There is some irony in the fact that the president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Mr Rajnath Singh, came to West Bengal to instruct communists on how to deal with peasants. Mr Singh’s heart bled at the thought of peasants being made to give up their lands in Singur to make possible a car manufacturing unit. This is what made him rush to West Bengal and to the side of Ms Mamata Banerjee. He may have thought that he would score a political point by trying to woo Ms Banerjee, but what did not strike him was the double standards he was deploying. If Mr Singh had opposed the taking over of agricultural land for industry across the country, there would have been reasons to appreciate the consistency of his position. Mr Singh has not ever raised his voice against agricultural land being requisitioned for industry in other parts of the country. Such requisitions have been common in Gujarat, Rajasthan and in other states where Mr Singh’s own party is in power. No wonder that some leaders within the BJP have expressed their discomfort about the actions and utterances of Mr Singh on land acquisition in Singur.

In sheer political terms, Mr Singh has also shot himself in the foot. The BJP has no political presence in West Bengal. It can succeed only by hanging on to Ms Banerjee’s sari. By appearing beside the Trinamool Congress leader on the anti-Singur platform, Mr Singh has only contributed to Ms Banerjee’s further isolation. The Congress will no longer come near Ms Banerjee after she has been touched by saffron. She can thus only look for support among the ragtag groups calling themselves Maoists who may not accept her as an ally. All this suggests that Mr Singh’s whistle stop visit to West Bengal served no political purpose. It was a thoughtless act on the part of a leader who is shameless in the use of double standards. It speaks volumes about the state of the BJP that it has such a person at the helm of affairs. When the BJP was in power at the Centre, it had a clear-cut policy on industry and investments. Mr Singh’s sudden discovery of the sorrows of the peasants in West Bengal is a blatant violation of that policy. He should pause to think on the implications of his visit. The antics of self-styled Maoists, the shrieks of Ms Banerjee and the amazing opportunism will not succeed in dissuading investors about prospects in West Bengal. The market will determine their decisions.