Letters: Where's the bias?
This refers to two articles published in your daily last week that talked of the current state of affairs in West Bengal. The first, Bhupesh Bhandari’s column “White knight: Bashing the businessmen” (February 3), mentioned a particular business community by name and stated that it was unhappy with the present chief minister because of the “strict” action taken against the directors on the AMRI board. The piece had a tinge of communalism that was apparent from the author’s statement that “their [the community mentioned] indignation is still muted” (emphasis added). Somewhere in the middle of the piece, the author ran out of points and facts and, therefore, switched to Mahatma Gandhi and J R D Tata. Hence, it seems that he did not have any conviction in the points he wanted to highlight. My understanding of the AMRI case vis-a-vis the business community to which the author refers is that though some members of that community could be disappointed, they know in their heart of hearts that the present chief minister and the Bengali community, in general, may suffer from many drawbacks, but they certainly do not suffer from any biased views against any community.
The second piece by Ishita Ayan Dutt (“Fear factor,” February 4) unnecessarily raised the bogey that the community concerned was peeved with the handling of the AMRI fire case. This case is sub judice and the chief minister can do little in this regard. The author also wrote that industrialisation of West Bengal is not a priority for Mamata Banerjee. She also wrote that independent directors of many hospitals have tendered their resignations. I do not understand the relevance of these issues with the “fear factor” she mentions. Does she mean that for the sake of industrial growth, the law should not be allowed to run its course? Again, why should directors or businessmen be so fearful as to resign if they are certain that there is nothing wrong with the way their corporations are running?
Nirupam Haldar Kolkata
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