Land acquisition clarity could be Singur's legacy

West Bengal should compensate Tata Motors without ado. With luck, amends made could help all of India get its bearings right on bulk land purchases for private industrial projects

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Land is the oldest recognized factor of production, its ownership has been the fulcrum of a great ideological clash between capitalism and communism, and its ability to stir up emotions has not diminished much down the ages. Hence, how land is used always calls for clarity of thought. In India, our most exasperating muddle in recent memory is the case of Singur, West Bengal, where almost 1,000 acres of farm-land were acquired under the auspices of the state’s industrial development authority for Tata Motors to set up a factory, but a frenzied agitation against the project forced the company to relocate it to Gujarat in 2008 after it had invested a claimed ₹1,800 crore there and was on the verge of rolling out its Nano cars. In 2016, the Singur acquisition was quashed by India’s apex court, but, given the losses borne, news that Tata Motors has won an arbitral award of ₹766 crore (plus interest) as compensation should not surprise us. Nor should the fact that the state’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) government may contest this order, given the key role this party played in the project’s e