[R-G] U.S. Letter Incites Push to Oust India Leader + Protests Halt India's Plant for Cheapest Car

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/05/world/asia/05india.html>
September 5, 2008
U.S. Letter Incites Push to Oust India Leader
By HEATHER TIMMONS

NEW DELHI — Indian opposition parties are once again calling for the
resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, saying that a secret
letter from the State Department, made public on Tuesday, shows he
lied about a controversial deal that would allow India to buy nuclear
fuel and technology on the world market to generate nuclear power.

The State Department's letter to Congress said that the United States
could immediately halt nuclear sales to India if India conducted any
nuclear tests and that the United States planned to withhold
technology that poses a security risk.

The letter was released by Representative Howard L. Berman, Democrat
of California and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Mr. Singh told lawmakers last year that "the agreement does not in any
way affect India's right to undertake future nuclear tests, if it is
necessary."

India's Ministry of External Affairs said in a press release on
Wednesday that "we do not as a matter of policy comment on the
internal correspondence between different branches of another
government."

The deal has caused troubles for Mr. Singh and his Congress Party for
months; in July the Communist Party dropped out of the governing
coalition in opposition to the deal, which the party says would
strengthen a strategic relationship with the United States. Mr. Singh
later survived a confidence vote that he called in Parliament.

The Communist Party was among those who called for the prime
minister's resignation this week, as did the Bharatiya Janata Party,
the main opposition party. Prakash Javdekar, spokesman for the B.J.P.,
said Mr. Singh should "immediately quit and hold elections, as he lied
to Parliament and the people on the deal."

The release of the letter comes at an awkward time for the Bush
administration as it pushes to win approval for the deal. The
45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group, which governs international nuclear
commerce, is meeting this week on the agreement, which some countries
have opposed, and a vote could come as early as Friday.

The administration is hoping for approval from the group soon so that
Congress can vote before adjourning to campaign for elections in
November.

India's Congress Party said the letter was insignificant to India's
nuclear plans, and political analysts said calls for Mr. Singh's
resignation were unlikely to have much effect.

It may be a decade or more before India needs to test another nuclear
weapon, several Congress Party officials said Thursday evening during
separate appearances on television news shows.

At that point, they said, India will have reserves of any nuclear
material it may need and will be able to get nuclear supplies and
technology from other countries, like France, if the United States
cuts ties.

The United States imposed economic and military sanctions on India in
1998 after India tested a nuclear weapon, but the Bush administration
lifted the sanctions in 2001.

<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/03/world/asia/03tata.html>
September 3, 2008
Protests Halt India's Plant for Cheapest Car
By ANAND GIRIDHARADAS

MUMBAI, India — This country's project to build the world's cheapest
car has driven into a quintessentially Indian ditch.

On Tuesday, the automaker Tata Motors said that political protests
over land had compelled it to stop building the plant in eastern India
for its much-awaited Nano model. The car was scheduled to go on sale
next month for 100,000 rupees, or about $2,250, less than the cost of
the optional surround sound system and DVD player on the Lexus LX 570
sport utility vehicle.

Late Tuesday, an executive with knowledge of Tata's deliberations said
the company would still begin making Nanos in October, under a backup
plan to shift production to other sites. For the first two months,
Tata will produce 10,000 cars a month instead of the planned 40,000,
said the executive, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he
was not authorized to speak for the company.

The Nano has been dogged from the beginning by one of India's most
wrenching problems: how to create space for industry by moving farmers
off their land and compensating them adequately.

In a tale rich with incongruities, the Communist-run government of
West Bengal State invited the Tata Group, a symbol of Indian
capitalism, to set up its plant in an area called Singur. It acquired
1,000 acres from farmers on the company's behalf.

As the project advanced, some farmers who had sold their land demanded
it back. The main state-level opposition party, the Trinamool
Congress, led protests demanding that the land be returned. Most
people sympathetic to Tata accused the opposition of inducing the
farmers to protest, while Tata's critics said the farmers had
legitimate grievances.

The issue simmered for months. But in recent days, protesters began
surrounding the plant, blocking roads and preventing Tata workers from
reaching the plant. "The existing environment of obstruction,
intimidation and confrontation has begun to impact the ability of the
company to convince several of its experienced managers to relocate
and work in the plant," Tata said in a statement on Tuesday.

The halt to the plant has caused many Indian business people to warn
of a chilling effect on investment in the country. It is also unclear
how Tata will be able to keep the Nano's cost so low, since part of
the affordable price reflects the company's savings on the land in
Singur.

"It's a slap on the face for Brand India," said Suhel Seth, a longtime
adviser to the Tata Group and the managing partner of Counselage, a
strategic branding firm in New Delhi. "Which foreign company will want
to come in when India's most respected group cannot set up industry in
a state?"

With its briefcase-size trunk, hollow steering-wheel shaft and a
rear-mounted German engine that is no stronger than many lawn mowers',
the car has been called a "generational leapfrog in terms of cost
reduction" by Daryl Rolley of Ariba, a company that helps global
automakers find suppliers for parts and did work on the Nano project.

Critics say that an ultracheap car is being built for roads that have
no space, under a sky already too thick with smog. They complain that
Tata received a secret deal from the government and say that it took
land from the poor to build cars for a swelling middle class that does
not need government help.

Abhirup Sarkar, an economist at the Indian Statistical Institute in
Calcutta, said, "The compensation paid for the land is measly,"
according to Reuters. "It should be three to four times higher."

But Tata rebutted such arguments on Tuesday, saying that it had
trained workers in the area and built medical facilities, and that at
its peak, the project had employed about 4,000 people, including many
local residents.

"Operation successful, patient dead," said Mr. Seth, the Tata adviser.
"You had a successful political operation, but you've killed the
aspirations of people, subverted the process of law and told
politicians you can do what you will."