The year started with a requiem. The death of West Bengal's former chief minister, and long-time CPI(M) helmsman, Jyoti Basu, was a precursor to a calendar that would feature profuse political wrangling, unprecedented violence and the typical uncertainties surrounding a state in transition.
Bengal Inc., too, mirrored the slide, with Kolkata-based firms losing the fight to acquire prized entities, both domestic and international, while the clambering over Singur led to nothing tangible again, since all stakeholders rather wait for the hustings in 2011.
Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief, and Union Railway minister, Mamata Banerjee, began the year courting controversy as she refused to attend Basu’s funeral, despite Bangladeshi premier Sheikh Hasina returning to India days after a state-visit to pay her respects.
But the millions who gathered on the streets of Kolkata on January 19 for the last glimpse of India’s longest serving chief minister kept returned to the wide boulevards of the city's centre intermittently, albeit holding other flags.
Among those was the floral motif of the TMC, which signalled its ability and intent after winning the Kolkata Municipal Corporation elections, seen by many as the bellwether for the Assembly elections expected early this year.
Preceding that resounding victory in June, though, was the sanguinary train accident involving the Jnaneshwari Express that led to the death of at least 141 passengers, and set the stage for intense political pettifoggery days before the Corporation polls.
The bickering over blame was incidental, but the Jnaneshwari mishap was a telling example of the pervasive threat posed by the Naxal revival in West Bengal.
Sabotage of the rail tracks by the insurgents was cited as the primary cause of the accident.
Not that the state was not at war already. In restive West Medinipur district — at the heart of the Naxal movement in West Bengal — 24 paramilitary personnel were killed in February after insurgents lay siege to a camp at Sildah, prompting a visit from Union home minister P Chidambaram.
India's worst internal security threat, as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described the Naxal organisation, continued its harassment of the administration, although small victories were won as the movement’s brass, including Sidhu Soren, was eroded.
The old-school of the ultra Left, too, was left one man short. 78-year old Kanu Sanyal, who along with Charu Majumdar led the Naxalbari uprising, was found hanging at his residence in March.
Bloodshed also found its way into the mainstream political realm with renewed gusto, as the incumbent CPI(M) and the impatient TMC tussled over turf. Khejuri, Raina and many other such erstwhile Left bastions burnt as a fresh power structure was attempted at being established.
With months to go before the most decisive elections in West Bengal for over a decade, the stakes are understandably high.
Bengal Inc.
It was largely hit and miss for business in West Bengal. With the stupor over Singur yet to dissipate, industry retained its conservative stance towards the state, even as the slowdown dissolved and the national economy pushed towards 9 per cent gross domestic product.
The only possible aberration was Infosys Technologies, India's second largest information technology (IT) company, which finally got land in the state.
This, after decisions and scams ranging from high land prices and Vedic Village fiasco delayed entry by almost six years.
In November, finally, West Bengal housing minister, Gautam Deb, allocated 50 acres to the company at a cost of Rs 75 crore for a campus in Rajarhat. The allocation was made the same day on which the letter seeking land from Infosys arrived.
Little else changed in the state's sunrise IT sector, apart from the constant threat posed by omnipresent politically-backed bandhs.
The rest of the good news was on the back of corporate legacies.
Tobacco-to-hotels-to-FMCG major ITC, headquartered out of the graceful Virginia House in Kolkata's Chowringhee, celebrated its centenary year; a journey from a single product company to one of India’s largest multi-business corporate enterprises in the private sector.
And then, there was state-run Coal India (CIL), the world's largest coal miner, which got itself listed on the bourses for Rs 15,000 crore, the country's biggest initial public offer to date.
The Kolkata-headquartered company will now find itself playing in the global league, as it looks to bridge growing shortfall in domestic production through acquisitions of international coal assets.
Of those who tried, but failed last year, Pawan K Ruia was possibly the most ambitious. The chairman of the Rs 3000 crore Ruia Group made a surprise bid for South Korea's beleaguered Ssangyong Motors, though he lost out to fellow countryman Anand Mahindra, who forked out Rs 2105 crore for the automaker.
Less predictable was Emami's unsuccessful battle for Ahmedabad-based Paras, which was eventually acquired by the UK's Reckitt Benckiser Group. But that's not to say Emami had a dull year; its Zandu Balm made headlines for more reasons than one.
With Brand Buddha — the eponymous term that described a time when Ratan Tata wanted to build cars in Singur — well and truly dead, West Bengal now awaits a new paradigm.
But the past will challenge the new government at Writers' Buildings, whosoever it might comprise no less than the insecurities of crafting a revival.
