People's Democracy

Bengal CPI (M) Conferences To Focus On Political Discussions  

B Prasant  

THE Party conferences must be made to become a forum of political education. The ongoing conferences of the various units of the Bengal CPI(M) would focus attention on political discussions. The conferences would also discuss such issues as the rectification and its evaluation as well as themes like health and education, issues that touch the people.  State secretary of the CPI(M), Anil Biswas, said this while briefing the media at the Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan following a meeting of the state committee.

Biman Basu presided over the state committee meeting where the state leadership of the CPI(M) were present including Jyoti Basu and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. The meeting took decisions on the various complaints that have been lodged with the state committee. The present political situation and the resolutions of the Polit Bureau were explained before the state committee.

Anil Biswas said in a statement that the Manmohan Singh government had failed as yet to take any notably pro-people step. The government lacked initiative in implementing the CMP. The government also leaned towards liberalisation and privatisation. Some measures have been taken on such issues as enquiry into the Godhra incident, reconstitution of the higher education institutions, and removal of fundamentalist distortion in textbooks.  However, little progress has been made in taking steps against the communal acts of the BJP government in the realms of information and broadcasting, home, and law. In Bengal, it is seen that the Congress is not ready to shun all relations with the BJP.  The communal BJP is constantly trying to take advantage of the weaknesses of the Congress. The Party must remain cautious about the advantage that the BJP may take of the situation and it must keep the people informed about the evaluation of the Party about the UPA government. The Party must also organise movements demanding of the UPA government to take pro-people steps.

Biswas said that the state committee meeting discussed the preparations for the ongoing Party conferences.  The branch conferences in all the districts except Darjeeling have commenced.  The conferences would begin in Darjeeling once the Siliguri civic elections are finished. The state committee meeting heard reports from the districts that the level of political-organisational discussion was higher in standard than earlier. In these conferences, emphasis is given on further consolidation of Party unity, taking the rectification campaign forward, and to consolidate closer relationship with the people.  The conferences are conducted according to the Party constitution and organisational guidelines. The district conferences will commence from the middle of December and finish by the end of January 2005.

The state committee meeting dwelt on the modes of discussions and election in the Party conferences. The branch conferences, where political discussion has prevailed, have further strengthened the Party’s political and organisational unity.  The unity must be further consolidated.  The Party members have expressed their views on the central and state governments in the conferences. The political substance of the conference-level discussion outweighs, this time around, the organisational content.

The state committee meeting also discussed the election of committees at the Party conferences.  The issue of induction of women in the Party and in the various committees has received due importance earlier.  This time around, the state committee has decided that there should be no local committees where at least one woman is not there in the committee.  It is mandatory to implement this decision everywhere except in trade-based and industry-based local committees where there are no women workers.  If a local committee does not have a woman Party member, or has a woman candidate member, a place should be kept open for a woman Party member when conducting the election towards formation of the local committee.

The Party is engaged in conducting a continuous struggle against anti-Party and immoral acts.  As a part of this struggle, measures of discipline have been instituted. The state committee meeting has instituted disciplinary proceedings against 55 Party members of the state centre and the districts.  Twenty-five have been expelled. Those expelled include a zonal committee member and one local committee member.  The rest are branch members. The Party sets up inquiry committees to look into grievances and accusations that come from within the Party and from outside of it, from the mass of the people.  All commissions and committees were requested to place their reports by August 31.  Sixty per cent of the grievances and accusations were looked into and this accounts for 250 such cases.  In 70-80 cases, the accusations were proved to be false.  The accusations have been made out of enmity, grudge, and an attempt at belittling.  The rest were discussed at the appropriate level of the Party and disciplinary measures taken as per the Party constitution.  The district committees looked into the allegations at the level of the local and zonal committees.  The state committee looked into the allegations made at the level of the districts and the state centre.  The allegation against the president of the Hooghly school board, looked into by two state committee members, has been proved to be false, and this has been duly circulated.  Allegations have come on such grounds as corruption, patronising relatives, moral deviation etc.  The disciplinary measures include demotion, removal from elected bodies, temporary suspension, expulsion etc.  As per the Party constitution, disciplinary measures, except in cases of grave offence (as per Article 19/13 of the Party constitution) would be kept in abeyance from October 1 until the state conference.  The task of looking into allegations would begin thereafter.

The state committee has called for an ideological campaign from October 1 to December 19 in remembrance of the two legendary leaders of the CPI(M), A K Gopalan, and B T Ranadive.  Anil Biswas said that three issues would be highlighted during the campaign and these were: the role of the Communists in the struggle against British imperialism and the importance of anti-imperialist struggle now; the application of the science of Marxism in the resolution of the problems of Indian society and the path depicted in Marxism in ending class-based and social exploitation; and the relevance of socialism as the only alternative against imperialism and the destructive role of modern capitalism.

The state committee meeting condoled the demise of Naren Gupta of the employees’ movement, Priti Banerjee of the women’s struggle, Forward Bloc leader and minister in the Left Front government, Bhakti Bhusan Mondol, Ray Simons of the SACP, well-knownn literary figure Mulk Raj Anand, scientist Raja Ramanna, and musician A T Kannan. (INN)