The CPI(M)?s understanding of the stock market as a place for greed and speculation is at odds with what West Bengal?s chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee thinks.
Bhattacharjee, inaugurating the centenary celebration of the Calcutta Stock Exchange on Tuesday, said: ?? the stock market is a very important component of industrial growth and the eastern part of the country is really suffering from the absence of the Calcutta stock exchange.?
Way back in December 2005, the Peoples Democracy, the CPI(M)?s mouthpiece, had noted the ?rise of the regime where finance capital with its innate speculative character, is pushing back industrial capital in order to take control of the global economy.?
Today, Bhattacharjee and his commerce & industries minister, Nirupam Sen, were welcoming the revival of the stock exchange with open arms. Sen said that stock market is an important tool of industrial development.
None of them had anything to say about the ?speculative? character of a stock market, or the ?pro rich bias? of a stock market. The stock market is one of the tools to make industrial development possible to finance the industries in a better way, Sen said. ?Therefore in this context the revival of the Calcutta stock exchange will definitely pave a new way forward for the industrial development of this state.?
Bhattacharjee said the state government has extended all help to revive the stock exchange and has provided land in Rajarhat for a new stock exchange building.
?Perhaps all of you know we are giving much stress on manufacturing sector and I was talking to, Udayan babu ? that manufacturing unit particularly in this part of the country the small and medium enterprises need some help both from the stock exchanges and the banks for further growth,? said Bhattacharjee, referring to veteran merchant banker Udayan Bose, who is chairman of the demutualised CSE.
Bhattacharjee said that he believes that the new centre will be the centre of activities and in near future the stock exchange will be a very important centre for further growth and development in the state and in the eastern part of the country.
Never mind what the Political Resolution at the XIX Party Congress had to say. ?Booms in real estate, the stock market and credit?driven consumption spending by the urban elite lead the urban?centric growth that is being witnessed currently. This pattern of growth, far from improving the living conditions of the working people, is increasing inequalities in an unprecedented manner.?
