They came, they saw and they pitched for their states - (Or how Kejriwal conquered Didi's show with a ' nani')

Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee speaks as Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal (eighth from left), 

Bhutan Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay (ninth), Union finance minister Arun Jaitley (tenth) and industrialist 

Mukesh Ambani  (extreme right) look on at the two-day Bengal Global Business Summit in Calcutta on 

Friday. Picture by Amit Datta

Devadeep Purohit, TT, Calcutta, Jan. 8: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal today charmed the audience at the Global Bengal Business Summit by empathising with business on its everyday travails in the country.

"Iss desh ke andar business karna kitna muskil hai! Nani yaad aajati hai (Doing business is so difficult in this country. You are forced to remember your maternal grandmother)," Kejriwal said.

"Without giving money, no work gets done.... Work is not done even after paying money. How do you people conduct business?" he asked.

The statement was greeted by a roar of laughter, followed by a huge round of applause. ("Nani yaad" has had a chequered history in Indian politics. When Rajiv Gandhi had thundered "nani yaad dila denge" from Delhi's Boat Club ground at the height of the Bofors controversy, it had backfired and the then Prime Minister had become the butt of ridicule.)

Kejriwal went on to promise several sops, including a cut in the rates of value-added tax and procedural simplification, for potential investors in Delhi.

The setting for Kejriwal's pitch to business had several standout features.

One, the event was hosted by the Mamata Banerjee government to pitch for investments for the eastern state. The platform was deftly used by Kejriwal to try and court investors to the state he runs.

Two, on the dais a few chairs away from Kejriwal sat Union finance minister Arun Jaitley, who was the target of withering attacks by the chief minister over the Delhi cricket association in the past few weeks. Jaitley, who spoke before Kerjiwal, is also seen as the face of the economic policies of the Narendra Modi government whose assertions on "ease of doing business" were being indirectly shredded on stage by Kejriwal.

Three, also on the dais was Mukesh Ambani, who runs India's largest private sector company and whose gas venture's pricing had drawn a high-decibel attack from Kejriwal in his first innings as chief minister. In Kejriwal's second term, however, the issue has stayed under the radar.

Barring Ambani, the heavyweight quotient on the stage appeared to tilt heavily in favour of politicians although the meeting is being called a business summit.

The event drew several central and state ministers, Bhutan Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay, Bangladesh commerce minister Tofayel Ahmed and the British minister for employment, Priti Patel.

At investment summits in most other parts of the country, such as Gujarat and Rajasthan, it is difficult to spot so many politicians as the focus remains firmly on business.

"These people were invited not only to lift the status of the summit but also to show the chief minister's ability to get senior politicians from other states and even other countries," said a Mamata aide.

Kejriwal's presence was billed in Trinamul circles as a political move since he and Mamata are considered potential allies if a federal front takes shape. Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar was also invited to the meet but he could not turn up and sent a senior minister as his representative.

When Kejriwal's turn came to speak, he tried to hardsell the prospects of Delhi as an investment destination.

"The wearer knows where the shoe pinches.... You tell me what the problems are and I will solve them," said the Delhi chief minister, explaining how he had shrunk the time taken for clearing the staging of events from three or four months to 20 minutes.

"For any event in Delhi, there used to be a requirement of 27 clearances and the last one from the fire department would be given only an hour before the programme. Because of that, fire department officers could ask for anything and they would get it. But that has changed," he added.

Kejriwal was putting on display his famed ability to read the pulse of his audience. The Delhi chief minister also cited the odd-even car-rationing experiment in the capital to claim that it had disproved suggestions that the Aam Aadmi Party was "a party of dharnas and we cannot govern".

Some industrialists later said they were "impressed" with the Delhi chief minister, as he sounded "practical".

Not just Kejriwal, Tobgay, the Bhutan Prime Minister, and Ahmed, the Bangladesh minister, used the platform provided by Mamata to woo investments in their own way. If Ahmed dangled the special economic zone carrot - a no-no in Mamata's Bengal - for Indian companies, Tobgay talked about clean energy and organic food to invite investments to Bhutan.

Four senior central ministers - Jaitley, transport, ports and shipping minister Nitin Gadkari, railway minister Suresh Prabhu and power minister Piyush Goyal - explained Prime Minister Narendra Modi's agenda of co-operative federalism, a concept that Mamata had underscored in her inaugural address.

"As proud Indians, we all are together.... If the state develops, the country also develops. It is a joint venture scheme," Mamata said.

The central ministers dwelt extensively on Modi's avowed agenda of making the states stronger, explaining how they were extending help to the state, and praised Mamata for her dynamism.

But a Trinamul MLA later said: "All this praise from BJP ministers is not good for us ahead of the polls.... Besides, it will get difficult to accuse the Centre of a step-motherly attitude towards the state."