Left's new industrial mascot is a Cong CM

In a unique step, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) will observe the anniversary of West Bengal's second chief minister Bidhan Chandra Roy to drive home its changed stance towards industrialisation.

This is the first time the Left Front will celebrate the birth anniversary of a chief minister from the Congress.

Left Front Chairman Biman Bose said Roy was the only chief minister of the state who went for massive industrialisation and led the setting up of the industrial town of Durgapur. "The other industries in the state have come up during the regime of the Left Front," Bose said.

The move is in line with the front's change in focus to heavy and knowledge-based industries, from agriculture and land reforms, that have kept it in power in the state for 30 years. The new vision was outlined by the party leaders for the cadres at recent functions in New Delhi and Kolkata.

The party will also dedicate the day to people who are facing hardship in camps outside Nandigram following the trouble in the area over acquisition of land for a chemicals hub. From July 8 to July 14, the party will ask organisations working for the people to collect funds for helping the refugees in the camps outside Nandigram.

In an article written to mark 30 years of the Left rule in the state, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had criticised the Opposition's stand on industrialisation. "This is ridiculous. There is no turning back from industries for us," he said.

Former chief minister Jyoti Basu, who led the state government for 23 years, said people had created history by voting the Left Front government for seven consecutive terms. "The Left Front is not just a machine for winning elections but a continuous movement of the people," explained Basu.

Turning to industries, Basu said the Opposition was behaving "irresponsibly" by trying to stop industries from coming to the state.

Basu recalled that a similar opposition was witnessed during the construction of the Haldia Petrochemical Limited. But today, people were benefiting from the complex, he said.

The Congress, however, ridiculed the move and called it a "ploy" to blunt the protests against the "anti-people" industrialisation policy of the ruling Left Front.

"It is the ploy of the CPI(M) to blunt the edge of the Opposition's fight against the anti-people industrialisation policy of the Left Front government by invoking the name of Roy, whom all Congressmen admire," senior state Congress leaders Sudip Bandyopadhyya and Pradip Bhattacherjee said in a statement.