In an apparent bid to send the right message to non-Bengali businessmen amid “insider-outsider” debate ahead of the Assembly elections Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said her Government would continue to support them flourish in the State.
Aware that her repeated branding of the north and western Indian BJP politicians as “outsiders” could alienate the non-Bengali industrialists who have their ancestry in Bengal Banerjee said the industrialists who were originally from other States but had made Bengal their base would get all kinds of support from her Government.
A whole lot of industrialists from Bengal like the Neotaias, Goenkas, Agarwals, Budhias, Dalmias, Khaitans, Sonis and Sodhis belong to Marwari, Gujarati and Punjabi communities. “She told us that we are as Bengalis as those who say it as their mother language and hence we too are the parts and parcel of this State,” businessman who attended the meeting said adding the Chief Minister asked the business community to stay united and work for the development of Bengal.
Reminding how Bengal had developed a mechanism towards ensuring ease of doing business and how the forthcoming projects like Tajpur sea port, Deocha Pachmi coal block and the newly found natural gas reserve in North 24 Parganas would help trade and commerce in days to come the Chief Minister said how her Government had worked hard to construct a number of leather and industrial parks in the State besides developing the information technology sector.
“The Chief Minister had already indulged in divisive politics. First she tried to drive a wedge between Hindus and Muslims through her minority appeasement politics and when it boomeranged pitching the majority community against her now she has raising insider-outsider issue trying to segregate Bengalis from non-Bengalis so as to divide the BJP votes … But this may have repercussions in industrial investment because most investors in Eastern India are not locals but they come from the western or northern part of the country … this is the reason why she might have tried to fine-tune her rhetoric today,” said BN Chakrabarty a political expert.
Banerjee had been under constant attack from the fellow politicians for repeatedly trying to play ‘soft communal’ card in a bid to garner votes by dividing the communities, castes and linguistics groups.
In fact Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar too had on Tuesday attacked her policy of raising insider-outsider issue. “Today it hurts me to know how the citizens of the country are being called outsiders in an open and politically conscious State like Bengal.” Dhankhar himself hails from Rajasthan.
About 75 representatives from industry attended the meeting West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) Chairman Rajiva Sinha said adding the government wanted to know from them what more could be done for ease of doing business.
“WBIDC will provide single window facility through Silpa Sathi office (physical) and Silpa Sathi portal to all sectors -- large, MSME, textile, agro-processing, information technology -- from next week,” Sinha said.
Meanwhile the State BJP is all set to receive party national president JP Nadda who will visit Bengal on Saturday. Nadda would hold his first meeting at Katwa in Burdwan district.
