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.