This turn around and revival of the economy in Bengal ought to be reviewed in proper perspective. Evaluation of nature of resurrection cannot be done in isolation, it ought to be carried out comparing the reasons of the extreme decline of the industry in the second half of the last century after partition and how central policies and also wrong labour movement contributed to that.

Ironically no serious attempt was made to find out the real reason for the decline of industry in Bengal. The reasons should have been clinically analysed; what factors caused this deterioration in the industrial production and working setting. How could one forget that Bengal used to be one of the most affluent states of India before independence? Industrial output was the highest in the country, the state frequently attracted people from as far as Rajasthan and Gujarat when it came down to business. Most of the people who migrated from other states made Bengal their second home.

Maharashtra was not a major industrial state in the last century.. It was not a rich state. Bombay of those days had textile companies and was hub of left-dominated trade unions. The mills of Bombay (now Mumbai) were serious cash – generators. Obviously many independent trade unions, not affiliated to any left party, have came up. They functioned more on the regional affinity line. Labourers from south preferred to join unions led by south Indian leader. Maharashtrians preferred a local Marathi leader.

This regional orientation was one of the basic factors for birth and growth of don culture in Bombay. The independent trade unionists who were not affiliated to any political party, either to INTUC or Left, maintained a cordial relation with the underworld operators. In most of the cases, the management of the mills took their help to foil the strikes or force the union leaders to keep away from the mills. Interestingly the industrialists and businessmen who migrated to Bombay cursing Bengal of being the lawless state did not complain against this cult of Bombay violence.

Dattatray Samant a doctor by profession was the fieriest trade union leader, who had led 300 thousand textile mill workers in on a year-long strike in 1982, which triggered the closure of most of the textile mills in the city was killed by the underworld operators at the behest of the mill owners. Underworld don Chota Rajan was put on trial for masterminding the sensational assassination of one the country's most charismatic union leaders. Only recently, a week back, a special CBI court in Mumbai exonerated him of all charges for want of cogent and conclusive evidence.

“Freight equalization Policy”, that was enacted by the Government of India in 1950’s helped the industrialists in Maharashtra while adversely affecting the economy of Bengal. Under this policy, resources from one state could be used to set up industries in a completely different state. Unlike the British era where industries were being set up right in places where resources were, this time such wasn’t the case. Flying of the industries from Bengal to Maharashtra or Gujarat was facilitated by this policy, apart from labour unrest in the last part of the century in Bengal.

The industrialists started creating pressure on the Bengal government for more leverage and assistance. For all practical purposes, the state government was not in the position to meet their demands. Left bashing became the most easiest refrain to move the industry out of state. Since the Marwaris mainly owned the industries, they became the target of political attack. An attempt was made by some to create the impression that Bengalis treated the Marwari businessmen as their enemies.

Before coming to power in 1977, the left had identified with the aspiration of the refugees which formed its support base. In sixties the state has also to witness shortage of food supply. People from Calcutta had to go to the rural areas to purchase rice. Even they could not purchase more than 2 kgs. Whichever party was in power was faced with the challenge to meet the needs of the people. The labourers naturally started asserting for more economic benefits. Industrialists were also finding it difficult to meet the challenge. Obviously denied of any significant support from government, they moved to other states using violence and law and order as an alibi.

Trade-union membership figures were already higher in West Bengal than in the other states and doubled between 50s and 60s. Disillusioned middle-class migrants, living in settlements on the outskirts of Calcutta, were forced into the labour market. Skilled workers in engineering, chemical industries and clerical jobs had to deal with high unemployment rates. After partition, lakhs of youth and other refugees joined the employment market. It was an explosive situation.

An insight into the political and economic occurrences would make it clear that the anti-Left forces had used the then prevailing situation to malign the left ideology and forces. The CPI(M) led Left Front also made many mistakes. Thousands of MSMEs were closed down under the Left rule due to wrong tactics of the trade unions, especially the CITU and SUCI led union. Strike in industrial units including the MSMEs became the immediate option for getting demands conceded rather than the last option.

The same Bengal which was derided by everyone at that time has now bounced back. Now the state has 1.45 lakh active companies, the fourth-highest in the country. It would have the flagship Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS) 2025 kickoff in February 2025. All the nine cement companies are operative. Bengal is known as the 'cement hub' of India".

Major IT companies WIPRO, Cognizant, Infosys have their operational base in the state. Bengal’s Silicon Valley Tech Hub has been established across 200 acres in Rajerhat New Town". Though the young Bengalis still prefer to fly over to Hyderabad and Bengaluru, the recent development indices point out that there are over 1,000 software companies that employ around 2.6 lakh people.

Bengal's handloom industry is on an upward trajectory, employing 5.4 lakh workers, the second highest in India. Major companies such as ITC, Shree Cements, Berger Paints, Ambuja Neotia Group, Titagarh Rail systems are operating successfully. Though like sixties, the BJP party leaders are busy building narrative that the state is plagued with violence and political killings and unrest rules the roost, but this has, for the better of the people, failed to have a major impact on the people of state and the economy.

It goes to the credit of the Mamata Banerjee led Trinamool Congress government that the labour, both organized and unorganized have been looked after by the labour department. Rarely, there is any dispute on wages or bonus between the employers and the trade unions. The state labour department intervenes much before and any strike possibility is averted. The workers are also doing their best.

Many big corporates have not come to Bengal in the recent years, but there has been a big expansion of the MSME sector which is the main agent for job generation. The wages in MSME sector have gone up benefitting mostly the rural and urban poor. That is a factor which is helping politically the Mamata Banerjee government. The coming conclave in February 2025 organised by the state government to woo investments in Bengal has drawn good response from many big houses of the country. Things have been looking up in the industrial front. (IPA Service)