Karat snubs Bengal comrades, takes all powers to Delhi

Even as the Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Prakash Karat establishes command over bumptious Bengal comrades in Hyderabad at the central committee meeting, he took the winds out of his critics’ sails by publicly taking on the pro-economic reform faces within the state.

And it could not have come at a worse time for the pro-reform faces -- Buddadeb Bhattacharjee, Nirupam Sen (two who lost in the recent assembly election) and state party secretary Biman Basu -- in the Bengal organisation.

Incidentally, in the past, Bengal comrades used to dictate terms to AKG Bhavan for a simple reason: Muzafffar Ahmed Bhavan, Bengal party headquarters, was cash rich because of its protracted hold over Writers’ Buildings, the seat of power in the state.

“They used to speak from a high horse with a pistol in hand,” quipped an AKG Bhavan full-timer. “Now all this is over. They have to realize that the CPI(M) is a centralised party.

For the first time, the CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat -- the high command at AK Gopalan Bhavan, Delhi, which is the national headquarters of the party -- took an assertive role by making it clear that the central party leadership has the last word in matters of party’s political line.

And the issue was the re-acquisition of 400 acres of land at Singur -- the site of the aborted people’s car project – Nano of Tata Motors Limited -- by the All India Trinamool Congress-Congress Government in West Bengal.

The CPI(M) would not oppose the move to take over the land and give them back to farmers who were opposed to selling off their holdings, Karat stated at the end of the CPI(M) central committee meeting in Hyderabad.

Prior to the CC meeting, the leader of Opposition at the 15th West Bengal state assembly and CC member Surjya Kanta Mishra told the party’s Bengali mouthpiece Ganashakti on the proposed bill for the entire process of re-acquisition and return of lands, “Unless and until I have a look at the bill, how can I say if I would support or oppose the bill.”

Earlier, Mishra and the Left Front chairman Biman Basu, politbureau member, criticized West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee for promulgation of an ordinance, arguing that it ‘would be unconstitutional’ as the assembly session was hardly a couple of days ahead. This carried a wrong message as if the CPI(M) wanted the move to fail.

“The Tatas completed 80 per cent of construction and hence it would be highly improper to take away the land,” wrote Ganashakti, pertaining to the 645 acres out of the 997 acres that the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation Limited acquired applying ‘public purpose’ clause of the colonial Land Acquisition Act, 1894.

Karat made it very clear to the media that the CPI(M) “is not opposed to return of Singur land as long as legal procedures are followed”, a clear indication to the new government to stick to the rule book and legal procedure for changes in enactment.

But in much bigger sense, it was a direct rebuff to the Bengal comrades who attended the CC. A couple of Bengal comrades working in New Delhi or AKG Bhavan differed with the attitude of brass of West Bengal state committee implicitly suggesting that the party suffered immense damage for ‘suicidal’ steps at Singur and Nandigram which the CC document described as ‘costly’ to the party.

The CC expressed dissatisfaction over the slip-shod manner of review on causes for the worst-ever performance in WB state assembly elections, prepared by the WB state committee and placed by Basu, who is also the state party secretary.

This was amply clear in Karat’s press briefing, “Prolonged rule led to accumulation of negative factors and people have voted for change. What reasons impelled people to opt for change will be looked into and corrective steps taken.”