One Spoke Out Of The Nano Wheel

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Indeed, the Tatas will have the least to say in the tripartite meeting. Their stand is clear: they cannot do with any less land, and they are unwilling to relocate the ancillary units. Their intentions, however, are not as clear. Was the indefinite suspension of work at the factory just a ploy to put pressure on the West Bengal government to do something fast and on Mamata to show they mean business? The suspension itself was a formality: with TMC activists preventing people from entering or exiting the plant, little work had taken place in the previous four-five days. In its statement, Tata Motors stated the decision to suspend work was taken to ensure the safety of its employees and labour who were "violently obstructed from reporting to work".

And was Ratan Tata serious about relocating the Nano plant? The disruption of work was definitely a trigger for Tata Motors to think about relocation, especially when the company and its vendors are racing against time to meet their October launch deadline. Among the various options being mulled over are production at the Pantnagar facility, or even Kharagpur in West Bengal. Some Nanos could even be manufactured out of the Tatas' main facility at Pune.

However, there's too much at stake for Tata to pack his bags and leave Singur—yet. For one, there's cost. Officials at Tata Motors claim these would be significant. Says an official: "We have invested in concrete structures in the campus and in developing the plinth area. Our plant was almost ready for production. So were the vendors and ancillaries who had been given a deadline by us. Relocating at this stage would entail significant costs, while a lot of investment would go waste."

Citing a tentative figure, Mahantesh Sabarad, an analyst at Centrum Broking, says, "The total cost of relocating the plant could be around Rs 500 crore." Wherever the company goes, it will face problems of costs in a greenfield site or capacity constraints in an existing plant. Also, what happens to the land that has been allotted to Tata Motors if it moves out of Singur? There is a cost here too.

The Tatas' continuing interest in Singur is evident from the way they are trying to disprove Mamata's contention that the people of Singur are against the plant. On the contrary, says one of their officials, many Singur locals are working at the main Nano plant. "We have trained over 200 people from Singur itself at the four ITIs in the state and employed them in the main manufacturing plant," he says. According to him, taken along with the vendors and ancillaries, the plant will provide a lot of direct and indirect employment for the local populace.

It was local effort, in fact, that turned out to be the key factor in bringing Mamata to the negotiating table. To be sure, the TMC leader put on a face of being unconcerned when Tata announced the suspension of work at the Singur factory. But the mood has slowly been changing in Singur. Farmer Shatra's suicide saw angry protests from the 'other' farmers, those who are supposed to have welcomed the Tata project, and some who were getting employment at the plant. Shouting slogans, these farmers demanded that Mamata get out of Singur in the next 24 hours. "We want her out," fumed Ratan Ghorai, a protesting villager. "Because of her, our boys are once again sitting idle in the house. She is not letting us work. We don't want to go back to farming. We want industry and jobs."

So despite her brave rhetoric about being willing to keep the protest alive ("until the next elections if required," as one TMC colleague put it), Mamata has sensed she is losing control over the agitation. She had reportedly expressed displeasure when factory workers were first prevented from going in to work. Now, she's trying to get the reins of the Singur movement back in her own hands. In one of the first meetings with the state government to discuss the possibility of a dialogue, she had sent both party colleague Partha Chatterjee as well as Purnendu Bose of the CPI(ML), a partner of the umbrella organisations at Ground Singur. All subsequent meetings with the governor, however, had just Chatterjee in attendance. After leading a long agitation, Mamata is now desperate to carve out a solution. Hopefully for West Bengal, there will be one soon.