Clipped wings

The failure of the West Bengal government to evict CITU, the CPM trade union, from its occupation of a building within the precincts of Kolkata international airport reveals much that is wrong with the party. It exposes the party8217;s rhetoric against private party participation in airport modernisation. In sharp disregard for the stringent security checks already in place, the Left parties have tried to mobilise opinion against privatisation by saying it would imperil airport safety. Having their trade union workers grab a building just a hundred metres from the departure terminal presumably poses no such threat.

This, however, is not just a simple case of practice exposing ideology. It highlights an unhealthy balance of power that operates in West Bengal between party and government. Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has reformed policies to keep the state economically competitive. Distributive justice, he has emphasised, will not be meaningful without the opportunities presented by private investment. He made his point most memorably by resolving to expunge the word 8216;gherao8217; from industrial practice in the state. And he demonstrated the returns to be reaped when Ratan Tata chose Bengal as his destination of choice for production of the Rs 1 lakh car.

Unfortunately, another investment coup, with Indonesia8217;s Salim group, shows the important reform still to be achieved. On land acquisition 8212; a key requisite for many projects and for Bhattacharjee8217;s emphatic recommendation that villagers move up the employment ladder, from agriculture to industry 8212; the CPM is yet to give up its veto. In Kolkata, unlike in most other metros, the ruling party is deeply involved in real estate transactions. CPM dadas have to be kept happy even for small deals to go through. Party leaders are so used to this system of spoils that weaning them away would be difficult. But as the Kolkata airport spectacle shows, non-reform can have huge substantive and image costs.