West Bengal is an Indian state in the eastern part of the country, and the only one in India with an incumbent woman Chief Minister — Mamata Banerjee.
The region, which was the political heart of the Bengal Presidency during British Rule, was divided into East and West Bengal in 1947. Bengal was a hotbed of the Indian Independence movement and has remained one of the country’s great artistic and intellectual centres, being home to Nobel laureates Rabindranath Tagore, Mother Teresa, Amartya Sen and Abhijit Banerjee as well as freedom fighter Subhash Chandra Bose and Oscar winner Satyajit Ray.
Geographically, the state is happily situated with the Himalayas in the north and the Sundarbans in the south. It shares a roughly 2,200-sqkm border with Bangladesh (East Bengal at the time of Partition).
For the first 30 years, the Congress ruled Bengal, but made way for Left domination for the next 34 years. In 2011, Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress — a breakaway from the Congress — came to power.
It was his own party that blocked his way. Polit bureau members like Prakash Karat and Biman Mukherjee who are non-accountable to the public, manipulated the PB and he was told to refuse the offer. Jyoti Basu called it “a historical blunder.'” How true this has proved to be!
Budhdhabau is indeed frail. But he is not forgotten.
Still people want to know about him and eagerly wait for any news about him.
It was a blunder that happened in 2011 and hopefully time will correct it.
Mr Bhattacharya was indeed able to attract many industrialists to Bengal. JSW is one of them. Singer and Nandigram was manipulated to her favour by Mamta. Even today she struggles to get investors to the state. Unfortunately CMP politburo did not support his decision to resolve Singur imbroglio, agreed to in governors House in presence of Mamta. It was a few 100 acre trade off. His party betrayed him by not allowing him to do the concession, and then the CPM also drowned in 2012
Read the comments made earlier. Many of the comments are factually incorrect. Bengal was never a BIMARU state. ( B ihar, M adhya Pradesh, R ajasthan, U ttar Pradesh are the BIMARU states.) It was during Bhattacharya’s reign that Bengal had become of the top states in agriculture producing the highest amounts of paddy and potato. Moreover Bengal was one of the very few states which had a zero riot record even when the country sizzled post Ayodhya and post Godhra.
Bhattacharya was a politician and gentleman…one of the rare breeds in India now. The IT industry in Bengal which boasts of names from TCS to IBM and employs over a lakh people are all Bhattacharya’s work.
He had tried to bring the automobile industry in Singur and chemical industry at Nandigram but had failed miserably. Still, this doesnot take away his contribution to Bengal
Very well said. My voice chokes whenever I try to think about this gentleman and great human being. His reign as CM was the only golden decade in Bengal’s history. TMC took over like a bunch of vultures. A situation quite similar to the story of The Lion King.
Very sad state of affairs for Bengal, past was glory, present is bleak and future is dark
May he get well soon.
Needless to say for last 32 years CPIM killed Bengal & then generation after generation in terms of Education, jobs, industry, development program. They left no stone unturned to sabotage Bengal! Laks & Laks of people were killed/trotured. God has listen to it & bestowed long & tremendous suffering before death to them. I don’t feel a bit sorry for them …..!
Left affiliated Trade Union ruined many industrial units by too violent means. However, it was because of left Union, poor daily wagers, industrial workers and million managed to get decent wages. It was partially the narrow minded industrialist who attempted to exploit workers and thus trade unions got hold of workers. I wish they maintained some Lakshman Rekha.
This is message to all those politicians in power who are arrogant and don’t meet common man and don’t redress their grievances. Law of Nature shall apply one day and no-one will care you except spend the days in solitary. Hands of God is supreme.
A good man. Wishing him health and a long life. Very gracious of HE the Governor to call on him.
Sir aaj Kal His Excellency is passe. It is Maha Mahim ?
Higher caste intellectual men destroyed Bengal and supported violence to stay in power. Mamata is cut off the same cloth and BJP will do the same in the future, all thanks to the Leftist rule for over three decades. This is the time when Bengal joined BIMARU states for its horrible development indices but since recovering in Mamata’s rule. The latter being an underappreciated aspect of her connect with peoplem
Late Harkishen Singh Surjeet, Late Jyoti Basu and Shri Budhadeb Bhattacharjee – they were all people with novel ideas and initiatives. But they were not allowed to do their job in an atmosphere of narrow thinking and political expediency. If they were allowed to do what they wanted to do the history of India would have been different today. While saying this, I particularly refer to the fact of Jyoti Basu’s missed opportunity to become Prime Minister of India.