People's Democracy

25 YEARS OF LF GOVT. COMMEMORATED

Pro-People Policies Must Be Further Consolidated

B Prasant

STATEWIDE programmes were held in West Bengal on June 21 to commemorate the 25 years in office of the Left Front government. A pledge was taken by the Left Front leadership to further consolidate the wide range of pro-people policies the government has already put into practice over the years. In particular, the Left Front leadership underlined the importance of adhering to the correct political-ideological path while providing relief to the mass of the people in both the urban and rural areas.

Addressing a packed gathering at the Netaji Indoor stadium in Kolkata, former chief minister and CPI (M) Polit Bureau member, Jyoti Basu recalled the past history of the Left Front and said that it had been through struggles that the Left Front could be forged and augmented. He remembered the sacrifices that the Left Front workers had to undergo in order to keep unimpaired the march of the pro-people Left Front government. 750 members of the families of those comrades who had been martyred in the task of implementing the policies of the Left Front and the Left Front government were present at the meeting.

Jyoti Basu recalled the struggle the Left Front and the Left Front government had put up against the anti-people policies of the successive union governments and said that the present national scene was particularly alarming as the dysfunctional economy was accompanied by the BJP government’s policy of religious fundamentalism. The Left Front and the Left Front government needed to take up the challenges that confronted them in the days ahead.

West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee pointed out the successes of the Left Front government in the realm of rural reforms. He also spoke of the pro-people character of the decentralised rural and urban institutions – the panchayats and the municipalities – which brought the Left Front government ever closer to the people while devolving financial and administrative power down to the grassroots’ level in an institutional manner.

Bhattacharjee spoke about the urgent need to further accelerate the process of industrialisation in Bengal and said that in doing so, there must not be any ideological deviation, and that interests of the working people must be kept uppermost in mind. He emphasised upon the necessity of utilising the strong agrarian base of the state to build up agro-based industries in the days ahead. The CPI (M) leader stressed that an atmosphere of amity was an important pre-requisite to the successful implementation of pro-people developmental programmes.

The CPI (M) state secretary, Anil Biswas quoted statistics to show how governments had come and gone at frequent intervals all-over India and how the Left Front government was a proud exception to what appeared as the rule. The Left Front government could continue in office, and indeed, go from strength to strength, because it could always remain deep amidst the people all along. Dedication and honesty have propelled the Left Front government forward through some of the most difficult of circumstances.

Biswas said that in the complex situation the nation faced today, many democratic parties were being sucked inside the vortex of right-wing reactionary politics. The Left Front must function in such a manner so as to bring these parties back to the democratic fold as had happened in 1975 when an entire array of political parties had stood against the Congress.

The Left Front chairman Biman Basu, who presided over the meeting, said that there were three important tasks before the Left Front. These were: to approach those sections of the middle class that were yet to support the Left Front, to further augment the strength of all the constituents of the Left Front, and to go on strengthening the unity of the Left Front through discussions.

Ashok Ghosh (FB), Manjukumar Majumdar (CPI), Khshiti Goswami (RSP), Moni Pal (SP), Pratim Chatterjee (MFB), Prabodh Sinha (DSP), Mihir Byne (RCPI), and Sunil Chaudhuri (Biplabi Bangla Congress) too addressed the meeting.