Mamata Banerjee’s rally at Singur today ahead of her Delhi tour
Kolkata: Enthusiasm is at its peak at Singur, the erstwhile site for Tata Motors’ small car project Nano, in Hooghly district of West Bengal, over the Chief Minister’s likely message at a scheduled rally there later in the day.
The excitement over the rally stems from two reasons. The Chief Minister will be leaving for New Delhi immediately after her Singur rally, reportedly to garner consensus among opposition parties against the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in some states and union territories, including West Bengal.
So, there is enthusiasm among Trinamool Congress workers about whether the Chief Minister will convey any political message on this matter before leaving for New Delhi.
Second, her rally at Singur is very near to the place where Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a public rally on January 18. Although it was largely expected that the Prime Minister at that rally would resurrect the memories of the exit of Tata Motors’ small car project, Nano, in 2008 and also outline future investment possibilities there, he did nothing of that sort.
In fact, in his speech that day, the issue of Tata Motors’ exit from Singur was not mentioned even once by the Prime Minister. In such a situation, eagerness is at its peak on whether the Chief Minister will speak on her plans to bring big-ticket investment to Singur at her speech later in the day.
To recall, the pull-out of the project from Singur happened after a violent movement by Trinamool Congress — as the then opposition party in the state — led by Mamata Banerjee, against land acquisition for the project.
Notably, after the erstwhile Tata Group chairman, Late Ratan Tata, announced the exit of the Nano project from Singur in Kolkata on the afternoon of October 3, 2008, the project’s next destination was Sanand in Gujarat, with Narendra Modi as the then Chief Minister.
“I said that I will not pull out from Singur even if a gun is put to my head. But Miss Banerjee just pulled the trigger,” said an emotional Ratan Tata on October 3, 2008, in Kolkata while announcing the pull-out of the Nano Project from Singur.
Meanwhile, controversies have surfaced over a decision of Kolkata Mayor and West Bengal Municipal Affairs and Urban Development Minister, Firhad Hakim, to send sprinklers from Kolkata to Singur to spray water at the rally ground so that the dust settles down ahead of the Chief Minister’s rally. Information has surfaced that a total of five water-sprinklers have been sent to Singur from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation for that purpose.
