Former Prime Minister of India - Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee

PM's speech on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry

~It gives me great pleasure to be with you this morning to celebrate a landmark year in the life of an institution that has contributed so much to the city of Kolkata, to the State of West Bengal, and to the entire Eastern region. The very fact that the Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry has completed 150 years is proof that Bengal has truly been the pioneer of industrialisation in India. It means that nearly a century before India became independent, this city and this State had already taken to the high road of industry and commerce.

India’s cultural, intellectual and industrial resurgence began from Bengal. The great reformers, philosophers and poets who were born here provided leadership in thought and action to various socio-political movements. Just as all the tributaries of the Ganga merge into it to make it a mighty river, all these movements joined the mainstream of the nationalist struggle, imparting considerable strength and vitality to it. Bengal achieved a synthesis between the spiritual nationalism of Swami Vivekananda, humanism of Gurudev Tagore, scientific temper of Jagdish Chandra Bose, and political radicalism of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.

Thus, in the closing decades of the 19th century and the early decades of the 20th century, Bengal became the cultural, educational and industrial capital of India. Such was its fame and reputation those days that Bengal’s prowess gained a legendary aura around it. ~What Bengal thinks today, the rest of India will think tomorrow,~ it used to be said.

I am recalling this hoary past of Kolkata and Bengal for two purposes. First, I wish to join all of you in paying my tributes to all the pioneers in the saga of Bengal’s industrialization. Secondly, past achievements serve as a useful benchmark to judge the present and as a source of inspiration to plan for the future.

Bengal was the undisputed leader and promoter of industrial culture in India till the late 1960s. Why did it lose its way thereafter? From a position of number one in the early post-Independence period, it declined to a position somewhere in middle by the close of the century. As recently as 1981, West Bengal’s per capita income was above the national average. Two decades later, it fell below the national average. Why did this happen? Why did businesses leave Bengal? Why did new investments skip Bengal?

These questions are best answered by the people of Bengal themselves and their representatives. Indeed, I have heard many Bengalis, who have gone out of Bengal, ask these questions. Outsiders can only surmise that the arrival of dogmatism saw the departure of development. Sometimes in the affairs of organizations, provinces and even nations, extreme positions rule the roost for some time, but the price of the folly is paid for years and decades to come.

Of course, when men make mistakes, life also provides opportunities for correction. And when correction is applied with conviction and a collective force, often swift progress is achieved. One can even make up for the lost time and forge ahead.

Thus, it is clear that there is a need for introspection by all sections of society in West Bengal. I am not saying this to sermonize to others. But I do wish to stress that life is forcing us to find new answers to old questions. Today no country, no state and no city has the luxury of wanting to remain sluggish and stagnant. Our people’s expectations are rising fast. They know how other countries have progressed. Our young people, in particular, need employment and self-employment opportunities. I am told that this problem is especially acute in West Bengal. Employment and self-employment opportunities cannot be created without faster economic growth. Therefore, India has a lot of catching up to do. And within India, Bengal has a lot of catching up to do.

As you are well aware, India has been making rapid strides in many areas of economic growth in the past few years. In some cases, the progress is truly unprecedented. Who could have imagined that India would earn nearly Rs. 40,000 crore a year through software exports alone? Who could have thought that the number of mobile phones in our country would skyrocket from less than 10 lakh five years ago to 1.5 crore now? In Kolkata itself, the number of cell phone users has gone up by more than ten times in five years. In the first fifty years after Independence, India constructed only 550 km of four-lane highways – that is, about 11 km each year. Now we are constructing 15,000 km-long four-lane highways at the rate of five km each day!

I have cited these few facts just to illustrate an important truth. And that truth is: India, too, is progressing rapidly. World leaders often wonder at India’s steadily growing economic strength. It is true that our progress so far is uneven – both geographically and socially. Therefore, what I would like to say today is that West Bengal should soon become the economic powerhouse of the East and join the ranks of speedily advancing States of India.

I am happy that, in recent years, winds of change are blowing in Bengal, although quite mildly so far. The West Bengal Government has begun to constructively respond to the new challenges. The new approach of partnership with the private sector, which it has adopted recently, is leading to a slow revival of business sentiments. There is some improvement in certain aspects of infrastructure. This change needs expansion and acceleration. I urge the State Government to create a strong pro-business and pro-investment environment in West Bengal. For this, the entire government machinery, right down to the last clerk, should gear itself up with a new work culture and a new pro-growth mindset.

The Centre will extend full cooperation to the State Government in its endeavour to speed up socio-economic development. I am sure that the Chief Minister has no reason now to repeat the decades-old complaint that the Centre is discriminating against the State. Our track record of the past fives years shows that we do not follow the policy of discrimination on political and ideological grounds. All States, irrespective of who is ruling where, are equal in our eyes. The development of each State, and especially those States that are lagging behind, is dear to us. I believe that for India to be strong and prosperous, all the States have to strong and prosperous. And for the States to be prosperous and progressing rapidly, we need harmonious and cooperative relations between the Centre and the States. This is the principle we have followed for the past five years. And this is how we will continue to act in the future, too.

Hence, we welcome any idea and any suggestion that is aimed at Bengal’s renaissance. Bengal must rise not only for its own sake, but also for catalyzing the revival of the rest of Eastern India and the entire North-Eastern India. In the past few years, the Central Government has made special efforts for the promotion of industries and businesses in the North East. I urge the chambers of industry and commerce, both national and regional, to play a more active role for the success of these efforts.

Bengal has nearly all it takes to achieve a speedy economic revival. There is a large network of colleges and professional institutions. Many of them are highly reputed. Bengali scientists, administrators, managers, and other professionals who are working in other parts of India and abroad have earned a big name for themselves. In recent years, healthy saplings of New Economy enterprises in information technology, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals have been planted in West Bengal. A small beginning has been made in petrochemicals, with the success of the Haldia Petrochemicals. The State also has a huge untapped scope for food processing industries.

The Central Government has recently formulated a policy for development of industrial infrastructure in identified industrial clusters. This scheme is particularly helpful for the resurgence of industrial activity in such centres where lack of infrastructure is becoming an inhibiting factor. I hope the State Government takes full advantage of our new initiative for revival of its traditional industries, including improving their technological and competitive position.

One of the big strengths of Bengal is its locational advantage. The port of Kolkata, and the newer port of Haldia, can enable you to be the gateway for India to reach many neighbouring countries in South-East Asia. For the past few years, India has been actively following what we have termed as the ~Look East~ policy to strengthen our economic, trade, and cultural ties with the countries of South-East Asia and East Asia. India has now become a regular summit partner of ASEAN. My visits to Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia have convinced me that India, especially our Eastern and North-Eastern States, can benefit a lot from our steadily expanding ties with this vital region.

In this context, I would like to mention that Bengal and neighbouring States can also profit from the India-China agreement on economic cooperation that we have signed in Beijing recently. The opening of trade route to China through Nathula Pass further strengthens Bengal’s locational advantage as it can re-emerge as the natural transshipment point for the old Silk Route.

I shall conclude my remarks by recalling Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore’s dream for Bengal, which he expressed in just two evocative words: Sonar Bangla. This was not a poet’s flight of fancy. This dream for tomorrow’s Bengal can be realized if all of us – Centre and the State Government, businesses, trade unions, and all sections of the people -- work together with a common agenda, a common goal and a common perception. I am confident that the Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry, along with other chambers at the State and national level, would make their fullest contribution to the realization of this dream.

Thank you~.