KOLKATA,12th JUNE(INN): The Bengal unit of the CPI (M) in the wake of the two-day state committee meeting (11 – 12 June 2009) has given a strong call to the people to come out onto the streets in the defence of democracy and to frustrate anarchic designs of the reactionaries and the sectarians.
The state committee meeting saw the presence of three Polit Bureau members from the Party Centre: General Secretary Prakash Karat, Sitaram Yechury, and S R Pillai. Prakash Karat said during the discussion that took place in the meeting that that the ‘Third Force’ was not acceptable to the people during these elections. Nevertheless, the necessity for a building up a ‘Third Alternative’ has not been finished off. The situation is unfavourable but the Party and the Leftists shall be able to overcome it.
The Bengal CPI (M) has in the circumstances of the incessant attack by the combined ‘rainbow opposition,’ on the democratic fabric itself in Bengal. The Bengal CPI (M) has given this call in a fervent manner to all democratic-minded people in the accompaniment of CPI (M) and Left mass organisation workers, sympathisers, and supporters of the CPI (M) to take to tarry no farther in taking to the streets.
Said Biman Basu, state secretary of Bengal CPI (M) that in the wake of the Assembly elections, wide assaults ‘are seen to be brought down viciously on the CPI (M), Left Front and on the Left Front government of Bengal.’ Efforts are ‘on’ in a planful way to pave the path that leads to anarchy and complete disorder as well as chaos.
Terrorist methods of murder and mayhem are employed rampantly. The Trinamuli goons lead the way, the Congress hoods follow while the self-styled ‘Maoists’ try and create havoc whenever and wherever they can in Bengal. The very democracies that the people enjoy in the Left Front régime as well as the wide democratic rights that the people possess are taken away from them with the use of open threat and brute force by the enemies of the people.
The Bengal unit of the CPI (M) has also called on the Party and the Left mass organisations to be united in a much more political and organisational manner with ideology of Marxism-Leninism lighting up the path to be traversed, a path complex but not impassable. Whenever and wherever the police the state administration are found lacking an appropriate pro-active role, voices would raised against them as well, firmly asserted Biman Basu.
In the state committee, the Bengal CPI (M) has accepted with respect the popular verdict and has delved deeply and thoughtfully into three causes of the electoral outcome: political, organisational, and administrative. Drawing the correct lessons from the outcome, the Bengal unit has decided resolutely to undertake a rectification programme with a multifaceted outlook as far as the emergent tasks are concerned.
In the elections, an initiative was launched by the Left to create an electoral understanding that was non-Congress as well as non-BJP. However, the ‘Third Force’ failed to earn the believability of the mass of the people. The expected success of countering the electoral challenge could not be achieved by massing the democratic and the patriotic forces of the country based on an anti-imperialist political-ideological stance. The electorate chose the Congress as able to set up stable governance at the centre, for the voters did not regard any other alternative as reliable enough to counter the terrible menace posed by the forces of religious fundamentalism and terrorism.
It is to be mentioned that while such projects and programmes as the NREGA, the forest act for the adivasis, and other social welfare measures were undertaken under pressure of the Leftists by the UPA government, this initiative ultimately helped the Congress in the Lok Sabha polls. The impact of all this has been felt in Bengal as in other states.
In Bengal, a rainbow opposition conglomerate was created comprising the forces of division, separatism, and inclusive of all the elements anti-thetical to the CPI (M) and the Left Front from the sectarian to the utter reactionary elements. The Trinamul Congress led this unholy and opportunistic coalition of sorts. The alliance forged between the Congress and the Trinamul Congress added strength to this alliance.
Then there is the instance of the organisational flaws and faults of the Bengal CPI (M). The weaknesses in the organisation reflected themselves in the electoral outcome as well. Causing farther hurt to the image of the CPI (M) amongst the mass of the people and contributed to electoral losses have been instances of dissolute acts, lack of mass contact, and deficiencies in the task of building up continuous and ceaseless movements and struggles. The Bengal CPI (M) in its state committee meeting has called for sincere efforts at rectifying these deficiencies.
However, one important fact must not be lost sight of in the effort at self-critical frame of mind. The Bengal CPI (M) and the Left Front won no less than one core 85 lakh of votes and more, in the Lok Sabha election. If we count from the day the elections were announced, the number of braveheart CPI (M) workers martyred total no less than 42, and still counting.
Indeed, as a recent PD editorial has pointed out aptly, the attacks on the Bengal CPI (M) has continued to mount as the body count increases, and the fearful days and nights pass by for the democratic masses in a few districts in particular. The Bengal CPI (M) feels in the political-ideological self-critical introspection that in view of the continuity of intensity of the assault on us by our class enemies, there is need, indeed, there has been need to have made the Party more tightly organised so as to be capable of resisting the attacks.
There is also a self-critical admittance from the state committee that there has been defects and a slackness felt in organising tasks that directly affect the people, and are especially related to the poor an the working masses. There is additionally a lacuna felt and keenly about the absence of organising and running of the Bengal LF government, the Panchayats, and the civic bodies by keeping integral the precise and desired class direction and class orientation.
Then again, there is also the fact, undeniable, immutable, and incorrigible, that for the past two years in particular, every developmental programme and project of the Bengal government has had to face fierce well-nigh violent antagonism and resistance from an irresponsible opposition and its lackeys.
The situation is politically critical and the Bengal unit believes that the ugly forces of division and separatism receive constancy of every kind of possible assistance and help from reactionary elements and stakes, indigenous and foreign. Various forms of calls, catchphrases, and tags are pronounced with great pomposity to try to create fragmentation fault lines amongst the different and differing ranks of the poor. We must, said Biman, resist this heinous attempt to alienate the whole issue from the class question and class considerations.
As emergent tasks after the elections, the state committee of the Bengal CPI (M) has identified several issues. The Bengal CPI (M) must stand more united than ever politically and organisationally and confront the constant attacks on the people and the Party. Who are the perpetrators of the attacks? Answering this rhetorical question, Biman notes that vile attempts are made all the time by the stake elements on the right and the extreme left to launch coordinated assaults on the CPI (M), the Left Front, the Left Front government, and the mass of the people. The corporate media is engaged all the while in its incessantly attacking mode against the CPI (M).
The target fixed by the opposition of every form is to create fault lines amongst the working people and the democratic masses. The CPI (M) must counter this divisionary manoeuvre and build up – stronger than ever – a people’s unity. The masses must be approached, as they are closest to the Party, they are the Party’s very own near and dear ones. In their functioning, the Party, the mass organisations, and the administration must prioritise the poor and the working people. Firm, resolute, and determined steps must be initiated, right here and now, and at every functioning level of the Party, against all forms of non-Communist activities of omission and commission, and behavioural pattern.
53 state committee members took part in the discussion that was held at the meeting where central committee member Benoy Konar chaired the proceedings. Biman, concluding, identified the tasks. As we have already said in the beginning, Biman called upon the mass of the people to take to the street to safeguard and flourish the democratic rights of the people. The ill-gotten attempts to create a reign of anarchy and chaos must be resisted by taking along the mass of the people.
Statewide movements must be forthwith launched placing to the fore such issues and items as price rise, universal PDS, BPL card to all the poor, change in the criteria fixed by the central government for identifying the BPL, quick issuance without any delay of SC-ST-Adivasi certificates, implementation of the rural electrification programme etc.
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