A lot of foreign investors are keen to invest in West Bengal and are ignoring the "malicious lies" about the state government, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said today as she hit out at the critics of her recent tour of Singapore.
"Those who interacted with us in Singapore expressed surprise at the extent of the malicious lies being spread against Bengal. Some media houses tried to spread false, malicious lies about the visit," Banerjee told a rally of Trinamool Congress's students' wing.
Describing her first foreign trip after assuming office as a 'positive' one, Banerjee said, "Everybody took a lot of interest in investing in Bengal. We have tried to build and communicate a positive image of the state there.
"Even those who had left Bengal are willing to return. The door of rapid industrialisation has opened," she said.
As many as 13 MoUs and letters of intent were signed during the chief minister's maiden foreign visit.
"The delegation of industrialists who went with us to Singapore went at their own expense. We are delivering on the promises we made," she said, adding that, "despite the financial crunch, we are working for development".
Defence Minister Arun Jaitley during a recent visit to Kolkata had questioned the consistency between the Bengal Chief Minister's opposition to FDI in defence and her trip to Singapore to seek foreign investment.
Asking the ruling party to come clear on the subject of foreign direct investment, Jaitley had said that upon coming to power, the NDA government had taken a decision to allow FDI in defence, to which all had agreed, except two -- the Left and TMC.
The Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly, Suryakanta Mishra of CPI(M), too, had criticised Banerjee's five-day trip, saying, "On the day the CM went to Singapore to bring industrial investment, we read in newspapers that an industry was shut down in the state. One by one, industry is going out of the state.
