Kolkata:
Pratap Ghosh's house in Singur is a large one. It has a courtyard with flowering trees. At one end is the kitchen. It is an old stately house with a row of rooms alongside a long verandah . Its 50-year-old owner lives here with his wife and three children one of whom is married.
At one point, Mr Ghosh was a land-owner with 12 bighaas or around 5 acres of land. The crop of rice and lentil made sure he was comfortable. When his wife needed treatment for heart condition, he was able to take her to a private hospital in far-away Chennai. He himself went through an open heart surgery in Bangalore.
Then, in 2006, Mr Ghosh parted- against his wishes, he alleges, like so many other farmers in the area- with his land. The Left government in West Bengal had agreed that Tata Motors would acquire a total of 997 acres in Singur for its new Nano factory. Close to 450 farmers were offered compensation on an average of one to three lakh rupees per bigha depending on the soil. They were also offered jobs in the factory as part of the compensation package.
Contrary to the old Left belief the then Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya who was popularly known as 'Brand-Buddha' believed that Bengal needed investment and that industry and factories would bring much-needed jobs to a state staggering in debt.
Mr Ghosh did not want to work in a car-manufacturing plant. What he wants is for his land to be returned to him. "Farmers are just waiting for the court's verdict. After that they will be let loose like a pack of mad dogs. Such is the pain of hunger that one doesn't spare even one's parents)," he says, while taking us around his ancestral home.
The Calcutta High Court was scheduled to decide this week on the legality of the West Bengal government's decision to reclaim nearly 1000 acres leased to Tata Motors. Mamata Banerjee's sweeping victory in the Bengal elections last year was fuelled partly by her strong stand against the Nano factory. In June 2011, her party pushed through the Singur Land Rehabilitation and Development Act 2011. Tata has challenged this legislation saying they were given the land under the Land Acquisition Act which is still valid.
By the end of 2008 summer tired of large protests, often violent and sometimes championed by Ms Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress leaders, Tata was forced to leave its factory and moved to Gujarat. By then, the company says, it had invested upto 1800 crore in establishing the plant at Singur and another 440 crore on constructing buildings and adding infrastructure.
Mr Ghosh says that farmers like him have made up their mind - if the court verdict goes against them, they will try to reclaim their land by force. Ms Banerjee will find it tough to order action against them.
Mahadeb Das emerged as a leader for her party from the Singur farmer protests. He is aware that farmers are impatient. He has 11 bighas or inside the factory premises for which he did not accept compensation.
As he walks down the village road leading to his house, an old man shouts abuses at him. Why did farmers support Mamata, the man asks belligerently? We are still waiting, he says.
Mahadeb offers this reassurance: "We will take this land back and overcome legal issues if at all." The implicit threat is clear. Singur will remain a battlefield in one of the most divisive issues in India: when and how agricultural land should be acquired for development and industry.