Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of West Bengal, has come under fire for the potential closure of FMCG giant Britannia's historic biscuit plant located in Kolkata. Britannia said on Monday that all of the permanent employees at its Kolkata-based Taratala mill have agreed to participate in the Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS). The announcement created a rumor that the facility would be shut down. A group of citizens who witnessed firm after business leave Bengal during Left and TMC government did not take well to the scenario. The final significant business to leave Bengal was Tata Motors, which closed its Nano vehicle plant after opposition leader Mamata Banerjee staged a large-scale demonstration. Now that she is the chief minister, it is probable that a second behemoth will shut down its facility.
Kanchan Gupta, who worked as an advisor at the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting during the Modi 2.0, enumerated a number of items on Monday that were commonly associated with Bengal, including the scent of Kanta, hair oil from Jabakusum, face cream from Afghan Snow, body lotion from Tuhina, Darjeeling tea, dinnerware from Bengal Potteries, radiograms from Philips, Boroline, talcum from Cuticura, and biscuits called Britannia Thin Arrowroot.
"Some of these goods have undergone rebranding, but the majority have vanished completely. A few have managed to endure with some minor tweaks. Up until about a week ago, Britannia Thin Arrowroot was one of the survivors, the man said in a thorough article on X headlined, "From Tata Motors to Britannia: A bit of Bengaliness, if not Bengal, dies."
Gupta claimed that for seven decades, Britannia was as well-known and a people's brand across all social strata as Boroline or any of the other goods he had mentioned. "Bong life was unthinkable without thin arrowroot biscuits made by Britannia."
When Calcutta Airport had daily BOAC flights carrying businessmen, investors, and industrialists across seas and oceans, the turbulent 1960s saw the beginning of the exodus of all boxwallah companies from Bengal, independent India's most industrialized State, where Indigenous enterprise coexisted peacefully with foreign capital.
According to the eminent public affairs analyst, all boxwallah enterprises started to leave Bengal - the most industrialized state in independent India—at the start of the tumultuous 1960s."By the violent 1970s and the Marxist decades that followed, what little remained of the famed Bengal industry and Bengali enterprise disappeared in bits and pieces while dollhouse townships like Dunlop and Bata Nagar became indistinguishable from the rest of decrepit and decaying Bengal."
Gupta expressed that discovering Britannia had turned off the lights and stopped operating its machinery at its expansive plant in Kolkata was an odd sensation. "I suppose this was inevitable," he remarked, citing the company's declaration that the factory's closure "would not have any material impact on the company's business operations." This implies that Britannia will keep its profits after deducting its activities in Calcutta. "What does that say about Mamata Banerjee, the TMC, and the West Bengal government?" he inquired.
Entrepreneur Sanjiva Jha said that Britainnia was moving in the direction of Batavia. He described the news of the shutdown of the storied Britannia factory in Taratolla, Kolkata, as depressing. "This iconic establishment in south Kolkata has been a landmark in the City of Joy for seven decades," he said on X. The gradual shutdown of industries in West Bengal is a concerning trend, leading to increased unemployment and economic stagnation." Jha stated that rather than political violence and never-ending parochialism, Bengal should prioritize building an atmosphere that is favorable to industrial growth, job creation, and securing a better future for its people.
Amit Malviya, the leader of the BJP's IT unit, accused the Left and TMC administrations on Monday for the factory's collapse in Bengal. He said, "Today's shutdown of Britannia Industries' factory starkly epitomizes the descent of Bengal — a region once renowned for its cultural richness and intellectual prowess -- into profound disarray."
On the other hand, the TMC claimed that internal management problems at Britannia were the cause of the closure. According to Kunal Ghosh of the ruling party, there were certain problems with their administration of the relevant industrial organization. "It is incorrect for those to combine it with the state's general industrial predicament. The manufacture of biscuits has led to the establishment of several new enterprises in the state and the creation of jobs for a large number of people. An organization's management will investigate if problems are limited to a single branch, according to Ghosh.
