With 85% of the project complete and the first Nano small-car scheduled to roll out in October, Mamata has launched a sit-in outside the factory in support of farmers who she claims do not want to part with their 400 acres of the 997 acquired in 1997 for the project.

The Chief Minister’s sense of urgency was apparent. “I am trying to convince them. We are not egoistic. We should reach a consensus otherwise how can we solve it? I am optimistic that I will be able to convince them.”

Bhattacharjee was replying to a question posed by Sajjan Jindal, Assocham president whose Rs 35,000-crore integrated steel plant project in the state did not face any land acquisition problems.

The Chief Minister sounded “helpless” at times — a fact some of the industrialists noted —— but in the end, clearly underlined that he was committed to the reforms he had pushed for. When Biswadip Gupta, the head of Jindal’s project, wanted to know Bhattacharjee’s take on “government-sponsored bandhs” and “Opposition-sponsored bandhs,” the Chief Minister said: “I do not support any bandh. I agree it is not helping anyone...But unfortunately as I belong to one party and they call a strike, I keep mum.”

Then he added, to loud applause: “But I have finally decided that next time I will open my mouth.”

When an official of the small-scale industry association narrated how SSIs suffer at the hands of “fundamentalist trade unionism”, Bhattacharjee repeated what he has often said earlier: “I agree that trade unions should behave. I am trying to change their mindset. I keep saying how our contribution to the Oxford dictionary has been the word gherao. But I can assure you that gherao will never return to our state.”

... contd.