By Pradipta Tapadar, IANS,
Kolkata: As West Bengal’s ruling Left Front tries hard to wrestle with the anti-incumbency wave after 34 years of uninterrupted rule, Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) leader and state Public Works Minister Kshiti Goswami feels the alliance may have to “struggle” because of the Nandigram and Singur fiascos.
“We have to struggle a lot this time to come to power. We have to go to the people because we have done a lot of wrongs in the last five years,” Kshiti Goswami told IANS in an exclusive interview.
“Nandigram, Singur were blunders. Our government went there without any plan and roadmap. People were against it and that is why we are all paying a heavy price,” said Goswami.
Nandigram in East Midnapore district witnessed widespread violence in January 2007 when the region erupted in protest over proposed land acquisition for a special economic zone (SEZ).
Since then, a turf battle between the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), which leads the state’s ruling Left Front, and the anti-acquisition grouping of farmland supporters backed by the main opposition Trinamool Congress has led to repeated violence in the region.
Singur in Hooghly district too saw violent stir against land acquired for Tata Motor’s Nano small car project, forcing the company to shift its plant to Gujarat.
These two agitations reversed the state’s electoral script. The Left Front, which has been winning all elections since 1977, was battered in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections and last year’s civic polls, besides losing a series of assembly by-elections.
Goswami said the main reason behind the Left Front’s elephantine majority in the 2006 assembly elections was division of opposition votes.
“Last time the difference of votes between us and opposition was less than 1.5 percent, but we gained because of division of opposition votes,” he said.
But he feels that justice was not done to the massive mandate.
“Forcible land acquisitions were not accepted by the people. We went for industrialisation without any land map and land bank,” said Goswami, a member of the highest decision-making body of the RSP.
Does he blame Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee for pushing hard his dream of industrialisation and thus leading to a string of electoral losses for the Front since 2008?
“It’s not about blaming someone but the decisions were wrong. There was no clear planning, people were forced to leave their land…this is not right. The Left Front base was cemented by land reforms and distribution of land to the landless,” he said.
The land reform measures taken by the Left Front when it came to power in 1977 cemented its base for the uninterrupted 34 years of rule. Lakhs of landless farmers and tillers were distributed land and a land ceiling was imposed to prevent accumulation of surplus land.
Goswami, who began his political career as a student activist during the turbulent 1960s, says that his party’s protest against the forceful acquisition of land was quashed by state CPI-M bosses.
“They steamrolled our views and protests and alleged that we have joined hands with the opposition,” said Goswami, a three-time legislator from the Dhakuria assembly constituency, which no longer exists due to delimitation of constituencies.
Asked whether it was possible for the alliance to fare better on the economic front, on which it is lagging behind other states, Goswami said: “We work in a capitalist framework, we have our limitations as national bourgeois parties don’t want us to perform because the Left movement is a threat to them.
“But still, we have done work like land reforms and creation of a three-tier panchayat system; still a lot more needs to be done. In information technology, we started a bit late but now we are catching up with other metros.”
Goswami said that the results of the April-May assembly polls will not have any impact on the unity of the 10-member- strong alliance.
“The Left Front was born out of a struggle of the toiling masses. Its unity can never be broken. We have differences but we solve everything through discussion. And whether in power or out of it, the Left Front will remain Left Front,” said Goswami.
And what will be the alliance’s most important work if it was voted to power for the eight consecutive term?
“Development of the poorest of the poor of the state. We had started the land reforms but a little work is left; we will complete it.
“You have to keep in mind one thing: that poor people and the working class of this state have no friend other than the Left Front,” Goswami said.
(Pradipta Tapadar can be contacted at [email protected])