Saturday, 22 March 2025
Saturday, 22 March 2025
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee Friday said the state has emerged "as a powerhouse of growth and opportunity" and the Bengal Global Business Summit has yielded 212 Memorandum of Understandings and Letters of Intent, with investment proposals totalling Rs 4 lakh 40 thousand and 595 crore.
In a post on X, Banerjee said, "1.72 crore people have been lifted out of poverty, and Bengal emerged as a powerhouse of growth and opportunity. I am proud to share that this year's BGBS has yielded 212 MoUs and Letters of Intent, with investment proposals totalling Rs 4,40,595 crore".
But social media users differed from the chief minister’s statement.
MOUs that never translate to investment
One user spoke of the brain drain and pollution to criticise the summit.
“Every year MOUs are signed, no real investment on ground. Youth running to major cities for jobs and then romanticising the lackluster of the city as time has stopped and all. The AQI is terrible as well. The only thing that doesn’t agitate people is that the cost of living in Bengal is still low, so somehow people manage,” he wrote.
Bengal’s agony of investment hasn’t been new. During the 1990s, former Speaker and communist MP, late Somnath Chatterjee drafted the state’s industrialisation policy and visited plenty of countries to woo investment.
He signed many MoUs, but as per critics, nothing translated into investments. But this signing spree earned him the moniker MoU-Da (MoU brother), among critics.
Taking a jab at Mamata Banerjee’s past comments, one user said that expecting job growth from this summit is pointless when the state’s leadership itself suggests selling tea as a solution to unemployment.
“We all know why no actual investments will come out of the Bengal Global Summit. Our beloved Chief Minister recently advised unemployed youths to skip jobs and instead open tea stalls!” The user said.
On January 21, the chief minister said a good income comes from tea kiosks by selling tea, biscuit and ghoogni and one can earn more through a kiosk like this than other jobs.
About a decade ago, in February 2015, Mamata had said, “One having a garment shop can very well set up a tea stall. Efforts to set up agriculture markets can go along with setting up fishery stalls. Even roadside telebhaja shops or sweet shops can be good ventures. I know of a stall owner in my locality who has built a building on his own,”
Annual comedy show?
“Bengal's very own comedy sessions have started yet again. Newtown/Rajarhat has come alive with Bengal Global Business Summit. The commitments here break faster than New Year's resolutions” reads a post.
One user listed out the alleged corruption that has taken place in Bengal under the Trinamul rule.
“Bengal means business like Chop, Chayer Dokan, Katmani, Goru, Bali, Koyla, Chakri Churi, Ration, Tripol, Medical supplies and many more....” wrote one user.
The post listed what ‘business’ in Bengal meant to many critics like him: fritters, tea stalls, commission fees, the alleged cattle smuggling, coal, recruitment, public distributions system, and medical supplies scams.
Promises that vanish like the wind
One user pointed out to the glitz and glamor associated with the summit and how nothing substantial had taken place in terms of work in the Salboni steel plant, which former cricket Sourav Ganguly promised and reminded the chief minister’s tour to Spain to invite business into the state.
“Bengal means business. Sunchi, sune aschi, kagoje, hoarding e dekhchi. Biz summit e kichu protishruti aar MOU! Tarpor? Shalbonir steel plant kothay? Ki holo at least last BGBS 2023 te jaa announced hoyechilo? Aar goto bochorer Spain visit er outcome? Ektu details e likhun. Sobai jante chai!” questioned a post.
