CPI(M) state secretary Biman Bose, who has been a bit perturbed with the magnitude of the loss in civic polls, nevertheless doesn’t think that the winds of change is all pervasive across the state. “Having said that I also agree that a section of people seem to have suddenly developed a ‘pro-change psyche.’ This is a new political
perception which is quite alien to the existing pattern of polity in our state. For instance, people are being made to believe that Kolkata can be turned into London. But this so-called winds of change has already started losing its momentum,” Mr Bose argued.
When asked what went wrong for the debacle, Mr Bose explained, “Well, after the Lok Sabha polls defeat, we had chalked out a blue-print to recover lost ground. We had adopted a number of programmes both at the party and the state government level. We had started a rectification drive in a sincere effort to purge the party of corruption and other ills which had lately plagued it. There is still one year left for the next Assembly polls and we are confident that in this time-span, we will be able to refurbish our party’s image. We know that we have to change with the changing time. The Communists cannot remain rooted in time.”
Being asked on his view that the collapse of the Congress-Trinamul Congress alliance also did not seems to have helped the Left Front, Mr Bose conceded that the anti-Left vote remained intact despite apparent collapse of the Opposition alliance. “But then this did not come as a surprise to me. I had warned our party supporters that they should not be misled by the break up between the Congress and Trinamul Congress alliance. Anti-Left voters clearly voted according to a strategy. They voted for a candidate which they felt was in the better position to defeat the Left candidate. Although the leaders of the two parties indulged in shadow boxing before the polls, their parties had a tacit understanding.”
On being told that the Muslims had again deserted the Left Front despite their earnest efforts to woo them as chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee announced 10 per cent reservations and other positive measures for the welfare of the community, Mr Bose said: “I can’t fully agree with you. The Muslims as a community did not desert us although there has been a change in their voting preferences. The state government did take several measures but these could not be executed on time.”
As a result, a majority of the Muslims were either not convinced or were not properly informed about the benefits of the government’s policy decisions. Surprisingly, those who were part of the BJP-led NDA coalition at the Centre now claim to be the messiah of the Muslims.”
When asked if he has had any regret for any decision that the party or the state government made which resulted in the Singur or Nandigram fiascos, which undoubtedly proved costly for the party, Mr Bose said: “A Communist never regrets any party decision because all decisions are taken collectively. All I can concede is this — our party or the state government could not present their case before the people more effectively and more convincingly. For instance, we could not convince the people that we had no intention of snatching the land that the Left Front government had distributed amongst them. Again, we could not possibly convince the people that industry was as important for the development of the state as agriculture. The Opposition, on the other hand, continuously carried out in its misinformation campaign about our industrial and land policies.”