Mamata skips Singur event, farmers not surprised

Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee gave Singur, the erstwhile site for Tata Motors' Nano that made her popular, a miss.

Banerjee was supposed to hand over agri-retail outlets, part of the Perishable Cargon Centre at Singur, to 16 farmers, part of her movement against the land acquisition for Nano. However, she failed to turn up.

Railway officials announced at 4 pm that she could not be present for the event, scheduled at 5:30 pm, due to unavoidable circumstances. Around the same time, she addressed a press meet on joint operations at Lalgarh at her Kolkata residence.

Half of the people, gathered at Singur, did not believe that she could possibly give Singur a miss. The other half knew that Singur had outlived its utility. It was past its "sell-by" date for the leaders, who once fought against the West Bengal government alongside them.

Ratan Bag, an unwilling land loser, was not surprised. He half-expected this to happen. It's been four years since Bag lost his four-bigha plot to Tatas.

"I can see Didi flagging off trains and re-painting the stations. What did we get? Nothing. I want to collect my cheque, but the local leaders say I will have to appoint lawyers to collect my cheque." Even six months back, Bag was confident of his leader and her goals.

Haripada Das, another farmer, rued, "Our leaders have forgotten us. We can't even approach Didi any more." According to Das, while Banerjee led the land agitation, she visited Singur 65 times. Those were different times. Since the Lok Sabha elections, Banerjee has visited Singur twice, both times for Railways events.

The number of disgruntled unwilling farmers is growing steadily. Sujoy Das is about 60. He had very little land, which was taken for the project. Now, he has very little resources to run his family. "What will happen to us? Who is bothered about us?" asked Das.

These were the people who reared their head in the Panchayat polls that eroded the Left base in early 2008. They were just 20 per cent of the total land losers, but with Banerjee's support, they managed to go down in the books of history, as Tata Motors pulled out of the project later that year.

Since then, the Left has done miserably in all the elections, the biggest blow being the last Lok Sabha elections, which rendered Banerjee's party as the UPA government's largest ally.

The event was also a turning point for the unwilling farmers of Singur. "The leaders turn a deaf ear when we tell them about our problems," said Bag. Bag warns that they can do another 'Singur' with the growing resentment among the unwilling land losers. Any one listening?