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| Could Ratan have afforded Bajaj humiliation in J&K | | CHASING THE NANO DREAM | | NIRBHAY JAMMUAL
JAMMU, Oct 9: When Mamta Banergee hooted the TATA’s out of Singur, Jammu and Kashmir was perhaps the only big state which did not make a bid to woo Nano dream but even if it had done so, the late 1970s Bajaj experience was enough to keep the big industrialists away from this state.
Continued agitation launched by Mamta Banerjee, TMC leader, against the project had forced Tatas to close the venture. Soon after Ratan Tata decided to abandon the Nano car project in Singur several states, including Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan offered land to the Tatas for the project. Jammu and Kashmir Government sat silent when during the last over two decades the state Government has approached several business houses for establishing their units in this northern state. Why did not the state Government approach the Tatas for setting up the Nano car project either in Kashmir or in Jammu? The main reason could be that the state was under the Governor's rule and NN Vohra may not have favoured taking another risk by inviting the Tatas for setting up the car project in this state. Whether Ratan Tata would have agreed to such a proposal from Jammu and Kashmir Government is of secondary importance. The state could have tried but it did not. Possibly Vohra did not want to see the lid being off from the Pandora's box again after his mishandling of the land diversion issue.
Ratan Tata is the most experienced industrialist in India. He would have hardly risked his fortune by setting up the car project in a state like Jammu and Kashmir where big industrialists, right from early 80's,were subjected to harassment and humiliation by the Government functionaries on one pretext or the other. When Sheikh Abdullah regained power under his accord with Indira Gandhi in 1975 he embarked on a programme of inviting big industrial houses to set up their units in Jammu and Kashmir. The first to accept the offer was the Bajajs. The top team from the Bajajs had several rounds of talks with Sheikh Abdullah who accepted its plan of setting up a couple of industries in the state. As a gesture of goodwill the Bajajs installed sodium lights in Lal Chowk area and built what is called Bajaj clock tower in the heart of Lal Chowk. Later the Bjajs sent a team of senior officials of the company to discuss the modalities for setting up units with the concerned departments. Within a week's time the Bajaj team felt frustrated over the shabby treatment they received from even puny officials in the civil secretariat and the Industries Department. The team left the state in a huff. And Bajaj's never set up a unit in Jammu and Kashmir.
Ratan Tata may not be ignorant of this development and the subsequent developments which did not allow Jammu and Kashmir to register a phenomenal growth in the industrial sector. During the last 20 year a number of industrialists decided to set up units in the state. They abandoned their plan when they were asked to pay through their nose for securing clearance and assistance from various Government departments. Others discarded their plan when they were asked to set up their units in Kashmir and not in Jammu. Since the state was yet to be free from militancy related violence and the roar from separatists for Azadi Industrialists developed cold feet whenever the Government offered them land, other facilities, including incentives. Not only this, the finished goods, manufactured in the units set up in Jammu and Kashmir could not compete with goods manufactured in other states as far as price structure was concerned. Thus the cheapest Nano car, if produced in Jammu and Kashmir could be the costliest small car in the country. Possibly the Governor did not deem it proper to make an offer to the Tatas because, by now, he has realised that people in the state, especially in the Kashmir valley prefer big cars to the tiny one's like Nano.Vohra must have seen himself how all brands of cars, including some imported, ply on the state’s roads. He must have gone through the official papers indicating that more than 10,000 cars are added in the state every year. So Nano car project has neither excited the Governor nor the people of the state and nor the Industries Department. |
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