What Tripura could do, West Bengal couldn’t. The ruling CPI(M) in Tripura has decided to stay away from tomorrow’s Bharat Bandh.
Bijan Dhar, the state party head in Tripura, has announced that since the party had already observed a statewide 12-hour strike at the UPA government’s decision to raise the prices of petrol and diesel, it would not take part in tomorrow’s general strike on the same issue. Khagen Das, head of the CPI(M)-led Left Front, said the latter would organise a public procession tomorrow to express support to the cause.
However, the Tripura party’s rationale ought to also apply in party-ruled West Bengal. For, on June 26, the Left in Bengal had observed a 24-hour general strike on the issue. Yet, the party’s Bengal head, Biman Bose, also chairman of the Left Front there, made it clear they would go ahead with a 24-hour strike tomorrow.
Ironically, in 2008, it was the West Bengal chief minister, Buddhadev Bhattacharjee, who had publicly criticised the culture of observing a bandh and lamented that “Unfortunately, I belong to a party which gives calls for bandh’’. The next day, Biman Bose openly disagreed and his position on the right to do so was endorsed by the party’s central leadership.
It appears that what Bhattacharjee could not achieve, his longtime counterpart in Tripura, Manik Sarkar, has. And, without much ado. Perhaps the relative political stability in Tripura has helped the party in power show some flexibility on this contentious issue. While, the volatile political situation in Bengal has forced the hands of the Left leaders in the state, pushing them to street politics.
