Soon after the landmark Supreme Court judgment taking back the land acquired by the previous left Front Government in West Bengal for the Nano car plant in Singur, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that she could now “die in peace.”
Meanwhile, ruling out an apology for “forcible” land acquisition, CPI(M) State secretary Surya Kanta Mishra on Wednesday said the land was acquired as per the land Acquisition Act of 1894.
Mihsra said, “This is not an issue of tendering an apology. We have said it clearly earlier that the land cannot be acquired against the wishes of farmers.”
Reacting to the ruling, Mamata, who first came to power riding the wave of protests against the Singur land deal, said, “I had dreamt of this SC verdict for so long, for the people of Singur. Now I can die in peace.”
Incidentally the first decision, the Chief Minister took after coming to power was passing an Ordinance and then a law to return the Singur land from the Tatas leading the automobile giant to move the court seeking its quashing.
However, keeping the interests of the State in mind she added that, “West Bengal is the final industrial destination, keep that in mind.”
Mamata added that she was “not inimical towards the Tatas who are welcome to invest in Bengal” and underscored the fact that she had “given tender to the Tata group when I was the Railway Minister.”
Calling it a “landmark judgment” the Chief Minister said, “I am happy not only because it is a landmark victory but it is a victory for the Maa, Maati, Maanush, a victory for farmers and a victory of the revolution. I should congratulate the farmers who held on despite their sufferings.”
Mamata who termed Wednesday’s development as the “biggest victory after 2011” when she came to power by defeating the left Front said, “The order shows how the left Front Government did not take any lesson from the movement and went on suppressing farmers’ rights.”
Mamata’s statement apparently came to ward off apprehensions from pro-industry intellectuals who said, “Trinamool Congress may have won a political point by winning the case but Bengal’s industrial cause has suffered a huge blow as investors will think several times before investing in Bengal after today’s developments.”
A senior FICCI official wondered, “What was the fault of the Tatas who stand to lose the maximum today.”
Earlier, the CPI(M)’s Surya Kanta Mishra, who held a Press conference here after the verdict said, “The land was back then acquired by following the land Acquisition Act of 1894. When the TMC Government came to power in 2011 we had said that you have got the people’s mandate and if you want to return the land there is no problem. But it should be returned by following the constitutional norms and laws.
“We were never opposed to returning the land... Now the question will be how the land will be returned and in what condition. What will happen to those who had taken the compensation and returned the land IJ Mishra said.