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EARLIER this week, there were two occasions on which senior West Bengal Ministers sang the praises of their Government, in effect telling the world that the State had a much better industrial climate than was made out by certain "interested" quarters, the inference being that investors should not hesitate to put their money into the region. Before one goes further, one basic assumption has to be made, namely, that the facts and figures cited by the Ministers concerned are absolutely correct. In other words, there are no differences with the premises; it is only the conclusions that are debatable.

First, the Labour Minister, Mr Mohammad Amin (a very senior Minister in the West Bengal Cabinet), told a workshop in Kolkata on Wednesday that the work culture in West Bengal "was among the best in the country", his crucial point being that had it not been so the State "could not have consistently exceeded the national GDP in the past 20-25 years". He said that one of the main problems affecting West Bengal was that it suffered "from a negative image problem", adding that "industry, too, talks of productivity increases, but I believe this cannot exceed the human limit".

On the same day, in the State Assembly, the Commerce and Industries Minister, Mr Nirupam Sen (another important CPI-M functionary), said that West Bengal had got bogged down by the policies of the Centre. To quote him: "The new economic policy of 1991 and the present WTO regime, characterised by the unprecedented downturn in the global economy, has made it difficult for the State Government to pursue and implement a policy for industrial progress". Quoting from an UNCTAD report, he said that globalisation had led to an increase in trade volume without corresponding increase in income.

He added: "The liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation tenets of the new economic policy proved disastrous to the traditional indigenous industries and domestic industrial companies, whether in the State's public or private sector. The pre-eminent position that Bengal once held in the overall industrial scenario of the country was shaken by a variety of factors, chief among them being the huge influx of refugees from across the border".

Assuming the facts cited by the Ministers are correct, there are two important questions that should be asked: first, has the standard of life in West Bengal's rural areas galloped ahead compared to the rural areas in the rest of the country; and, second, is the "work culture" better in the State's rural areas than in cities like Kolkata, etc? As regards the second query, one suspects that the answer is in the affirmative. The first answer promises to be a complex one, particularly in the era of liberalisation and globalisation, where the infusion of "external investment" ischief among the factors behind economic growth.

That much more can be done than has been achieved so far (particularly in the sphere of agriculture) is suggested by the debate that is currently raging within the State Government on the future approach to agro-processing investment. The very admission that there is indeed a debate on indicates that the CPI(M) economic think-tank feels that recourse to selective "globalisation policies" could help speed up the economic growth rate. This, by any yardstick, is big progress compared to the Marxist policies of yesteryear.

Ranabir Ray Choudhury

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