People's Democracy

Massive Singur Rally Calls For Pro-People Industrialisation

B Prasant

FOR the past nine months, the Bengal CPI(M) and the Bengal Left Front had an intense campaign-movement on industrialisation and agricultural growth across the state. A dozen-odd pamphlets and several booklets have provided the people with an effective and popular database on the why’s and wherefore’s of the Bengal LF government’s developmental imperatives.

Door-to-door campaign has been organised — by the CPI (M), by the LF constituents, and by the crores that belong to the Left mass organisations — in every section of the society. Rallies, marches, conventions, smaller hall sabhas — not excluding the group meetings held at market places, gunj’s, and haats.

The scurrilous campaign of the right reactionary political outfits, of the Left sectarians, and of their corporate string-pullers in the media and elsewhere have trickled off in a manner that must have proved discouraging, and more than a tad embarrassing.

Especially disheartened has been the Trinamul Congress chieftain, at the moment out of the limelight of the media, and her running mates of the violent kind – for, the prospects of stemming the tide of the inevitable ‘decline and fall’ of the outfit in the upcoming Panchayat elections (in 2008) and beyond, seems, now more than ever, a settled fact.

GROUNDWORK

Without the massive amount of groundwork done hitherto by the Hooghly units of the CPI(M) and the Left Front who worked tirelessly and in an organised and solidly united fashion all over the district, the concerted machinations of the Maoists who presently lead the Trinamul Congress lumpens by the nose here in Hooghly, and at Nandigram in east Midnapore, would have made an anarchist headway, supplemented by the so-called ‘kisan sympathisers,’ in and out of Bengal.

Thus, it did come about that the rally that the CPI(M) organised at Singur recently was of massive proportions, much larger than rallies held earlier, and more determined in outlook. The Singur ‘club grounds’, quite large, was overfilled. A vast number of people climbed on to the verandas and rooftops of the great number of buildings that surrounded the ground and packed the maidan’s outreaches of grassy knolls.

Loudspeakers had to be fitted on the lamp posts at Satmanditrtala and the Singur bazaar, several kilometres away from the venue for the assembled masses who had found no room to stand at the club maidan.

An intense campaign had preceded it all over Hooghly, especially at Singur block. The principal speaker, CPI(M) central committee member and the state’s industries minister Nirupam Sen spoke on the industrial scene in Bengal in general, now and in the future, and dwelled in particular, and for some time, on the various aspects and issues affecting it and being affected by it.

IMPERATIVES OF INDUSTRIALISATION

Nirupam Sen started by politely appealing to those who would mistakenly yet stand oppose to industrialisation of Bengal to see reason and to come and join the mainstream demand for the building up of industries while strengthening the traditional agricultural base of Bengal, made more fruitful during the three decades of Left Front administration.

The speaker especially asked the ‘opposition’ to quit the path of wanton violence, and to realise that peace and increasing prosperity awaited the state in the days to come. He called for the ‘cooperation of all concerned’ to ensure that Bengal underwent rapid, coordinated, and pro-people, especially pro-poor development.

Cooperation, said Nirupam, was imperative, for the Bengal LF government was working for the improvement of the standard of living of the people of the state, and only for those who subscribed to certain political parties, outfits, groups, and fractions. It was not being considered, said the CPI(M) leader, if a car could be marketed at a rate cheaper than the low rate offered by the Singur entrepreneurs.

Nor it was a point of discussions how many people the vehicle proposed would carry. The basic thrust was towards employment, direct, indirect, ancillary, and downstream. Thus, the initiative was launched.

PERSPECTIVES OF DISTRICT DEVELOPMENT

Nirupam Sen also spoke on such related issues as the situation existing in agriculture and the manner in which it is necessary to reduce pressure on the agrarian sector as the population increased, and education spread. Nirupam said that Singur, with its automotive factory, would grow into a city like those in other parts of Hooghly like Chinsurah, and Chandernagore.

He also said that the district would soon witness a city coming up in satellite form at Dankuni. The need of the hour was coordinated efforts to carry forward the policy of development that the Bengal Left Front government was pursuing.

Other speakers at the rally were Binod Das, Balai Sanbui, Anil Basu, Rupchand Pal, Santasri Chattopadhyay, and Sudarshan Roychaudhury.