People's Democracy

Left Front Emphasises The Importance Of Industrialisation

THE drive for industrialisation in Bengal under the aegis of the Left Front government has already had a stamp of popular approval. The policy of industrialisation has always been a prominent part of the succeeding election manifestos of the Left Front as well. 

But would the Bengal opposition and their patrons in the corporate media ever give the issue a rest.  Instead of concentrating on the task of coming forward in the drive to pace up the flow of industrialisation in Bengal, the opposition and the big media would constantly carp on the supposed ‘ill effects’ of the industrial policy and focus attention on an imagined scenario of dread and doom.

Running rapidly out of political space, the Bengal opposition often act as if they belong to a terrain that is at a great distance from and intrinsically antithetical to the interests of Bengal.  This is particularly said for the Pradesh Congress, which constantly harps of the rhetoric of nationalism, day in, and day out. 

It has been proved repeatedly that whatever good is done here in Bengal is looked upon by them as something sinister and filled with uncertainties.  In doing so, we do believe, the opposition worthies are clearly transferring their mental frame of mind to the evolving reality in Bengal under the Left Front government.

EMPTY RHETORIC

Mamata Banerjee of late made a ‘special appearance’, so to speak at Singur in Hooghly where kisans had voluntarily acceded to the call of Bengal LF government to build industrial centre by handing over land, Mamata Banerjee made a grand entrance on a rainy day to plant boro paddy on a miniscule ‘plot’ of land that measured, maybe, 2’ by 4’. 

Of the handful present to witness her extremely amateur efforts, slipping and sliding in the mud, there were perhaps just a couple of kisan supporters of her outfit around.  The rest were her storm-troopers who had come in three jeeps.

Mamata announced that the ‘kisans of Bengal’ would ‘shed blood’ to prevent industry from coming up on the land of Singur.  There were few takers even among her supporters to cheer her fierce words uttered in her trade mark shriek.  Certainly, no slogans followed.

The cue has been given though, and the actors in the corporate media promptly took up the refrain.  They went around the area and started to ‘discover’ the ‘deep agony’ of the kisan at the way land was being ‘taken away’ from them.  The accompanying visuals would strangely enough show miles of fallow land with not a crop-head around. 

The media then took a different turn in its crooked efforts to embarrass the Left Front government.  It kept on ‘quoting unnamed sources’ to ‘prove’ that the Left Front partners were at loggerheads with the CPI(M) over the industrial policy.  

In the haste to please the corporate bosses, the intrepid anti-Communists in the media world let it slip from their feeble minds that the industrial policy framed twelve years ago in 1994, has been very much a part of the election manifesto of the Left Front per se.  Or, that there was a Left Front government in office in Bengal from 1977.

LF ENDORSES INDUSTRIAL POLICY DECISIONS

The meeting of the Bengal Left Front that took place recently at the Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan clearly endorsed the industrial policy of the Left Front government and its implementation. 

The Left Front leadership earlier went through a note on industrialisation that was circulated beforehand and there was a detailed discussion in the points raised in that document.  The consensus of the Bengal Left Front was to give a green signal to the LF government to implement the industrial policy in full measure, considering its importance.

As Left Front chairman and senior CPI(M) leader Biman Basu later said, if there was any debate over the Bengal LF government’s industrial policy, it was confined to the corridors of the media alone. (B P)