Agreement signals beginning of a new economic order

  • 08/09/2008

  • Statesman (Kolkata)

The Singur accord scripted almost single-handedly by the Trinamul Congress chief, Miss Mamata Banerjee, in the presence of Governor Mr Gopalkrishna Gandhi, whose sagacity and benign presence alone made the impossible possible, is as momentous a politico-economic development as land reforms spearheaded by the Left Front during its 30-year regime. It was a defining moment for the state when the two protagonists ~Miss Banerjee and chief minister Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee ~ gave final touches to the pact that signalled the beginning of a new economic order for the state where industry and agriculture will grow hand in hand and neither will try to throttle the other. The Singur saga hopefully brings to an end the haughty, Stalinist economic approach of the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee- government that set more store by industry than by agriculture. The biggest winner of the epic struggle between industry and agriculture that the Singur project triggered and the abortive Nandigram mega chemical hub project with its months of blood-letting, alleged rape, police brutality and naked use of muscle power by CPI-M-backed goons epitomised is, of course, the state's 80 million people. But, it's the victory of the forces, led by Miss Banerjee, that fiercely resisted the Marxist conspiracy to gift the most strategically located, fertile land to industrialists. The way Mr Bhattacharjee had been running the government to crush revolt by farmers against the Marxists