Singur CPM's grave yard??? Or Is there a way out of this imbroglio??

I read many informative articles on Singur land acquisition. One of them by Palash Biswas is by far the most informative. It is too long – but only because it has a lot of reference information. As shown here, one can write the additional related info into Blogs, which can then be linked to one's article, as done below.
Mr. Biswas’s article’s first part is really well written. I like the reference to Mrinal Sen, Soumitra and Sunil Ganguly et el's inactivity and silence.
I believe CPM was in the right track when they raised the compensation and included the share croppers in the compensation package, hailed as most progressive so far in India. I would have liked them to persuade TATAs to relocate to Midnapore area, to one crop lands or negotiated the land demand downwards. CPM should have followed its own long standing policy on multi-crop land. They didn’t. They lost the civil society support, when they sent police in, to evict the farmers in the old fashioned way, from their land, home and hearth.
Buddhadev Bhattacharya, the CM, lost me by his latest action. I support principled stand of Medha Patkar (of Narmada Bachao Andolan fame) and Mahasweta Devi (renowned Bengali author and activist, winner of Magsasay Award) on this. I am an Engineer by profession and grew up believing, Neheruvian slogan that "Factories are modern temples", thus I am no Luddite (machine breakers). I am pained and anguished that CPM’s best bet Buddhadev Bhattachariya, the Chief Minister, did not take a principled and different path than what, say BJP would have taken. He lost it when he evicted people by resorting to police force and has landed in this imbroglio.
Many are fishing in troubled water, thus created by CPM, by their unimaginative action. This lack of imagination and contradiction of their own long standing published policy (I understand that time is money for TATAs) has opened the door for the likes of BJP and Trinamool Congress et el and others doing petty politicking.

But using police against people is the oldest tactics of renegade states and authoritarian regimes. It has no place in democratic liberal set up. CPM has lost in a big way their credibility and will now get equated with BJP regimes. By this single action they have lost the support of the civil society and the chance for a fast expansion into the vast areas of India that they could have captured and advanced into – if their action in Singur would have been different and innovative. They might have won the battle of West Bengal’s industrialization – they lost the War for minds of civil society. The proved that they are no different when push comes to shove.

Auto Factory sans the company town?

There are some ways the lost ground can be retrieved. But why can't CPM take a middle ground? Why not TATAs be persuaded to build a plant on 100 to 150 acres, sans the company town? There will be enough land in such a case for factory and even its expansion. The days of company towns are over. There are enough developers in West Bengal and around, who will build high rises in the immediate area, as the need for housing arises after or as the factory is built. The WBG (West Bengal Government) will have to prepare a master plan which mingles both factory and surrounding rural areas, seamlessly.
And for the TATA’s, the total investment required will be less, too.
And if the economic pressure and growth is enough, people will gladly give their land and relocate or be owners of high rises, or rental property, in their own interest. I have seen in my own eyes how in Sunnyvale, California, apple orchards were replaced and became housing and apartment complexes over the years, as house prices rose in the Silicon Valley. Initially they too were reluctant to move out of their orchards.
In my opinion that will be the way to go, because it will generate more jobs and employment by building the area up, instead of creating a company town with similar restrictions of growth. And we will avoid creating new zamindaris of industrialists, after getting rid of the feudal zamindari of colonial times.
Only recently CPI general secretary AB Bardhan has criticized the land acquisition policy, saying it is not in the interest of farmers. He said the chief minister's view that industrialists should be allowed to choose where they wanted to set up their projects was wrong and anti-people. "For industries, you need land. But for that you either use fallow, uncultivable land or land where moribund industrial units are situated. And if you still need agricultural land, you acquire single-crop land and pay adequate compensation to farmers," Bardhan said.
In this context I am reminded of and know about the 4000 acres that TATAS acquired nearly 10 years back in Gopalpur on Sea, Orissa, which is lying fellow. Only recently (2006) TATAs have started an operator training school after enough public hue and cries. It almost amounts to speculator land acquisition on behalf of the rich, is not it? Mind you India’s is one of the highest density populations (851per sq mile vs. 80 per squire mile in USA) in the world. Thus we can’t afford similar generosity in the policy on land, as west.
I hope and wish TATAS will try to win back their clean corporate image by:
1. acquire only enough land for the factory & leave out the rest for housing development to happen as and when people wish.
2. Set new standards of corporate sensitivity in view of public resistance to their moving in.
3. Get WB CM out of the mess he is in.
If they take the above steps everyone will win. An arrogant stand will only bring them peril.