Another 30 years?

The spotlight may have been on Singur, but it is Nandigram that is making visible the faultlines in CPM8217;s politics. The death toll in violence spurred by rumours of acquisition of land for a special economic zone predictably hastened the opposition into calling a bandh. But it is constituents of the Left Front 8212; with some members of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee8217;s CPM joining in 8212; who are amplifying the tension by citing the violence as less an administrative problem and more a policy-induced one. Unless the CPM shifts from its current firefighting mode to actively articulating policy in realistic terms, the current confusion could spread the fertile ground for rumour and incitement.

These columns have lauded Bhattacharjee8217;s government for its effort to draw investment to the state, investment that would generate employment and carry so many farmers and rural labourers above mere subsistence. Over the past decade, states have learnt to compete amongst each other to attract industry and development works. The benefits of this have been understood by a section of the Bengal CPM. The Buddhadeb story won the CPM emphatic re-election in Bengal, but it didn8217;t influence the still unreconstructed wing of the party in Kerala. Kerala, where news of Saddam Hussein8217;s death by hanging on December 30 brought innumerable disruptions to the state 8212; at a time when its one flourishing industry, tourism, was set for its busiest weekend.

So, if Bhattacharjee is being besieged by bandhs, if his CPI colleagues and even CPM members of his cabinet are using anti-capitalist rhetoric against him, the challenge to rectify the situation must be the party leadership8217;s. The practice of the government taking decisions and the party doing disruptive politics cannot work. If the CPM feels that the opposition bandh is a pure piece of political opportunism, it will be asked about all the bandhs it and its fraternal organisations have inflicted. Some CPM leaders, like Bhattacharjee, cannot maintain a judicious silence about absurd CITU bandhs 8212; we saw one last month 8212; and expect their valid outrage against an inflammatory bandh call like yesterday8217;s to strike a chord. It took nearly three decades for the CPM to de facto disown the dreadfully disruptive tactic of the gherao. Industry voted with its feet against it. Does the CPM leadership want to wait that long for realising that bandhs, too, are self-inflicted political-economic injuries?