As the Left parties hunt for the reasons behind the serial electoral losses, Forward Bloc—a key Left Front constituent in West Bengal— has attacked Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s industrialisation policy outlook, dubbing it as “faulty”. Bhattacharjee’s industrialisation drive was hailed by his comrades just as he was pitched as the poster boy of the party till the Nandigram and Singur issues backfired.
In a note sent to the Left Front, Forward Bloc general secretary Debabrat Biswas even criticised the state government for “not carrying forward” the land reforms process further. Land reforms—or giving the land rights to landless cultivators - played a crucial role in creating a massive support base for the Left in the rural Bengal.
Biswas’ observations are significant as he is a top leader of the second largest ally of the CPI(M). He is known to be a close associate of CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat. His observations come at a time when the CPI(M) has planned to introspect the reasons behind its debacle in the recent municipal election. The state is slated to go for assembly poll next year.
“A radical land reform was required to take the process forward. The process remained captive in the Writers’ Building and the mini writers’ buildings in the district headquarters. The government should have concentrated on increasing the productivity of the land. It should have come out with a land-use map and changed laws to give land rights to the tillers. But we failed to struggle for these goals.”
Biswas’s note says that as the per capita land holding decreased with the passage of time, the government should have emphasised on consolidation and collective farming. It should have provided more credit, seeds along with newer technologies to these collective farming.
“The whole approach should have been towards creating a model agro-based alternative industry. The government should have invested much more on food processing, storing and marketing of the food commodities. This rural network should not have boosted rural economy, it could have also checked migration of rural population to cities and other states. Most importantly, it would have created a huge market propelling industrialisation of Bengal,” Biswas said.
“But we have moved exactly in the opposite direction. There was no discussion in the Left Front about the direction, purpose or place of setting up industries in Bengal. This is a government run by parties representing the working class but the working class itself couldn’t understand the industrialisation policy of the state government,” Biswas told Business Standard.
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Slamming chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee for his comments undermining bandhs and strikes, Biswas mentioned in his note that “leader used the platform of capitalists to criticise worker’s right to strike”.
Bhattacharjee, at a meeting of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce two years ago, had told that he would “open his mouth” next time his party called a bandh.
“Industries like tea, timber, tourism had huge potential in Bengal, but these areas are completely ignored”, Biswas said.