In a veiled castigation of the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress’ agitation in Singur, which Ratan Tata blamed for the pullout of Nano small car project in October, noted economist and Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen said shutting down industry in the name of democratic movement is a very negative trend for the state.
“There has to be a change in mindset here. Threats and agitations will not work if Bengal is to progress,” Sen said. He was speaking at a seminar on “The Direction of West Bengal’s Development” organised by the state government. State finance minister Asim Dasgupta mediated the seminar with chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and commerce & industries minister Nirupam Sen sat in the audience
“Once a major political party decides an industry should be shut down, it happens. The challenge is how to change the situation. Both big industry and smaller players need to be reassured that their business will not be chocked at any moment. The problem of this state is political in nature. For the state to progress, politics and economics should be considerd together,” Sen said.
While criticising the Trinamool’s stance vis-a-vis Singur, he did not spare the state government as well. Alluding to the issue of forcible acquisition of land for industry, Sen said the acquisition process for obtaining land should be held as the ‘last resort’. “It would seem better if land was purchased directly from the landowner, with his free consent.”
Sen stressed that while social and economic progress may not move in the same direction, it was also important to focus on issues like health and education, adding that government spending on healthcare is abysmally low at both the state and national level.
But it seemed his attention was preoccupied with industry, as he returned to the issue again. “However, most of the sick industries are PSUs. We need to ensure that mistakes made in the past are not repeated,” he said.