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Journalism of Courage
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has admitted that the party has suffered a loss of faith among the people and moved away from the masses,particularly the poor. Speaking at a closed-door meeting,he added: The image of the party has to be improved,and it will not happen overnight.
The media was kept out of the party meeting held to celebrate 60 years of the Chinese revolution. However,Bhattacharjees observations were reported by the West Bengal CPMs official mouthpiece,Ganashakti,on Friday. CPM state secretary Biman Bose also addressed the meeting,along with other senior leaders.
Talking about the debacle in the recent Lok Sabha polls and elections in some civic bodies,Bhattacharjee said peoples perception about the party and trust in it had suffered. Incidentally,the party meeting was held in Barasat in North 24 Parganas,one of the districts where the CPM is ridden by infighting and where it has seen a huge erosion in its support base.
The Chief Minister regretted that while earlier people saw the party cadres as members of their family,this was no longer the case. Most of our cadres have confined themselves to party offices, he said.
Bhattacharjee also talked of the pro-poor schemes the state government was planning to regain peoples trust. Foremost among these being corrections in the BPL list to make it as error free as possible,continuation of the Rs 2 a kg rice for the poor and housing for the poor.
Bose talked about the rectification initiative launched by the party to rejuvenate cadres. Bhattacharjee may be addressing many such meetings in south Bengal,where the Trinamool has gained ground against the CPM,as part of the exercise.
