Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday flew off to london in an apparent bid to court foreign capital in an atmosphere that the State Opposition outfits concurrently termed “not conducive” to investment.
The Chief Minister, who led a huge squad of 48 delegates — including netas, bureaucrats, Bengal industrialists, film personalities much the way she did during her previous tour to Singapore which subsequently turned out to be a botched exercise — however, exuded confidence saying: “We hope that investment will come in because Bengal is an ideal place for investment.”
It has been one of the dreams of the Chief Minister to construct a replica of london Eye in Kolkata. On whether her dream to turn Kolkata into london would materialise when she came back, she said: “let us see”, adding, “first let us go.” The Chief Minister was expecting to sign a number of MoUs which the experts said could help her cause ahead of the next year’s Assembly elections.
The Government was expecting a host of agreements in health, education and social sectors, Finance Minister Amit Mitra, who was an important face in the CM’s squad said. Others who were accompanying her were Kolkata Mayor Sobhan Chatterjee, MPs Derek O’ Brien Sugato Bose and Deepak Adhikari alias Dev, who was also a Bangla superstar, industrialists YC Deveshwar, Sanjiv Goenka, Harsh Neotia et al.
The Chief Minister was likely to attend a meeting of the UKIBC and FICCI, sources said adding she would also meet the Duke of York, Prince Andrew at Buckingham Palace and British Employment Minister Priti Patel.
The State Opposition, however, unanimously condemned the tour as a “high sounding nothing.” CPI(M)’s Sujan Chakrabarty said, “This is one more pleasure trip like the one in Singapore at the cost of people’s money by Banerjee.”
The Congress said “after she returns the Chief Minister will sell many more bundles of lies about the trip ahead of the elections.” The BJP said, “The Chief Minister went out to bring investment in a State from where industries are fleeing in hordes as there is no law and order, no land, no infrastructure.” Singer MP Babul Supriyo said, “This will be yet another futile tour.”
Meanwhile, inside sources in the Trinamool Congress said that the party MPs in Delhi who had thus far not been very proactive in their fight against the Centre in Parliament — drawing much criticism from the left and the Congress in Bengal — had been asked to show more aggression till she remained abroad.