Bengal CM told to tone down reforms tune

Under pressure from Centre of Indian Trade Unions (Citu) and Kisan Sabha representatives in the politburo, the CPI(M) today asked West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to acquire only that much agricultural land as was necessary for the new township projects like the one proposed by the Salem group of Indonesia.

"Times change, the world changes. But principles must be immutable," was the refrain adopted by V Achyuthanandan, MK Pandhe and Chittabrata Majumdar at the three-day politburo meeting that started today.

Though the party backed Bhattacharjee's industrial and foreign direct investment (FDI) policies, some members said the tone adopted by him could lead to a misunderstanding over the direction the party was taking.

The party also took into account the interests of farmers and other sections that form the party's main support base.

According to sources, the Bhattacharjee government had acquired 14,000 acres of land for the project, while only 5,000 acres are required. The party also said there was no compromise on principles if FDI was invited to develop infrastructure, upgrade technology and no flight of capital was involved.

A return to the co-ordination committee of the UPA from which the CPI(M) had walked out when the government decided to disinvest in profit-making public sector undertaking Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd, was also discussed. A section of the CPI(M) felt that this was linked to the broader issue of the direction economic reform.

A significant section of the party, including General Secretary Prakash Karat believes that staying out of the co-ordination committee - and the promise to return to it - is a tactical weapon that the CPI(M) might be able to use in the future to pressurise the government into implementing the common minimum programme.

It would therefore, be counter productive to return to it at this point. However, former West Bengal CM and senior CPI M leader Jyoti Basu has argued that if the government gives an assurance that navaratnas will not be divested in future. it might be better to participate in the co-ordination committee and pressure the government to radicalise its programme from the inside. The matter is likely to be debated further in the 70-plus member Central Committee.

When the meeting began, the party's position was: 'Until we hear something formally from the government that they will not violate the CMP regarding the navratnas, we will not go back to the committee' politburo member Sitaram Yechury said adding the Left parties had suspended participation on the ground that the government was acting in 'violation' of the CMP.

The upcoming assembly elections in Bihar and the political situation in the country , organisational matters and the 'people's movement' the party had launched on questions of jobs, food and land are also being discussed.