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Rot stems from ill-conceived coal nationalization plan

Subhash Chakravarti, a legendary chief of bureau of The Times of India, recently recounted an encounter between Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and the West Bengal Congress supremo Atulya Ghosh in the early-1960s. "I have heard", Nehru told Ghosh accusingly, "that you are a bit too friendly with Calcutta's Marwari businessmen". Never inclined to kowtow to someone he regarded as a poseur, Ghosh's reply was characteristically blunt: "What you have heard is right. Our party needs money, not merely for Bengal but for UP and Bihar too. Who do you think funds us? Without that money you wouldn't be wearing that rose on your lapel."

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