Union Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs Anurag Thakur objected to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s rule and requested her to ensure a conducive environment to attract investments in the state. This comes after a female reporter of Republic TV‘s sister channel Republic Bangla was hounded and heckled by Trinamool Congress (TMC) supporters during a rally in Bhatpara on January 22.
Anurag Thakur’s advise to Mamata Banerjee
Speaking to reporters, Thakur said, “I think stopping media from doing its job is not right. Bengal’s image gets soiled because of this.”
“You attack the elected leaders, you attack the journalists and their is a violence spree after the elections and people run away leaving their homes behind. This impacts Bengal’s image and people don’t come here to invest which is why the problem of unemployment arises. I request Mamata didi that action should be taken against such MLAs (who promote this).”
The Minister’s statements follow the heckling by TMC supporters during a rally of reporters who were at the spot to cover the event. In the visuals caught on camera, the West Bengal police were also present at the rally but were mute spectators as they did nothing to control the crowd.
West Bengal’s industrialisation has always been its Achilles heel due to many roadblocks that private companies face. The ouster of TATA from the state is a textbook case study which deprived thousands of people of employment opportunities. It was in 2008 when the TATA group abandoned its plan to establish a manufacturing plant for Nano in Singur after the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC started a movement against the land acquisition for the plant during the CPI(M) regime. After TATA group chairman Ratan Tata decided to take the project out of West Bengal, Gujarat grabbed the opportunity and granted it land for the manufacturing plant.