W. Bengal’s Messiah

Until a few years ago, West Bengal was synonymous with dwindling industrial growth, entrepreneurial apathy and lack of blue-collar jobs. However, things have been changing since Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee (63) took over as the Chief Minister. Besides getting software firms to open shop, he convinced Tata Motors to rollout its Rs 1-lakh car from the state and wooed the Salim Group, an Indonesian business house, to set up a petrochemical plant in Nandigram. Perhaps, he relied too much on his party loyalists. His dream of bringing industrialisation in Bengal seems to have been brought to a halt—with Nandigram erupting in violence and bloodshed.