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CPI (M) to sort out party line on economic reforms

	August 29, 2005

The CPI (M) has decided to hold an emergency meeting of its politburo and Central Committee next month to sort out the party line on economic reforms including sticky issues like FDI, multi-lateral aid and disinvestment. The attempt will be to rebut charges that the party speaks in different voices in Delhi and Kolkata and to show that the party’s national stand is no different from the policies being followed by the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Government in West Bengal.



The CPI(M) has been accused of double speak by several of its Left Front partners like the CPI, the Revolutionary Socialist Party and the Forward Bloc which are the constituents of the Left Front government in West Bengal.



The charges have been reinforced after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked all Chief Ministers and CPI(M) Delhi-based leaders to emulate Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s policies in Kolkata. In an interview published in newspapers on August 26, Dr. Manmohan Singh had said that what is good for the West Bengal Government in terms of privatization can also be good for the rest of India. The Left-ruled state is moving ahead in areas of privatization, he said, and “our role is to convince their national leadership that what is good for West Bengal can also be good for the rest of the country.” The Prime Minister said he had full confidence in the patriotism of his Left colleagues. Dr. Manmohan Singh was hopeful of working out a package to open the retail sector to FDI, despite resistance from the Left and other political groups. He said the entry of foreign enterprises into retail trade will not hurt our small shopkeepers, but will create employment.





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Key policies/programmes of West Bengal Government



1. Proposes India’s first fully FDI-funded township in Kolkata suburb of West Bengal.



2. Paves way for power reforms by clearing restructuring of State Electricity Board.



3. Goes ahead with restructuring sick state PSUs with financial help from the British Government’s department for International Development.



4. Upholds central policy on 100% FDI participation in new airports and ports.



5. Calls for new march to an industrialised Bengal by removing land ceiling laws in agriculture and releasing land for industry.



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Chief Minister Bhattacharjee’s statements during his recent visit to Singapore and Indonesia have also drawn flak from some quarters in the Left, but praise from the UPA Government and the Prime Minister.



The Left parties are especially up in arms against Bhattacharjee signing a memorandum of understanding with Indonesia’s Salim Group for setting up an industrial economic zone and township in West Bengal. The family owning the Salim Group had supported the purge of Communists during the Suharto regime in Indonesia, a fact that has made the company all the more unacceptable for many in the Left.



Reports say that during his foreign visit, Chief Minister Bhattacharjee aggressively pursued FDI in his state. He also said in an interview that globalisation is a must and third world countries must participate in it.



For the record, the CPI(M) has defended the policies being pursued by the West Bengal Government.



In a counter to the Prime Minister’s remarks, the CPI(M) said it would oppose the reforms if they were anti-people.



“Yes, we will object if the country is in question If the country’s economic sovereignty is being destroyed, we will object. And that is why on every one of these things do not go into the trap of (the poser) are you pro-reform or anti-reform,” CPI(M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury told reporters. “There is nothing pro- or anti-reforms. The question is if the reform is pro-people, we are pro-reform. If the reform is anti-people, we are anti-reform.”



Yechury’s remarks assume significance as they came a day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had, in a pointed message to his Left allies, said in the Rajya Sabha that ambitious social sector development programmes could not be sustained without reforms, industrial growth and investment climate.



Referring to the Prime Minister’s effusive praise of West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s bid to woo FDI, Yechury said if the UPA Government commended Bhattacharjee, it should implement the Chief Minister’s policies of land reforms, empowering the landless and poor peasantry and other such policies.



While the CPI(M) leadership has been quick to defend the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee brand of economic reform, observers say there is a divide in the party and the matter is likely to be debated hotly in the Friday, Sept. 2 meeting of the politburo and the Central Committee which will continue for three days. The issue is especially crucial as Assembly elections in West Bengal are due next year. The CPI(M) fears that Trinamul Congress leader Mamata Banerjee may raise the issue of land acquisition for the proposed township in the election campaign. It may snowball into a major election issue in her hands.