Congress plays Trinamool in Gujarat; challenges Nano deal

15 October 2008

The Congress party in Gujarat seems to have taken over from where Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress left in West Bengal's Singur. The Congress has moved a petition under the Right to Information (RTI) Act seeking details of the deal signed between Gujarat government and Tata Motors for the company's Nano car project in Sanand, where Tata Motors has been allotted 1,100 acres of land.

Alleging that the Modi government has changed Gujarat's industrial policy to suit Tata, president of the state unit of the Congress party Siddharth Patel said the deal lacked transparency and that the state government has so far failed to announce the deal with Tata.

He said while the state government could attract investments to the tune of Rs50,000 crore from various companies like Essar, Reliance, General Motors and others, the way Modi was going ga-ga over the project was unfortunate.

Ever since Congress spokesperson Arjun Modhvadia demanded that farmers in Sanand, where the Tata group has relocated its small car project, be properly compensated, the opposition to the project has been growing.

Gujarat Congress chief Siddharth Patel upped the ante by accusing the state government of making last-minute changes in the industrial policy to accommodate the project.

''Rules have been put aside in order to accommodate the project,'' said Gujarat Congress president Sidhdharth Patel.