Mamata and her stupid arguments

Singur farmers will not "Chew Cars"

The tantrum of Indian politicians is not a new phenomenon, but surely Mamata Bannerjee takes the cake. It is indeed sad, that such hue and cry has been made for a non-starter issue dubbed “Singur”. Means, have we lost our navigation? Why are we going off course? Does anybody disagree to industrialization? Don’t we all know that if our country has to keep on growing and maintain the current growth rate, then we need to go all out and set up more and more industries? So, what is it that Mamata is trying to do? She seems just hell bent to rouse a rabble and thereby create a vote bank for her. For her own petty selfish gains, she is willing to sacrifice better future of thousands of farmers and their families.

Mamata and her logic defy any and all sense. It certainly is a well thought out plan, or why else did the Trinamool Youth Congress take out a procession demanding return of land of farmers at Singur on 18^th, when it was known that on 19^th the Govt. would announce the compensation package for the so called effected farmers? Clearly, Mamata had in her mind to refuse straightaway any package that the Govt. was to announce. Undoubtedly, the package is - as described by the patriarch Jyoti Basu – “This is the best package in the country”. The announced package is black and white and not a portion exists which sounds garbled or gives the impression of hidden mines. Just to encapsulate what the package is and how it benefits all, I summarize it below:

• Farmers who are elderly & directly dependent on tilling land cannot be considered for training for employment. Govt is considering putting up shops etc in the 47.11 acre of land that they have at their disposal in Singur and giving it to those farmers as alternate means of sustenance.

• 350 nos. of project affected youth are being trained at different ITIs for 6 and 9 months. These youth will get direct employment at the mother plant

• 150 more such youth will be selected for training in Ramakrishna Mission. The selection process will start from Sunday 24^th June.

• To train, as “Test Drivers” 100 people will be given training at Hooghly Motor Training School.

• 40 Ladies have already been trained in sewing at Beraberi High School, who will make uniforms and gloves for the small car plant personnel.

• NIIT at Salt Lake, Kolkata has already trained 40 men & women for 2 months. WBIDC has borne expenses of such training. 30 of them have already got jobs.

• 40 men & women have also been trained at NIIT on Hardware and some of them have already got jobs.

• 25 nos. of ladies have been trained in cooking and have formed canteens. More women are expected to join for such training and will open up more canteens.

• 50 people will be trained in gardening and landscaping

• Govt aims to make people self-dependant and entrepreneurs by making them become suppliers of vegetables, detergents etc that will have huge requirement on a daily basis once the project comes up.

• Government will also have an arrangement with Mother Diary for supply of milk by the local villagers

• 400 women will be trained on making cable & circuit board required for the car lant. Pune model training will be followed. Initially 100 women will be trained.

Such a well thought out package is the very first of its kind. The elderly have been taken care of, the youth have been looked after, the women too have been handed economic freedom and the bright future of the Singur farmers ensured.

But then follows the bluffmaster Mamata. It is obvious that Mamata never heard of the saying – First think, and then speak. Mamata doesn’t even bother to think or for that matter to even hear. She gives instant stupid reactions. And that’s exactly what she did after the package was announced. She just went ahead and rejected outright the package announced. Her ground of refusal was a clutter of baseless allegations bereft of any sense or sensibility. She really defines the Height of stupidity and to recap her ludicrous logic:

• "It is a rotten package and a deal to give passage to the Tatas in Singur," She claimed that the Tatas were fronting the Singur project while a foreign company had equity in it. "There is equity of a foreign company in the Tata Motors' small car project at Singur,"

• We don't need driving schools. Let them train their own people. Farmers don't need to drive cars. They know how to drive tractors and till the land.

• What will we do with cars? Do you think farmers will chew cars for dinner?

Now Mamata, what is your source of the first allegation - that a foreign company had equity in the project and that the Tatas were merely fronting it? First if you do have any such information, why didn’t you share it with the people and the media on day 1 itself? Secondly, if what you say is true, then can we have the exact details - the name of this foreign company and its share in the project? As per your statement, it sounds like – this foreign company owns the project since you say – Tatas were fronting the project, thereby ownership obviously is of the foreign company. And Mamata, if all this is true, then why did you hide such vital information from the public all this time, and moreover why are you giving a show of spilling the beans at this point in time? Or is it that questions of national interest and security concerns are secondary to your personal vote bank politics?

As for your second rationale – I would describe it by way of a famous Bengali saying – “Even a donkey would laugh” You say – Farmers don’t need to drive cars. Why Mamata, - are farmers not good enough to own and drive cars? Do we smell here a casteist flavor of politics? Is it like, – farmers like scheduled castes should never prosper, will never ever be able to own cars and so why should they even learn driving? Well for starters Mamata, if the farmers learnt driving, it will add to their skill set and provide an additional means of earning a livelihood.

Going ahead - you reiterate – They know how to drive tractors and till the land. Mamata, do you have any idea as to how many farmers in West Bengal own tractors? And the farmers, who have tractors, are of a different scale and unfortunately the Singur farmer never fell in that class. The land owning has to be huge, huge to make it economically viable to own and maintain a tractor. It seems your idea of farmers has its roots in the cowboy ranchers as shown in Hollywood movies. Mamata, just to enlighten you - most Indian farmers rent out tractors before sowing and get their land tilled.

And last but not the least - Do you think farmers will chew cars for dinner? No we don’t think farmers will chew cars for dinner, but yes we do think that the day the Tata car factory is operational, the farmer is employed and owns his car, that day the farmer will not have to think what he is going to chew for dinner. That day he will surely have his hot piping dinner.