War on industrial policy intensifies within Left

New Delhi, Mar 24: In an apparent move to demonstrate who really matters in the Left Front in the face of severe criticism by smaller partners, the CPI(M) has asserted that the large scale units are necessary to consolidate the gains of implementing land reforms.

''If some argue that small and medium scale industries are sufficient, the CPI(M) does not agree. Large scale units, particularly in manufacturing are necessary,'' Party General Secretary Prakash Karat said in an article in the party mouthpiece, the 'People's Democracy.' Mr Karat's observation assumes significance especially after his counterpart in the CPI, Mr A B Bardhan yesterday said that the ''biggest partner'' in the Front had to mend its ways in running the Front.

Mr Bardhan, in a write up in his party Weekly 'New Age' had asked the LDF government to have a fresh look into the issue of land acquisition, how industries come up, rehabilitation policy and the Special Economic Zones (SEZs).

The CPI(M) has come under criticism from its Left partners- the CPI, RSP and the Forward Bloc, besides the Opposition and some of the Left intellectuals for its ''mishandling'' of the Nandigram incident which claimed 14 lives.

The LDF partners had also emphasised that no industrialisation could take place at the cost of agriculture, the source of livelihood for the people.

The CPI(M)'s top leader's article asserted that the state government's policy on industrialisation would not be changed.

''As far as those who want the Left government to give up its industrialisation policy are concerned, they will be disappointed.

West Bengal will protect and further develop agriculture; the gains of land reforms will not be undermined, but the emphasis on industrialisation will not be given up,'' he said.

''The long years of de-industrialisation had to be reversed,'' Mr Karat said.

He also came out with a detailed account of the circumstances that led to the Nandigram incident. The CPI(M) presented a similar fact sheet at a press conference, addressed by Mr Karat recently at the party headquarters- the A K Bhawan.

Only yesterday Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar, along with 30 women activists, was arrested here on reported charges of trespassing into the Yojana Bhawan. She had charged the UPA and the Opposition with being hand in glove with corporates and gagging people's movements to push through a common agenda on SEZs.

Interestingly, Mr Karat chose to name both Ms Patkar and the Naxalites, who he said, were hoping that industrialisation would be halted after the violence in Nandigram and the 'new liberal supporters' of SEZs in the country, saying that both would be proved wrong.

On the CPI(M)'s superiority in West Bengal, the article said that the people of the state know who are the true champions of their interests and who are in the reactionary combine, which is the TMC, BJP and its new found allies.

''Those conversant with political history will also know how the CPI(M) has emerged as the leading contingent in West Bengal by steadfastly fighting back repeated attempts by the ruling classes to rally forces to isolate the party.''

UNI