New Delhi:
An annual investors' meet organised by the Commerce Ministry and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has been moved out of Kolkata to Agra. This is being seen as the UPA's retaliation against Mamata Banerjee after a bitter and public break up. For Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, this is a vote of confidence - and possibly a thank you message.
Mr Yadav's party has assured the government of its continued outside support after Ms Banerjee pulled out her 19 MPs from government, putting it into a political crisis. So the choice of Agra is more significant than it being the city of the Taj Mahal and now just a couple of hours' drive from Delhi.
The Ministry of Commerce shifted the venue. Minister Anand Sharma has requested Mr Yadav to host the meet in January 2013. It is meant to pull in big investors from across the world and to persuade them to put their money in India.
The West Bengal Chief Minister has made several appeals for such investments, since her state is in a very poor financial health. Ms Banerjee has even invited US president Barack Obama to ask American corporations to invest in the state. Just last week, US ambassador to India Nancy Powell had a meeting with Ms Banerjee and in May, secretary of state Hillary Clinton too met her.
But with the strong stand that Ms Banerjee has taken against foreign investment in retail -- one of the reasons for her pulling out of government -- the government might have changed its mind about the suitability of Kolkata as the venue to showcase India as an investment destination.