Want Tatas to come back to Singur; send signal West Bengal is open for business: State BJP chief Samik Bhattacharya

West Bengal BJP President Samik Bhattacharya, in an interview to news agency PTI, said that newly-formed BJP government wants the Tata Group to return to Singur.

Bhattacharya said the state government wants the Tata Group to return to the Hooghly township, describing it as both an economic necessity and a powerful signal that the state is again open for business.

He said that bringing the Tatas back to Singur would help erase what he labelled as "wrong message" sent to investors after the Nano project was forced out of the state nearly two decades ago.

"We want the Tatas to come back, and that too in Singur. We want to send a message to the entire country and the world that West Bengal is investor-friendly and is ready to welcome investments," Bhattacharya said on Friday.

Referring to the controversy surrounding the Nano project's exit from Singur in 2008 following the anti-land acquisition movement spearheaded by Mamata Banerjee, Bhattacharya said the dismantling of the Tata Motors plant had become a defining image of Bengal's hostility towards industry.

"The scene of Tata leaving Bengal and the infrastructure being dismantled sent a very wrong message — that industries were unwelcome in Bengal. Subsequently, the cut-money culture, syndicate raj and institutionalised corruption worsened the situation. We want to correct that perception," he said.

Asked whether a Tata return to Singur would amount to a prayaschitta (atonement) for what he described as the mistakes of the previous regime, Bhattacharya said the departure of Tata Motors had inflicted lasting damage on the state's investment climate.

"We want Tatas to return to Singur or Bengal in any form, be it automobile or any other sector. They are one of the oldest and most respected and trusted groups of our country," he said.

The departure of the Nano project from Singur in 2008 and the subsequent dismantling of the near-complete factory sent shockwaves through corporate India. It signalled resistance to large-scale industrial projects in West Bengal.

Almost 20 years later, the BJP is seeking to reclaim the same site to showcase a return of industry to Bengal, which is inevitably accompanied by a fundamental overhaul of land acquisition policies.

"We did not have a comprehensive land policy. Mamata Banerjee had declared that the government would not acquire even an inch of land for industry, and companies would have to purchase land directly. Industries can't go door to door acquiring land under such an absurd and flawed policy," Bhattacharya said.

He indicated that the government is working on a new land policy, though he declined to divulge details before its formal rollout.

"What I can say is that without a comprehensive land policy, industrialisation will not happen. The government is working on it, and the results will become visible in the coming months," he said.

"West Bengal carries a 50-year-old wound of economic degradation. There were disturbances from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s, including the Naxalite movement. Then came 35 years of Left rule and 15 years of TMC rule. Industrial stagnation became institutionalised," he said.

Drawing a comparison with other states, Bhattacharya said foreign investors had largely skipped West Bengal.

"Maharashtra attracts around 13.6% of India's FDI, while Bengal's share is around 0.6%. These numbers speak for themselves," he said.

Yet, he claimed, investor sentiment has already begun changing following the BJP's electoral victory.

"An industrialist met me today and said they had decided to shift their plant and business outside Bengal. But after 4 May, they changed their mind," Bhattacharya said, referring to the date the election results were announced.

Calling Bengal the "gateway to the East", he said the state's geographical location, ports and connectivity give it a natural advantage in attracting investments, provided policy certainty is restored.

"Unemployment cannot be addressed through a single model. We want labour-intensive industries as well as capital-intensive industries. Unless we achieve comprehensive and inclusive growth, we will not be able to send the right message to the rest of India," he said.

The BJP leader also launched a sharp attack on the previous regime's economic record, alleging that thousands of companies had either left Bengal or shut down operations over the years.

Claiming that several companies shifted out of Kolkata, several other firms went into liquidation, and tens of thousands of small and medium enterprises ceased operations, Bhattacharya said the government's priority now is to reverse that trend and restore investor confidence.

For a state where Singur once epitomised the clash between industrialisation and land rights, the BJP's attempt to bring the Tata Group back carries significance far beyond a single investment proposal.

It reflects the new government's larger political objective of rewriting one of West Bengal's most consequential economic narratives -- turning the site that symbolised industry's exit into a testament to its return.

— With inputs from PTI