Sixty years of leftism & quasi-leftism killed the city & state’s economic vitality. But a revival isn’t hard. Policy needs to build on moribund industrial bases & stock exchange. Plus, prioritise learning English

A week after Bengal’s momentous electoral earthquake, as I dined at a Tangra-Chinese restaurant in Singapore, the Bengali owner declared our meal would be on the house to celebrate the state’s deliverance from six decades of economic blight.

For two centuries until the mid-1960s, Kolkata was a magnet for businessmen and workers searching for opportunity.

But for the past 60 years, the flow reversed, obliging Bengalis to flee worldwide, as opportunities dried up in their home state.

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