A Story Of Continuity

history. At one time it was, really vast with the Himalayas in

the north and the Bay of Bengal in the South. This Bengal served

as a melting pot and streams of Austric, Dravidian, Mongolian and

Aryan blood intermingled to produce the Bengali of today. One

community taught cultivation and another urbanisation. The soil

was very fertile hence the epithet 'Sonar Bangla'. It also was a

happy hunting ground first for the Mohammedans who ruled for 700

odd years and then for the British who ruled directly for another

two centuries.

The story of the present West Bengal really starts with the

 

independence of India for it has been known as West Bengal since

that time. The state of West Bengal has three international

Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. It has vast fertile tracts and

trees abound all over. Among the cash crops are paddy, jute

sugarcane and pulses. However, it is the people who give the

state its unique character, inhabited as it is by several ethnic

and religious groups. The dominant feature it harmony with racial

and linguistic tolerance. This is no feature in today's troubled

world and could well serve as a beacon to the rest of India.

In these troubled times the people have a lot of things to be

thankful about. And much of the thanks should go to the Left

Front Government which has enjoyed uninterrupted power for the

last two decades. For, this long spell of governance has given

the state a unique continuity unvivalled elsewhere, This has

meant that long term policies an reforms have had a chance to b

implemented. The state and the people are also lucky that the

have a politician of the stature of Jyoti Basu as Chief Minister.

Jyoti Basu towers not only over the politics of West Bengal but

is also a towering figure in India. The gains which the state has

made in recent years are in no small, way due to his dynamism and

his ability to serve as the leader of a cohesive group.

There have been so many successes of the Left Front over the

years that it is not possible to enumerate all of them in the

space of a newspaper article. So what this writer proposes to do

is to list only a few, taking the chance that the review will be

incomplete.

The present government passionately believes in democratic

decentralisation. This is why the principles of Panchayti Raj

have been effectively implemented. As the publication West Bengal

At A Glance' published by the Information and Cultural Affairs

Department, Government of West Bengal states, elections to the 3-

tier bodies of the Pinchayati Raj administration have been held

at regular intervals in 1978, 1983, 1988 and 1993 ... there has

been a continuous devolution of powers and functions on to the

Panchayat bodies to make the decentralisation truly meaningful.

By A Correspondent

W. B. Panchayat Act, 1973 was comprehensively amended in 1992 to

make provision for compulsory reservation of seats for members

belonging to the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities

in all three tiers of Panchyat bodies i.e. Gram Panchayat,

Panchayat Samity and Zilla Parishad proportionate to the

percentage population of these communities in the respective

tiers and also for compulsory reservation of seats to the extent

of not less than one-third of the total seats for the women

members." This, perhaps, says it all.

Another area where the Left. Front Government has scored a huge

success is that of land reforms which have all through formed an

important part of the government's developmental policies. For

centuries feudal and semi-feudal systems, with their attendant

evils, prevailed. The Left Front Government realised that without

changing age-old systems there could be no end to exploitation. A

series of dynamic measures were undertaken with the result that

today feudal landlords have taken their places in the pages of

history books and cultivators have begun to enjoy their rights.

The landless and poor who saw upliftment have also seen the

share-croppers being free from economic bondage to the money

lenders who loom large all over rural India and Who have been

featured in numerous novels and films. In 1994 the total area of

vested land recorded was 13.10 lakh acres of ceiling surplus

agricultural land and the total area so vested land distributed

was 9.85 lakh acres.

In the past Bengal had led from the front in industrialisation.

For many years it was a force to reckon with. However, after

independence the policies of the central government created a

crisis, At the time of independence the newly-created West Bengal

was far more industrialised than other states with its share of

industrial production at 2411/c. Owing to the availability of raw

materials there was rapid Industrial development. Core sectors

were also located in the state. The growth though, did not last

long. The industrial growth rate in the country came down to 1.6%

from 7.4% for the period 1956-1964 and its impact on West Bengal

was disastrous. The freight equalisation policy of the centre

deprived the state of its locabonal advantages. West Bengal also

did not get its share of now industrial licences. Public sector

investments were also not enough. The central government attitude

becomes clear when we see that in 1981 the share of West Bengal

in relation to public sector investment was 8.2%. The figure for

Maharashtra was 8.6%

These trends take a long time to be reversed. Thanks to the Left

Front Government's exercise in damage control there has been an

industrial resurgence and optimists assert that it will not be

long before West Bengal take rightful place among itidus states.

The state's share foreign direct investment has risen and the

WBIDC is dealing with a great number of industrial proposals. The

state government is offering attractive incentives to woo

investors. The politics stability and the power situation is

helping no doubt. An electronic complex, conveniently located,

has been set up. Infrastructure is also being developed. There is

a special cell to offer assistance to NRIS..

While discussing the industrial scene it has to be kept in mind

that basic problems cannot be solved without great changes.

Solutions cannot be provided overnight either. It is the credit

of the Left Front Government that it is working actively to

promote industrial harmony and peace without which industrial

progress is not possible.

It also has to be kept in mind that West Bengal has been working

against odds for a very long time. One of these odds the off

discriminatory attitude of the centre. Another is the partition

and its fallout which devastated the economy. The positive asp of

partition is that it enriched the human base and the refugees

provided impetus to the economy. As a third we can talk of the

political conditions which at a time created a state of fear and

lawlessness. On hindsight, however, it appears that the very

odds helped to create what is today the Left Front and brought to

the fore the dynamic and charismatic Jyoti basu. The Left Front

salvaged pride and the Bengalis could proclaim once again, "I

love you my golden Bengal."