When Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, as West Bengal Chief Minister, embarked on a path of industrialisation in 2006, the Left Front rallied behind him. It was based on a “realisation” that “fragmentation” of land was reducing agricultural production in the State. However, the decision to industrialise a State where agriculture is the primary source of livelihood was soon to boomerang.
The Left suffered a series of electoral defeats, with the biggest blow coming in the 2011 Assembly elections, which the Trinamool Congress won decisively.
Now, the former Chief Minister is candidly questioning his own ideas, even admitting mistakes, while occasionally criticising his party in the second volume of his memoir, Phire Dhekha (Looking Back).
Alarming state
Bengal’s agriculture, according to Mr. Bhattacharjee, was in an “alarming state” as the land size remained fixed and fragmented affecting production, while the “number of the unemployed” grew sharply. So he and his party decided to acquire and allot land to big industrial houses.
As a major step in this direction, land was allotted to the Tatas to set up a small car factory in Singur. Challenging popular views, Mr. Bhattacharjee says the acquisition was not left to the administration alone and “the farmers, organisations, public forums, political party and cultural groups” too were involved. More than “80% of the farmers” gave up land willingly, he writes. “Then, who opposed? The unwilling farmers, many of whom did not have proper possession documents, amounting to less than 18%,” he says.
“In fact, later, I thought a lot about this episode — where have I committed the mistake? [Is it] in the process of acquiring the land? Have I made a mistake in being lenient towards the opposition,” Mr. Bhattacharjee asks. He admits that he is going to “learn from his experience.”
“But it has devastatingly damaged West Bengal,” he says.
Salvo at Governor
Perhaps, it was not his rival Mamata Banerjee whom Mr. Bhattacharjee has criticised for the damage as much as the role of Gopalkrishna Gandhi, who was then the Governor of the State. Mr. Bhattacharjee claims that he had proposed the name of Mr. Gandhi as Governor.
“I and two of my colleagues, Nirupam Sen and Surjya Kanta Mishra, met him. The discussion was focused on returning 400 acres (of 997 acres) of land acquired. I explained that those are marked for ancillary industries. So the land cannot be returned,” Mr. Bhattacharjee writes and goes on to question Mr Gandhi’s approach in the following paragraph. Mr Bhattacharjee, however, does not comment on a much-discussed issue — whether there was a difference within the party on returning 400 acres proposed by the Governor. Rather, he asks, “What the Governor really wanted?”
“I shared a friendly relationship with him (Governor). But why did he step in to protect the opposition? A poisonous wound has surfaced on the question of industrialisation. As long as it would generate toxic blood, the people of the State would remember Governor Gandhi,” Mr. Bhattacharjee says.
Party failures
Mr. Bhattacharjee also questions the party’s failure to address public grievances at the panchayat level, following the Left’s defeat in the 2008 (panchayat) election.
He agreed that the people of the State slowly started “drifting away” from them and”… it was all about narrow party interest, corruption and nepotism which had defeated us (in 2008). (We) realised, we need to address the issues immediately. But situation never remains static,” the former Chief Minister added. Mr. Bhattacharjee acknowledges former Home Minister L.K. Advani’s “unflinching support” to address security related issues on the Bangladesh border.
