I’ve read a lot of opinions on the on-going war between Mamta and  Ratan, which really is a much older battle between capitalism and those who are perceived as its victims. Some of the better written pieces on the debate have been penned by colleagues who are on the ground, and have a better understanding of the ramifications the Nano plant will have for the villagers of Singur.
 
I have never been to Singur, never even been to Kolkata , and I'm writing not on the specifics of this case of stalled development but on the broader issue of the cost of development and whether we want to bear them. This blog or the majority opinion are unlikely to have much influence on the final outcome in West Bengal. That is more likely to be worked out quietly between the people's leader and the man who wants to make the people's car. In that sense, India manages to safegaurd its voting citizens from ever having to make any truly tough choices.
 
However, those negotiations between the country's most powerful personages work out, we need to ask ourselves whether 55 years plus of fabian socialism have made us a petulant populace. We are becoming a country that is development hungry, yet completely clueless of how and when this development will finally hit Indian shores. There are large parts of this country, the majority perhaps , that live in circumstances of unbelievable hardship. Yet, apart from voting out of power one inefficient government after the other, we don’t protest too much about the general environment of inadequacy. We all want Mumbai to turn into shanghai, Delhi to be run like Singapore or Kolkata to get a metro system like the one in Kula Lumpur but are we aware of the attendant costs of these systems to the resident populace? I suspect the same Chief Minister who said he dreams of bringing Mumbai on par with Shanghai has no idea of how he will work out the modalities of such a plan with the vote bank that may lose land and livelihood in the modernisation drive.

That the state has a responsibility to rehabilitate is beyond question. That development must come at an inherent cost is also without question. Why must the villagers at Singur be the sole bearers of this cost? Well, first of all, they won't be. Some of these farmers will be forced to become migrant workers in cities where you and I are already living cheek-to-jowl. In that sense, we will all bear the cost of developing rural land.

Whether in rural or urban India, we share these costs of development aware that they are the only way to provide greater promise for the next generation. That is why Singur should pay the price asked for by capitalisation of its green land – so that future generations of Singur can participate in more meaningful ways in the the Indian growth story.

I don’t view this as "the arrogance of capitalism" - rather as the imperative of growth.