Friday, October 10, 2008

NANO MOVES TO GUJARAT ... WHAT NEXT FOR SINGUR?



Hats off to Narendra Modi ! Hate him or love him, he has single handedly taken the initiative to industrialize Gujarat and made things happen. As Mr Tata opined : "In Gujarat things happen and move. I chose the good M over the bad M."

There was a RESPONSIBLE OPPOSITION in Gujarat - who welcomed the NANO project. They realized that Nano will benefit Modi's supporters as well as theirs - and indeed the average Gujarati citizen.

Modi got the land deed done in record time, and won the NANO project, under the noses of Maharastra and Andhra Pradesh government. Ambassador car moved out of Gujarat and into Bengal and today NANO took the reverse gear from Bengal. Ambassador car never reinvented itself, and like Bengal, remains in a time warp.










Buddha Babu is faced with an irresponsible opposition - and single handedly MAMATA BANERJEE derailed this industrialization process. An interesting snippet heard - during the Durga Puja celebrations (Oct'08), MAMATA was visiting pandals and in one such visit, she was stopped at the gate by a 70 year old lady who told her (I am translating into English here) : "You have no right to enter our Puja Pandal after destroying the lives of our children. Get the hell out." Of course, MAMATA ran for cover. Wish she could run away from INDIA too !

However, I was asked a question which flummoxed me. The question was, "IF MAMATA'S PARTY WAS IN POWER AND IF SHE GOT THE TATA NANO PROJECT TO SINGUR, DON'T YOU THINK THE CPI(M) WOULD HAVE DERAILED THE PROJECT TOO?"

And you know what, I think the answer is YES.

There is no bi-partisan support for Brand Bengal. It is time CPI(M) sat down together with the Opposition and devised a strategy for BRAND BENGAL together. It is the ONLY WAY.

SINGUR ... WHAT NEXT?

It is sad that 80% of villagers gave land willingly only to see their dream vanish. How 20% can over ride the wishes of the majority is an example of "vote bank" politics that will have wider implications in INDIA.

TATAs, I feel will do the following:

1) Singur residents were trained to work in the Singur Nano factory. TATAs will surely relocate them to other plants - possibly to SANAND, GUJARAT. TATAs will earn brownie points and it will need that.

2) TATAs may pay the Govt of West Bengal some sum per month to lock the Singur land for some time and not allow competing industry to set up base there. By keeping the plant area vacant, in a few months, the price of land will come crashing down - this will be exacerbated by the stock market crashing in tandem with global economic meltdown.

3) After a considerable time, TATAs may bring in a plant in Singur, that may be highly automated, requiring only a few hundred people. The factory and its ancilliaries will work within 700 acres.



WHILE WE POSTULATE, RATAN TATA & NARENDRA MODI ARE DANCING AWAY.

There were pictures in Sanand, where cutting across communal lines, the Muslims were celebrating. And rightly so, economic boom is not meant for any particular community and GUJARAT IS OPEN FOR BUSINESS.




Remember the face of Qutubbudin Ansari, that was hyped up by the media. He apparently fled GUJARAT to live in WEST BENGAL. And WHAT HAPPENED? Mr Ansari is back in GUJARAT - doing what he knows best - business.

Dear Ms Teesta Setalvad and Arundhuti Roy, these Muslims also understand the economic realities in resurgent Modi led GUJARAT - so you ladies are requested to TAKE A HIKE to CUBA and write how the Cuban FIDEL CASTRO slept with 35,000 women.

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