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| CPI-M tries to find what went wrong |
| Rajat Roy / Kolkata May 21, 2009, 00:48 IST |
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The temporary truce entered into by the warring factions in the CPI-M leadership might have been able to avert the imminent confrontation at the highest level, but indications are that it won’t be enough to stop the blame game from gaining momentum at the state party level. After the historic setback of the Left since 1977, the leadership of Prakash Karat was squarely blamed by the West Bengal leaders.
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee defied the leadership by staying away from the politburo meeting. Biman Bose pointed fingers at central leaders saying that the effort to form the third front did not go well with the voters. But they in turn had to face criticism from their own party comrades for the poor performance in the state. Similar things happened in another Left ruled state Kerala where the party secretary P Vijayan was waiting for the result before he could sack the chief minister V S Achyudanandan.
But yesterday’ politburo statement indicates that nothing of that sort happening at the moment. It seems the warring factions have agreed to share their part of the blame thus creating equilibrium in the party leadership. The politburo statement says: “There should be a serious examination of the reasons for the reverses. Both national and state-specific factors are responsible for the poor performance.”
But that won’t neutralise the pressure building within the West Bengal party unit for a change of guard. On May 24 the CPI-M state committee will meet to review the election results. The politburo has issued directive to the state unit to go for “a self-critical review” which should form the basis for steps.
The CPI-M in Bengal has hardly any time to reorganise itself for the serious challenges they would be facing in the coming days. Would it be able to do it with the same set of leaders in party and the government? This question is becoming louder and louder in the party circles.
Speculations in local media even named the speaker of the state assembly Hasim Abdul Halim as the possible new leader in place of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. But Rezzak Molla, a senior minister and a strong critic of Buddhadeb-Biman, does not agree. He feels, “We don’t have anybody to replace them. There is no alternative available to us.” But he stresses the point that there is a serious need to “reshuffle in the leaderships of both party and the government.” According to Molla, the result of Lok Sabha election was a clear verdict against the Left in Bengal.
The assembly wise break up of the result shows that almost 183 assembly seats were lost by the Left, including the assembly seats of 27 ministers of the present government. But Molla does not see any possibility of a major shake up in the party and government as part of taking correcting measures. “In bourgeoisie parties leaders own up the responsibility for the failure of their respective parties and step down after party’s defeat in election. But the Communist party culture is different.
Leaders of Communist parties give up their posts only on two occasions. One, when they themselves are defeated in election. Two, when they give up the ghost,” commented Molla. Obviously, he is in favour of a major reshuffle in both party and the government. Molla explains that these two rules does not apply in West Bengal, because the leaders (Buddhadeb and Biman etc.) were not defeated in the election and they are alive.
Tarit Topdar, another member of the CPI-M state committee, who lost his election in Barrackpore, points out to poor governance and rampant corruption as causes for their debacle.
Topdar is of the view that corruption has spread in all spheres of activities starting from Writers’ Buildings to Alimuddin Street, the headquarters of the state administration and the state party. “Corruption is a disease which is not restricted to lower level anymore. It has now gone up. The Writers’ Buildings and the PC office (the party headquarters) are also not free from it.” He feels that all that has resulted in a serious disconnect between the party and the masses. On June 29 this year the Left parties will have to face another election when 19 municipalities would go to poll. Next year around the same time another 81 municipalities will go to poll, including Kolkata Coporation. In between there will be some by election in assembly seats.
Before that the party will have to take “corrective steps” to gear up the organisation. Topdar feel that it should be done immediately. But Molla sees no hope, “We have entered in a blind alley. I don’t see any way out from it.”
A man from rural Bengal, who has been alerting in vain his party and government for the last two years about the negative impact of the hasty land acquisition efforts among the poor farmers, angrily commented,” The party has been hijacked by other people.”
When asked to explain his comment, Molla said, “Earlier the party’s main support planks were peasants, workers, poor people and middle class.
The workers, peasants and the poor have left us. Now, only the middle class remained with us. That too the upper crust of the middle class. Even the leaders at both the central and state level have experience of working in student and youth front. No, they failed to read the pulse of the people.”
In the 87 member state committee a small group of leaders are known to be close to Jyoti Basu and opposed to Buddhadeb-Nirupam-Biman.
The prominent among them are Goutam Deb, Subhas Chakraborty, Rezzak Molla, Tarit Topdar, Deepak Dasgupta, Amitava Nandy etc. Already leaders are feeling the heat as party supporters are facing attacks by the TMC activists in various parts of Bengal and some started fleeing their home. Sujon Chakraborty complained of this and said that people were being asked to pay hefty fine to the tune of Rs. 1 lakh in Bhangar in South 24 Parganas.
Molla feels, many people will leave the party now and join the opposition. The anger and frustration in the rank and file will put pressure on the leaders and in turn they are likely to pressurise the leaders to take some corrective measures. That may create serious problem for the present leadership in both party and the government in West Bengal.
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