India First Edition

Ratan Tata Media Interaction on Singur issue

Transcription of Ratan Tata’s address to media after his meeting with the West Bengal Chief Minister on 03/10/2008 in Kolkata

Ratan Tata: When I have addressed you in August, I mentioned that we have faced continuous agitation in the last two years and if the situation continues, we would have no other option other than to move. At that time I had hoped that there would be some kind of understanding on part of the opposition party headed by Ms. Mamata Banerjee and we would see some reduction in agitation and we could go ahead with the project. Unfortunately, shortly thereafter the agitation increased and it would move in front of the gate and the highway was barricaded for some period of time.
And through the two years we have faced enormous destruction, and assault and intimidation on to some of our people. By taking all things into account, mainly the well being our employees, the security of our contractors and in fact our vendors also, we have taken the very regretful decision to move the Nano project out of West Bengal. This is the decision that has been taken with great deal of sadness because we came here, two years ago, attracted by the investor friendly policy of the current government, which we still have a great deal of respect for the leadership of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. And all through the two years that we worked, while we are very appreciative of the support the government gave us and the facilitation that they provided, unfortunately we also faced great agitation and great aggression on part of the opposition parties, which have, in fact, been the sole reason for us to take the decision.
Having said this, I just want to say that this decision has been prompted because many of you may ask why we should not give this more time. We have taken this decision today, which is perhaps not the best day to make such an announcement on the eve of the puja, but we felt we needed to because we do not see any change on the horizon. We continue to be very supportive of the vision of the government. And why we move the Nano project out of West Bengal, because we have a timeline to meet, we have made promises to the public in terms of the project coming on line, and we do not believe that we, in any way, have lost our enthusiasm for investment in West Bengal. And I assure you that Tatas, in course of time, will include West Bengal in location projects in future.

I would be happy to answer some questions, if you ask some, to provide clarity. I think the only way to handle this if you ask one question at a time.

Question: Have you decided on where to relocate?
Ratan Tata: We have not decided where the plant would be shifted. We have offers from three or four state governments which we are exploring. And these are hopefully without opposing parties that might tempt us. We hope we would be able to find a location that would have congenial environment. And I wish, really really wish, that we could have a congenial environment in West Bengal.

Question: Is there going to be any change in the deadline?
Ratan Tata: It would not be appropriate to make that statement today. Because that would depend on where we locate, and what we do in the interim.

Question: What would be the financial burden to the company due to the pull out?
Ratan Tata: All those issues we would announce in the next few days, when we have a clearer picture. We have just taken the decision.

Question: Are you going to return the land in Singur?
Ratan Tata: We have just taken this decision today. The issue of land is something that we have to discuss with the state government over a period of time.

Question: On hindsight, do you think it would have been better if you have started the project after talking to the opposition leader?
Ratan Tata: The question doesn’t arrive. Because, the land was acquired, we leased the land from the government. We did not buy it. We believe that the transaction was legal and transparent. And the fact that this aggression has, in fact, emerged, is very unfortunate. You must appreciate that we have not been a party to land dispute. It is clearly between Trinamool Congress and the government. Accusations and allegations were made. And we believe that we have been caught between a political crossfire.

Question: On hindsight, do you think that you should have purchased the land directly?
Ratan Tata: I think it is very easy to look at everything in hindsight. There may be many different ways that one could have proposed the project. But I would like to leave at, I don’t know whether I should say this, but I say it with sincerity. I view West Bengal as a terrific state with great deal of potential in terms of intellects of its people. And we came here because we thought we could make a difference. And in that context, whether we bought the land, whether we leased the land, or whatever we did, I think we did it in good faith at that time. Because we wanted to be a part of the development of the state. We wanted to make a difference. I personally had a great desire that this part of the country, that has been ignored, should be developed, and we could be a part of that. We believed in what the Chief Minister and his government were doing. And I still believe in that. I still exceedingly confirm that this is a very investor friendly state. I am exceedingly sorry that we have faced this experience,  not from the government, but from the circumstances on the ground. So whether we had bought the land, leased the land, whether could have been done differently in hindsight, is all conjecture.

Question: What was the reaction of the Chief Minister when you communicated your decision?
Ratan Tata: I would have to say that he was exceedingly distressed. The meeting took a long time because he was very persuasive in his desire that we do not move and I had to explain to him that the well being of our employees and the contractors happen to be my responsibility and thats something I cannot pass on to him. Unless there is a congenial environment, we could not see ourselves to stay and please understand also that you cannot run a plant with police protection to safeguard your security.
You cannot run a plant where the wall is being broken; you cannot run a plant where the bomb has been thrown from all the side, you cannot run a plant where the people have been intimidated or threatened. This is only during the construction, what happens when we actually running the plant. So he finally conceded that the decision was ours. He could not agree with it, he disagreed with it. He said that we were making a wrong decision but I hope that we parted as friends and that he would trust us that we would continue to look at West Bengal even if the Nano project moved out from here.

Q: Do you think you can meet the deadline. Would there be a change because of this pull out?
Ratan Tata: We have to make the best of the deadline that we have. I cannot comment on the deadline. We are going to make shift arrangement; we are going to do everything possible to come close to the deadline we have established.

Q:  What would be the financial hit for the company?
Ratan Tata: We will have to evaluate with whatever the cost may be, whatever the loss may be, I believe we have no other options but to do this.

Q: What do you think about the agitations that are already happening at other places like Pantnagar?
Ratan Tata: I do not believe that we have this kind of agitation at Pantnagar or anywhere else

Q: As far as those who have parted with their lands for your project, the projects that was supposed to come here and the jobs were promised to those families, a member of those families, would they be accommodated wherever this project moves?
Ratan Tata: As we have said all those people whom we have recruited and trained for work at our plant will be employed at our existing locations. It will have to be but outside Singur.

Q: when you came to West Bengal, did you have idea about this kind of scenario of West Bengal? And will you further make any investment in West Bengal in near future? (Hindi)
Ratan Tata: We did not I should say, anticipated will have this kind of problems in West Bengal and it’s very unfortunate that we did. But as I said earlier that we truly do believe and respect what the Chief Minister is trying to do in developing West Bengal. That trust, that faith and confidence have not been diminished. So I have assured him that nothing has changed, but in the interest of this project, we have no options but to move. It’s a time bound project, we have commitments that we have made to everyone. In someways it was beyond West Bengal, it was an Indian project. It’s a shame that this project should have faced this but now that it has, we have to honour what we have said to the best of our ability and that we would move.  However I have assured the Chief Minister that as far as further investment in Bengal , this will not have no bearing but at the same time but we will be extremely concerned about the possibility of agitation for various reasons that we have faced today. I want to repeat the reason for which we are leaving West Bengal because of the agitation by the opposition parties led by Ms. Mamata Banerjee, not because of anything. We continue to be delish and enthusiastic about what can happen in West Bengal. I just hope that West Bengal can be the state of huge development and not a state which stands only agitations, strikes, rallies.

Q: Do you have any message for Ms. Banerjee for which you are leaving the State?
Ratan Tata: Well I think in this scene like to believe that there is rule of law, there is a legal address, there is a solution without further agitation, violence, without threats, You cannot make statements like ‘I will not let a single Nano roll out form the plant’ – how can we go in for production with such kind of statements made in public. How do we go in for production when we are told that we will continue agitating, unless that does not happen? How do we continue when Ms. Banerjee will publicly state that the people of West Bengal have decided that they don’t want you? So all these things put together led us to believe that there is not going to be a sustainable congenial environment.

Q: Don’t you think that this decision of yours is against Tata Legacy?
Ratan Tata: May I respond that bit aggressively – aren’t you asking the question to the wrong person. I am not pulling out of some whims and fancies; you should ask Ms. Banerjee that question.

Q: Is there any possibility that you sit down with the opposition for the discussion?
Ratan Tata: I think that time has come and gone for this investment and a  search for solution could not our happen for 6 months, I don’t know, we don’t have that time we have trying for 2 years in the hope for finding a solution.

Q: What is view on the investment opportunity in the State?
Ratan Tata: I think certainly the opportunity for the young people for having job not for just nano project is here today, there will be 100 nano projects will come in and go. What we have to decide do the people of west Bengal have future in industry development, will the young people of west Bengal have the opportunity not because of nano. West Bengal needs to have the development, which the Government is trying to put in place. It needs to have infrastructure, it needs to have investment, and it needs to be conscious of course of the population, and the agricultural community will the future generation of west Bengal have the opportunity unless there is investment, industrial investment. One needs to ponder as the way we go forward through agitation, rallies strikes.

Q: You may face similar situation in other parts too?
Ratan Tata: I can’t speak as what we may face in the country, a decision like this becomes a lonely decision and taken with lot of pain. There is responsibility to our shareholders, we cannot let lie something in limbo, cannot let our investment lie….and I do hope that where ever we move  we can look back and learn a lesson a congenial environment will be there for such a project to prosper.

Q. Do you think that the competition has any role to play in the agitation that Ms Banerjee led?
Ans: At this point I would not like to respond except to say that it has made us wonder where some of the funds for the agitation and the arrangements of the logistics had come from and that has  lead us to pondering as to what may have infact been behind this agitation.

Q. Don’t you think you could have avoided this situation if you talked to farmers directly?
Ratan Tata: We are open to anything, if there is a dialogue, if there is a human approach to anything – not through agitation, not through means of aggression. I think 2 years ago I once mentioned that if somebody puts a gun on my head, you pull the trigger or you take the gun away because I have not moved my head. I think, Ms. Banerjee has pulled the trigger.

Q. Is there a possibility that Nano car will be rolled out from elsewhere, may be assembly line…..
Ratan Tata: We have received offers from other states and equal to what we received in west Bengal. Nothing more. Eventually we will have certainly more than one plant and certainly West Bengal could be under consideration but the environment requirement would be extremely congenial or it would not work

Q. Don’t you think you could have returned the 300 acres that Ms Banerjee was seeking..?Why do you need so much land? 
Ratan Tata: You must understand, we are manufacturing the car. In Pantnagar, we also have got 1000 acres; 600 acres for ourselves and 400 acres for vendors. It is not a unique thing, so we should be the people to decide what we need.  If we get it, fine, other people should not tell us what we need to produce a car in what way, what we need in terms of area, what we need in terms of content. That is something, I think should be left to us.

Q. How much money you may lose after shifting the plant?
Ratan Tata: I mentioned earlier, I have not made an evaluation today. It will take us some time to really evaluate to what would it take, some person will do this operation.

Q. Sir, what would you do with 645 acres of land that at a later point of time?
Ratan Tata: I will not like to comment on this today. The situation is the same, we need a congenial environment. We need to be understood why we came. Our bonafide should not be question.  

Q. Vendors … ?
Ratan Tata: Obviously at this point of time, there is nothing. As far as we are concerned we have taken the decision it is not good for somebody to vacillate back and forth, We had to take a decision and we have taken a decision. That time has come and gone.  How am I to comment on what Ms. Banerjee will do?

Q. If you could tell us if you have any message for Ms. Banerjee?
Ratan Tata: have no message for Ms Banerjee except for what I have said in last few minutes.

Q.  Mr. Tata, do you think that the land was forcibly acquired by Government?
Ratan Tata: I have no comment to make and the land that is acquired, to the best of my knowledge, the land was acquired legally and I think the High Court of Calcutta has ruled so. I believe it happened transparently and I believe the compensation was paid fairly.

Q. Do think this has been an example of weak governance that made you pull out in such a situation where the Opposition was so much stronger in terms of arithmetic?
Ratan Tata: I don’t understand what you mean by governance. I have come to conclude in what I saw at various times, unfortunately the government was dammedly placed. If they acted firmly, they would be accused of coming down on an opposition that was a minority. If they did not do something they would be accused of weakness.

Question: What would happen to the vendors now?
Ratan Tata: I think the vendors will move with us. We will try to protect the vendors to the extent we can. As we try to protect our people, we consider the vendors as an integral part of the project. And we will do everything we can to work with them, to make them move with us.

Question: What would happen to the farmers who have given their land willingly?
Ratan Tata: Well, once again I say, don’t ask me that question. I did not agitate; I did not choose to leave for my own desire, you should address it to the people who created the agitation, who made it impossible for me to stay.

Question: How much pain have you taken?
Ratan Tata: I am extremely pained. I must tell you, I flew back from Germany, arriving in Delhi this morning had a shower and came here. It is an extremely painful to take this decision but shatters many dreams that many of us have had and I am sure great disappointment to the people who worked on the project, on the ground, much  more than even for me. So, it is great pain. Because it is also a great feeling that we are doing the right thing because there is no other option.