Thaindian News

Kolkata, Aug 29 (IANS) Criticising the anti-land acquisition activists for holding up hundreds of Tata Motors’ workers inside the small car factory site at Singur, West Bengal’s ruling Left Front said it was “totally against the culture and tradition of hospitality of Bengal”.Left Front chairman Biman Bose, addressing a press conference here, said the agitation by the anti-land acquisition activists had no link with Gandhian Satyagraha.

“The movement is not at all along the path of Gandhian Satyagraha. Initially, the Trinamool Congress leadership promised in a meeting with Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee last week that they would continue their protest in a peaceful manner. But that was violated yesterday evening,” Bose said.

He said many engineers who had come from Japan, South Korea and Singapore to work in the Tata Motors plant - which is slated to roll out the world’s cheapest car Nano by October - were stranded for hours inside the factory premises due to the blockade by the pro-farmer organisation Paschimbanga Kshet Mazur Samiti (PKMS).

“After all, the foreigners who come to West Bengal for professional purposes are our guests. Yesterday’s incident was totally against the culture and tradition of hospitality of Bengal,” Bose added.

More then 600 engineers and executives remained trapped for three hours inside the Tata Motors factory Thursday evening as PKMS activists, led by farmer leader Anuradha Talwar, held a cultural programme and squatted on the Durgapur Expressway near the gate leading to the factory.

The blockade was lifted after the intervention of Hooghly district’s Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Kalyan Banerjee.

The PKMS has no formal links with the Trinamool Congress, but is a part of the movement in Singur.

“I think the Trinamool supremo has lost control over her party activists and I suggest that the party leadership engage in a dialogue with the state government,” Bose said.