DIDI’S SINGUR STAND

ONLY DAYS after Mamata Banerjee started the process of returning the land of Tata Motors’ defunct Nano plant in Singur to the farmers, Cyrus Mistry was forced to step down as chairman of the Tata Group. Ratan Tata who had in the past belligerently attacked Didi, once again took over the reins of the $103 billion conglomerate. The first reaction of many political pundits was that it was kind of a setback for the Bengal chief minister.

With Mr Mistry at the helm, relations between Didi and the Tatas were steadily improving. So much so that Didi even gave a call to the Tatas twice within a few days to set up automobile plant elsewhere in the state. She even offered the same volume of land (1,000 acres), which her government wrested from Tata Motors in Singur following the Supreme Court order.

While announcing his decision to shift the Nano plant from Singur to Sanand in October 2008, Mr Tata had observed that Didi had pulled the trigger. According to a Mamata confidant, Mr Tata’s return to the top position in the behemoth spoiled her mood a bit when she was savouring the Singur victory.

When Mr Mistry’s ouster led to a war of words between the two tycoons, a washing of some dirty linen in public was inevitable fallout. In his counterattack, Mr Mistry wrote a long letter in which he painstakingly pointed out the mistakes Mr Tata made which resulted in huge losses to the Tata Group. According to Mr Mistry the Nano losses have touched `1,000 crores. He suggested that the Nano project should have been shut down, but the crucial decision was not taken because of emotional reasons.

A little bird tells us that this came as music to Didi’s ears. “Didi’s Singur stand has been vindicated once again,” claimed the Mamata aide.