. The quantum and impact of the land movement was faster than the pace at which the work of construction of the Nano factory was going on.

By that time, the land movement had also started at Nandigram in East Midnapore district. The police firing killing 14 persons there rocked the entire state. Cracks started developing in the red front at a very fast rate.

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Finally, in October 2008, Ratan Tata announced the decision to pull out of Singur. Gujarat’s Sanand became the new venue for the Nano factory. Then came 2011, when Trinamool Congress came to power ending the 34-year long Left Front rule and for the first time Mamata Bandopadhyay took oath as the Chief Minister.

Land movement in Singur and the Nandigram police firing are considered as the two pillars of her success in ending the Left Front rule. As Chief Minister, her first decision was to return the land at Singur to the original landowners and she was finally successful after a long legal battle with Tata Group.

On Wednesday, she announced from the current state secretariat of Nabanna that the state government in association with Mumbai-based Tata Memorial Hospital will set up two specialized cancer hospitals in West Bengal, the first being at SSKM Hospital in Kolkata and the second at Siliguri in north Bengal.

Meanwhile, BJP’s legislator from Cooch Behar, Mihir Goswami, who was once with Trinamool Congress, said that everything is possible for Mamata Banerjee. “She or her party does not have any specific political policy or path. But it is good that the Chief Minister has realized the mistake and trying to correct it. Had she realised the mistake before, the economic situation of West Bengal would have been better,” Goswami said.

Trinamool Congress’s chief whip in the West Bengal assembly Nirmal Ghosh said that the Chief Minister was never against Tata Group. “The livelihoods of so many persons were involved. So she led the agitation against the forceful land acquisition there. This does not mean that we are against the Tatas. Tatas have invested in West Bengal before. So this is not any new issue,” said Ghosh.

Former leader of Left legislative party in West Bengal assembly, Dr Sujan Chakraborty said that CPI(M) or Left Front will never oppose any development work. “The Chief Minister’s latest announcement sounds good. But let the project fructify. In the past many such announced projects have remained announcements,” he said.

Former Congress MLA, Asit Mitra said that what happened at Singur was completely undesirable. “The state needs investment. It needs the development of infrastructure. And if that happens through Tatas there is no harm in it,” he said.

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