West Bengal

“Chief minister Jyoti Basu and the communists basically destroyed not just the economy of Kolkata and West Bengal, but, you know, the entire intellectual cultural sphere to a point that Kolkata has never recovered from that shock.”

“Some part of it was of course, electoral malpractice booth capturing was converted into a art form, but I would argue that even more important than that was a poverty of aspiration.”

“Odisha on the other hand, which was always the poor cousin, is now actually has a per capita income higher than a West Bengal.”

“Kolkata should have been that growth zone. Anchor of the East. So bringing back Kolkata is not just about, ah, reviving West Bengal. It is an anchor of the East, because when it gets going, it, it's just overwhelmingly bigger than Bhuvaneshwar or Ranchi or Goh…”

“And then there was the freight equalization, whereby the whole eastern region, the mines, the minerals and metals were available all over the country at the same price. So the eastern region lost its advantage.”