At business summit, Mamata makes investors sing

Dhanuka began singing the evergreen hindi song "Ae Mere Pyare Watan" and later Rabindranath Tagore's masterpiece "Jodi tor daak sune keu na ase tobe ekla cholo re" (If no one responds to your call, then go your own way alone) as Goenka, Banerjee and others present on the dais hummed along.

At Banerjee's insistence, then everybody stood up to sing the national anthem that brought the programme to a close.

The opposition lost no time in taking pot shots about the music session at the summit, being held with the declared objective of drawing investment.

"She had put up so many of her pictures, posters, made lavish arrangements. But while she kept on calling the investors, nobody turned up. In the end, she had to sing Ekla cholo re", quipped Surjya Kanta Mishra of the Communist Party of India-Marxist in Kolkata.

Banerjee, who took the centrestage at the function, in her inimitable style called the bureaucrats by their first names and made them stand one by one in her bid to introduce them to the gathering.

She also had an interactive session with the investors and went on calling a few of them by the names of the companies they represent.

"NTPC, NTPC is there any one from NTPC," she enquired a few times. There was no reply. None from the central PSU was present. Unperturbed she went to claim that the power corporation was setting up several projects in the state. "Alipurduar, file is clear.. Also at Katwa, and Raghunathpur they will set up plants.