Former Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly, who had come under fire recently from the saffron camp for accompanying chief minister Mamata Banerjee to Spain and announcing an investment plan in Bengal over there, on Thursday stepped out of the proverbial crease to hit critics out of the park with a defiant statement.
Asked to respond to the bitter criticism from the BJP here while he was in Spain with Mamata, Ganguly said he would do as he pleases, as long as he is in the right.
“Look, brother, I am an individual. I am not an MLA, MP… minister, or councillor, nothing. I do not have any political attachment. I will go wherever I please. I will go wherever I want. I am not answerable to anyone. I will go wherever I feel it’s good. I get invited by the world,” said the 51-year-old former India captain, who was the BCCI president till last year.
“I am not interested in politics... so all those who are trying to create a ruckus with this, please don’t do that,” said Ganguly. ”We are credible people.... I don’t have any political agenda...,” Ganguly told the media on the sidelines of a news meet at a Calcutta hotel on Sri Lanka spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan’s biopic, 800.
The BJP’s displeasure with Ganguly came out in the open after he praised Bengal’s investment climate and announced investment plans for a steel plant in West Midnapore's Salboni, in Madrid on September 15.
BJP state unit chief Sukanta Majumdar and leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Suvendu Adhikari made bellicose allusions about Ganguly, suggesting Mamata had co-opted him to “fool the people” of Bengal.
Till he was hospitalised with cardiac issues, ahead of the 2021 Assembly polls, speculation was rife that Ganguly would join the BJP. He hosted Union home minister Amit Shah even in the summer of 2022.
Much seems to have changed since then.
“I will go wherever I’m invited, and I feel I should go. Various people go, everybody goes… what’s the big deal? Only here do I see such a fuss, so much discussion taking place,” said Ganguly, who was in Spain as part of a Bengal delegation led by Mamata to scout for investments for the state and court football league La Liga.
“We don’t live in an animal world, we live in a society where you go and meet people..... That does not mean anything. That is why I will go wherever I want,” he added.
“I am an individual, I am a public person…. As long as I do the right thing, and I don’t hurt people, I don’t do the wrong things… I will do it,” Ganguly, fondly called "Dada", he said.
In Madrid, as part of a Bengal Global Business Summit campaign, Ganguly announced an investment in Salboni that is likely to create jobs for 6,000 people. Captain Steel India Ltd, which manufactures TMT bars, will be the major driver behind the project.
As to why he made his Salboni announcement in Madrid and not Bengal — a query asked by not only the BJP but also the CPM and the Congress — Ganguly said that the venue was immaterial.
“Had the programme taken place in Delhi, the announcement would have taken place in Delhi. Had it taken place in Calcutta, it would have happened in Calcutta. There is no difference between Spain, Calcutta, or Delhi (in this regard),” he said.
On the Salboni plan, he said: “Yes, this (the factory) will certainly happen… within 16 to 20 months."