Far from it. At the state secretariat meeting today, Bhattacharjee was silent but just a week ago, his No. 2 and state Industries Minister Nirupam Sen had echoed his lines at a meeting with chambers of commerce. “We, in the government, do not support bandhs,” he said. “In West Bengal, bandhs assume a different connotation. Elsewhere, everything doesn’t get affected the way it does here. This should certainly be considered. From the government’s side, we assure you we do not want bandhs. But we do not get what we want and what we get we do not want.”

His cabinet colleague Subash Chakrabarty endorsed this. “Bandhs did not help anyone,” he said, adding: “The day is not far when people will outright reject bandhs.” Clearly, there’s a disconnect between the CPM government and the CPM party. And while in Kerala, the mood is one of acceptance, few in the West Bengal government can afford to endorse a bandh call:

• Industry associations and chambers of commerce — after much debate — equated the stalling of work in Singur and the bandh called by the Left unions on August 20. “Continued disruptions severely affecting mega projects...with a still-persisting bandh culture and retrograde steps can cruelly wipe out the positive image which West Bengal has been able to create vis-à-vis its industrial regeneration,” the statement said.

“We are turning the clock back.”

• On Bandh Day on August 20, the image of 11-year-old Supon Biswas, who had a brain surgery three months ago, and was stranded at the Howrah Station for five hours with his relatives played out across the state. Similar was the plight of Panchanan Biswas, a villager from Birbhum who had to take his son for a crucial follow-up medical check-up to Bangalore. Their images that day forced CPM leaders to arrange for shifting the patients to Howrah General Hospital. A couple came to the family’s help, having arranged for their air fare to Bangalore the next morning.

• The June 5 bandh by the Left against the oil price hike — and the Trinamool bandh the next day on the same issue — meant that Ritter Wolfgang, an automation expert from German firm Schuler, was stranded at the airport. It didn’t help matters that Wolfgang was to visit the Jamshedpur Tata Motors headquarters in connection with the Nano’s production line. He had to abandon his plan and fly out of Kolkata.

• Nothing gets affected more seriously than the I-T sector, Bhattacharjee’s showpiece. This sector witnessed an investment of over Rs 800 crore and a 48% growth rate in exports over the last three years. As many as 250 companies operate out of Kolkata employing about 45,000 professionals. Many of these are 24X7 service providers with global clients. The gross value of export under Software Technology Park has already exceeded Rs 3600 crore during 2007-8 as against Rs 2160 crore in 2005-06. While this sector was earlier insulated from bandhs, it’s getting difficult to do so now. On August 20, many of these companies were severely affected with staff not being able to reach.

• Mandays lost due to strikes was down but is up again as per records of the latest Economic Review of the state government. It shows that in industrial units, while the number of strikes has dipped, the number of mandays lost has gone up sharply. The number of strikes, for instance, decreased from 383 in 2005 to 272 in 2007 (up to November). However, in 2007 (up to November), the number of mandays lost has increased to 133.5 lakh from 2.4 lakh in 2006 and 31.1 lakh in 2005.