Participants of The Telegraph-Calcutta Club National Debate on Saturday. Picture by Pradip Sanyal

Suhel Seth, columnist

Proposing the motion, Seth was forceful about not just the impossibility of the dream of a resurgent Bengal, but Bengal itself. “Bengal is an impossible dream, forget resurgent.... We are talking about the fact that today people don’t want to invest in Bengal. We are talking about the fact that youth in Bengal want to flee Bengal. We are talking about the fact that Bengal today doesn’t hold the magnet of attraction that it should. And that is painful,” Seth said.

l His conclusion: “If the motion is lost, and the house supports the other side then it will be supporting denial. If this motion is lost, you will escape once again from the reality that Bengal is faced with.”

Harsh Neotia, industrialist

Neotia put his “mouth where the money is”. “We as the people deserve a resurgent Bengal and that is why we will have a resurgent Bengal,” he said. The only spoiler was politics, according to Neotia, but he did not give into pessimism. “Competition in political space is a key reason for the competition to progress. And the competitive political environment that we are now seeing in Bengal may perhaps be a spur to the party in Opposition as much as to the party in power to actually do a little more than they have till now.”

l His conclusion: “Seventy per cent of the (my) family investments is in West Bengal…. I am certainly putting my money where my mouth is and I certainly would not do this purely for emotional reasons and not if I did not believe in the resurgence of Bengal.”

Abhirup Sarkar, economist

“Emotionally, I would like to speak against the motion. Like any Bengali, I would like to see a resurgent Bengal. But ultimately reason must prevail over emotions,” was Sarkar’s beginner.

He tried to reason why, for so many years, Bengal had seen no political change despite lack of development. “To make people dependent on the party (meaning the Left), the whole state was kept poor and that is how in spite of underdevelopment, the same party was winning... rather because of poverty that the party was winning,” Sarkar said.

l His conclusion: When “all good people are leaving and only mediocrity stays behind”, one can’t talk of excellence in Bengal.

Dhritiman Chaterji, actor

Chaterji, introduced on stage as the “pratidwandi” after his role in the Satyajit Ray film, criticised political parties for hijacking the system. “Politics is more about parties than about people and that means people must be for parties rather than parties for people,” he said. He said the notion of resurgence needed a point of reference, a “glorious period”, which Bengal lacked.

l His conclusion: “We have to see if we can take Bengal forward. It is not up to the CPM or the Trinamul Congress to take Bengal forward, ladies and gentlemen. It is up to us.”

Bibek Debroy, economist

“If it (the resurgence of Bengal) is not an impossible dream then it becomes a possible dream but it still remains a dream.... That dream can very well become a nightmare,” Debroy said. “We have a Bengal that is not resurgent, but a Bengal that is despondent. We have a Bengal that is not resurgent, but a Bengal that is delinquent. We have a Bengal that is not resurgent, we have a Bengal that is even decadent.” His question: “We know what the red corner stands for. Is there a credible alternative in the blue corner?”

l His conclusion: “The answer, I think, is no. The difference is between Twiddledum and Twiddledee.”

NK Singh, former bureaucrat and Rajya Sabha MP

Speaking against the motion came from his need to see a resurgent Bengal where he was born and considers a privilege, Singh said. He warned against exaggeration and said the problems of Bengal mirrored the problems of India. He gave three ways in which Bengal could become resurgent — create a knowledge hub, catapult the state into a manufacturing centre, and with the coastline at its disposal, create a trade hub.

l His conclusion: “We are talking about a dream. Byron said a dream has great power to propel the dream to reality.”

Sagarika Ghose, TV journalist

Resurgence, Ghose said, was not just about change of government, “about taking Buddha babu out and bringing Mamatadi in”. One of the reasons why a resurgent Bengal was impossible was the absence of the iconoclast, she said. “Why is it that every Bengali who is good is either dead or has left Calcutta?” she asked. The only exception was “dada Sourav Ganguly. But after Sourav Ganguly who? After Satyajit Ray who?” One could change the song Where Have All the Flowers Gone to “where has all the talent gone” to describe Bengal.

l Her conclusion: The biggest challenge is freeing the mind of people or there will be no change and no resurgent Bengal.

The big laughs

"What is delightful is that Harsh Neotia is leading the opposition. The good news is that you don’t need an election next year. If Harsh Neotia is on Mamata Banerjee’s side she is your next chief minister."

Suhel Seth

"Two chief ministers, one of Bengal and another of Bihar, went to God Almighty. First the Bihar CM asks God Almighty “when will my Bihar revive again?” God Almighty says “Look son, Bihar will regain its glory but you won’t be able to see it. It will take some time.” The Bihar CM starts crying. Then the CM of Bengal asks the same question and God Almighty starts crying. Not in his lifetime Bengal is going to revive."

Abhirup Sarkar

"We have a Bengal where if Bangladesh continues to grow as it does today we will have illegal migration from West Bengal to Bangladesh."

Bibek Debroy