JOIN USThe war of words between Ratan Tata and Trinamool Congress continued on Friday after a few other ministers jumped into the fray to slam the former chairman of Tata Group for questioning lack of industrialisation in West Bengal.
After the state’s finance minister Amit Mitra lashed out at Tata on Thursday, two other ministers, Education Minister Partha Chatterjee and Water Resources Development Minister Soumen Mahapatra hit out at Tata.
Unlike Mitra or his Cabinet colleagues, Firhad Hakim and Madan Mitra, neither of them, however, made personal attacks against Tata but criticised him for making “an irresponsible statement without understanding the problems the state is facing”.
Chatterjee, who held the industry portfolio before Mitra, said, “I’m pained at Ratan Tata’s remarks. He had driven from the airport through Rajarhat, a route which is not supposed to have any industry as it is an evolving township with residential complexes and offices. Had he driven through the electronics complex at Salt Lake, he could have seen the existence of several IT companies.”
“Tata said he is coming to the city after two years. He could have made the unwilling farmers of Singur happy by returning their land, which he didn’t,” Chatterjee added.
Mitra, after being hit back at by Tata via Twitter on Thursday said through the Trinamool official website, “My humble request to a man like Ratan Tata is that he should be more careful about making such irresponsible and wrong comments. Such unnecessary comments undermine the effort being taken to develop Bengal.”
The story started on Wednesday after Tata Group’s 73-year-old chairman emeritus said during a programme in Kolkata that he was yet to notice any industrialisation in the state. Reacting to this statement, Mitra called Tata “delusional” and asked him to stick to his hobbies like flying planes.
Tata, who replied to Mitra via Twitter, called the minister’s anger “needless” and said he had only made an observation following his journey from the airport to the city.
The industrialist also wanted to know from Mitra if he could point out the industrial projects he had missed on his journey. Hakim joined the argument by saying that the state is “not in need of Ratan Tata’s certificate on industrial growth”.