Bengal CPM loses 14 lakh rural members

CALCUTTA, October 21: The State CPI(M) is alarmed over a fall of over 14 lakh in its membership from among the peasantry and rural popula...

CALCUTTA, October 21: The State CPI(M) is alarmed over a fall of over 14 lakh in its membership from among the peasantry and rural population. Its State committee has issued an organisational report warning against neglect of the peasantry in the post-land reform period.

The fall in membership has hit the party’s peasant front when its membership had shot up to 1,14,59,519 in 1996-97 from 1,11,06,408 in 1995-96. In 1997-98, it has come down to 1,00,55,121. The report blames organisational lapses and “party indifference towards farmers and problems of village people”.

The report, after amendment and addition of the draft report placed at the 19th State conference, prior to the recent 16th party congress, says a new approach for the post-land reform period had not been worked out to keep pace with the changing times.

However, it also admits that “in the present situation there is no scope for building up a peasant movement in the State, like in the past”. It says the absence of big landlords afterimplementation of land reform programmes in the State has not left much scope for such a movement. Besides, the authorities are more inclined to use the administrative machinery even where there is a little scope for organising peasant movements. The party does not take up farmers’ issues even when there is scope to do so, the report says.

For instance, it says the party erred in not taking up the issue of hike in agricultural labourers’ wages in the context of increased flow of capital in this sector. The issue was not taken up “owing to indecision, neglect and other class-oriented reasons” though it was discussed often by leaders at both the local and State level, the report says.

Nor has the party taken up the issue of working out a cultural and sports programme to keep the peasant community and village people away from the “cultural aggression which is packaged with the popular entertainment”, the report says. This has to be done urgently as the success of the landreform movement, expansion ofpanchayat system and development of villages have benefited the rural poor and increased their purchasing power and they are increasingly becoming “easy targets of the cultural aggression”.

The report says the fall in membership among the peasantry is noticed in 14 out of the 17 districts in the State. In districts like Midnapore, Bardhaman and Jalpaiguri, there is a marginal increase in membership among the peasantry and villagers.

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In Midnapore, membership of the peasantry and villagers was 26,19,668 in 1996-97 and rose to 26,23,098 in 1997-98. In Bardhaman, it was 16,39,859 in 1996-97 and 16,40,183 in 1997-98 and in Jalpaiguri it was 3,03,220 in 1996-97 and 3,17,164 1997-98.