Harvard keen to hear Mamata’s Singur experience: O’Brien

The protracted struggle in Bengal’s Singur was hailed the world over as an example of a peaceful movement to return the land to farmers. Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee spearheaded the decade-long movement to help farmers’ reclaim their land. The Singur model has generated a great deal of interest among social scientists and academics alike.

Harvard University is keen on inviting West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to hear about her experiences of the Singur anti-land acquisition movement and other aspects of the sociopolitical struggle, Trinamool Congress (TMC) national spokesperson Derek O’ Brien said on Monday.

“Recently, I had an interaction with the students of Harvard University Kennedy School of Government. My lectures were focused on the Singur movement, covering all aspects of the sociopolitical struggle led by Mamata Banerjee to the historic Supreme Court judgment a few weeks ago,” O’ Brien, who is currently on a tour of US, said in a statement.

Students of the prestigious university, who are organising their annual India-centric programme in February 2017, were keen to have Mamata Banerjee deliver the keynote address at the event, he said.

“It is, however, unlikely that the Bengal Chief Minister will accept their invitation for February as she is planning a trip to the US in the latter half of 2017. Boston, where Harvard, MIT and Tufts universities are situated, is likely to be a stop on the proposed US tour,” O’ Brien said.

The TMC leader has, in the last two years, conducted similar interactive sessions in Yale, Columbia, IIMs, IIT, National Law School and other institutions in India and abroad on Singur, Banerjee’s mass movements, and other current aspects.