People's Democracy

PROPOSED RAILWAYS BIFURCATION PLAN

Left Front Calls For Statewide Movement

AFTER an emergency meeting on July 29, the Bengal Left Front has decided to launch a statewide movement against the move to bifurcate Eastern Railways. The front expressed its worries over the move as the decision is sure to leave in its wake problems of provincialism in the region.

The front organised demonstrations on every railway station on July 30 against this anti-people decision and would hold a mass meeting on August 2 at Fairlie Place in front of Eastern Railway headquarters. However, front sources said no rail blockades would be organised anywhere. 

The front also demanded the institution of an experts committee to look into the issue of reorganisation of the existing railway zones. The CPI(M) state secretary Anil Biswas later briefed the media on the Left Front meeting.

The Left Front plans to hold rallies, street corner meetings, demonstrations at railway stations, apart from the publication and wide distribution of a leaflet that would explain the facts behind the conspiracy to bifurcate the railways in the eastern and southern regions.

The BJP-led union government’s resolution in this matter, said Biswas, “has, in fact, already given rise to ugly incidents where parochialism has risen like the proverbial hydra-headed monster.”  The running feud between the union railways minister and Trinamul leader Mamata Banerjee has merely served to set sections of the people of Bihar and Bengal against one another. 

The Bengal Left Front noted that leaders of both the NDA constituents were playing a dangerous game recklessly and in the most irresponsible manner imaginable. Jharkhand is the latest state to get involved in the controversy.

Despite the opposition expressed by trade unions, the parliament’s standing committee on railways and the office of the Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG), the union government has not shown the minimum decency to relent on this highly volatile issue that is rousing regional and provincial feelings. 

The Left Front believes that the decision to reorganise the railway zones is a political decision of the BJP and its running mates, specifically aimed at weakening the states by fomenting ultra-provincial feelings countrywide. It is also a crude attempt to foil the working people’s nationwide movement against the BJP-run union government’s policies. The Left Front fears that the move to create smaller railway zones is aimed at ultimately handing them over to corporate sector. The front also said the bifurcation decision, if implemented, would hamper the expansion and development of Indian Railways in general, and the maintenance of passenger safety in particular.

The front said though the prime minister promised that the issue would be reviewed in the union cabinet meeting, they stuck to the same position after the meeting.

The bifurcation move, the front said, aims at diverting the resentment of the people of economically backward Bihar and some other states by creating false sentiments and a misunderstanding against the neighbouring states. This is dangerous for national integration, the front said, adding that the danger cannot be met without foiling the NDA government’s conspiracy. The front appealed to the Left, democratic and secular people of Bengal, Bihar and all over country to launch a united struggle against the NDA regime without any provincial bias.

The Left Front felt the Trinamul Congress leader is playing a game of one-upmanship in the matter of railway bifurcation, purely to pressurise the union government into rehabilitating her in its cabinet. Published documents prove that when she herself held the railways portfolios, she was eager to move the entire zone from Siliguri (north Bengal) to Hajipur (Bihar) away from the Eastern Railways.

Meanwhile, the Trinamul Congress has once again postponed, for the fourth time running, its threat to launch a 72-hour bandh in Bengal over the “railway bifurcation and related issues.”

ON CONDITIONAL

TALKS WITH PWG

THE Bengal Left Front has rejected out of hand the offer from the People’s War Group (PWG) to have discussions with it with a set of pre-conditions.  In a recent meeting, the front sharply criticised the politics of wanton violence being indulged in by the PWG against Left Front workers in general and CPI(M) workers in particular.

The Left Front recalled that PWG activists brutally murdered no less than 11 CPI(M) workers over the last one year alone.

The front has urged upon the intellectuals in the state to avoid writing anything that might serve to encourage the murdering PWG goons at a time when the forces of reaction are targeting the Left in a planned manner. 

State CPI(M) secretary Anil Biswas said the bulk of Bengal intellectuals are  with the Left Front. In this connection, he recalled how the Bengal literati had played an important role in building up the Left Front and in setting up a Left Front government in Bengal.

Biswas also replied to the nagging queries of a section of the media over the accusation of police atrocities levelled by Left sectarian elements and their cohorts. He said the Left Front government “has already referred the issue to the Human Rights Commission and the charges are being looked into.” He also said the western region development council of Bengal has been asked to probe the question concerning the backwardness of the areas where the PWG has been able to take shelter.