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STATES: WEST BENGAL
Clash of Comrades
Two leftist leaders squabble over efforts to introduce
economic reforms in the state
By Sumit Mitra
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THE LIBERAL: Bhattacharya is wooing private capital and
changing labour laws
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Spreading the good
word of Marxism sure has its emotional rewards. But, with the chance of
participating in a government at the Centre doubtful, West Bengal Chief
Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya's growing public image seems to have become
a matter of comradely heartburn among the CPI(M) leadership at the party
headquarters in Delhi.
However, in the Marxist code of conduct, private
grudge has an ideological wrapping. There were murmurs from the party
brass earlier that Bhattacharya was pressing too hard on economic reforms.
Some time ago, a proposal by Bhattacharya, who was then the deputy chief
minister, to invite Warner Brothers for a theatre project in Kolkata was
shot down by the Delhi leadership, notably by Prakash Karat, the 50-plus
politburo member who is likely to succeed H.S. Surjeet as the CPI(M) general
secretary at the party congress in Hyderabad in March 2002.
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POINTS OF CONFLICT
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CRIME: Bhattacharya wanted an ordinance to extend the time
limit for chargesheeting from 90 days to 180 days.
LABOUR: Health Minister Suryakanta Mishra, a CM loyalist,
issued order allowing state-run hospitals to remove staff.
INVESTMENT: When he was deputy CM, Bhattacharya had proposed
inviting Warner Bros for theatre project in Kolkata.
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VETOED: Karat announced in Delhi that the chief minister
had been asked not to proceed with the proposed ordinance.
OPPOSED: Though the order will end the extortion rackets
in hospitals, party leaders see it as politically damaging.
SHOT DOWN: The proposal was bitterly criticised by the
CPI(M) leadership, notably Karat.
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The purists in Delhi and their allies at the
State Committee headquarters in Kolkata had a considerable say in the
cabinet-making process in May. Bhattacharya was hardly allowed to experiment
with new faces. But the push came to a shove this month, when the party's
Central Committee vetoed a West Bengal cabinet decision to promulgate
an ordinance for the prevention of organised crime. "The politburo
has decided to ask the state unit and the West Bengal chief minister not
to proceed with the ordinance," Karat announced at a news conference
in the capital. Red-faced, Bhattacharya mumbled before TV later that it
was he who had decided "not to press for the ordinance".
The ordinance was proposed to the Cabinet in
the wake of a sensational abduction of a businessman in Kolkata in which
a Dubai-based gang was allegedly involved. The ordinance sought to extend
the time given to the prosecution for filing charges from 90 days to 180
days. Some of the 21 people detained in connection with the abduction
have already been released because of the 90-day limit on filing a chargesheet.
The police were unable to press charges because of difficulties in collecting
international evidence. Since the Assembly will not meet before January,
the ordinance came up as an alternative. Then Karat got it torpedoed.
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It is believed that once Karat takes over
the reins of the party, Bhattacharya's quick march to the right
would halt.
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THE ORTHODOX: Karat is likely to be the next CPI(M) general
secretary
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Opinion in the party is also hardening against
a recent government order by which state-run hospitals can do away with
the services of some 12,000 empanelled female attendants. The order, issued
at the instance of Health Minister Suryakanta Mishra, a strong supporter
of Bhattacharya, is a perfectly reasonable one. Most of the attendants
extort money from poor patients and do not perform their duties satisfactorily.
However, they form a sizeable vote bank and partymen
point out that a significant number has crossed over to the Trinamool
Congress camp. Similarly there were frowns when the Government evicted
illegal settlers for a circular rail project in Kolkata. There are also
grouses over Bhattacharya mollycoddling MNCs. While he signed memoranda
of understanding with Microsoft Corporation and IBM recently, the columns
of People's Democracy, the party organ published by the Central Committee,
are thick with anti-MNC fulminations, often under Karat's byline. The
buzz in Kolkata's traditionalist left circle is that with Karat in the
saddle, Bhattacharya's quick march to the right will be halted at the
March congress.
If that happens, it will be a sad Dubcek-style
end to a "brief spring" in Bengal. Being an organisation man
to the hilt, Bhattacharya never sought to emulate the Czech maverick.
So far he has tried to reposition the state from the write-off it had
become under a geriatric leadership, relying almost entirely on his favoured
trinity of ministers: Industry Minister Nirupam Sen, Information Technology
Minister Manab Mukherjee and Mishra.
Karat, on the other hand, is an ideologue strongly
wedded to the communist view of "democratic centralism", which
says-as does the party's constitution-that the lower party organisations
shall carry out the decisions and directives of the higher party organ,
the individual shall subordinate himself to the will of the collective.
The problem with this view is that it ends up
being all centralism, with most of the party posts being filled through
"consensus", not contest. Since its birth in 1964, the CPI(M)
never saw a contest for the post of the general secretary. Karat too will
probably maintain the tradition and rule in the name of the collective.
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