Citizens’ Research Collective on SEZ

Sougata Mukhopadhyay | CNN-IBN

Kolkata, June 23, 2007: Over three decades, the Left Front in power may have been able to perfectly conceal the tension within but over the last ten months or so, it has been coming to the fore every now and then since the government acquired land forcefully in Singur.

“Who’s going to convince them that industrialization in itself is not development? This drive for industrialization is obfuscating the difference between the two. Development means inclusive growth and this form of industrialization cannot guarantee that,” said RSP leader Kshiti Goswami.

The rift has been widening and the CPI-M has been alleged of being arrogant.

“This arrogance will lead to strong reactions within the Left Front. And in that situation we’ll have to rethink our political positions within the Front,” said Goswami.

This certainly is the first in a long time that differences are getting bluntly surfaced, that too, over a sustained period of time.

But the CPI-M doesn’t see its allies as a threat which is understandable because they haven’t grown in strength over the last thirty years.

The three key partners: Forward Bloc, RSP and CPI - had bagged as few as 45 seats in all in last year’s Assembly election, which is less than a fifth of the Left Front’s 235 legislators in the Bengal Assembly.

“We are confident that whatever differences are cropping up among ourselves, we are really in a position to resolve those differences through discussion,” said Left Front Chairman Biman Bose.

Discussions so far have failed and as the rift widens, the CPI-M too seems to be rethinking its position on industrialization and consequent displacement.

While there’s no going back on industrialisation, partners of the CPI-M have forced the government to think of models for development with a human face.