We always knew it Mamata: People of Singur were never your concern

We never had any doubts as to what Mamata would do at the end of her meeting with the patriarch Jyoti Basu. It was very obvious – she had put forward her demands - nobody would or could ever meet them. That was her very strategy. Ask for something that cannot be ever met and that is the end of all. Mamata's mantra is simple - do a turnaround and try to rouse the dying fire.

Off late, Mamata had realized that Singur was dead. That except for a few farmers, the others had seen the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and were only interested that peace and following that - prosperity should now be their life's course. But, for Mamata – peace is a four-letter word. Thus Mamata came up with the idea of creating this whole show of meeting the great patriarch of Bengal Jyoti Basu to solve the Singur issue et all. She knew such a move would whip up media interest again, which was the last hope for her to try and rekindle the issue.

Though Mamata gave an impression that she is as aggressive as she has been in the past, but actually she is becoming rest less to find a solution. She is softening owing to the so called very affected people not supporting her anymore is very evident in her change in stance. Earlier she was against having industry on agricultural land, but now she is fighting for returning the land that has been forcibly acquired. A typical chameleon like color change, common with vote bank politicians.

Now, that her reasons for all these moves is clear, lets see what has been the outcome. It has been a disaster for her party TMC, and a number of her close colleagues and confidante’s have internally criticized the whole – “ Tamasha”.

1. Many leaders of her party feels that by responding to Jyoti Basu's call for a meeting, Mamata had fallen into the trap of CPI (M) and they are quiet upset on the move taken by her. These leaders feel that if Mamata is unable to get the land back from the Govt. and the car rolls out in 2008, then she will have a major political set back.
2. Though Left front had lost the recent panchayat election at Panskura, yet they won the two most crucial seats of Singur - the bone of contention (our blog had carried the election result in an earlier article) and overall the Left Front have done pretty well in the election and given the trend, there is no great hope of TMC doing well in the forthcoming panchayat election to take place after 1 year.
3. Next State Assembly elections will be held after 4 years. If she fails to come to any settlement on the issue, then it would be quiet tough for her to continue with the agitation for another 4 years, and Mamata will be held responsible. She already stands responsible for the deaths in Singur.
4. On June 18 there is hearing at the High Court on several cases on Singur. Mamata's camp feels that the judgement will not go in their favour for which they are now preparing themselves to move to Supreme Court.

But between all these wheeling and dealings, both Mamata and her party are just singularly focused in increasing the political clout of TMC. Why else are they even refusing to hold talks for the compensation package? At the end, the package would be the biggest benefit for the people of Singur.

But, when did actually Mamata bother about the people of Singur.

Singur - Jyoti (Light) of Hope

Jyoti Basu – Thank You Sir

The patriarch of Bengal spoke and spoke well and this is not any ordinary man we are referring to. This man is like the one & only Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who changed the American Constitution and put a limit to the number of terms, a person could be President, similarly Jyoti Basu, stepped down to allow the next generation to be a part of shaping Bengal. For over 30 years he had been at the helm of power & if he wished to continue, there could have been no one stopping him.

Thus, when Singur was still being used by few as a means, to play dirty politics of power while the people of Singur were suffering, that the grand patriarch was requested to step in- to resolve the problem. This was a united voice from both friends and foes. Trinamool was infact the one to initiate and request Jyoti Basu to step in. The talks went on for almost a week and at the end of each day some news filtered out. The Patriarch didn’t spare even his own. He was stern and minced no words to criticize his own party cadres for festering trouble at Khejuri. Thus, Jyoti Basu was the judge, whose verdict was to he accepted by one and all. The people were happy and expressed hope. And then few days back judge gave his final verdict.

The verdict read –

• The state govt. will be responsible for providing employment to atleast one member of every family, whose land has been or is being acquired for the purpose of Industrialization
• That in certain areas the payment made for the land acquisition could be revisited and looked into.
• That the land handed out to the Tatas will remain that way and no land will be returned back-as it’s only a handful of farmers who were unwilling, as against the other thousand who realized the opportunity and have willingly sold their land.
  

So the final verdict is out. And like any final verdict – should be binding on one and all. We hope, that as promised before the talks, certain politicians will now abide by the verdict. We can only wish & hope, for with vote bank politicians-promises are meant to be broken.