Many Indians went starry-eyed in admiration when Ratan Tata made a melodramatic announcement recently that he will not budge even if a gun is put on h

And just like Tata, the local residents of Singur too, were in no mood to budge. But they were not as lucky as the illustrious entrepreneur. While Ratan Tata referred to guns in the safe confines of a sound-proof room, the residents of Singur faced the wrath of police intimidation, bullets and worse, for daring to oppose the ‘dream’ project of Tata. Yet another shameful chapter was added to this process of land-grab when more than 10 people died in violence protesting the takeover of their prime agricultural land for the Indonesia-based Salim group in Nandigram. Of course, one can’t really blame Ratan Tata for the Nandigram mess!

There is more to bullets and Ratan Tata – and land. On January 2, 2006, 13 tribals in Kalinga Nagar, Orissa were brutally gunned down and killed by police bullets. Many more were injured. Their crime: The locals of Kalinga Nagar were protesting the acquisition of land for a ‘prestigious’ Tata Steel project in Orissa. Kalinga Nagar is a community under siege with seething rage and anger against Tata Steel being the leitmotif of the times. Something similar is happening in the tribal state of Chhattisgarh, where Tata Steel wants 4,500 acres in Bastar district to construct yet another ‘prestigious’ steel plant. In each of these instances, it does look as if the Tata group has forsaken its century old reputation of social responsibility and tried to grab prime real estate at dirt cheap prices wherever it can.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2006

An IIPM and Management Guru Professor Arindam Chaudhuri's Initiative