Singur: The BJP on Tuesday began a three-day-long agitation at Singur in Hooghly district over the West Bengal government's alleged apathy towards the plight of farmers in the state.
The choice of the site Singur- is significant as the place, along with Nandigram, changed the political landscape of the state after protests against the Left Front government's forcible land acquisition there shook the foundations of the 34-year-long rule of the CPI(M)-led coalition and catapulted the Trinamool Congress (TMC) led by Mamata Banerjee to power in 2011.
Led by West Bengal state president Sukanta Majumdar and leader of opposition and BJP MLA Suvendu Adhikari, BJP workers conducted a march to Singur and began the sit-in demonstration at Gopalnagar village, a few kilometres away from the abandoned Tata car plant site
The BJP programme has been christened "Krishi Bachao, Krishak Bachao (Save Farmers, Save Agriculture).
"The farmers are not getting a proper price for their crops. They are dying in Bengal, and the chief minister is busy doing political tourism in other states. We will hold a three-day agitation in Singur along the highway with peasants to bring the government's attention to the farmers' issues. If within 72 hours, the state government doesn't respond, we will escalate our protests further," Adhikari said.
The sit-in has been called to press for the seven-point charter of demands, including minimum support price for the produce, a package for farmers for having incurred heavy losses in the unseasonal rains, withdrawal of VAT on fuel to give some relief to them in operating irrigation pumps, driving tractors, and ferrying agri-produce, and making the Kisan Mandis functional in different blocks.
Majumdar said farmers are dying in West Bengal, but the state government is sitting idle.
"The TMC leaders have turned into Crorepatis' in the last ten years, and the farmers who helped them in coming to power have been left in the cold. Nothing has been done for the benefit of the farmers, even efforts were made to stop the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi. This is the true nature of TMC," he said.
BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh said the TMC had done nothing for the farmers or to bring industries into the state.
The TMC leadership declined to attach much importance to the agitation and said it attempted to divert attention from the "imminent defeat" of the saffron party in the upcoming Civic polls.
"Suvendu Adhikari and his family made their political careers based on the agitation by Mamata Banerjee in 2006-07. But now Suvendu is making tall claims. If he was so concerned about farmers, then why was he silent during the farmer's agitation against the farm laws, which the Centre later decided to withdraw last month?" TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh asked.
Singur -- once known for multiple crop farming hogged the limelight after Tata Motors wanted to set up its cheapest car manufacturing unit, Nano, in the area in 2006. The then Left Front government acquired 997.11 acres along National Highway 2 and handed it over to the company.
Leading from the front, the then opposition leader and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee had then called for a 26-day hunger strike, demanding the return of 347 acres of land that was forcibly acquired.
Despite several emissaries and meetings between the TMC and the Left Front government, no solution was reached. The Tatas moved out of Singur and built the plant in Gujarat's Sanand.