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Tatas will have to go, says Mamata

KOLKATA: “The Tatas will have to go,” Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee said at a public meeting close to the site of the upcoming car manufacturing plant of Tata Motors at Singur in West Bengal’s Hooghly district.

The Trinamool Congress would continue its movement against the Tata Motors project as it had against the proposed chemical hub (a move that was subsequently called off) in Nandigram, she said and urged the peasants of the area to “remain united in your struggle for land, livelihood and self-dignity.”

The meeting was convened to commemorate the death anniversary of teenager Tapasi Mallick, whose charred body was found within the automobile project site a year ago. “Tapasi Mallick is still alive in our hearts and has been immortalised by her fight for the cause,” Ms. Banerjee said.

The Trinamool has claimed that the teenager was a victim of the atrocities perpetrated by activists of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on supporters of the Krishi Jami Raksha (Protection of Farmland) Committee that was subsequently renamed Krishi Jami, Jiban, Jibika Raksha (Protection of Farmland, Lives and Livelihood) Committee of which the party is the principal constituent.

The Committee is opposed to the setting up the Tata Motors project on land that it alleges was forcibly acquired from peasants of the area.

“The CPI(M) will also have to go,” Ms. Banerjee said. The movements carried out against acquisition of farmland for industry at Singur and Nandigram had “drawn international attention and support.”

She came down strongly on Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee for taking away “the rights and independence of people of the State.”

“What is prevailing in the State is worse than the Emergency and has never earlier been witnessed in the civilised world. People were being left with no place to protest and the State Government is going out of control while trying to take control of all (before it),” Ms. Banerjee said.

The Trinamool chief offered condolences to the family members of a person who had allegedly committed suicide in the Khasherberi area of Singur on Monday.

The unemployed farm worker, she claimed, was a supporter of the Krishi Jami Raksha Committee.

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