With TV channels beaming it live round the clock and newspaper columns capped by screaming headlines, the jury is still out as to whether Mamata’s struggle at Singur is after all a regressive step. There is reason to feel skeptical.
If you, the reader of this post, are in Bengal, you’ll no doubt experience the warmth of excitement touching you at every public discourse and perhaps wonder if we really need the car factory at Singur. If however you’re far away (which is more likely because my readers are mostly from distant shores), you may feel amused at all the brouhaha currently on view over the issue.
Point is Bengalis, once at forefront of nation’s destiny, are a divided lot over Singur. Fed with anti-imperialist mantras for so long, many view industrialization through tinted glass. It’s nearly always a question of rich-snatching-from-poor on which to base one’s judgment, never mind the abysmal social conditions everywhere that readily give rise to widespread nepotism and rampant corruption.
The ruling party, having read it on the wall, is now eager to usher in rapid industrialization, which the opposition is trying to stall come what may. Though democracy is the last word in India, it has presumably taken a backseat in today’s Bengal, for otherwise it simply belies logic as to how a grossly minority opposition can hold sway over the wishes of the people of the state.
It is not my case to support one party’s policy over another’s, but the moot point is industrialization is very long overdue in industry-starved Bengal. Law of economics suggests that an economy progresses from farming to industry to services as more and more skill is generated and commensurate jobs are created. The process is irreversible unless forced by events such as war or nature’s fury, or perhaps out of wishes of a crackpot, and if that happens it spells doom for the people at large.
Of course none of these would make any sense unless there’s willingness to understand issues. The good reasons for industrialization failed to make any dent during all these years of left rule, and now unfortunately the opposition is not letting them prevail.
Which is why one sometimes is at agony to feel that may be Bengal’s dark fortune is never going to improve.
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