October 25, 2008

PROVINCIAL PAROCHIALISM MUST BE CONDEMNED AND OPPOSED: BIMAN BASU

Kolkata, 23rd October: West Bengal Left Front Chairman and CPI(M) State Secretary Biman Basu spoke about the urgent need to contain and condemn provincial parochialism. ‘Ugly deeds of regional and linguistic chauvinism are a terrible danger to the very notion and practice of national integrity and unity’ was how Bimanda would put it.

‘The whole concept,’ he added, ‘of Indian citizenship itself is now faced with a challenge of grim proportions, as seen in the prejudiced drive overwhelmed with brutalisation against certain sections of the people in what has always been a cosmopolitan and tolerant Maharashtra’ This must not be allowed to go free and unhindered. People of every section of the social fabric must come forward in strong condemnation of the deeds being perpetrated. Political parties of every kind of ideology and political leanings, or lack of them, should have the courage to condemn publicly such parochial acts of commission.

In this connection, Biman Basu referred to two forms of separatist movements taking place in Bengal. Up north in Darjeeling, the anarchic Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) was busy overwriting car number plates and altering signboard lettering, often being met with a different sort of separatism in the dooars and the plain lands. The Darjeeling district Left Front has called for unity of the people and for opposing all attempts at dividing up Bengal. Down south, a demand has been raised by interested quarters about slicing of three districts – Bankura, Purulia, and Midnapore west – from Bengal and having them form part of the neighbouring state of Jharkhand. .

Bimanda stoutly defended the position of the CPI (M) to stand against all separatist acts, and said that earlier a separate Jharkhand was called for by opportunistic elements by carving out upto 21 districts from Bihar, Orissa, and Bengal. The movement ended in crass failure. This time, too, the move must be thwarted by all right-thinking persons, appealed the CPI (M) Polit Bureau member. Bimanda also condemned the killing of a doctor, a nurse, and a health assistant by the Maoists in Midnapore west recently and pointed to the desperation of these anarchic elements, which drove them to commit such crimes against humanity.

On Singur, Biman Basu called upon the lone Trinamul Congress MP to carry her message of ‘400 acres’ to the bigger for a and perhaps shout it out during sessions parliament, sessions that she never attends now more than ever. On the Election Commission’s recent reputed moves, Biman Basu said that back in August of 2006, the CPI (M) general secretary Prakash Karat had placed a memorandum with the EC that called upon it to desist from insisting on a ban clamped down then on banners, posters and graffiti on privately-owned places, noting that these were the cheapest form of campaign with the widest possible appeal. (INN)





Gorkhaland agitation a conspiracy
to divide West Bengal: CPI(M)



Kolkata, Oct 23 (IANS):
Terming the ongoing Gorkhaland agitation as an attempt to split West Bengal into small parts, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Thursday urged the people to unitedly protest against the ‘unscrupulous elements’ who were trying to disturb the state’s integrity.



‘The non-cooperation movement of the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) has now become a state of lawlessness. Some bad elements, both in the hills and the plains, are trying to disturb the law and order and social fabric of the hills. All political parties and more over people from different strata should come forward and protest against these ill-attempts,’ CPI(M) state secretary Biman Basu told a press conference here.



He said the GJM movement in Darjeeling was affecting the local people and the tourism, which is the main source of living in that region. ‘This year, during pujas, the tourist arrivals have gone down substantially,’ he added. Criticising the demand that three West Bengal districts - Purulia, Bankura and West Midnapore - be included in the neighbouring Jharkhand, he said: ‘These evil attempts can only be defeated if people can stand up against these type of demands.’


Basu also condemned the Maharastra Navnirman Sena’s (MNS) attack on north Indian students who had gone to sit for a railway board exam in Maharastra.


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