Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee: Chief minister who tried to break ground

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee took charge to bring West Bengal on India Inc's investment map. He died with the dream unfulfilled

“How do you like the beginning?” a beaming Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee asked reporters.

It was May 18, 2006. Bhattacharjee had just been sworn in — at the sprawling Raj Bhavan lawn — as chief minister (he became chief minister in 2000) after a landslide victory.

From the ceremony, he headed straight for Writers’ Building, the red colonial structure where the state secretariat used to sit, for an announcement that would later go down as a watershed event in the history of Bengal politics. Ratan Tata had flown in along with the brass to make public the location of the small car project, Nano. At least four other states were vying for the project. But it was to come up in Singur, West Bengal. Tata said the investment in the state was a reiteration of the group’s belief that West Bengal was one of the most industry-friendly states in the country.

Bhattacharjee looked seemingly satisfied — it was quite “the beginning”.

He died on Thursday leaving behind a dream unfulfilled.

Industry’s poster boy

Some images set the tone — in 2000, as head of state, a dhoti-clad Bhattacharjee perched on a cycle-van reached out to a remote village in South 24 Parganas. And he became the “people’s man”. But agricultural growth in Bengal was tapering from peak levels. Fear of militant trade unionism had scared businessmen away through the 1970s, 1980s and even later. Time was running out to set things right.

So, Bhattacharjee took to wooing investors the Deng Xiaoping way. The course correction, though, had started in 1994, when the state’s long-standing Chief Minister Jyoti Basu came out with an industrial policy. But his successor took it up with gusto.

In the first five years, the focus was on the services sector and West Bengal got Wipro and paved the way for Infosys, while Tata Consultancy Services expanded in a major way.

His all-round effort earned him the “best chief minister” badge from Wipro captain Azim Premji and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. West Bengal and Brand Buddha had arrived.

The cherry on the top was an article in The Economist in 2004, which took note of the reformist wind blowing over Communist Kolkata. The state also became home to American food and beverage giant Pepsico’s first food factory in the country.

Focus on manufacturing

Investors started swirling around Writers’ Building to discuss investment plans. Suddenly from an industrial graveyard with a reputation of militant trade unionism, the state sprinted to India Inc’s investment map. Major manufacturing projects poured in the second term — from Nano and JSW Steel’s 10-million-tonne steel and captive power plant, Bhushan Steel, and Videocon. When Business Standard reached out to Sajjan Jindal, to share his personal experience with Bhattacharjee, the JSW group chairman said: “Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was not only a great leader of West Bengal and India, but was also a great human being.”

“I had a very good personal relationship with him. Buddhababu went out of his way to promote industry in his state and would spend a lot of time discussing the industrial renaissance in West Bengal with me. His passing away will leave a big gap in West Bengal’s political stage.”

That the Left Front was a key ally of the United Progressive Alliance government (2004-08) at the Centre also helped bag investment proposals.

Numbers speak

Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) figures showed between 2005-06 and 2008-09, cumulative investment intentions in West Bengal amounted to more than Rs 2 trillion.

By the time Bhattacharjee left office in May 2011, West Bengal topped the charts as an investment destination.

During January-May 2011, proposed investment in the state stood at nearly Rs 3 trillion, ahead of Odisha, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka. The Bhattacharjee-led government also put together a policy for restructuring/divesting public-sector units (PSUs) — the biggest success was the sale of the Great Eastern Hotel, a feat achieved 17 years after it was first proposed. A former bureaucrat pointed to the reforms in the power sector and said, “It became profitable during his time. Earlier, it used to be run with budgetary support.”

Achilles heel

But Bhattacharjee’s dream of making West Bengal a manufacturing hub tripped on land acquisition.

“The state was lagging in industry and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee took up industrialisation on a war footing. No one can doubt his intent,” said Abhirup Sarkar, former professor of economics at the Indian Statistical Institute.

“But he followed the Chinese model where all other stakeholders are inconsequential. In a democracy, it is difficult to adopt such a policy,” he added.

Acquisition of land was going to be an uphill task. About 84 per cent of the land then was owned by small and marginal farmers, courtesy the land reforms initiatives of the Left Front government.

Violent protests against land acquisition for a special economic zone (for chemicals) in Nandigram turned into a turf war. On March 14, 2007, at least 14 people were killed in police firing, putting the government on the back foot. Singur, the site for Nano, also became a political battlefield with 20 per cent of land losers protesting land acquisition. Mamata Banerjee, then in the Opposition, supported their cause. The situation escalated and finally, on October 3, 2008, Tata Motors pulled out of Singur.

And so, the seeds of “paribarton” were sown.

In the Lok Sabha elections that followed in 2009, the Trinamool Congress emerged as a challenger. And in the state election of 2011, the curtains came down on the 34-year Left rule in West Bengal.

A lonely battle

Was Bhattacharjee a loner in his own party, harbouring a dream of industrialising West Bengal?

For a regimented and cadre-based communist party, Bhattacharjee cut a solitary figure — often at odds with allies of the Left or comrades in his party, Communist Party of India (Marxist).

Perhaps his only trusted lieutenant was his industry minister Nirupam Sen, who died in 2018.

Bhattacharjee wanted to industrialise West Bengal, whatever be the cost. He did not shy away from using veto powers to renew German wholesaler Metro Cash & Carry’s APMC (Agricultural Produce Market Committee) licence, going against a minister-in-charge from the Forward Bloc. When the Centre for Indian Trade Unions called bandhs, he tried to shield the information-technology sector by giving it public utility service status.

“Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was a visionary who dedicated his life to industrialising West Bengal. He focused on bringing investment in the services and manufacturing sectors. And wanted the district centres to be part of the growth engine,” said Mohammed Salim, CPI(M) West Bengal state secretary. But acquisition of land that involves thousands of farmers required political support.

According to political analyst Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhury, Bhattacharjee relied more on the bureaucracy than political organisation to achieve his vision.  “He was not advised properly on land acquisition. He may have had his share of failings, his comrades also failed him.” 

Salim puts Bhattacharjee as one who was ahead of his time.