Narayana Murthy joins pro-Tata campaign

BANGALORE, INDIA: N. R. Narayana Murthy, chairman of the Board, Infosys Technologies said that what has happened in Singur is unfortunate and it is time to settle the issue of farm land in Singur and elsewhere in India.

He was responding to the violent agitation in Singur, West Bengal, against the small car project of Tata Motors.

“What has happened in Singur is unfortunate for West Bengal, for India and for all progressive Indians,” Murthy said in a statement. “This event will unleash fear and uncertainty in the minds of all investors – Indian and foreign – and is likely to be a stumbling block in the excellent GDP growth India has demonstrated in the last decade.”

He also opined that this is a setback for the job opportunities for youngsters in West Bengal.  “It is time that all well-intentioned Indians stand up and demand a peaceful, logical and constructive way of settling the issue of farm land in Singur and elsewhere in India,” Murthy added.

Tata had warmed that it would be forced to relocate its Nano manufacturing unit from Singur if the agitation spearheaded by Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TC) continued, it had even withdrawn its staff from Singur.

Several top industry try leaders in the country, including Bharti Group chairman and CEO Sunil Bharti Mittal, RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani, Jamshyd Godrej, C K Birla, Gautam Thapar and Venu Srinivasan have warned that it will be a setback to the country if Tata Motors was forced to withdraw from its small car project from West Bengal.

Joining the bandwagon of pro-Tata campaign, the IT sector employees in Kolkata organized a candlelight rally in support of Tata’s Nano car project. A group of nearly 250 young professional assembled at Metro Cinema in Kolkata on Sunday evening, where Mamata Banerjee had fasted for 26 days in last December in protest against land acquisition in Singur for the small-car project.

Meanwhile, on the backdrop of the threat of Tata Motors to withdraw its unit from Singur, Mamata Banerjee has said that her party is willing to talk with the state government in the Singur issue.

She said Trinamool Congress is willing to talk with the government if the government accepted that it made a mistake by acquiring land from unwilling farmers.