Ratan Tata flashed a warning signal at a press conference in Calcutta on 22nd August’08, stating that he would better leave Bengal than continue with Nano in the event political violence continued in Singur at the small car site.
Addressing the press conference under the shadow of declared indefinite Nano Plant siege by Mamata Banerjee’s Trinomul Congress from 24th August’08, he expressed his anguish in no uncertain terms when he said in one the his uncharacteristic lengthy statement, “I have to applaud all the people working at the site; they have been working under tremendous tension. Our compound walls have been broken time and again, people have been coming in and materials are stolen. We can’t open and operate a plant with police protection. If that is the way (i.e. construction work going on with round the clock with police protection) before the start of the plant, you can well imagine our concern what will happen if we start to operate.”
While referring to the incident where a mob beat up one of their engineer with steel rods last month, Tata made it clear that government protection itself is not enough-it is the people of Bengal who must decide if they wanted the factory in their state.
Tata scotched any idea that he had invested huge sum in the project to pull out now and told journalists in a city hotel, “If any body is under the impression that because we have made an investment of Rs.1500 crore ($375 billion), it is not a hypocritical amount and we would move out whatever be the cost, to protect our people (employees).”
He further added that if the state or any segment of the state feels that we are exploiting them- first of all it is totally untrue- but if that is the feeling, we will exit.
He expressed his anguish further by stating, “We came to Bengal at a time when many people considered us mad ( for investing in the state). There have been very little development in Bengal and very little investment too. It was a ‘big leap of faith’ on our part.”
He, however was confident that Nano the world’s cheapest car, would roll out in October this year if violence did not disrupt plant’s working.
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