HISTORY WAITS
Editorial
The Telegraph, 28 October
There is one lifetime, there is one opportunity. West Bengal stands today face-to-face with a unique opportunity. Never before has West Bengal been at the receiving end of so much keen interest exhibited by foreign investors and even policy-makers.
The most obvious example of this interest is the visit of Henry Paulson, the treasury secretary of the United States of America, Dick Parsons, the chairman and chief executive officer of Time Warner, and Henry Kissinger, the former US secretary of state. These are the three really important personalities who have chosen to come to the state instead of doing the usual round of Delhi-Bangalore/Hyderabad-Mumbai.
But there have been other industrialists and investors, who have been visiting the state over the last two years to explore possibilities of doing business here. The image of West Bengal has obviously undergone a sea-change in the last few years.
It would be unrealistic to deny that this transformation has been powered by the vision and the efforts of one man: the chief minister of West Bengal, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. West Bengal’s image was on a downward spiral since the Sixties. It was perceived as the state where violence and labour militancy reigned supreme.
Poverty, squalor and strikes were the three words that immediately came to mind when West Bengal was mentioned. It was notorious as the state from where capital fled and where economic growth plummeted. It was not an easy image to alter. Mr Bhattacharjee has been successful in conveying the impression that the government of West Bengal is now investor-friendly and very eager to carry forward the project of industrializing the state. He has curbed irresponsible trade unionism. Most important, he has lifted the pall of gloom that hung over the state. A sense of optimism now pervades the investment climate.
But even Mr Bhattacharjee’s most ardent admirer will not assert that the process of transformation is complete and problem-free. The attempt to industrialize has met with many obstacles and violent opposition leading to loss of lives. The people of the state are still struggling to slough off a cosy mindset that was anti-work and anti-enterprise. Mr Bhattacharjee’s own party — the Communist Party of India (Marxist) — is fighting its own ideological demons. A party that carries the birthmark of anti-capitalism finds it difficult to accept the enthusiasm of a chief minister for capital. The chief minister cannot allow these hurdles to either stop or slow down the actualization of the vision that he has presented before the people of the state. History has placed West Bengal in the cusp of a critical transition.
It is for Mr Bhattacharjee to establish that he is the man of the moment, destined to take West Bengal forward. He has before him the opportunity of a lifetime. It is for him to seize it.
The Telegraph, 28 October
There is one lifetime, there is one opportunity. West Bengal stands today face-to-face with a unique opportunity. Never before has West Bengal been at the receiving end of so much keen interest exhibited by foreign investors and even policy-makers.
The most obvious example of this interest is the visit of Henry Paulson, the treasury secretary of the United States of America, Dick Parsons, the chairman and chief executive officer of Time Warner, and Henry Kissinger, the former US secretary of state. These are the three really important personalities who have chosen to come to the state instead of doing the usual round of Delhi-Bangalore/Hyderabad-Mumbai.
But there have been other industrialists and investors, who have been visiting the state over the last two years to explore possibilities of doing business here. The image of West Bengal has obviously undergone a sea-change in the last few years.
It would be unrealistic to deny that this transformation has been powered by the vision and the efforts of one man: the chief minister of West Bengal, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. West Bengal’s image was on a downward spiral since the Sixties. It was perceived as the state where violence and labour militancy reigned supreme.
Poverty, squalor and strikes were the three words that immediately came to mind when West Bengal was mentioned. It was notorious as the state from where capital fled and where economic growth plummeted. It was not an easy image to alter. Mr Bhattacharjee has been successful in conveying the impression that the government of West Bengal is now investor-friendly and very eager to carry forward the project of industrializing the state. He has curbed irresponsible trade unionism. Most important, he has lifted the pall of gloom that hung over the state. A sense of optimism now pervades the investment climate.
But even Mr Bhattacharjee’s most ardent admirer will not assert that the process of transformation is complete and problem-free. The attempt to industrialize has met with many obstacles and violent opposition leading to loss of lives. The people of the state are still struggling to slough off a cosy mindset that was anti-work and anti-enterprise. Mr Bhattacharjee’s own party — the Communist Party of India (Marxist) — is fighting its own ideological demons. A party that carries the birthmark of anti-capitalism finds it difficult to accept the enthusiasm of a chief minister for capital. The chief minister cannot allow these hurdles to either stop or slow down the actualization of the vision that he has presented before the people of the state. History has placed West Bengal in the cusp of a critical transition.
It is for Mr Bhattacharjee to establish that he is the man of the moment, destined to take West Bengal forward. He has before him the opportunity of a lifetime. It is for him to seize it.
No comments:
Post a Comment