LF Calls Upon People To Foil

Trinamul-Sponsored Bandh

  B Prasant

THE Bengal Left Front has called upon the democratically conscious populace of the state to make a complete failure of the Bengal bandh called for by the Trinamul Congress on August 2.  The bandh has been called against the proposed passage of the boards of conciliation that the Left Front and the Left Front government have proposed to be set up down to the level of the Gram Panchayats. 

The Left Front government has chosen to set up these popular courts of law not to run a parallel system to the existing legal structure.  The conciliation boards will look after the interests of the poorest of the poor of the state who are not able to afford to go to participate in the existing legal system.  Thus, the bandh is called against the interests of the toiling masses, and it needs to be foiled at every level by the people.

The Left Front chairman, Biman Basu explained the context of the Bill and said that a fog of lies and half-truths were being assiduously built up around the Bill by the opposition in the state.  Following the amendment of the Constitution by a Congress-run union government, the Legal Services Authorities Act was set up in 1987 to afford equal justice to all social groups.  Lok Adalats were set up to the level of the sub-divisions.  The frustrated bunch which has called the bandh were then very much part of the Congress.

The Left Front government of Bengal wished to extend the Central Act further down, to the level of the Gram Panchayats.  The state government asked consent of the union government to do this back in 2002.  The consent came on December 26, 2003.  Trinamool Congress, which is opposing the Bill now, was in the NDA government that gave this consent.  The opposition to the Bill is unrealistic, devoid of any kind of reason, and is born out of sheer political frustration.

There is nothing in the Bill that goes against the central legislation already in action.  Only if the two sides, the plaintiff and the respondent, chose to go to the Conciliation Board would the process become operative.  Either of the two sides remains free to utilise the existing legal system, which is in no way interfering of by the Conciliation Boards.

TRINAMUL RUNS RIOT IN ASSEMBLY

The Trinamul Congress MLA’s chose to create a dark day for democracy on July 19 by running riot in the assembly even as a condolence resolution was being raised for the dead children at Kumbhakonam.

Minister Kanti Biswas was speaking on the condolence resolution when the riotous behaviour started.  Some Trinamul Congress MLA’s ran away with the ‘mace.’  Others seriously assaulted law minister, Nisith Adhikary, by seeking to strangle him with a piece of twisted cloth.  They threw off his glasses, and another minister, Iva Dey, was injured when she came to the rescue of Adhikary.  They came down to the well of the house, broke apart microphones and headphones, and threw rotten eggs and tomatoes at the Speaker, Hasim Abdul Halim.  They took apart chairs and flung them towards the Speaker. They stood opposed to the Conciliation Board bill but would not bring up any amendment to it.  It is to be noted that the Bill was sent to the standing committee instead of the select committee since the law minister heads the latter body, and charges of partiality could have been brought up against the process.  A Congress MLA chairs the standing committee. The Congress itself has not condemned the barbaric act of the Trinamul MLA’s.

The CPI(M) and the Left Front have condemned the heinous act by the Trinamul MLA’s.  The people hardly expected anything but this, was how state secretary of the CPI(M), Anil Biswas, put it.  Biswas also said that since the Bill would look to the interests of the poor people, the LF was determined to see the passage of the Bill into an Act.

The LF chief whip, Rabin Deb has called for compensation to be paid by the Trinamul Congress for the damage it caused to the Assembly house during their unseemly and utterly undemocratic behaviour.