Tide turns in shocked Singur, own supporters tell Mamata to stop

Singur, September 3: Enough is enough: Singur’s message to Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee was loud and clear today. For the first time since she launched her dharna against the Tata Motors’ small-car project at Singur on August 24, demanding the return of 400 acres to farmers, she faced resentment from villagers including Trinamool supporters she claims to be representing.

As Mamata egged on her flock from the dais, members of 22 syndicates doing flourishing business supplying construction material to the Tata project, along with villagers, gathered 2 km from the Trinamool protest site on the Durgapur Express and raised slogans against her. They also stopped her supporters from joining her. Of these 22 syndicates, 20 are run by Trinamool men.

The message in the slogans was unambiguous: “Mamata don’t play with the future of this state”, “We want Tata’s factory here and Mamata to go back”, among them.

The feelings were echoed in village after village around the project area on Wednesday, in all of which the Trinamool had routed the CPI(M) in May's panchayat elections. Of the 16 gram panchayats in Singur block, the Trinamool had won 15. Whether Joymollah, Beraberi, Khaserbheri or Bajemelia, there was disappointment and anger — Tata Motors' announcement to suspend work having wrought an overnight change.

Another Trinamool supporter who runs a syndicate, Manab Ghosh, added that it is not just suppliers like them who are getting hurt. “Linked to us are the loaders and unloaders, the brickfield workers, the sand suppliers...”

Protesting alongside was Kalipada Mal, a CPI(M) supporter who is a member of another syndicate: “My party did not tell me to come here. As you can see, I am by the side of Trinamool people. There are no red flags or green flags — our movement is apolitical.”

Earlier, two representatives of Kolkata’s IT industry, Ranjan Basu and Suma Mukherjee, went down to Singur to reason with Mamata but were reportedly sent packing. Basu and Mukherjee are part of a group of IT professionals who recently ran a signature campaign in Kolkata in support of the Nano project.

“People want Tata to stay. We want to know why the problem cannot be solved through talks,” said Mukherjee.

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