CM's 'sincerity' behind Tatas' decision to stay on in Singur

New Delhi, Aug 26 (UNI) If Ratan Tata has decided to stay on in West Bengal with his automobile project at Singur despite violent opposition, it is largely because of the business tycoon's unconcealed admiration for state Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

In an interview to Karan Thapar's India Tonight programme, to be telecast by CNBC tomorrow, Mr Tata, the doyen of Indian industry and Chairman of Tata Sons, said Mr Bhattacharjee had risked his political position to keep his promise, and it was important that ''I was going to stand with him also.'' The one lakh car unit project of the Tatas has triggered unbridled political passions, clashes between CPM and Trinamool Congress activists and also police firing.

''A lesser person would have succumbed to the political pressures. And let me tell you what would have been done. I would have just picked up my stakes and gone to another state,'' Mr Tata said.

Asked about the problems he has had to face at Singur, he said the only reason the Tatas did not move out of Bengal was because of the Chief Minister's commitment to them and the fact that he was prepared to risk his chief ministership to fulfil that commitment.

He said there were three or four states that were wooing the Tatas. ''(If that had happened) the people of West Bengal would have lost one major investment which probably would have had many further follow on investments coming to the state,'' he observed.

''If I had a Chief Minister who was going to risk his political position to stand by what he had promised then I was going to stand with him also,'' he said.

Mr Tata also revealed that he was seriously considering giving the genuine owners of Singur, whose land has been acquired for the automobile project, a stake in it.

''We are looking very seriously at how we can do this. In one form or another, a beneficial interest in what happens in Singur. A piece of the benefit. How we do it is what we're trying to consider.'' About his personal equations with the West Bengal Chief Minister, Mr Tata said he 'enormously' respected him and it had been an absolute pleasure to deal with him.

''In Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee we have a leader with a genuine desire to develop the state. I have seldom met with a Chief Minister who is more sincere in his desire to improve his state than Buddhadeb. He has been an excellent person to work with. He's true to his word, he upholds what he says...'' About the recent foreign companies that his group had acquired, he confirmed that the Tatas were interested in Land Rover and Jaguar, saying ''We certainly have an interest in that.'' Asked for the reasons behind this foreign expansion, Mr Tata said, ''To give ourselves scale, to give ourselves global reach and to take ourselves away from subordination to a single economy.'' Could a time come when the Tatas will be bigger outside India than inside India? Mr Tata said it could happen because with Corus, 50 per cent of Tata's revenues now came from outside India. ''Without Corus it was about 30 per cent. So, yes, it could easily cross that barrier,'' he said.

UNI