People's Democracy

‘Anarchism Shall Not Impede Industrialisation’

B Prasant

THE opportunist attempt at anarchism of the Bengal opposition and the corporate media, at Nandigram and elsewhere in Bengal, shall never be able to slow down, far from putting a stop to, the process of industrialisation of the state.

Iterating this strongly while addressing a massive rally (attended by over one lakh people) at Barasat, Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said that industrialisation would accelerate the pace of employment generation. The boys and girls of the 21st century shall never be deprived of job opportunities to which they looked with eagerness and zest.

MASSIVE RALLY

The massive attendance at the rally came at the climax of a two-month-long campaign where CPI(M) workers had approached virtually every household in the urban and rural areas of the district of north 24 Parganas, delineating before the people the need for industrial growth. Such was the rush of the people on to the rally grounds at the Katchari maidan that thousands of people who turned up on the eve of the scheduled commencement of the programme found the maidan and the surrounding area quite packed.

Stringently critical of the negativity increasingly evident in the ‘politics’ of the Bengal opposition, Buddhadeb declared that these worthies were in fact against the development of a state in which they themselves lived. The opposition has come out with false premises on industrialisation and they were engaged in the act of confusing the people on the score. Impediments were thrown up at places like Salboni and Salanpore where industries are scheduled to come up.

Looking to the national scene, Buddhadeb was clear in pointing out that in other states like Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Tamilnadu, the opposition would be politically active against the state governments but they would never go in for the suicidal act of going hammer-and-tongs against any and every industrial unit set to come up.

Buddhadeb noted that in the present century, one should not expect qualified and young men and women only in the ranks of the rich. Enlightened with education, the younger generation of the mass of the people were getting ready to vie for jobs in the industrial, commercial, and service sectors.

Drawing an example of the spread of education in Bengal under Left Front governance, Buddhadeb drew attention of the people to the instance of a girl from an impoverished family, whose father would sell green vegetables from a roadside pavement, and who could qualify for higher medical education on a state government scholarship and was doing quite well for herself. More than 1700 such boys and girls were in receipt of state government assistance to pursue careers in higher education, Buddhadeb revealed.

INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT NEEDED

The sons and daughters of old kisan families were no longer willing to continue with their traditional mode of livelihood. They seek job opportunities in services and in industries. This was perfectly in accordance with the historical flow of development from agriculture to industry, from villages to urban centres.

The massive amounts of investment that were coming into the industrial sector should not be refused merely on the anarchist say-so of the irresponsible Bengal opposition. ‘We shall look to the future of our younger generation and go in for pro-people development,’ declared the chief minister.

Again emphasising that the chemical hub would come up elsewhere, Buddhadeb said that the Bengal opposition were engaged in a dangerous game of declaring a small area of the locality as a ‘liberated zone,’ through cutting up of roads, destruction of bridges, and obstructing movement of all kinds of traffic. This has put the people of those four or five villages to extreme discomfort.

Developmental work has come to a standstill. Schools and colleges as well as market places and post offices remained shuttered down. All this was continued with even after it had been clearly stated that the proposed chemical hub would not come up at Nandigram. The opposition would not join the all-party meetings that were repeatedly convened. What these worthies were looking for, Buddhadeb thought aloud.

Calling the right-left pact against the Left Front an alliance of crass opportunism, Buddhadeb said that the Naxalites who were engaged in murder and mayhem had gone to Singur and Nandigram and were actively indulging in anti-development acts. Yet they were quite isolated from the people and had not even able to win a single seat in the rural Panchayat elections.

Buddhadeb also attacked vigorously the forces of fundamentalism who were engaged in spreading canards and misinformation against the Left Front. Only the Left Front government has created a sub-plan for the development of the Muslims. It is in Bengal alone that the Madrasah teachers were regularly paid salaries by the state government. Muslims and backward communities have been beneficiaries of the redistributive land reforms programme.

OPPORTUNISTIC OPPOSITION

Setting up ‘save agricultural land’ committees would be of little use, said the Bengal chief minister, for the opposition would not know anything about the ground realities prevailing in the countryside. ‘Where were they, when the CPI(M) and the Left were engaged in struggling for the kisans’ rights? We would not be taught about importance of land to the kisan, and the sensitivity with which the kisan would look upon the land he tills from the position,’ said the speaker.

No less than six letters have been written to the opposition for an across-the-table discussion and the state government had declared that it would go in with an open mind on any issue that the opposition might choose to pose. There has been no response. Buddhadeb said that the opposition was trying to impede development of Bengal at any cost. They knew that once the process of industrialisation was set in motion, the people would reject them in a bigger way that at present. That was the reason behind the palpable and desperate anxiety to prevent industrial development. ‘We shall move forward for we are encouraged by the support of the democratically-conscious people of Bengal,’ concluded Buddhadeb.

Other speakers at the rally were CPI (M) leaders Amitava Basu (who presided), Subhas Chakraborty, Amitava Nandi, Rekha Goswami, Tarit Topdar, and Abdus Sattar.