People's Democracy

B Prasant

THE West Bengal state unit of the CPI(M) commenced its campaign for the 2001 assembly elections by organising a big general body meeting of party members belonging to the South 24 Parganas district unit on December 24. While iterating the inevitability of a comprehensive win for the Left Front, "even if all the opposition groups in the state got together" as Jyoti Basu would put it, the state leadership left no one in any doubt about the danger of a complacent attitude.

Speaking on the occasion, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member, Jyoti Basu, identified two weaknesses of the party functioning --- a slight but definite slide-back in carrying out the task of enlarging the circle of mass contact, and stepping up the pro-active role of the party functionaries at every level.

While lambasting the anti-people policies being pursued by the BJP-led NDA alliance government up in Delhi, amid nationwide protests, Basu pointed out that there was need to communicate to the masses not merely the nature of the issues on the national scene but also the apportionment of responsibilities. The people of the state, over the years, are gradually realising the potential of the communal menace and are also coming round to desisting from blaming the state government for the ills for which the union government was clearly to be blamed.

This, the CPI(M) leader noted, was the result of sustained mass contact on a daily basis. Support of the masses should never be taken for granted merely because the Left Front had been in office for more than two decades. "Look at it in this way: if the people were fully conscious to the minutest details of the multi-headed political developments taking place around us, would there be any need at all for a poltical party like ours to act as the interlocutor?" asked Basu rhetorically of the party members assembled in the Kishore Bharati Stadium in Jadavpur where the meeting was organised.

Dwelling at some length on party functioning, Jyoti Basu said a Communist Party is not a club or a voluntary outfit where discipline is not of any great importance, where one may come and go at one’s will, make casual remarks on matters of policy and principles, and get away with it. A Communist Party depends a great deal on the rigours of self-discipline for, otherwise, the party would find it very difficult to speak about dedication to the people at large.

Similarly, said Jyoti Basu, "differences of opinion within the party must never be utilised by anyone to make an enemy out of those whose views might have differed from mine." The enemy, the real enemy, is lying in wait just outside the threshold to wreak havoc on the party organisation, and there was hardly any need to try and complicate matters by searching for ‘enemies’ within the party.

Basu iterated the need to stick to the truth even under the most tempting of circumstances. He said party members never play any deceit on the people. It is always the better alternative to remain silent rather than go about distorting facts.

Announcing the importance of West Bengal as a bastion of the Left movement, Jyoti Basu said the democratic-minded people of the country continue to look to Bengal as the beacon light of hope: in no circumstance must the party let the people down. The immediate task at hand, said Basu, concerns winning the assembly elections.

Basu recalled that a Communist Party utilises parliamentary democracy as an interim measure on the road to achieving the greater tasks ahead. He added to say that "this interim period must be utilised to the full towards enhancing the political consciousness of the people."

CPI(M) state secretary, Anil Biswas, dwelt on the need to further unify the party units and join battle for the assembly elections, with ranks firmly closed at every functioning level of the party. Nobody should even think about giving the assigned party tasks a casual go-by, said Biswas, for this "would amount to betraying the trust the people reposed in us."

Delienating the emergent tasks ahead, Biswas said the lack of a positive outlook in the opposition campaign in the state needs to be countered with a positive frame of mind about the enviable record of achievements of the Left Front government.

One should also be forthright about outlining the programmes of action of the Left Front which it will implement to the best of its ability once it romps home in the assembly polls.

Biswas pointed out how the BJP regime, apart from seeking to rip apart the secular fabric of the nation, has heaped a tax burden of Rs 32,000 crore on the Indian people in its 32-month-long misrule. A parallel economy worth Rs two lakh crore, and increasing, has been allowed to flourish with impunity.

Biswas was sharply critical of the separatist ambitions of the Kamtapuri elements who would go on the path of brutal violence in order to force a section of the north Bengal people to support their 'cause.’ Resisting there secessionist moves, no fewer than nine CPI(M) activists have been murdered by the Kamtapuri separatists over the recent past and more than two dozen critically injured.

The fact that the public meetings addressed by CPI(M) leaders, especially by Jyoti Basu, evoked a massive response from the people of north Bengal districts, certainly proved the worth of the CPI(M)’s gritty determination to fight the separatist elements. Biswas also recalled the impressive size of the public gatherings all over the state wherever CPI(M) leadership addressed the people.

The expectations being roused, Biswas added, must be appropriately fulfilled by party activists, explaining the nature of the problems that the state Left Front government faced, and highlighting the plethora of pro-people achievements that this government has chalked up despite having to work in conditions of adversity.

Chief minister and CPI(M) Central Committee member, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya spoke of the Left Front government opening out new horizons for the people of the state. He also enumerated the progress made in industrialisation, food production, literacy and health services in the state under Left Front.

Bhattacharya also contrasted the situation prevailing in Bengal to the conditions being imposed on the nation by the WTO, IMF and World Bank, conditions which the BJP regime was more than willing to carry out. Focussing attention on the party organisation, Bhattacharya said the turn-around achieved by the party units in Midnapore, fending off murderous attacks by opposition groups, chiefly Trinamul Congress, were an important political achievement in the face of adversity.

Bhattacharjya stressed the importance of holding on to the grounds regained and called for political-organisational initiatives towards making every party unit active in the run-up to the 2001 elections.

The meeting, presided over by veteran CPI(M) leader Abul Bashar, was also addressed by CPI(M) district secretary, Samir Putatunda.

THE BJP-led union government has at last agreed to the Left Front government’s proposal to rename Calcutta as Kolkata.

Through a press statement, the state government welcomed the union government’s recognition to the popular mood in favour of changing the name of Calcutta, and pointed out that the union government’s delay in approving the change could be due to its spending a lot of thought on the proposal after it had been forwarded by the state government.

The Left Front had passed a proposal, back in June 1999, to change the name of Calcutta (an imperialist move in disregard to tradition) to its original Kolkata. The move had received support from a wide range of the intelligentsia. A large number of meetings and conventions were organised all over the state to probe the historical and cultural roots of the name Kolkata.

The state assembly passed a unanimous resolution to rename the state capital in a session held in July 1999. The proposal for renaming Bengal as Bangla is yet pending with the BJP-led NDA government.

THE United Bank of India, which celebretes its golden jubilee next year, has chosen to close down 55 of its branches nationwide and provide the so called voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) to no fewer than 2,500 employees in January 2001 alone.

Since the implementation of the so-called bank sector reforms in 1996, the UBI has already provided VRS to 1,500 workers. To be eligible for VRS, one must be of 40 years of age or above, and must have completed a minimum of 15 years of service with the UBI.

Of the 1336 branches nationwide, the UBI has already closed 11, including five in Bengal.

The UBI records also tell us that while Rs 200 crore has been allocated to take care of the VRS dues, a mere Rs 180 crore has been earmarked for improvement of technology. It is feared that most of the capital adequacy requirement (CAR), which amount to Rs 300 crore, would be fulfilled by floating shares in the market.

ADDRESSING a meeting of the Calcutta Police Association at Lalbazar, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya called upon the police to be step up its vigilance against crime. The meeting was also addressed by the association's office-bearers and the city police chief.

Bhattacharya asked the police personnel to change their traditional outlook on getting to respond to the rich and the poor in markedly different manners. He also called upon the police personnel to be sticklers for discipline.

Taking up the sensitive issue of corruption, Bhattacharya noted that while corrupt practices have penetrated every sphere of daily life, the police must realise that even the slightest of accusation on this count about the police personnel will tarnish the popular faith in the police.

The chief minister asked the police never to allow themselves to sink to the level of becoming 'errand boys' for the higher officialdom.

Bhattacharya told the police personnel that they must strike no compromise at any level while dealing with crime and criminals. He asked the police never to handle the hardened criminals with any softness in any circumstances.

IN a grisly incident, a Kisan Sabha leader and CPI(M) workers, Sudhir Das was gunned down by Kamptapuri separatists near the Kumardighi party office in Kumargram village in Jalpaiguri district. Comrade Das, 52, was on his way to the CPI(M) office from his residence at Kumargram late on December 16 evening when the separatists waylaid and gunned him down.

Comrade Das had earlier escaped another attempt on his life when he had swum away underwater despite several deep cuts which the attackers, also belonging to the Kamtapuri group, had inflicted on his body with sharp-edged weapons.

The entire Kumargram block went on a spontaneous strike to mourn the death of one of the most popular kisan leaders of the area. Comrade Das has left behind his wife and four children.

INN recalls that another CPI(M) leader, Jiten Sarkar, who was shot in the same area and probably by the same armed group shortly before the first attack on Comrade Das, still remains critically ill at the North Bengal Medical Hospital.

The assailants were in army-type green-grey fatigue, wore black headbands and were armed with some sort of automatic weapons equipped with 7.65 mm bullets. They remain as yet untraced. They were last seen slipping away in the dark of the evening and disappearing into the Sankosh tea garden nearby.

A GROUP of assailants shot and grievously injured CPI(M) activist and Ward 20 councillor of the Garulia civic body, Narendranath Lahiri in North 24 Parganas district on December 19. A 12-hour bandh was observed in the area to register the popular protest against the incident.

At the time Narendranath was shot, he was standing on the first floor verandah of the CPI(M)’s Feeder Road office at Garulia. Firing a quick burst at Narendranath, the assailants made good their escape in the dark of the late winter evening. (INN)