Introduction: Personal agendas matter, not the state
Once more an assault from Jyoti Basu reinforced by Alimuddin Street speaking from commanding heights casts doubts about Buddhadev Bhattacharya's being allowed to function. It revolves around workers' rights of which Basu, now safely retired, has become an ardent champion. This is becoming a regular affair and is made worse by dissenting voices. The Forward Bloc has made its displeasure about the functioning of the Left Front known. The CPI and RSP keep complaining. The overriding impression is that each one is looking for an opportunity to make a presence felt regardless of what good it will do to the state and the people. The issues for the bandh increase in electricity tariffs and hospital charges - were decisions approved by the Left Front but the noises suggest that some Left partners still feel left out of the decision making process. Crucial decisions taken by party bosses have caused more embarrassment to Buddhadev than he can cope with. Jyoti Basu makes it worse by suggesting at the Ganashakti anniversary celebrations that there is nothing wrong in the party taking decisions on matters like hospital charges and academic appointments and that the media is inventing or imagining differences.
Basu has his own agenda which is
to kill any impression of a "better Left" after he was forced to step down.
The worst example was surely when he suggests that although strikes and
agitations have left industry in West Bengal in a shambles, workers must
not surrender their right to strike even to the government. It is designed
to win applause from the coordination committee. The danger signals to
investors no longer matter to him now that he and his former advocate-general
have no stake in the Left Front's performance. On the other hand, his observations
should be music to Gurudas Dasgupta's ears but the Aituc leader's response
to the 10 January bandh also leaves a few questions unanswered. He considers
the bandh "politically motivated" and called by a "wild combination of
forces to reap political benefits" because electricity tariffs and hospital
charges "are not life and death issues for workers". In other words, workers
need not be concerned about the rise in the cost of living for which the
Left Front is directly responsible but need to "pre-empt" the harsh measures
envisaged by the NDA in the coming budget with a nationwide general strike.
Dishonesty doesn't bother either the Left or Trinamul for whom support
for Buddhadev's ban on rail rokos and roadblocks and eviction of hawkers
is politically injudicious. Politics is a great leveller. The bottom-line
is that issues don't matter as long as they are on the right (read wrong)
side of the political fence. It may be futile to look for a consensus on
the state's basic needs; the real tragedy lies in the multiplicity of selfish
motives.