Tragically and farcically this possibility arises despite a thumping majority of Singur’s landholders having sold their property and accepted government cheques. Of the 997 acres allocated for the project, 697 acres have been acquired and 10,852 land title holders have no problems with the project. Landholders owning around 300 acres of land are the holdouts for whom Mamata Banerjee is apparently fighting. But of this amount of land, around 140 acres contain plots that have no clear title deeds; therefore those cultivating these plots fear a loss of land and no compensation as by law compensation can only be given to clear title holders. This is not an unsolvable problem, though. Creative administrative solutions can be found for such cases. The other 160 acres apparently are owned by people who simply don’t want to sell their land and these plots are scattered, which means not acquiring them violates the integrity of the plant site. Using the force of the land acquisition law for unwilling sellers may not be a smart idea, given Nandigram. Plus, post-panchayat election losses — Singur and adjoining areas voted roundly against the CPM — the CPM may not be as confident anyway.

Perhaps, the government can explore the option of carving out one chunk of land from the factory site and then parcel out the plots for no-sale landowners. The CM therefore has a lot of creative politics to do, and that includes getting Mamata to agree to such solutions.

But the stakes have never been higher for Bengal. Its electoral trend, given that the Left is out of the ruling coalition, already makes it somewhat irrelevant for national politics. It risks economic irrelevance if Tatas pull out. A “na” to Nano will invite a “no” to Bengal.