Mainstream Weekly

Home > 2023 > The CPM’s 34 year rule in West Bengal (Part 1) | Kobad Ghandy with Ghosh and (...)

Mainstream, VOL 61 No 25 & 26 , June 17 & June 24, 2023

The CPM’s 34 year rule in West Bengal (Part 1) | Kobad Ghandy with Ghosh and Hazra

Saturday 17 June 2023, by Kobad Ghandy

#socialtags

by Kobad Ghandy with inputs by Raktim Ghosh and Bonhihotri Hazra

This article will be divided into two parts. The first will deal with the CPM led West Bengal government’s approach to globalisation/SEZs, development with focus on Singur and Nandigram, Industry and labour, education and health......and its resultant actions on the people and their movements. The next will deal with the nature of its rule in the state.

People may ask as to what is the point now in writing on the CPM when all progressive forces need to be supported against fascist rule/administration. The point however is that unless the anti-fascist forces are genuine and also effective on the ground, fascism can never be defeated. This history has taught us. For example, the major role played by the social-democrats in the rise of Hitler is well known. The social democrat’s fixation on parliamentarian and legality hindered an effective struggle against the Nazis, who did not respect the trappings of bourgeois democracy in their own quest for power. In addition, the SPD equated the communists and the Nazis thereby splitting the anti-fascist forces and facilitating the rise of Hitler.

The CPM can be compared to those days’ social democrats at best as proto-fascist at worst. The socialists in India already have a dubious history. Lohia, in 1963, was the chief campaigner for Deen Dayal Uppadhya, the president of the Jan Sangh and a top RSS functionary. Lohia went so far as to attend an RSS camp in Kanpur when invited by Nanaji Deshmukh. The communists turned a blind eye to the semantics of Lohia and the CPM went so far as to encourage the affiliation of the RSS with the JP movement. This RSS-link continued with the massive movement against corruption led by Kejriwal and Anna Hazare, which was defacto instrumental in bringing Modi to power.

Today in West Bengal the CPM’s main enemy is the Trinamul and not the BJP which is a rising force in the state. From 2019 to 2021 at the ground level the CPM gave the slogan ‘agey ram pore bam’ (i.e first bring BJP to power then the left). At the ground level the CPM in West Bengal is not playing any role against Hindutva fascism yet it is considered by many as a progressive force. In fact the main CPM support base amongst the Bengali middle class (upper caste) are those who are the main local (besides the marwaris, jains and Gujratis who dominte most business and trade in West Bengal) support base of Hindutva.

Not only the CPM many a radical and revolutionary forces have meeting after meeting on some general agenda of exploitation and oppression. These resolutions are for their hall meetings, at the ground level many support CPM alliances rather than targeting Brahminical Hindu fascism. Such forums are meaningless unless they have a focussed agenda like the Bharat Bachao programmes taken in Hyderabad and Delhi, whose National Conference was held in Delhi on March 11, 12 2023. These correctly spoke of defeating ‘BrahminicalHindufascism’ and uniting all anti-fascist forces.

Unfortunately the other M-L groupings had no such focus.

For example, that held in Mumbai at the Lal Nishan office in 21/5/2023 (attended by a spectrum of radical left groups and parties). At this meeting they gave a call for a “Peoples’ Manifesto†entailing 24 points which enveloped issues of labour, peasantry, tribals, Dalits and against unemployment, environment destruction, privatisation, etc etc and all issues under the sun. There is no focus and no concrete call to action except a vague statement to defeat the BJP in the 2024 polls. Similarly, some local radical groups have been taking meetings in Kolkata like the one entitled “Stop War on People†and others such: with the demands against corporate loot of jal, jungle zamin, against the policies of LPG, and all possible issues ranging from health, education and women children dalit, adivasis and minorities. But these do not even raise the issue of Hindutva fascism or even caste oppression/brahminism.

All such meetings and forums are meaningless unless they have a focus — particularly of patriotism (against the neo-liberal policies with a call for swadeshi) and/or democracy (in all spheres — political, social, educational, economic, etc, which includes Brahminical Hindu fascism). One just has to see the resolutions of such gatherings which display the impotency of the so-called radical forces in the country. All lefts talk of building a patriotic and democratic front, but no concrete step are to be seen in that direction — whether by opposing neo-liberalism and promoting swadeshi or fighting for democracy the essence of which is countering Brahminism in all its manifestations.

The Left Front ruled West Bengal for seven consecutive terms from 1977-2011, five with Jyoti Basu as CM and two with Buddhadev Bhatttacharya as CM. It came to power in the wave against Emergency rule and the wave of terror it faced by previous Congress governments. It was dominated by the CPM and had as allies small left parties but it was the CPM that called the shots, the others merely followed. Besides the CPI the other parties were the Forward Bloc, the RSP, the RCPI and some other smaller groupings. All faced a reign of terror in earlier Congress rule.

This article will be divided into two parts the first will deal with the issue of CPM’S Agrarian and Urban Policy and Part II will deal with its Party Machinery and Control on the People.

PARTI CPM’S Agrarian and Urban Policy in WB

In West Bengal we will examine the Left Fronts policies after coming to power. While at first some steps were taken in the interests of the rural and urban poor these soon turned into their opposite, not only depressing wage rates but openly pushing the interests of the big bourgeoisie, just like any other political party. Here we will look at the CPM-established Panchayat Raj System, the attitude to the hawkers’ movement, Rajarhat, Singur and CPM’s Panchayat Raj SystemNandigram as also its links with the CPM’s policy to LPG, NEP and globalisation in general. Its attitude to people’s movement cannot be seen in isolation but as an extension of its policies on globalisation.

CPM’s Panchayat Raj System

The CPM established a so-called Panchayat Raj system and built a huge cadre force to virtually bring every family under the control of the local CPM office. The office and these ‘cadres’ had a vice like grip over every aspect of the life of the local people and even a small task could not be done without paying one’s respects to the local office. This cadre force was built off peoples’ money by the CPM government establishing a massive network of schools with the entire teaching population comprising CPM cadres. It was this network that soon grew to become the terror force of the CPM throughout the state.

By establishing Panchayat Raj the CPIM created a new power base in rural areas. Their new base was not the lower level of peasantry, but school teachers. Kanti Biswas was the minister of education of the LF government.
He had reported that since 1977 to 1989 the West Bengal government had ‘opened 12,000 schools and appointed 46,000 teachers’ (Basu 1989, 220). Those newly appointed teachers in most of the cases were CPI (M) party members or sympathizers (Echeverri-Gent 1992). Different surveys had been conducted by different scholars on this issue. During 1992 Echeverri-Gent conducted a survey of Midnapore district in West Bengal. According to this survey among the 36 gram panchayat pradhans, 57 percent of them were school teachers. Another survey conducted by Kohli during 1987 shows in Burdawan and Midnapore districts, that among the 60-gram panchayat members, one-third of them were school teachers. During 1980 a similar survey had been conducted by the Government of West Bengal. That survey shows 29 percent school teachers of West Bengal as occupying the post of panchayat pradhan. So, they were the new power barons of rural Bengal.1 [1] During the year 2006-07, almost 78 per cent of the state’s 155,000 primary teachers were members of the pro-CPI(M) All Bengal Primary Teachers’ Association (ABPTA). 2 [2] Some of those terrorizing names during the CPIM rule in WB for violence, like Tapan Ghosh, Sukur Ali, Majid Master, were all school teachers.

Dalit and Adivasis were used by the CPIM as their foot soldiers. In all seven Left Front ministries, SC ministers were 8.75 percent only. And ST’s were only 1.02 percent. But at the lower level, in Panchayat functionaries, SC’s and ST’s got more positions. Apart from the reserved seats, in order to control SC and ST sentiments, they give them such opportunities. In Panchayat Functionaries SCs constituted 40.56% and STs constituted 10.01%.3 [3]

Agro-Economic Research Centre had conducted a survey in 1986, which shows, “the landowner’s share uniformly rose for both kharif (monsoon) andthebororice crop (sown in winter and harvested in summer, also called the rabi crop) as they were more active in the peasant union than the share cropper. On the other hand, cost sharing did not respond to levels of activism either of the sharecropper or the landowner in any significant manner. However, when the sharecropper indulged in a higher level of activism than the landowner his income increased by 25.9 percent, he managed to retain a greater share in the boro crop, but was met, more often, with the landowner’s reluctance for cost sharing arrangements†.4 [4]

Let us look at some examples of the party machinery rule of the CPM. From a 2009 issue of the Tehelka magazine we got to know an affected farmer’s statement. He was one Sheikh Sukur of Birbhum district. He shared his experience: “‘the party started imposing illegal taxes. We had to pay a tax before growing and harvesting’. Even a social occasion, like a wedding in the villages, was not free from CPI(M) control. Sukur further comments that ‘during my daughter’s wedding three years ago,Ipaid Rs750 to the CPM for permission to throw a feast’.†5 [5] Another farmer’s statement we could get from that issue of Tehelka, named Jamal, ‘two years ago, when I wanted to repair the leaking thatched roof of my small mud hut, the party demanded `500saying that if I had money to repair the roof, I had had money to pay them as well. When I refused, their cadres beat me up and I had to ultimately pay Rs300’.6 [6]

This was in the villages, where the CPM ran a veritable reign of terror through their teacher network of party cadres. Now let us turn to the hawkers in the cities.

Hawkers Control and destabilisation

On 31st January 2009, The Indian Express published a report after surveying some railway stations of Kolkata of the actual situation of hawkers there. They mainly focused on Dumdum railway station. There they found a person named Amit Santra. He was a shop owner with a shop of 4 feet by 6 feet area. He got the shop after giving 15,000 rupees to the local CITU leader. And he had to pay 200 rupees every month to CITU as ‘rent’ for his shop. The report said, ’CITU controls (according to its own estimates) 18,000 stalls onplatforms and 42,000 railway hawkers.’ The report further observed, ’Each stall and each vendor have to pay a certain amount to CITU for the smooth running of his or her business. Every station has a CITU union office with a local strongman acting as the dealer.’7 [7]

In 1996, Operation Sunshine was conducted in WB by the CPIM led state governments and different municipalities. Its motto was simple: to remove hawkers from the pavements forcefully. They justified this activity in the name of beautification of the cities, long before the concept of smart cities was introduced. Thousands of hawkers were evicted from different localities of Kolkata. But the government had to face strong resistance from the hawkers - From this hawker’s movement, the Hawker Sangram Samiti (HSC) was formed. 32 street-based hawker unions were part of this platform. Even the Left Front partner’s party’s trade unions were part of that platform. Except CITU (official trade union of CPIM) all major street vendors’ trade unions were present there. But far before the Operation Sunshine, when the CPIM came to power during 1977, they declared, no hawkers will occupy the pavement, and those that exist after 1977 would not be given a vending license. According to a report of The Statesman, on 8th July 1983, the then Chief Minister Jyoti Basu ordered the police officials to take necessary actions to identify and evict the post-1977 entrants on the pavement. And a year after operation sunshine the state legislature brought about an amendment to the Kolkata Municipal Act that declared any form of unauthorised occupation of streets and pavements by hawkers was a cognisable and non-bailable offence. This news was published in The Calcutta Gazette on 19 November 1997. And from 23rd January Anandabazar Patrika we get to know that, “Operation Sunshine was followed by selective rehabilitation of the evicted hawkers. This rehabilitation process was thoroughly controlled by the CPI(M) leaders and marked by personalised calculations of local power by regime functionaries.†8 [8]

CPM & Land Grab — Rajarhat, Singur and Nadigram

Before Singur and Nandigram the CPIM did a successful land acquisition in Rajarhat. During 1995, the Jyoti Basu government notified that they will acquire land there including fisheries. They actually wanted to grab the land to promote real estate business. In an article published in www.sanhati.com, on 29 August 2008, entitled ’A history of the brutal Rajarhat Land Acquisition, Bengal’s new IT hub’, written by Shantanu Sengupta, he wrote ’Rajarhat is one of the most fertile areas of West Bengal and perhaps India. Leaving aside some regions used for habitation, most, if not all, of the land had been producing three to four crops a year’.9 [9] He further added that: ‘According to the documents of the land revenue department, the number of recorded landowners was over 30,000 while 5,000 were recorded bargadars (sharecroppers.) The number of unrecorded bargadars was double that number. Long before the government notification and land acquisition process had started, the land mafia started buying up the land from the poor farmers’.10 [10] The land-grabbing process at Rajarhat was different as it was done in secret.

“From beginning till end, Rajarhat was a covert operation. A slew of undercover terror strategies were set in motion. Farmers disappeared; bodies were found hanging from trees. Threats and intimidations (the CPIM’s usual tactics)succeeded in scuttling protests. A section of farmers accepted the compensation money†.11 [11] Witness the nature of the land loot: Santanu Sengupta wrote, ’The sad irony of it all is the fact that while the farmers were paid only Rs 5000 to 6000, the same land was being sold by the government to the businessmen at around Rs600,000a katha, while the promoters and developers in turn were making a profit of around Rs 1,50,00,000 to Rs 2,00,00,000’.12 [12] So the massive real estate values were the main aim for land grabbing there.
But another game was going on there. The main opposition TMC was in partnership with the CPIM in this land-grabbing project. “Rajarhat came full circle nearly a decade later in 2009, with its explosive revelations of the murky alliances of both the CPIM and Trinamool Congress with the real estate and underworld mafia, a collusion going back to the years of forcible land acquisition and displacement.†13 [13] So although the government changed during 2011, the truth of Rajarhat, still remains in the dark.

The CPIM’s behaviour was no less than that of the colonial collaborators during that period. Singur’s land was being acquired by a colonial law - Land Acquisition Act of 1894.

In the case of Singur the CPIM even hadn’t signed an MOU with the TATA’s just to help them. What kind of help? By not doing so TATA’s had been rescued from lots of financial obligations. Even according to news reports, the government had provided 140 crores to the TATA’s to ‘help’ their industrialization. More or less 15,000 families were dependent on the Singur farmland. From 11 different villages there were 5000 peasant families. Others who were dependent on this farmland were agricultural workers, unregistered sharecroppers, cottage industry workers, local people engaged in small business. How many jobs could the TATA industry generate there? Even according to CPIM leaders’ claims - not more than 12,000 employment opportunities would be there. And again, the maximum of these would not go to the local people.14 [14]

According to some allegation the price of the land in Singur had been given at much lower than the market price. For single-cropped land, the compensation offered to the land owners was 8.7 lakhs per acre and for double-cropped land 12.8 lakhs per acre. For the registered bargadars the rate offered was only 25 percent of this value. And for unregistered bargadars there was no compensation.15 [15] The state government’s Statistical Handbook prior to the acquisition indicated that Singur was a block with a thriving agri-business where 83 per cent of the land was irrigated with a whopping 220 percent crop density. Paddy and potato were the main crops in the region, jute and several vegetables were also grown.16 [16]

According to Kunal Chattopadhyay, who was a member of Radical Socialist India and Professor of Comparative Literature at Jadavpur University, “Media reports indicate that the land is being taken over by the West BengalIndustrial Development Corporation at a cost of Rs 140 crores. The Tatas have informed the West Bengal Government that they will compensate the government to the tune of Rs 20 crores after five years with a 0.01 percent interest. The discounted value of the money in today’s terms will be about Rs12 crores. So the West Bengal Government is giving to Tatas the sum of Rs 128 crores (28,749,185 US dollars). This money will come either from taxes or from loans contracted by the WBIDC, which again must be repaid through taxes or through cutting costs in social sectors like health and education.â€

So according to the CPIM’s development model people will pay for TATA’s industrialization. During September 2006 many protestors were brutally assaulted and arrested by the WB police from Singur. Among those arrested there was a two-and-half-year child, named Payel Bag. Another two pre-teen boys were arrested during that time by the CPIM government. The first martyr of Singur was a 26-year-old protestor Rajkumar Bhul. He died due to an internal hemorrhage from police beating. Tapasi Malik was the frontline face of the Singur movement. She was the daughter of Manoranjan Malik, a sharecropper of Singur. On December 18, 2006, when she went to the field to answer the call of nature, she was abducted and taken to the barbed wire fenced area of Singur where she was brutally gang-raped and killed.
Her body was burned, especially the lower body, to remove the evidence of rape. Seeing the fire and smoke, the villagers came running at around 6 am. The miscreants fled.

Allegations were against local CPM leaders Suhrid Dutta and Debu Malik. However, the CPM consistently tried to pass off the incident as suicide. But after this incident, the common people of West Bengal burst into hatred towards CPM. Meetings, marches and protest meetings continued all over Bengal.

With its back to the wall, the CPM came up with a conspiracy theory that the opposition parties were involved in the whole incident to defend itself. Even CPIM’s nationally and internationally known intellectuals started maligning Tapasi Malik’s family.

In a widely circulated article which appeared in the prestigious American leftist newsletter Counterpunch on May 23, 2007, Sudhanva Deshpande and Vijay Prashad wrote the following about the death of Tapasi Malik:

“Stories were blown out of context, and allegations flew around (sexual assaults, murders) that have since been shown to be false. The most sensational was the murder of a young woman, Tapasi Malik, who had been a leader in the Singur struggle against land acquisition. The blogs and the capitalist media blamed this death on the CPM. The Central Bureau of Investigation is now of the view that she was killed by her father and brother.†However, in June 2007, the CBI arrested CPM’s Hooghly district committee member Suhrid Dutta and his associate Debu Malik under sections 302, 120 (B), 376 and 201 of the IPC on charges of rape and murder. The Additional Chief Sessions Judicial Magistrate, Amar Kanti Acharya convicted these two accused in November 2008. Meanwhile, on 21 June 2007, Debu Malik was subjected to a polygraphy test. He confessed all the incidents before the Judicial Magistrate of Patiala House Court on June 24. However, in February 2009, the accused got bail from the Calcutta High Court. While the verdict of the trial was muted, Tapasi’s murder exposed the civil image of the CPM in the public eye.17 [17]

During that time Activist Medha Patkar said that the Left Front is worse than the Gujarat Government of Narendra Modi. According to her, during the time of Narmada Bachao Movement Modi’s government restricted her movements there; but during the time of Singur, the CPIM-led government restricted her movement much more than that. And interestingly Modi was in support of WB CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. According to a news report of Ananda Bazar Patrika, on December 5, 2006, “Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had told his party that it is opportunistic to try to exploit Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’srecentdifficulties, and they should support him over the issue of land acquisition.†18 [18]

On 29th January 2007 several left-oriented intellectuals lead by Professor Sumit Sarkar published an Interim Report of the Citizens’ Committee on Singur and Nandigram. There they took the opinion of 50 to 60 villagers of Singur. The villagers stated to them that most of the acquired land was multi-crop. By their ground survey and after getting the public opinion of Singur, Professor Sumit Sarkar was convinced that the land was multi-cropped and fertile. In a reply WB CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee replied, ‘I know these farmers better than them particularly, and my colleagues are working there, my party, my peasants organization, they know better than these people’.19 [19] Arrogance was reflected in every word. But according to statistical information collected from the Statistical Handbook of West Bengal, 2004 (Govt. of West Bengal, 2004a), and the District Statistical Handbook of Hugli, 2004 (Govt. of West Bengal, 2004b) the land of these acquired villages were very fertile. So, the WB government data supports Sumit Sarkar’s claim. 20 [20] To destroy every protest in Singur, police manhandled women on many occasions. According to the Interim Report of the Citizens’ Committee on Singur and Nandigram on 29 January 2007, women ‘...were beaten up by male policemen, filthy language was used....’ And The National Confederation of Human Rights Organizations (NCHRO 2006) mentions that on 5 December 2006 during the Singur protest, ‘The female arrestees at Chandannagar police station alleged that they were manhandled, beaten, molested and sexually abused by the male policemen at the time of arrest and while being transported to the police station.’21 [21] Sumit Sarkar and the Citizens’ Committee found many more interesting things there in Singur. They found that on the nights of 25 September and 2 December 2006 villagers were beaten up severely by CPIM cadres. Although the police was present at the spot, according to their findings, it was the CPI (M) cadres who ‘did the major part of the beating up’.22 [22]

The CPIM leaders were hiding the contract between TATA and the state government. Even they were trying to bypass an RTI. Finally, they could not do so and in March 2007 the WB government’s industrial minister Nirupam Sen told the West Bengal Assembly legislators of his government’s decision to give the Tatas a soft loan of Rs 200 crore together with concessions on lease rent and value-added tax (VAT). According to him, ’Unless we give these concessions to the Tatas, other states will win them away and that would be a big jolt to ou refforts to affect a turnaround for Bengal. Two years hence, every MLA sitting in this House will be able to watch how the state’s economy would change withtheadventoftheTatas.’ What confidence on the Tatas.23 [23]

Not wanting to giving his land in Singur a farmer named Haradhan Bag committed suicide on 12th March 2007.24 [24]

And then came Nandgram: The Salim group (Indonesia ’s biggest conglomerate), who were invited by the CPIM to invest in Nandigram had a horrific history. They are charged in the killing of more than 5,00,000 communists in Indonesia.25 [25]

Ever since the land acquisition notice was read out in Nandigram, the common people got scared and angry and started protesting. On January 2, 2007 CPM cadre forcibly attacked Nandigram to break the villagers’ resistance. 6 villagers including Bharat Mandal, Sheikh Salim were killed in the incident that day. Then the people of Nandigram blocked entire Nandigram by cutting the road. It was their desperate move to stop the armed CPM cadres and save their land. On March 14, the Left Front government launched a private campaign to recapture Nandigram. At least 2,500 policemen took part in the operation. According to different sources, 4 to 5 thousand policemen, Rapid Action Force and commandos took part in this operation. It is suspected that at least 400 CPM cadres were involved. The campaign started at 10 am. Villagers were sitting at demonstrations at Garchakraberia and Gokulnagar in Sonachura. They knew of no other means of saving the land and of averting the impending terror known from past experience. The police asked them to leave.

But without even giving the required time, within 5 to 15 minutes (various sources say the same range of time) police started firing - first tear gas, then rubber bullets and finally real bullets. The police and the CPM later said the villagers had pelted stones, but the force did not have the legal authority to open fire.

They attacked without any papers signed by the magistrate. Witnesses said the villagers fled after the first round of firing. The police started chasing them. Eyewitness accounts also reveal a child being beheaded. Observers who were first able to enter Nandigram on March 17, experienced human blood trails extending at least two kilometres from the site towards the village.

Official figures say 14 villagers died in police firing. However, speaking to villagers it was found that, at least 100 villagers have gone ’missing’ since the incident. Apart from official accounts, various private sources say that at least 20 people died and at least 60 people, including 14 policemen, were injured in the incident that day.

“Finding the villages deserted the CPI-M supporters allegedly looted houses and shops. Villagers alleged that at least five women protestors were raped by CPI-M goons. BUPC members complained a few bodies were dragged towards Khejuri and somewere thrown into the Hooghly river by CPI-M cadres.â€

What did the CPM’s front partners in the Left-front government say after the Nandigram massacre? The RSP leader and minister, Kshiti Goswami, said,

“The manner police raided the villages its seems that a civil war is on. The way the CPI(M) cadres and the police were used is condemnable.

This will not only tarnish the image of the Left Front, but the survival of the Front will be at stake.†CPI state secretary Manju Majumdar described, “Why was the police sent two days before the Higher Secondary examination? Why aren’t injured being given proper medical care? There are not enough words to condemn what has happened today†! Debabrata Biswas, general secretary of the All-India Forward Bloc, said, “It would have a cascading effect politically. It is clear that the action was well planned. We would take a clear stand on the issue after our party’s central committee meets on Thursday.â€

Confirmed deaths as per police record are:

Women gangraped as per police records

So according to the police there were gang rapes. Who did that? If the CPM cadres didn’t do it, did the police do it?26 [26]

In the case of the Nandigram genocide the WB government framed a story that “armed Maoist terrorists were organizing the villagers and had put women and children up front while firing on the government’s men from behind them.†But this story is not believed by many, because many villagers had been shot in the back. Even former CM of WB Jyoti Basu did not believe such a story. According to him, "Is this the way the Left Front government should function? I have been told that the mob went violent but on the contrary I saw men with bullets in their back on TV. Why is it so?"27 [27]

We got to know from Martha C. Nussbaum’s article that “HistorianTanika Sarkar tells me that she personally saw marks of sexual assault on the bodies of young women and girls, and, at the local government-run hospital, saw scores of desperately injured people whom officials had ordered discharged, although they could not stand or walk. A doctor who refused to sign discharge papers had been transferred. †28 [28] But then, the WB CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s approach was very clear. He was in full support of such firing. He said, that the villagers had been "paid back in the irown coin."29 [29]

In an article ‘Nandigram and the Question of Development’ published in EPW May 26, 2007, former CPI(M) MP Malini Bhattacharya argued that, violent displacement in the name of development is nothing new — it has been witnessed in states like Orissa, Maharashtra, Gujarat and MP, not just in CPI(M)-ruled West Bengal. Hence violent displacement is justified according to her and the CPI(M) had to do it in Nandigram. Again from Anandabazar Patrika, 30/01/07 we got to know, that the then West Bengal Government minister and CPI(M) Central Committee member Suryakanta Mishra asked cadres to use the party flag as sticks to crush the resisters like snakes. Again another central committee member Benoy Konar suggested that peasants can live off the interest from compensation money in better style than they would as tillers of the soil! And this suggestion had been published in People’s Democracy on 10/12/06, which is the Central Party organ of CPI(M). Prof. Tanika and Sumit Sarkar’s appealed to the people on the issues of Singur and Nandigram and that appeal was vehemently opposed by Benony Konar, saying “I can’t do anything if the historians decide to go back in time...Their views are anti-industry†30 [30].

After the Nandigram massacre, prominent CPIM intellectual, Jayati Ghosh, said, ’The current events in Nandigram in West Bengal give rise to many emotions, but one of them is surely a sense of shock at the cynicism and irresponsibility of some apparently progressive activists and artistes. What is also shocking is how the local conflict, which continues to lead to tragic loss oflife is still being portrayed as a struggle against land acquisition, when that particular victory was won several months ago’.31 [31] Incidentally in the previous year the CPIM had won 235 seats in the 2006 state assembly elections which was the probable reason for their confidence in these movements.

Opposed to this many prominent intellectuals protested against the CPIM government, like Achin Vanaik and Professor VibhutiPatel, Arundhati Roy, Mainstream EditorSumit Chakravartty, and many more. Arundhati Roy and Sumit Chakravartty were present in the protest at Delhi in front of the CPIM partyoffice.32 [32] Many prominent personalities joined in protests after the Nandigram massacre. Prominent historian Sumit Sarkar and Tanika Sarkar returned major literary awards that they had won from the WB government. They compared the Nandigram incident with the Jallianwala Bagh happenings of 1919. Tanika Sarkar stated, "All this has happened and there is not a word of shame or apology from the CPI(M) central committee or state committee." 33 [33] No apology till now, and the Bengal CPIM is still trying to justify the happenings of Singur and Nandigram by raising questions like those of ‘development’, opposition’s/CIA’s conspiracy etc.
Not surprisingly these actions are not isolated events but are in line with the CPM government’s policies on globalisation, SEZs, education, health and labour, etc — in short, LPG.

Agent of Globalisation

The CPIM’s love for Multinational Corporations is a very old story. During 1979 a known Multinational Corporation’s (Unilever’s) Indian counterpart Hindustan Lever founded a factory at Haldia. At the inauguration of that factory then WB CM Jyoti Basu said : due to the revival of industries in WB, most modern technologies are needed. And to get these technologies there is an important role of Multinational Corporations. Again, he added : that he wants that many industries should be built up in private sector. And then he warned the labourers by saying that, the labourers should cooperate with the managerial body of the organization.34 [34]

Though many times CPIM tagged opposition parties as anti-national, they were the pioneers for the ‘second arrival’ of the British! Let me explain. It was November 1994. A delegation of British industrialists had come to WB under the leadership of the then-British Commerce Minister Richard Needham. From different industrial sectors 84 delegates were present. The CM Jyoti Basu said to them, that due to the natural advantageous geographical location of WB and for its ‘responsible Trade Union movement’, WB was the best destination for their capital investment.35 [35] In this delegation one member was Frank Hunt. He expressively appreciated Jyoti Basu’s industrialization policy and said, this was the “second arrival†of the British.36 [36] Obviously, the first one was the East India Company’s arrival. And that, as we all know, was the first step towards British colonization. And Bengal’s ‘communist’ CM wanted to repeat that ‘glorious’ history again. During the “India-British Partnership Summit†in the presence of then British Prime Minister John Major, the WB CM Jyoti Basu said, once the British Industrialists had developed tea, jute, mining, cloth and steel industries in this state. And now, after fifty years of independence, we are getting the same opportunity again as Britain and our state become partners again.37 [37]

Giving huge advantages to the big corporates was not a new feature for the CPIM. They did that much before the Singur incident. Siemens founded a factory in Saltlake city of WB by investing 150 crore rupees. The Left Government gave them relief by waiving 100 crore rupees of sales tax for five years. Siemens requested to extend the relief for 4 more years and the Government agreed. Actually, with interest, the WB Government returned more than 150 crore to Siemens.38 [38] According to a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General, during the financial year of 1994-1995 and 1995-1996 the WB Government waived more than 40 crore rupees of sales tax to 8 companies. The government never explained as to why they gave such heavy concessions to these companies.39 [39]

In the case of foreign direct investment (FDI), the CPIM led WB government changed its policy in September 1994. The Government published a renewed Policy Statement on Industrial Development. According to this, the State Government welcomed foreign technology and investments, as may be appropriate, or mutually advantageous....[I]t recognises the importance and
key role of the Private Sector in providing accelerated growth.40 [40] One of the pioneering steps of market opening by a “Left†government!!!
Somenath Chatterjee, a Central leader of the CPIM, who later became speaker of the parliament during the first UPA government, had been given the charge of the Chairman of the WBIDC (West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation) after it took the pro FDI policy in 1994. After taking charge Somenath Babu said, unfortunately there is still the feeling among a section of industry: Why should we go to a communist-led state? This should prompt us to be more aggressive in projecting West Bengal. We must attract private capital. I don’t see any alternative.41 [41] So competition began with other states by the CPIM to better their pro-industrial policies to out-beat other state governments in attracting foreign capital.

To be sure, by welcoming FDI in WB, the CPIM actually supported the New Economic Policy wholeheartedly, yet centrally, in order to dupe other progressive sections, they tried to show that they were against the NEP. Yet, while doing so, they continuously tried to justify their policies in WB, even at their party congress. A resolution taken during the 15th party congress of the CPIM in 1994, reads, “... it was necessary to take up the mantle of
industrialization given the opportunities presented by the NEP, but: ...doing so does not mean giving up or compromising on our basic strategic goals...care should be taken to see that our government...[does] not...justify the liberalisation policies...[Our]...policies should be in defense of the public sector...the government must clearly set out alternative policies possible...and this should be the basis for our Party’s propaganda and mobilization.
†42 [42] So they
40 decided centrally (not in the state) that they have to catch the fish but without touching the water. As a reward, between 1996 and 2003, the CPIM led WB government got $1.3 billion in foreign direct investment.43 [43]

The West Bengal CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was even more desperate to attract foreign direct investment or FDI in West Bengal. Although the CPIM has opposed (till then) FDI policy on different occasions, their CM tried his best to attract foreigners. He visited Singapore and Indonesia during 2005. There he stated that : You see, communists, we can’t speak any more about old dogmas. The world is changing. We are also changing. Look at China. The situation is completely different if you compare it to [what existed] before 1978. The Chinese realise that their position in the world has changed. So, they changed their policies accordingly. Deng Xiaoping used to say: ‘Seek truth from facts, not from books.’ We learned from our experiences in India and abroad.

...We have to formulate new policies...globalization is a must...nobody can halt this process...we will take advantage of this situation.44 [44]

From the 90’s the CPIM even decided to open the agricultural market to foreign capital. Their guide here was the notorious US consultancy firm McKinsey. They would become the main agent and collaborator of globalization in India.

“This new policy perspective was reportedly based on the recommendations of McKinsey, a US consultancy firm invited by the government inthe1990s to submit a report on the problems and prospects of West Bengal’s agriculture. Its report proposed three fundamental changes in the agricultural sector: first, to promote non-government initiatives in agriculture or more precisely, open it up to private players and multinational corporations which would lead to integration of the peasants’ land and labour and MNCs’ capital and technological knowledge and conjointly provide a big push to export trade in agricultural commodities. The second element was to encourage diversification in agricultural products, to curtail the areas of cultivation devoted to food crops such as paddy and wheat, and attach greater importance to production of commercial crops such as fruits, flowers and vegetables such as mango, litchis, pineapple, cashew nut, vanilla, coco, mushroom, spices, potato, tomato, aromatic rice, flowers and ornamental plants etc. Thirdly, it recommended contract-based cultivation and marketing of agricultural products between peasants and MNCs under which farmers would receive remunerative prices while MNCs would get a fair amount of the returns for the supply of capital and marketing the entire produce through its global outlets. It was further pointed out that fragmentation of holdings, largely resulting from LPG’s land reform and redistribution policy, constituted a major impediment to foreign investment in agriculture in West Bengal since entering into contracts with so many peasants was a huge problem. This encouraged the government to amend its land reform laws in the interest of consolidation of holdings and furtherance of the cause of contractfarming.†45 [45]

By opening the agricultural sector for the multinationals, the CPIM initiated the destruction of environment too. Due to excessive need of water the ground water level began falling rapidly. Arsenic pollution in the drinking water increased to a dangerous level leading to a rise in illness and even deaths. “Finally in order to augment the production of food crops in a decreasing land area, the new policy encouraged abundant use of HYV seeds, chemical fertilizers and insecticides — which again would be supplied by the MNCs — oblivious to the deleterious effects of these chemicals on the health of the farmers, or of HYV seeds and GM food on the biodiversity of the state. Indeed, it was argued that the huge boost in production which we have seen was attributable to the unprecedented expansion of boro cultivation; and the
plentiful use of HYV seeds called for huge water supply. This need was satisfied through ample extraction of groundwater through thousands of deep and shallow tube wells and submersible pumps, leading to an alarming depletion of the state’s water table and high incidence of arsenic-related diseases in various parts of rural Bengal.†46 [46]

Not only globalization, the CPIM was a pioneer of the GST too. During 1999 the then PM Atal Bihari Bajpayee arranged a meeting with three ex RBI governors, I.G. Patel, Bimal Jalan and C. Rangarajan. From that meeting he made a plan to implement a uniform sales tax or GST all over the country. To build the GST model Atal Bihari Bajpayee made a committee during 2000. This committee’s head was a prominent CPIM leader and then Finance Minister of WB, Asim Dasgupta. Earlier Atal Bihari personally requested WB CM Jyoti Basu to leave his Finance Ministerial post for this purpose. After the fall of the NDA government, the first UPA government was formed. The new PM, Manmohan Singh, decided that Asim Dasgupta should remain the head of the GST committee. Asim Dasgupta worked for 7 years to design the GST model. Manmohan Singh made another committee to develop the GST structure. Asim Dasgupta was also in the leading position of that committee. Asim Dasgupta resigned from this committee after the CPIM’s defeat in WB during 2011. But, by then, almost 80 per cent of the work was done.47 [47]

SEZ and CPI(M)

When first UPA government passed the SEZ Act in 2005, on the one hand the CPI(M) vehemently opposed the SEZ at the centre, on the other hand they actually promoted the SEZ model of West Bengal. An important point is that during the year 2003 the CPI(M) led government passed the SEZ act for West Bengal, two years before the centre48 [48]. They were the first in India in this aspect. So, it may be said that the CPI(M) were the pioneers of the SEZ model in India.

Well before Singur and Nandigram happened, the CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat attacked the Central Government about the implementation of SEZ. Why was the centre not following the path of West Bengal? Karat said,

“The Centre has proposed to preserve 25 percent of the total land in a SEZexclusively for setting up industrial units. Rest of the 75 percent of land will be utilised for carrying out other development activities like construction of shopping malls and other commercial complexes. We want the Centre to amend the act and make provisions for utilising 50 percent of the SEZ land exclusively for industrial purposes; as the left Front government here is pre serving 50 percent of the total land exclusively for the construction of new industrial units. Twenty-five percent of the land will be utilised for setting up industry-related infrastructure and the rest of the 25 percent will be utilised for other purposes. We want the Centretofollow the same model that West Bengal is trying to follow in setting up SEZs,†“The Centre has proposed to acquire large tracts of land and give the same to the promoters of multiproduct SEZs.In such cases, land is being acquired from farmers on a large scale without any compensation or provision of means of livelihood.
There is also wholesale tax exemption being given which is going to have adverse effects on government revenues. There are also other features of the SEZ Act including setting up of international financial centres which detract from the sovereignty of the country,
†49 [49]

But in January 2007 the CPI(M)-led government of West Bengal had published a book named ’Doing Business in West Bengal’. During the occasion of Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, the state government distributed that book among NRI investors. All the points they had earlier criticised in the centre’s SEZ policy, the same points were promised to the potential SEZ investors by them in that book. In the book it was stated that, "100 percent exemption on profits and gains would be given for10 consecutive years out of a block of 15 years" for the investors. Yet as part of CPM’s doublespeak, in a note submitted to the UPA, the CPI(M) had said that tax holidays would result "in a revenue loss of Rs1,75,487 crore against an estimated investment of Rs3,60,000 crore. The justifiability of the tax largesse to big business under the SEZ policy needs to be thoroughly debated." But again in ’Doing Business in West Bengal’ they had written about their SEZ policy that, "These policies will simply encourage investors, including those financial services, to move away from other locations in India to SEZ areas with no benefit to the economy and substantial revenue loss." In this book, the CPI(M) also mentioned that they will also have a different policy for labour disputes in SEZ areas. Apart from labour rights as mentioned in the law of this country, the "development commissioner was to be the reconciliation officer for labour disputes in SEZs." And further, they have added that: "The ILO recommendation regarding separation of powers between the development commissioner of the export processing zone and the grievance redressal officer should be seriously considered in this regard."50 [50]

Education and Health

There is a myth that the CPIM ruled WB had a special health and education policy which was pro-people. This is not true.

According to the data of the Government of India of the year 2002, for the first 16 years of left rule, WB was below the national average in school enrolment for girl students. In a planning commission document, which compared 20 Indian states by assessing the level of infrastructure available for primary education, shows that WB stands third from the bottom. Just above Jharkhand and Bihar.51 [51]

The 60th round NSS data found that patients commonly avoided government facilities for outpatient care on the grounds of ‘bad treatment’, ‘poor accessibility’ and ‘long waiting period’. Amongst 16 major states, according to the human development index, WB ranked number 9, and there was no improvement in ranking from 1981 to 1991.52 [52]

The West Bengal Government’s budget for health has always been much greater than the central budget. But while the budget was increased minimally at the national level, during the left period the health budget of WB government was constantly decreasing. “In 1950-51, health’s share to total revenue expenditure of the state was9.89%. Steadily declining in all the following decades, it came down to 6.23% in 2000-01. However, during the same period, the relevant share in the case of Union Government increased from0.47%to0.75%.†53 [53]

Industry and Labour

During 1977—78 the state’s share of the total employed in industries across the country was 15 percent and that of the total value added was 12.2 percent; in 1987—88 they both came down to 9.4 percent and 8.9 percent respectively.54 [54]

During the CPIM-led WB government rule industrial output showed a sharp decline. During 1980-81 the growth rate was 9.8 percent, and during 1995-96 this rate became 5.1 percent. And during 2008-09 the rate declined to 4.6 percent.55 [55]

In the organized industrial sector employment was declining too during Left rule. From 1984 to 2001 employment in this sector declined by about 50 percent. And in case of the organized private sector during 1980 employment was 10.84 lakhs, it fell to 7.99 lakhs during 1997.56 [56]

Claiming that they are a working-class party, the CPIM still took an anti labour policy in WB during their reign. In 1985, CM Jyoti Basu threatened workers to stop agitations. They should take part in the development of WB by sacrificing their interests. He said, "Irresponsible trade unionism, affecting the growth of industries, will not be tolerated and workers should take equal interest with the government in the economic development of their respective units and are as....Workers might have demands and difficulties, but these should be solved through meaningful discussions."57 [57] There is a popular belief that due to irresponsible trade unionism in WB industrial development stopped. But the reality is quite different. On the one hand, the CM Basu and the CPIM threatened workers to stop their justified movements, on the other hand lots of lock outs were happening during the 1980s in WB. As statistics show, “There had been 144 lockouts in West Bengal by the end of October 1985 compared with 132 in 1984, and the resulting loss of man days went up to 15.1 million in 1985 from 7.75 million in 1984. The number of strikes up to October 1985, however, dropped to 34 from 51 in 1982.†58 [58] Again after the CPIM’s arrival in power in 1977, the labour movement decreased rapidly in WB. At the same time lockouts were an increasing phenomenon there. So the propaganda that capital didn’t come to WB due to labour strikes, was a myth. “By 1980, however, the total number of major industrial disputes came down to 208 consisting of 78 strikes and 130 lockouts. In fact, in the years that followed, the number of strikes continued to decline: in the year 1991 there were only 21strikes, and, by contrast, there were 192 lockouts.†59 [59]

When mill owners conducted lockouts the WB government did nothing against them. The CPIM’s trade union, CITU, too were silent. “In 1988, for example, of the total 228 work stoppages, lock-outs accounted for 85 percent and strikes 15 percent; 88 percent of man days were lost because of lock-out and 12 percent because of strikes. Of the 246,053 workers affected, a majority (60 percent)suffered owing to lock-outs.The average duration of a strike was 33.4 days and a lock-out 169 days. Lay-offs increased from 510 in 1985 to 1,572in 1988. The unions and the State both remained mute witnesses to the onslaught on workers during the decade.†60 [60]

In December 1986 a program was jointly organized by the Indian Chamber of Commerce and the Bharat Chamber of Commerce. There, in a question-answer session with the FICCI and ASSOCHAM, the WB CM Jyoti Basu said, it is necessary to tell you that although we are communists, you have no cause to doubt us. He agreed with the industrialists that, due to modernization, tears would swell in many eyes. Some layoff must be happening... He requested the industrialists, do layoffs, but slowly. It’s better to ready labourers for that, he suggested. In reply of a question of an industrialist he said, what he said should go to the lower level to the labourers. He added that the maximum number of labourers are with us, so we could force them to be obedient.61 [61]

The CPIM was really apologetic about their workers movements during 60s and 70s. On 18th September 2007, there was a report published in The Telegraph paper, named ’Gherao and Projects Galore-CM Confesses’. There we got to know the then WB CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s confession: “Before a high-powered group of industrial captains of the CII the Chief Minister said his party had committed-’serious mistakes’ in the 60s and 70s. ’Sometimes I say that our contribution to the Oxford Dictionary is gherao’.†62 [62]

When the CPIM leadership in Delhi upholds the right to strike as a fundamental right in the Supreme Court, that time on 27 August 2008 at a meeting with corporate heads Buddhadeb said, ’I do not support any bandh. I agree it’s not helping anyone. But unfortunately as I belong to one party andtheycallastrikeIkeepmum   But I have finally decidedthatnexttimeIwill open my mouth. My colleagues in Delhi are also debating and discussing. Our old dogma will not work. Perhaps our colleagues in Delhi are also changing. Itwill take some time but I can assure you that my colleagues are reshaping andreformulating.’63 [63] Actually he assured corporates that they don’t have to be afraid about his party’s ‘revolutionary’ face. It is just a mask and nothing more.

And then came the article published in The Statesman on first may 1991, named, ‘Labour in the Red regime’. It was written by Aditi Roy Ghatak. There she discussed about 19 factories which were shut down in between 1983 to 1990. In these factories 982 labours died of hunger due to loosing their jobs. How many members of their family died no one knows.64 [64]

So we find the CPM rule in West Bengal has been little different from that of any other ruling class party. In many cases they have been pioneers in the policies of implementing the neo-liberal agenda. And to do so they have wielded the whip against labour and the peasantry, often more ruthlessly than other parties. In these there is not even an iota of progressiveness and yet many an intellectual whitewash their criminal deeds and defacto become party to their terror regime giving it an authenticity they desperately seek.

Their real terror will be seen in Part II of this article.


[1LEFT FRONT AND AFTER UNDERSTANDING THE DYNAMICS OF PORIBORTON IN WEST BENGAL, JYOTI PRASAD CHATTERJEE & SUPRIO BASU, New Delhi, SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd, 2020,page 72.

[2Government as Practice: Democratic Left in a Transforming India, Dwaipayan Bhattacharyya, Cambridge University Press, Delhi, First published 2016, page 89-90.

[3Government as Practice: Democratic Left in a Transforming India, Dwaipayan Bhattacharyya, Cambridge University Press, Delhi, First published 2016, page 20.

[4Government as Practice: Democratic Left in a Transforming India, Dwaipayan Bhattacharyya, Cambridge University Press, Delhi, First published 2016, page 82.

[5The 2011 State Assembly Election in West Bengal: The Left Front Washed-out!, Bidyut Chakrabarty, Journal of South Asian Development, 6(2) 143 —167, page 153.

[6The 2011 State Assembly Election in West Bengal: The Left Front Washed-out!, Bidyut Chakrabarty, Journal of South Asian Development, 6(2) 143 —167, page 153.

[7LEFT POLITICS IN BENGAL: Time Travels among Bhadralok Marxists, MONOBINA GUPTA, ORIENT BLACKSWAN PRIVATE LIMITED, Hyderabad, First published 2010, page 160.

[8https://www.indiatoday.in/fyi/story/operation-sunshine-kolkata-west-bengal-c pim-hawkers-1027252-2017-07-31
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/remove-hawkers-from-pavem ents-says-subhas/articleshow/3898668.cms
Hawkers’ Movement in Kolkata, 1975-2007, Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay, april 25, 2009 vol xliv no 17 EPW Economic & Political Weekly.

[9LEFT POLITICS IN BENGAL: Time Travels among Bhadralok Marxists, MONOBINA GUPTA, ORIENT BLACKSWAN PRIVATE LIMITED, Hyderabad, First published 2010, page 187-188.

[10LEFTPOLITICS IN BENGAL: Time Travels among Bhadralok Marxists, MONOBINA GUPTA, ORIENT BLACKSWAN PRIVATE LIMITED, Hyderabad, First published 2010, page 188.

[11LEFTPOLITICS IN BENGAL: Time Travels among Bhadralok Marxists, MONOBINA GUPTA, ORIENT BLACKSWAN PRIVATE LIMITED, Hyderabad, First published 2010, page 188.

[12LEFT POLITICS IN BENGAL: Time Travels among Bhadralok Marxists, MONOBINA GUPTA, ORIENT BLACKSWAN PRIVATE LIMITED, Hyderabad, First published 2010, page 188.

[13LEFT POLITICS IN BENGAL: Time Travels among Bhadralok Marxists, MONOBINA GUPTA, ORIENT BLACKSWAN PRIVATE LIMITED, Hyderabad, First published2010,page188.

[14Mainsteam,Volume XLIV, No.51, Singur and CPM’s Development Paradigm, Editorial, Tuesday 24 April2007 https://mainstreamweekly.net/article88.html

[15LEFT FRONT AND AFTER UNDERSTANDING THE DYNAMICS OF PORIBORTON IN WEST BENGAL, JYOTI PRASAD CHATTERJEE & SUPRIO BASU, New Delhi, SAGE Publications India PvtLtd, 2020,page 108.

[16Government as Practice: Democratic Left in a Transforming India, Dwaipayan Bhattacharyya, Cambridge University Press, Delhi, First published 2016, page 192-193.

[18Kunal  Chattopadhyay, ‘Violence in Singur’ in Mainstream,VOL XLV No 01, 24April2007 https://mainstreamweekly.net/article101.html

[19LEFT FRONT AND AFTER UNDERSTANDING THE DYNAMICS OF PORIBORTON IN WEST BENGAL, JYOTI PRASAD CHATTERJEE & SUPRIO BASU, New Delhi, SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd, 2020, page 121.

[20LEFT FRONT AND AFTER UNDERSTANDING THE DYNAMICS OF PORIBORTON IN WEST BENGAL, JYOTI PRASAD CHATTERJEE & SUPRIO BASU, New Delhi, SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd,2020,page 122.

[21LEFT FRONT AND AFTER UNDERSTANDING THE DYNAMICS OF PORIBORTON IN WEST BENGAL, JYOTI PRASAD CHATTERJEE & SUPRIO BASU, New Delhi, SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd, 2020, page 104.

[22LEFT FRONT AND AFTER UNDERSTANDING THE DYNAMICS OF PORIBORTON IN WEST BENGAL, JYOTI PRASAD CHATTERJEE & SUPRIO BASU, New Delhi, SAGE PublicationsIndiaPvtLtd,2020,page 123.

[23LEFT POLITICS IN BENGAL: Time Travels among Bhadralok Marxists, MONOBINA GUPTA, ORIENT BLACKSWAN PRIVATE LIMITED, Hyderabad, First published 2010, page122.

[24Passive Revolution in West Bengal 1977—2011,RanabirSamaddar,First published in 2013, SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd, NewDelhi,page132.

[25VOL XLV No 01, Violence in Singur, 24 April 2007,by Kunal Chattopadhyay https://mainstreamweekly.net/article101.html

[27Violence on the Left: Nandigram and the Communists of West Bengal, Martha C. Nussbaum Dissent, Volume 55, Number 2, Spring 2008 (whole No. 231), pp. 27-33, page 30.

[28Violence on the Left: Nandigram and the Communists of West Bengal, Martha C. Nussbaum Dissent, Volume 55, Number 2, Spring 2008 (whole No. 231), pp. 27-33, page 30.

[29Violence on the Left: Nandigram and the Communists of West Bengal, Martha C. Nussbaum Dissent, Volume 55, Number 2, Spring 2008 (whole No. 231), pp. 27-33, page 30.

[30Nandigram and the Responseof CPI(M) Intellectuals, 07July 2007 https://cpiml.net/liberation/2007/07/nandigram-and-response-cpim-intellectuals

[31LEFT POLITICS IN BENGAL: Time Travels among Bhadralok Marxists, MONOBINA GUPTA, ORIENT BLACKSWAN PRIVATE LIMITED, Hyderabad, First
published 2010, page216.

[32VOLXLV No01, Violence in Singur, Tuesday 24 April 2007, by Kunal Chattopadhyay https://mainstreamweekly.net/article101.html

[33Violence on the Left: Nandigram and the Communists of West Bengal, Martha C. Nussbaum Dissent, Volume 55, Number 2, Spring 2008 (whole No. 231), pp. 27-33, page 31.

[34Business Standard, 14/10/1979 taken from Bharater Communist Party Marxbadi Ektimulyayan, Suniti Kumar Ghosh, Self published, Kolkata, 2004, page 111-112.

[35The Statesman, 15/11/1994 & Business Standard, 15/11/1994 taken from Bharater Communist Party MarxbadiEktimulyayan, Suniti Kumar Ghosh, Self-published, Kolkata, 2004, page 114.

[36Business Standard, 15/11/1994 taken from Bharater Communist Party Marxbadi Ektimulyayan, Suniti Kumar Ghosh, Self published, Kolkata, 2004, page 114.

[37Business Standard, 10/1/1997 taken from Bharater Communist Party Marxbadi Ektimulyayan, Suniti Kumar Ghosh, Self published, Kolkata, 2004, page 114.

[38Business Standard, 8/12/1994 taken from Bharater Communist Party Marxbadi Ektimulyayan, Suniti Kumar Ghosh, Self published, Kolkata, 2004, page 115.

[39Bartaman, 13/9/2002 taken from Bharater Communist Party MarxbadiEktimulyayan, Suniti Kumar Ghosh, Self published, Kolkata, 2004, page 116.

[40Contradictions, Negotiations and Reform: The Story of Left Policy Transition in West Bengal, Ritanjan Das & Zaad Mahmood, Journal of South Asian Development, 10(2), 199—229, page 205.

[41Contradictions, Negotiations and Reform: The Story of Left Policy Transition in West Bengal, Ritanjan Das & Zaad Mahmood, Journal of South Asian Development, 10(2), 199—229, page 206.

[42Contradictions, Negotiations and Reform: The Story of Left Policy Transition in West Bengal, Ritanjan Das & Zaad Mahmood, Journal of South Asian Development, 10(2), 199—229, page 208.

[44LEFT FRONT AND AFTER UNDERSTANDING THE DYNAMICS OF PORIBORTON IN WEST BENGAL, JYOTIPRASAD CHATTERJEE & SUPRIO BASU, New Delhi, SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd, 2020,page 96.

[45Agriculture under the Left Front Regime in West Bengal, Partha Pratim Basu,West Bengal under the Left 1977-2011, Edited by Rakhahari Chatterji ParthaPratimBasu, First published 2020, by Routledge, 2 Park Square, Milton Park,Abingdon, OxonOX144RN, page151.

[46Agriculture under the Left Front Regime in West Bengal, Partha Pratim Basu,West Bengal under the Left 1977-2011, Edited by Rakhahari Chatterji Partha PratimBasu, First published 2020, by Routledge, 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX144RN, page154.

[47GST: Meet the men behind India’s biggest tax reform that’s been in making for 17 years, Prabhas K. Dutta https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/goods-and-services-gst-reformers-atal-b ihari-asim-dasgupta-chidambaram-arun-jaitley-985352-2017-06-29

[48Nandigram and the Response of CPI(M) Intellectuals, 07 July 2007 https://cpiml.net/liberation/2007/07/nandigram-and-response-cpim-intellectuals
& Special economic zones, land acquisition and civil society in West Bengal chapter 13, Abhijit Guha, Resettling Displaced People Policy and Practice in India (2011), ed. Hari Mohan Mathur, Publisher: Routledge (Taylor & Francis Group) & Council for Social Development, page 336.

[49CPI(M) wants Govt to amend SEZ Act, to follow WB model, Sep 13, 2006 https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/cpim-wants-g ovt-to-amend-sez-act-to-follow-wb-model/articleshow/1988323.cms?from=md r

[50Bengal Govt, CPI(M) still divided on SEZ issue By Sutirtho Patranobis, Jan 15, 2007 https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/bengal-govt-cpi-m-still-divided-on-sez-issue/story-oV62fj69Pi19jKDKhKxd2M.htmll

[51Government as Practice: Democratic Left in a Transforming India, Dwaipayan Bhattacharyya, Cambridge University Press, Delhi, First published 2016, page 21.

[52Government as Practice: Democratic Left in a Transforming India, Dwaipayan Bhattacharyya, Cambridge University Press, Delhi, First published 2016, page 22.

[53Lost Decades ? Human Development in West Bengal with Special Focus on health, Satyabrata Chakraborty, West Bengal under the Left 1977-2011, Edited by Rakhahari Chatterji Partha Pratim Basu, First published 2020, by Routledge, 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, OxonOX144RN,page171-172.

[54Government as Practice: Democratic Left in a Transforming India, Dwaipayan Bhattacharyya, Cambridge University Press, Delhi, First published 2016, page 187.

[55LEFT FRONT AND AFTER UNDERSTANDING THE DYNAMICS OF PORIBORTON IN WEST BENGAL, JYOTI PRASAD CHATTERJEE & SUPRIO BASU, New Delhi, SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd, 2020,page 92.

[56LEFT FRONT AND AFTER UNDERSTANDING THE DYNAMICS OF PORIBORTON IN WEST BENGAL, JYOTI PRASAD CHATTERJEE & SUPRIO BASU, New Delhi, SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd, 2020,page 92.

[57Politics in West Bengal: The Left Front versus the Congress (I), Author(s): Prasanta Sen Gupta, Source: Asian Survey, Vol. 29, No. 9 (Sep., 1989), pp. 883-897, page 888.

[58Politics in West Bengal: The Left Front versus the Congress (I), Author(s): Prasanta Sen Gupta, Source: Asian Survey, Vol. 29, No. 9 (Sep., 1989), pp. 883-897, page 888-889.

[59Industry inWest Bengal during the Left Front Regime, Srikumar Bandyopadhyay and Partha Pratim Basu, West Bengal under the Left 1977-2011, Edited by Rakhahari Chatterji Partha Pratim Basu, First published 2020, by Routledge, 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN, page 117.

[60Passive Revolution in West Bengal 1977—2011, Ranabir Samaddar, First published in 2013, SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd, New Delhi, page 4.

[61Business Standard, 20/12/1986 taken from Bharater Communist Party Marxbadi Ektimulyayan, Suniti Kumar Ghosh, Self published, Kolkata, 2004, page 126.

[62LEFT POLITICS IN BENGAL: Time Travels among Bhadralok Marxists, MONOBINA GUPTA, ORIENT BLACKSWAN PRIVATE LIMITED, Hyderabad, First published 2010, page 118.

[63LEFT POLITICS IN BENGAL: Time Travels among Bhadralok Marxists, MONOBINA GUPTA, ORIENT BLACKSWAN PRIVATE LIMITED, Hyderabad, First published 2010, page 119.

[64The Statesman, 1/5/1991 taken from Bharater Communist Party Marxbadi Ektimulyayan, Suniti Kumar Ghosh, Self published, Kolkata, 2004, page 126.

ISSN (Mainstream Online) : 2582-7316 | Privacy Policy|
Notice: Mainstream Weekly appears online only.