MAKING EAST INDIA GREAT AGAIN
The conclave saw heated debates and constructive suggestions on how to make the eastern region a hub of growth and development
AAlthough the electoral battle for West Bengal is still a month away, the India Today Conclave East 2021, held in Kolkata on February 11 and 12, saw it all—from stump speeches and poll bugles to economic arguments, expositions of political strategies and much more from the two principal contenders, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In their respective sessions, Union home minister Amit Shah and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee proved to be at odds on a number of issues (see Clash of the Titans). For example, both confidently insisted their party would form the next state government, and with an absolute majority. However, as Shah said, the election results will eventually determine whose projections were correct.
These and other sessions also reflected the currently tense political atmosphere. Saying that those who oppose Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Shah are immediately branded as Khalistanis, Pakistanis or terrorists, the West Bengal chief minister said that such tactics had bred an atmosphere of fear in the country, to the point of silencing journalists. However, state governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, a member of the BJP, had already raised the same allegation against the TMC—in his session, he said that there was a pervasive sense of fear in West Bengal and alleged that media outfits were being gagged, adding that in comparison, “even the Emergency pales into insignificance”.
On one issue, the discussions at the conclave came almost to boiling point—when the conversation turned to the issue of slogans being used as battle cries. The immediate context for this was an event celebrating Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s 125th birth anniversary at Victoria Memorial Hall on January 23, when BJP supporters had shouted ‘Jai Shree Ram’ and other slogans at the chief minister before she was to speak, which led to her refusing to give her speech. “I am grateful to the prime minister that this event is being held in Kolkata,” she reportedly said on the day. “But you have no right to invite someone to a government programme and insult that person. In protest, I am not saying anything. Jai Hind, Jai Bangla.” However, Shah said that the ‘Jai Shree Ram’ chant was being used in the same way as slogans like ‘Vande Mataram’, ‘Inquilab Zindabaad’ and ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’—as a form of popular protest by people against an authoritarian government.
This was revisited at a session on the second day—‘Appropriation of Icons: Whose Netaji? Whose Tagore?’ Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta said that while the chanting of ‘Jai Shree Ram’ had not been “pertinent”
In 2019, the state grew at 12 per cent, which was the highest in India” AMIT MITRA Finance Minister, West Bengal
The number one issue hindering manufacturing is law and order” BIBEK DEBROY Chairman, Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council
We do not have the NRC where it is most required—Assam. Why are we talking about a nationwide NRC?” RANJAN GOGOI MP, former Chief Justice of India
at the occasion on January 23, he suggested that it had become a symbol of protest like ‘Vande Mataram’—“[The slogan] can be a protest against a particular imperious individual who is ruling West Bengal.” He added, “If that person gets irritated by it, you say it a little more loudly and irritate the person a little more vociferously,” a statement that highlighted how collegiate political tactics can be. However, Dr Sugata Bose, former MP, professor at Harvard and grandnephew of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, took an entirely different view, saying that the sanctity of the event should have made it “wholly inappropriate for that slogan to have been raised both outside and inside the premises of the Victoria Memorial... on the occasion of Netaji’s birth anniversary”. In the BJP’s campaign to win West Bengal, it has been trying to appropriate Bengali culture, festivals, icons and even gods and goddesses, attempting to subsume them into Hindutva narratives. However, this effort has not been without controversy. For instance, a session earlier that day—‘The Battle for Bengal: Ram versus Durga’—saw a high-decibel discourse, with BJP state president Dilip Ghosh saying that if one was to look at the historical record, “[Ram] ka naam bhi milega. Durga ka naam
One of the things that we have been missing in West Bengal is a large port—riverine ports have their limitations HARSHVARDHAN NEOTIA Chairman, Ambuja Neotia Group
There are two areas that should be of prime importance. One is infrastructure, the second is manufacturing HEMANT KANORIA Chairman, Srei Infrastructure Finance
The govt needs to change people’s perception of West Bengal. Because of how much we lend here, we are seen as a risky bank CHANDRA SHEKHAR GHOSH Managing Director, Bandhan Bank
Bengal and Vietnam have the same population, but state GDP is $200 mn, Vietnam’s is $250 bn. We should consider how to make Bengal equal to Vietnam RUDRA CHATTERJEE Managing Director, Luxmi Tea
It’s now for us to perform, to become competitive, to scale up investment in capacity, in research, in services, and go forward SANJIV GOENKA Chairman, RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group
milega, kya? (Ram’s name is there is the histories. Would one find Durga’s name?)” TMC MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar was visibly taken aback—when it came time for her to reply, she said, “Durga is a very strong pillar of Hinduism... As a Hindu, I am shocked, and this kind of Hinduism will not stand the test of time.” Her co-panelist, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera, said the BJP’s template of division had a long history: “They polarise icons— Nehru versus Patel and now gods [versus gods], because they have no agenda, no vision and nothing to say on unemployment, on fundamental issues like the economy, inflation and farmers.”
Offering a third view of sorts, at a session titled ‘Left with lost landscape: The imperfect future’, CPI-M (Congress Party of IndiaMarxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said that in order to defeat the BJP, the Left had to provide a secular, democratic alternative to the TMC. He also predicted that if the election did not produce a clear winner, the TMC would tie up with the BJP. “[Mamata] has been hopping in and out and she [won’t] hesitate to go with them. Her consistency has been a complete lack of consistency.” Arguing that the TMC and the BJP were both divisive, he said that they were a dangerous communal combination and were degenerating politics.
In contrast to these allegations, counter-allegations and political one-upmanship, the business sessions were relatively more forward-looking. At a session on the second day, titled ‘Act East: How to balance policy and pragmatism’, industry leaders spoke of the economic challenges facing the state, including the need for new infrastructure and an improvement in manufacturing, as well as how West Bengal is currently perceived in terms of being a business destination and the economic growth targets that the central and state governments should set for the immediate future.
On a related note, in a telesession with West Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra—‘Growth vs
populism: The Bengal model’—Mitra insisted that the state was on sound economic footing and doing much better than opposition parties were suggesting. “In 2019, if you [compare] the nominal growth rate of the states and India, West Bengal grew at over 12 per cent,” he said, “which was #1 in the country.” However, India Today Group editorial director (publishing) Raj Chengappa questioned the rosy view, quoting Union home minister Shah as saying that decades of Communist and TMC rule had seen “Bengal’s growth rate and its position in the country plunge considerably”, with poor industrial growth and negligible FDI. Even so, Mitra held to his view that the state was doing well, saying, “Bengal has become the cement hub of India. Sajjan Jindal has invested [in the state],
Puneet Dalmia has invested, Star Cement has invested... [and when it comes to FDI], the German company BASF has come to Bengal—they are making construction chemicals.” Pertinently, in a session titled ‘Towards an Aatmanirbhar East India’, Sanjiv Goenka, chairman of the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, highlighted that political, legal and social turbulence is bad for business, pointing out that economic success required “a continuity of the commitment to contracts” and “a complete divorce of economics from politics.”
The conclave saw several other major issues being discussed as well, including the need for a healthy Centre-state relationship to boost development, how independent and free India’s judiciary really remains and the ongoing issue of the Citizen
Once Suvendu Adhikari and Rajiv Banerjee joined the BJP, it became certain that the party will form the government” KAILASH VIJAYVARGIYA National General Secretary, BJP
Once the CAA is done, millions of Assamese origin people and minorities will be denied citizenship” RANDEEP SINGH SURJEWALA General Secretary, Indian National Congress
The BJP will not dilute its position on the CAA, but the timing has to be determined by the on-ground situation” HIMANTA BISWA SARMA Assam Minister of Finance, Health, Education and Public Works
The strength of the Left is in the streets, fields and factories. That is what everyone is scared of” SITARAM YECHURY General Secretary, CPI(M)
Pakistan gave me a huge award—the death sentence. I’m happy that they still haven’t withdrawn it” LT COL. SAJJAD ZAHEER Veteran, Bangladesh Liberation war
After we rescued Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s wife and family, they gave me a wristwatch as a token of love” COL. ASHOK KUMAR TARA Veteran, 1971 war
The biggest feature of the 1971 war was that we won a complete victory—a rare event on the battlefield in modern times” GEN. SHANKAR R. CHOWDHURY Former Chief of Army Staff
The political climate of West Bengal has to change. Governance has to come back” BABUL SUPRIYO Union MoS for Environment, Forest and Climate Change
ship (Amendment) Act or CAA. This last issue saw especially fierce debate, with the TMC pointing to the frequent postponements of registration deadlines and arguing that it was a political bluff by the BJP. The saffron party insisted this was not the case, with Assam finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma saying, “CAA will be applicable panIndia. Whether we win or lose, we will support Hindus and minorities from Pakistan and Bangladesh.” And underlining the central role that social media firms now play in public discourse, the session with Ajit Mohan, Facebook vice president and managing director for India (‘Mess of a medium: The myth of digital privacy’), revealed the difficult balancing act required of such companies. “While we have full responsibility to [allow] free expression, we
also have a commitment to make sure we do everything we can to reduce harm,” he said.
And amid the cacophony and the trading of jabs, there were some breezy moments too—the conclave began with a session with singer Papon filling the auditorium with soulful music, weaving together Bihu songs with Bollywood numbers and speaking of his musical journey across India and the world. The following day, the session with singer Usha Uthup offered a peaceful contrast to the high-intensity arguments and pronouncements of the other sessions. One moment from her session stood out—highlighting how enormously polarised public discourse has become, she joked, “I am scared to sing Hare Krishna, Hare Rama now— and then there is also Hari Om Hari. There were so many songs I [once] sang that used the names of gods!”