Your edit “Realist and populist” (March 25) brings the true facets of Mamata Banerjee’s personality into sharp focus. Over the years, the Trinamool president and West Bengal chief minister has demonstrated a unique capacity of doublespeak. Banerjee has been emphatically declaring that she is not anti-industry but has not taken a single step towards facilitating industrial growth in the state. Moreover, her party’s manifesto strongly rejects the special economic zone, or SEZ, route to industrialisation. Thanks to this stance, which is not backed by any reasoning, IT major Infosys is facing troubles setting up its campus in Kolkata. One can understand that acquiring large tracts of agricultural land for an SEZ goes against Banerjee’s “maa mati manush” policy but a service-oriented industry like IT does not require large areas of land. On the other hand, IT and ITes industry will help create the much-need jobs in the state.
Indeed there’s a dichotomy between what Banerjee professes and what she practises. The hush-hush manner in which she has jacked up power, transport and milk prices in West Bengal after protesting vociferously against rail fare increases highlights this fact. Who but the aam aadmi will bear the brunt of the increases she has allowed in her state?
G R Saha Kolkata
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