Politburo talks the Buddha walk

‘‘The politburo was of the view that everything was in keeping with what was said at the (last) party congress. There is no controversy in our party on the issue, it exists only in the media,’’ Yechury said.

The endorsement of the Bengal CM’s brand of reforms was also an acknowledgement of Bhattacharjee’s stature in the party, a realisation that he brought to the party political capital that it needs if it wants to play a key role at the Centre.

Basu was present at the meeting, so was West Bengal CPM general secretary Anil Biswas. Both have come out in open support of Bhattacharjee’s efforts to make the state an investment-friendly destination. CPM general secretary Prakash Karat too stated recently that there was no disconnect between Bhattacharjee’s plans and the party’s views.

The CM presented a written report on his foreign visit at the meeting. There was a clarification that no farmland would be used for setting up an industrial city and a health city by Indonesia’s Salim group in South 24 Parganas.

Yechury told the media that if small agricultural land had indeed to be acquired for reasons of contiguity—the area required for the Salim group projects is an estimated 5,100 acres—the farmers would be duly compensated. He said that land for the project could be secured from 14,000 acres of industrial plots that belonged to industrial units that had shut down.

On the move for setting up a greenfield airport in the state, Bhattacharjee said that so far no feasibility study or assessment for such a project had been made. Only if such studies recommended the need for a greenfield airport, would the state plan for it.

He may have been anticipating opposition from politburo member M K Pandhe, who is CITU president, and some party hardliners. As a frontal organisation, CITU has opposed greenfield airports in Bangalore and Hyderabad and Pandhe has said he will oppose a similar project even in CPM-ruled West Bengal.

How much of that will be Bhattacharjee’s headache isn’t sure given the good relations he has with the CITU leadership. In fact, after several rounds of negotiations, he did get them on board in the proposed sale of the Great Eastern Hotel.

The issue of resuming UPA-Left coordination meetings was also taken up at the meeting today.

The view was that the meetings were discontinued on the issue of BHEL’s disinvestment and the proposed disinvestment of Navratna PSUs.

The politburo felt that only if the UPA Government gave an assurance that such disinvestments would not take place, could the UPA-Left coordination meetings begin.

The political resolution, that was discussed by the politburo and later presented before the central committee which began its three-day meeting on Friday afternoon, took up the issue of aligning with the RJD in Bihar because, according to the CPM, it is the biggest secular force in the state.

The draft political resolution also criticises the Prime Minister for his pro-US tilt and Indo-US defence cooperation—a reiteration of the party’s traditional line on Washington. The CPI(M) central committee will meet till Sunday.