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India into a one-party state, communist leaders are devising a new
plan, neither looking west towards Moscow or Wall Street, but east
towards Beijing.

"Chinese government has initiated new programmes," says the West
Bengal Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya.

"They say the socialist economy should also allow different types of
ownership - state ownership and private ownership and foreign
investment."

While Lenin's statue presides in a central Calcutta park, skyscrapers,
flyovers and consumer billboards mark the real city landscape and its
aspirations.

It is at least a generation behind China, but the idea is to woo the
growing middle-class which will, in turn, give confidence to foreign
investors.

"Previously what happened was that the communists had a very strong
rural base so they used to keep winning in the villages," explains
25-year-old IT consultant Ruhin Chatterjee, one among millions of
young middle-class voters who support the communists. "But in the
cities they never won. This latest election has seen a change in
that."

[...]

About 80% of Indians still live on less than $2 a day, whereas in
China that figure has dropped to less than 50%.

While mobile phones seem to abound in Calcutta, 13 Chinese have one to
every one Indian.

The statistics in other areas bear out the same story - China has
outpaced India in just about every level of development.

And in the crucial area of direct foreign investment, China receives
almost $60bn a year compared to just $5bn for the whole of India.

"Chinese economy has an inner strength," admits Chief Minister
Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, whose plan for development depends on
attracting billions of dollars in foreign investment.