New Delhi, June 19 -- An economic agenda going beyond welfare in its maiden budget on 22 June can help the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in West Bengal rebuild its long lost confidence and prosperity.

The opportunity to shape history and leave a lasting legacy comes rarely to a professional entering politics. Bengal's new finance minister, Swapan Dasgupta, has been presented with one such opportunity. The comparison with Dr Manmohan Singh in 1991 may not be on the same scale, but it is comparable in terms of transformative potential and hope for the people of West Bengal.

At the time of Independence, West Bengal was India's most industrially advanced state and the country's economic powerhouse. The decades that followed witnes...