Buddha’s absence felt again,and again

Sources said in the absence of the CM,party general secretary Prakash Karat had a closed-door meeting with state secretary Biman Bose. Nirupam Sen,another Politburo member who attended the meeting,was not present with Karat and Bose. The party forum is not the only thing that Bhattacharjee has been avoiding. Tata Sons chairman Ratan Tata sought an appointment with the Chief Minister early this week without success. He had to make good with a meeting with Commerce and Industries Minister Nirupam Sen. According to sources,Bhattacharjee said: “What’s the point. What do I tell Tata? A meeting would have only added to rumour mills and speculation.”

The same evening,he skipped a scheduled meet with Ed Miliband,British Environment Minister,and Douglas Alexander of DFID. This when the British government has been financially supporting the Bengal government’s programme of restructuring loss-making state PSUs. Sources close to the Chief Minister say of late,the passion with which he used to govern the state has been lacking. Early this week,Bose and Bhattacharjee jointly addressed a public rally in Kolkata to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Food Movement of 1959 where leaflets and speeches acknowledged the ‘peculiar’ situation arising after the Lok Sabha polls. “Everything is being stalled,” sources said.

In fact,most of the Bhattacharjee’s pet projects — the Nano,the Nayachar chemical hub,the DLF Dankuni projects,the IT park with big players like the Infosys and Wipro to name a few — have come to a standstill.

Within the party as in the government,there are ‘contradictions’ within the CPM and Left Front which cause the deadlock. The LS debacle has given an opportunity to LF constituents as also to anti-Buddha factions in the party. Meanwhile,Bose and Politburo member Sitaram Yechury said Bhattacharjee stayed away from the Saturday’s meeting due to health reasons and denied differences within the CPM.