Author: Saugar Sengupta
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: May 13, 2009
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/175668/Comrade-dares-PB-members-to-contest-polls.html
A maverick Marxist's "revisionist assertions"
hours before the nation goes to the fifth and final round of election has
left a whole lot of comrades swallowing hard and running for cover. Yet the
mighty Alimuddin Street - the CPM's Bengal headquarters - is suddenly lacking
the cheek to have words with the party oddball and high-profile State Transport
Minister Subhas Chakrabarty.
The striking difference between the Bengal
line - traditionally championed by Jyoti Basu - and the Kerala line - held
and led by Prakash Karat - came to the fore when State secretariat member
and North 24 Parganas strongman Chakrabarty advocated the need for party Politburo
leaders to fight elections to test their appeal among the masses.
Proffering a feeble clarification for the
non-conformist statements made by Chakrabarty in a televised interview, a
miserable Marxist leadership only claimed that whatever he had said was his
personal view.
Chakrabarty had earlier opposed the Politburo
for stopping Jyoti Basu from accepting the Prime Minister's post. He also
openly disapproved of Karat's decision to expel Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath
Chatterjee.
In a clear reference to the Karat couple,
the Bengal Minister told a TV channel, "The topmost leaders of the party
must fight elections." He added, "People should get the chance of
testing their leaders. If I don't get first-hand experience of what is happening
out there and only take decisions based on reports (prepared by party units),
how will I know the veracity of those reports?"
A beleaguered CPM is banking heavily on Chakrabarty's
organisational capabilities to brave the Mamata Banerjee wave after the Singur-Nandigram
episode.
Reacting to Chakrabarty's statement, CITU
State president Shyamal Chakrabarty said, "It is his personal opinion
and the party has nothing to do with it." Politburo member and party
veteran Md Amin felt even Politburo members like Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee,
Manik Sarkar and VS Achyuthandan were elected representatives. What he did
not say, however, was traditionally a Chief Minister of a State was an ex-officio
member of the PB.
Experts immediately interpreted Chakrabarty's
statement as rebellion against Karat's hegemonic style "that is all theory
and no practice".
Cocking a snook at his political bosses, the
septuagenarian leader (who was one of the "Pandavas" - the others
being Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Biman Bose, Anil Biswas and Shyamal Chakrabarty
- of party ideologue Pramode Dasgupta) disapproved of the decision to withdraw
support from the UPA Government that not only gravitated Mamata Banerjee close
to 10 Janpath but also put the Bengal party in one of its biggest political
crisis.
