On Monday afternoon, Tata was in Kolkata and addressed the annual general meeting of the Tata Tea, which has been rechristened Tata Global Beverages. “I regret that we have not been able to do everything we wanted to do in West Bengal,” he said, addressing the shareholders. “Those who thought us aliens or not Indians, should know that West Bengal is very much within our purview and a part of our corporate identity. Our visits may be few. But we have warm feelings for Bengal.”

After the meeting, when the media literally pounced on him to know the plans for Singur, he maintained a stoic silence and then gently said: “Dangerous times”.

“We haven’t changed our plans — in terms of investments, “ he had said earlier, highlighting the company’s commitment to set up the Cancer Research Center in Rajarhat. “If fact, we have increased our investments, and the Cancer center is opening this year. This will save many lives in this part of the country,” he went on to add.

There were other indications that West Bengal is still on Tata radar as an investment destination and that the company would like to hold on to the 997 acres. In April, it had paid Rs 1 crore to the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) as the lease rent for 2010-11.

The lease, as per the agreement with the Tatas and the West Bengal government stands for 99 years.

But the Tatas had to pull out of the small car project from Singur — moving it to Gujarat’s Sanand in October 2008 — after a protracted agitation. Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress and a host of other organisations had formed a joint platform to oppose the factory and wanted 400 acres of land to be returned to the “unwilling farmers”.

Tata’s love for Bengal in general and for Kolkata in particular was felt when replying to a shareholder’s suggestion of delisting the Tata Tea from the Calcutta Stock Exchange, he said: “This shows our respect for our roots. The Tata Tea head office was in Kolkata and we continue to remain on the stock exchange here as a mark of our respect to where we began. It may be true that there are little or no transactions. But that listing will continue.”

The sprawling factory compound at Singur is still dotted with sheds set up for the integrated Nano small car factory. The machines and other equipment, however, have all been shifted to Sanand over the past two years.