Singurs fallout

The numbers are in,and Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is probably an even more worried man than usual. The worried frown that creases his face will have grown a little deeper on learning that,according to the new report on India-wide investment released by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India,West Bengal has slipped down the list of favourable destinations for investment. Slipped way down,in fact,out of the top 10: it is 13th on the list now,down from 4th last year.

ASSOCHAMs numbers should come with some caveats as to their interpretation,of course: although this newspaper has independently verified that last year was the first year in the past five that actual industrial investment in Bengal fell,it may be that West Bengal is,more than others,exposed to the effects of the global downturn. If it is the case that,for example,heavier industry like steel and power are more at risk in terms of excess capacity,investment projects in those industries are the first to be shelved and Bengals high recent ranks have been a product of big-ticket investments in those areas. Indeed,the big investors in Bengal were to have been Jindal Steel,SAIL and Indian Oil.

But there is another reason which cannot be denied. And that is that Bengal industry in general and big-ticket projects in particular have been shown to be remarkably vulnerable to nihilist disruption posing as mass political protest.

ASSOCHAM makes this very point: social unrest meant larger corporate houses were less willing to invest in Bengal. That,of course,is code for the chaos that engulfed Singur and Nandigram lately. In recent remarks in Kolkata,the Congresss Pranab Mukherjee and Bhattacharjee agreed with each other about the danger of romanticising or empowering such movements. Development must be kept free of narrow political interests,said Mukherjee; history does not forgive those who would play politics with development,said Bhattacharjee. Now if only Mukherjees putative ally Mamata Banerjee and some in Bhattacharjees own party would listen.