People's Democracy

THE Bengal CPI(M) has published a White Paper on the variety of misdeeds and misdemeanors of the Pradesh Congress and the Trinamul Congress, thoroughly exposing both. The White Paper chronicles the wrongdoings of the Pradesh Congress and Trinamul Congress starting from the 1960s - the conspiracies hatched against the first United Front government in Bengal is discussed in detail, and the list of heinous misdeeds committed against the CPI (M) during the decade of the 1960s is also recorded, including the efforts, with the help of a section of the Press to blacken the name of CPI (M) by pointing an accusing finger at it over the gruesome killing of the late Forward Bloc leader, Hemanta Kumar Bose. The attack launched by Left sectarian elements or the Naxalites is also covered in detail, as is the comprehensive assault on the CPI (M) during the Emergency years of the mid-1970s.

The long list of forgeries and deceptions of the current Trinamul Congress leader, Mamata Banerjee, including her floating of a fake doctoral degree, the farce of the "loan mela affair", the series of false promises on "re-opening’ closed factories, the tale of the "scientific molestation" of Champala Sardar, the forcible occupation of the Bedi Bhavan in Kolkata, her attempted armed foray on the Writers’ Buildings while still in the Congress (where 17 youths lost their lives), the patronage of criminals, and finally the violence of the so-called "Panskura line" are all recorded in detail in the pamphlet.

ON March 12, chief minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya addressed an impromptu press conference while visiting the Press Club in Kolkata. Speaking at the Press Club, he asserted that since its inception in 1976-77 the Left Front has always been pro-people, especially pro-poor and will continue to be so in the future as well.

Bhattacharya fielded questions on a variety of topics from the Kolkata media.

On the electoral prospects of the Left Front: The role of the organization is always infinitely larger than the role of an individual in elections. Elections are always considered by us in the CPI (M) as political battle and the Assembly polls are no exception in this regard. The crucial point of the Left Front’s election campaign centres around its programme. The success that the Left Front has achieved in panchayats, municipalities, agriculture, industry and education, has been on the basis of its programme. The final verdict now lies with the people.

On election violence: We do not believe that "blood will flow" during the polls as is being predicted by elements of vested interests. I have no doubt that the coming Assembly polls will be very peaceful. Indeed, a central slogan of the Left Front has been: development and not anarchy; peace and not violence.

On the role of separatist outfits in Bengal: The demand for a separate state by the Kamtapuri and Jharkhand elements is a dangerous development. They are being backed by the Trinamul Congress in their demand to re-partition Bengal. The people will foil such moves, and teach them a proper lesson in the elections.

There is no point in comparing Ghising’s GNLF with either the Kamtapuris or the Jharkhand elements. The GNLF claimed an autonomous council for an area where 98 per cent of the populace speak the same language. There is no basis at all for such a claim to be put forward by either the Kamtapuris or the Jharkhand separatists.

On the Opposition’s criticism of the Left Front’s policies: The Opposition are perennial non-believers in progress and development. They find it hard to reconcile themselves with the fructification of the Haldia and the Bakreswar projects, surmounting the immensity of hurdles. The current phase of industrial development in the province has probably unnerved them badly enough to give vent to inconsequential mud-slinging against the Left front government.

On Minorities under the Left Front government: The minorities are very safe and secure in Bengal under the Left Front. I shall give but one example of the Left Front’s attitude vis-à-vis the Muslims. A mere 238 Madrasas could be set up in the two hundred years since the introduction of the Madrasa in India. During our governance of 24 years, 269 Madrasas have been established; we spend Rs 115 crore for the development of the Madrasa system of education while in 1976, on the eve of assumption of office by the Left Front, the annual allocation stood at Rs 5.7 lakh.

On the prospects of the Left Front in the coming polls: The Left Front remains solidly grounded in the hearts and minds of the people of Bengal. The Front has come up through a lot of sacrifices, and through the blood, sweat, tears and toil expended by its cadres. We regret that we shall not be able to satisfy our detractors when the poll results come out.

On the chief minister’s electoral prospects from Jadavpore: We have complete faith in the democratically-minded people of Jadavpore, and for those who are curious, I will not make any comments at all on the Trinamul Congress’s fielding of a cine artiste from Jadavpore.

Your comments on Mamata Banerjee’s oft-repeated utterance "Now or Never": Life is much longer than such short-term sentiments, to have any impact.

NO sooner had Trinamul Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee announced the names of "her" candidates (as she would put it), a huge fracas broke out at Nizam Palace of the city where the hopefuls had gathered for what they quaintly refer to as "the ticket."

The Trinamul Congress, already deep in the throes of internecine violence described otherwise as a "friendly exchange of opinion" between the "old" Trinamul Congress "stalwarts", and the come-lately members of defectors from other political parties, chiefly the Pradesh Congress, was further embarrassed when Mamata Banerjee was able to announce a list of only 261 candidates out of a total of 294. Of these it was noted no less than 12 seats had either a multiple-choice configuration, or, worse, had a number of names of candidates, not very successfully scratched out – the earlier choices inexpertly made to disappear. It was surprising that Mamata did not see a CPI(M) conspiracy behind this "shadowy" affair, nor invoke an early investigation by the CBI - her two favourite ways out of any awkward situations.

When the lsit was announced fisticuffs broke on the premises of the Press Club, to the extent that former I A S officer Dipak Ghosh, Mamata’s choice for Mahisadal in Midnapore, had to flee for his life, chased by a large and irate mob of Trinamul Congress hopefuls who shouted invectives not only against Ghosh but against Mamata herself; an effective demonstration of congress culture.

Also coming in for "activist" criticism was Ajit Panja and brother Ranjit Panja’s wangling seats for a whole host of their kin. Ranjit Panja was subsequently unceremoniously chased off his vast residential quarters at Barasat in North 24 Parganas.

Idris Ali, a sitting MLA from Deganga who had been shifted to Baduria (also in North 24 Parganas) started shedding tears while clutching the legs of an embarrassed Mamata and calling out loudly that the man who had been given "the ticket" from Deganga was "a thief who had been kicked out by the CPI (M) long back on charges of defalcation of funds."

REPORTS from Burdwan suggests that things are going from bad to worse there. BJP cadres are furious at Mamata Banerjee for having "ignored their strength" while making her choice of candidates. The district leadership of the BJP told they were determined to field candidates against the Trinamul Congress’s choice, should the threats of physical action against the announced candidates not work out. Mamata’s ‘moral high ground’ is rather dented by her choice of candidate for Ausgram in Burdwan, a man of notoriety in supplying undistilled spirits to the local population whose name is inscribed in the bad books of the district administration.

In north Bengal the Kamtapuris are in a huff over getting a share of only six seats against the 19 they had laid claim to. At Jalpaiguri township, an ugly drama was played out when a newcomer to Trinamul Congress, Anupam Sen was chased around a large part of the urban centre by supporters of the "old Trinamul Congress" leader Kalyan Charabartry.

There is also a simmering of discontent over Mamata’s choice of candidates in Kolkata and the two 24 Parganas, South and North.

No wonder, then, that Mamata Banerjee chose to make herself scarce moments after releasing the list to the media. Having spent a couple of nights in the flat of Trinamul Congress M P, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, she is reported to have taken off for an unknown destination, en route to taking shelter in her ministerial quarters in Delhi.

But more embarrassing news awaited Mamata from elsewhere in Bengal. The police have arrested a Trinamul activist called Saran Dewan for the shoot-out at Pankhabari in Darjeeling in which GNLF supremo, Subhas Ghising was badly injured. The Police believe that Saran Dewan, a history-sheeter, was working in close cooperation with certain extremist outfits of north-eastern states.

In the meanwhile, a district-level leader of the Trinamul Congress, Ujjwal Chatterjee, alias "Ukhu" in Birbhum, was caught red-handed while merrily working away as a satta bookie. His arrest has severely embarrassed the Trinamul Congress candidates from Birbhum district.

THE name of the village is Balpai. Situated deep inside the verdant countryside of Hooghly district, it was another hamlet where the pace of life was leisurely and serene. The night of October 31, 1998 changed all that.

That night, armed hooligans shouting allegiance to the Trinamul Congress and the BJP mounted a vicious attack on the small but well-equipped library of the village in the Daulatchak area. Fire-bombs were lobbed on the library premises, and at the end of the firestorm, what remained of the library comprised only a few charred pillars and columns, and pitiful heaps of burnt bricks. Not a single book survived the conflagration.

The ostensible reason behind this act of fascist vandalism was that the library had painstakingly built up a collection of the classics of Marxism-Leninism over the decades. And the vandals had shouted as they danced around the burning pyre that had been the reading room, "This shall be the fate of all libraries that are factories of producing CPI (M) workers."

The common people who gathered on the spot in silent and tearful rage, promised to rebuild the library, come what may. They also pledged not to go beyond the confines of the village in the drive to collect funds and construction material. They knew, of course, that plentiful books and periodicals would come in from outside as soon as the news of the destruction of the library spread among the people of the state. Bengal continues to have a burgeoning love affair with books defying the invasion of the cyber age.

The villagers were not mistaken. Kolkata alone organised massive drives that brought together literateurs, Left political activists, and thousands of the people who have love for books. And they put up demonstrations, staged shows, and organised marches, all for collecting books to build the Balpai library collection from scratch. Similar programmes were held in the rest of the state.

When on March 8, Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee inaugurated the rebuilt and re-equipped Balpai Library, there were very few dry eyes amongst the villagers who had gathered in their thousands to celebrate the triumph of progress over decadence. "Books are not for burning" went up the cry, a refrain that struck terror in the hearts and minds of the perpetrators of the heinous crime who have not dared to show their faces ever since that fateful night.

When chief minister Bhattacharjee wrote in the brand-new Visitors’ Book of the library, that "Balpai library is the very symbol of knowledge and humanism against the dark portents of demonic and anti-people fervor", he reflected the sentiments of the people of the village, and of the state to whom the name Balpai is no longer the name of just another of Bengal’s hamlets.

BENGAL chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has called for extended cooperation from the various TU organisation towards further acceleration of the process of industrialisation in the state. The meeting was held recently in the Rotunda of the Writers’ Building.

In attendance at the meeting were the leadership of almost all the central TUs including the CITU, AITUC, INTUC, BMS, HMS, Mercantile Federation and TUCC.

The chief minister made plain that just as the management would not get away with trampling underfoot the hard-earned rights of the workers, the latter, too, must ensure that intimidation was never a substitute for maintaining productivity at the factory level. Bhattacharjee said that the Left Front government would never allow any circumstances to develop that would interfere with the rights of the worker-employees.

The meeting discussed the prospects of further speeding up of the process of industrialisation in the state. It also took the problems wracking the jute industry and the issues of minimum wages and the role of the Labour Tribunal.

Later, briefing the media, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said that opportunities for industrial development abounded in Bengal, and the role of the workers was always a crucial part in the overall scheme of things.

Lingering problems continue to hamper the jute industry, and added that while a tripartite agreement could be signed in the tea industry, such an agreement was yet to be implemented in both the jute and engineering industry.

Issues concerning gratuity and PF, too, of concern to the workers were raised. The TU leaders pointed out that the owners of jute mills, in particulars, continued to prove recalcitrant in paying gratuity dues. The management has also been engaged in employing more and more thika mazdoor on a contract basis at less than the minimum wage.

The chief minister has promised ensure that cases pending before the Labor Tribunal were early on taken up and appropriately resolved. Regarding the vacancies existing in the judges’ panel for the Tribunal, too, would be looked into on an emergency basis.