CPM tries to get allies to speak in one voice

CALCUTTA, AUGUST 1: The ruling Left Front in West Bengal is faced with the problem of its allies speaking in diverse voices. The CPI(M) ha...

CALCUTTA, AUGUST 1: The ruling Left Front in West Bengal is faced with the problem of its allies speaking in diverse voices. The CPI(M) has been trying to get its partners to express a uniform view on sensitive issues but has been told that the parties “will have their own opinion”, which, if not always, “could also be aired at their (individual) forum”.

On Monday, it met its partners and agreed to meet more “often with other Left parties” to sort out differences on issues and bring about the uniformity in expression it so much desires. There is, however, a lot of work to be done.

“It is good for us to have one opinion, but since we are different parties, we are also entitled to have our own views,” Kshihti Goswami, PWD Minister and senior Revolutionary Socialist Party leader — who blazed the trail of controversy over his criticism of Deputy Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya’s comments on the Keshpur violence — told The Indian Express. However, he added that “this will not weaken the Front”.

“On the contrary, I personally believe that this will strengthen our Front. We have decided to send our own team to Nannur to get a real picture about what happened there,” the RSP leader said, adding: “The CPI(M) ministers and MPs were contradicting each other on the issue (and this) is not desirable.”

Goswami’s comments come close on the heels of LF chairman Sailen Dasgupta’s appeal asking constituents to maintain a “uniform outlet for expression of opinion”. This also clearly indicates that the smaller partners are in no mood to necessarily agree with big brother CPI(M).

But another LF partner expressed a note of caution, saying: “Unless we make efforts to stop the violence in the state, we are politically helping the Trinamool Congress to gain political mileage.”

Goswami too felt that the time had come for the Left to face the challenge posed by the Trinamool Congress. “We have been in power for two decades and a section of people are disenchanted with us. Mamata Banerjee is trying to channelise these factors,” he said.

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Incidentally, not only the RSP but the All India Forward Bloc — which planned a peace march in Midnapore, Bankura and Hoogly — has also put the CPI(M) in an awkward position since the Marxists had openly disapproved the idea of peace march saying it did not suit the situation.