West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday claimed that it was the Communist Party of India (Marxist) that drove away Tata Motors from Singur, and not her, news agency PTI reported. The CM said she only returned the land to the people that was forcibly acquired by the former Left Front government for the Tata Motors’ Nano factory in Singur in Hooghly district.
The CM was addressing a ‘Bijaya Samillani’ or post-Durga Puja meeting in Kawakhali ground in Siliguri, West Bengal.
“There are people who are spreading canards that have driven away the Tatas from West Bengal. I did not force them away, but it was the CPI(M) which drove them away,” Banerjee said, as quoted by PTI.
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“You (CPI(M)) forcibly took land from the people for the project, we returned that land to the people. We have done so many projects, but never taken any land forcibly from anybody. Why should we take land forcibly? There is no dearth of land here,” the CM added.
Reacting to her statements, CPI(M) said her statement was a “big lie”, saying her dharna in the national highway outside the factory had forced the Tatas to shift the project out of West Bengal.
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In 2008, Ratan Tata, former chairman of TATA Sons, had blamed the agitation for the group’s decision of pulling out the project. However, the agitation had fuelled Mamata Banerjee’s rise to power in 2011 after overthrowing the CPI-M government, following 34 years of rule.