West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s first interface with Mumbai media on Thursday was a rather tame affair for those who were expecting drama, traditionally associated with her meetings. Faced with uncomfortable questions, she neither threatened to walk out, nor applied the Maoist tag to those who asked her such questions. That shows her maturity.
Overall, Banerjee was very restrained. She called the reporters as “my brother” and “my sister” and before the press conference started, checked with her people whether refreshments were served to journalists. When the Bengali reporters asked for hilsa fish, she didn’t hear them.
In the entire press conference, which lasted about half an hour, she didn’t encourage anything silly. She was to the point, didn’t entertain questions that were not related to the subject of the press conference—investment opportunities in West Bengal—and politely declined to answer queries that were sensitive and uncomfortable.
For instance, on the disputed Singur land, her answer was she should not say anything as the matter was sub judice. Similarly, on being asked who would own Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd, she said the bidding process would decide on that. What will be her role in the next general elections? Who will come to power? Her answer was: “I am not a political astrologer. I believe in federal government and I want stability. I am a small fry.”
Another uncomfortable question was on the law and order situation in West Bengal. Without losing her cool or branding the reporter a Maoist, she said she cannot tackle the false propaganda as she does not own a TV channel but the results of the recent Panchayat polls show that everything is fine in her state.
She handled the press with maturity, peppering the conference with Mamataesque humour, telling reporters to ask her questions in Marathi and answering them mostly in Bengali.
Her meeting with the industrialists and bankers went off well, although she did not get any concrete investment proposal. But then her road show was very different from that what Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi has been holding for years now. She also did not make any exaggerated statement on the outcome of the meeting. “They all are excited and willing to invest in my state, but such things do not happen over one meeting. They will go back and work on their plans,” she told the media.
If her version of the state of West Bengal is to be believed, this eastern state seems to be experiencing a renaissance in industrialisation and is a heaven for any investor.
Consider these facts: Two years back, the state had reported a loss of 7.8 million mandays and now it is zero; the government has created a 10,000-acre land bank; and, in three years West Bengal will be a power-surplus state. The state has an IT policy, textile policy and housing policy in place and there are industrial activities all around—financial hubs being created, airports, film cities, hospitals, universities are being built. She promised “A to Z of vitamin” to industrialists. The Sundarbans, according to her, can be home to an African Safari, and a new Goa can be created on the beaches of the Bay of Bengal. Banerjee claimed to have Rs.1.3 trillion investments being made in her state, with Steel Authorty of India Ltd (SAIL) leading the brigade of investors with a Rs.20,000 crore investment.
She did lean heavily on Bollywood. She said the late Sunil Dutt was very fond of her, that Amit ji (Amitabh Bachchan) loves her a lot and that Shahrukh Khan was West Bengal’s brand ambassador. Along with industrialists from Bengal, singer Bappi Lahiri and actor Mithun Chakraborty also attended the meeting. Chakraborty, in fact, was dragged into the press conference for a few minutes at the fag end.
Even then, it was not a typical Didi press conference except for her bursting into song. Her choice was “Aye mere watan ke logon”, the Hindi patriotic song that Lata Mangeshkar performed on Republic Day in 1963, two months after the end of India-China war. Those who were at the event to look for some fun were disappointed but if Mamata is changing, it’s good for West Bengal.