First came the bounty and then the brickbats, and the process of reining in a Buddha unbound.
KOLKATA: Buddhadeb proposes, a dinosaur called communist party disposes.
That was the week that was, with Brand Buddha challenged by party doctrines and their hardline proponents, despite a great beginning by Buddhadeb Bhattacharya in his second innings as West Bengal chief minister.
First came the bounty and then the brickbats, and the process of reining in a Buddha unbound.
Bhattacharya began well with Tata Motors announcing on the very day of swearing in May 18 that it would locate their coveted Rs.100,000 small car project in West Bengal's Hooghly district. Hardly had Ratan Tata left that evening came announcements of an IT park and LCD screen TV manufacturing project by the Videocon group in Salt Lake.
But controversy was a step behind.
Friday saw a group of angry and concerned farmers gheraoing a Tata Motors land recce team for the car project, paving the way for the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) hawks to take out their long knives against the chief minister's "ham-handedness" on the issue of land acquisition for industry.
The chief minister faced flak from his colleagues, with the attack led by his 92-year-old predecessor Jyoti Basu, for not educating the party cadre over the deal with Tata Motors to build a small car here.
"What has happened is very bad. We need land for industry but they (Tata Motors) should have been prepared for that," Basu said.
"I have asked Buddha why they did not prepare them. The party and Krishak Sabha (peasant wing of the CPI-M) should have been informed and prepared as well. This should have never happened," said Basu, Bhattacharya's predecessor even as the latter downplayed the episode terming it as a minor incident.
But while Basu rapped Buddha on the issue, politburo member
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