Kolkata: Taking a dig at Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar for his alleged "unpredictable dual nature", Principal Chief Adviser to Chief Minister and Finance Department Amit Mitra compared his tweets raising question on the outcome of Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS) within 24 hours of extending full support for the forthcoming global conclave with the "classic case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde".
The Governor had reportedly assured of working together for the success of the conclave to attract investment for Bengal while attending the annual Bijaya Sammilani on Monday. Within 24 hours, Dhankhar tweeted on Tuesday: "Call upon @MamataOfficial to come out with a WHITE PAPER #BGBS so that information is available in a transparent and accountable manner. It is our obligation that we subscribe to the sanctity of facts and not dictate actions by mere optics of advertisements and statements. Concerned at lack response @MamataOfficial on critical issues flagged a year ago on 5 editions #BGBS.
Ground reality belies 'resounding success' syndrome. Rule of law, respect for human rights and democratic values are imperative for investment. Much needs to be done on these fronts".
A day after taking up the charge of Principal Chief Adviser to Chief Minister and Finance Department, Mitra wrote to the Governor detailing that "the cumulative investment proposals received in BGBS 2015 through BGBS 2019 amounted to Rs 12.32 lakh crores" and it led to the creation of 28 lakh job opportunities.
Besides posting the letter on a micro-blogging site, Mitra also tweeted: "Hon Governor's tweet on Business Summits is a classic case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde. On 9th Nov he strongly supported CM's plan of next Summit "I will leave nothing undone.."&"togetherness"& within 24 hours he tweets venom on Summits, by putting out a year old letter to CM & FM,(me)!"
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is Robert Louis Stevenson's Gothic novel. It was published in 1886 and deals with investigations of strange occurrences between Dr Henry Jekyll and the evil Edward Hyde. The famous novel became a part of the language referring to persons of an unpredictably dual nature "with outwardly good, but shockingly evil".
"Governor said on 9th of Nov at the Meet & Greet event as reported, "We have to ensure there is no room for conflict..no room for adversarial situation.. only one way, togetherness." Very next day, he tweeted the OPPOSITE of these utterances,in a mode of all out conflict ? Shocking!!!" Mitra further stated in his tweet.
In a letter to Dhankhar, Mitra has stated that "you (Dhankhar) should be happy to know that between BGBS 2015 and BGBS 2018, 50.27 percent of the investment proposals went into the implementation mode. For BGBS 2019, already Rs 71,646 crore is under implementation. The employment generated through these investments is to the tune of 28 lakh already".
He also stated that the "impact of BGBS is evinced by the fact that the state GDP has climbed from Rs 4.6 lakh crores in 2010-11 (the year before we came to office) to Rs 12.5 lakh crores in 2019-20. Similarly, the tax collection of the state government has grown from Rs 21,228 crores in 2010-11 to Rs 65,806 crores in 2019-20". The debt-GDP ratio has been brought down from 40.65 percent in 2010-11 to 33.3 percent in 2019-20 and Fiscal deficit has been brought down from 4.24 percent in 2010-11 to 2.63 percent in 2019-20.
Giving the same details to the Governor in a letter on September 24 in 2020, Mitra had also informed him that "the very positive outcomes in the macro-economic parameters of the state government, demonstrate laudable performance of our government, in which BGBS has played a significant role".