Buddha's bonhomie boomerangs

With the 'brake' being pressed in Delhi, allies in the Left Front in West Bengal are quietly enjoying the discomfort of Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and his ilk

Rajat Roy Kolkata

Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, the Chief Minister of West Bengal, is a grumpy man these days. The stand-off between the Left and UPA has upset his plans. Predictably, ever since the UPA government came to power with Left support, it was rather friendly towards the Bhattacharya government. Private industries were promoted by the Centre for investment in the state — West Bengal attracted Rs 8,132 crore of investment during the last three years, and much more is in the pipeline.

The pro-active role of the UPA, however, did not end there. The Centre has approved the second under-sea cable station to be located in Bengal, enabling major global connectivity to the state's software industries. Indian Oil Corporation has been persuaded to set up a second refinery at Haldia. More so, Haripur, a village in East Midnapore, has been shortlisted as a potential site for the first nuclear power station in the entire eastern region. The Centre was so keen to remain in the good books of the West Bengal government that it ignored widespread protests against the Tata Motors land deal in Singur. Even after the police massacre at Nandigram and the national outrage, the UPA government decisively overlooked it.

We often heard from senior Left leaders like Jyoti Basu that the Left will definitely help the UPA to complete its five-year term. And now, with the CPM central committee having issued the ultimatum of the pause button, the spectre of mid-term election is looming large — a threat to the state's grand plans of industrialisation.

Realising the time constraint, the Left government has started clearing pending projects. On August 22, the cabinet passed four proposals to set up steel and cement plants with an investment of Rs 36,000 crore. Later, Bhattacharya admitted that the project has been written off and now the focus will be on expanding the present petrochemical industry in Haldia.

In the core committee meeting of the party, the chief minister looked dejected. He admitted that since the Left has opposed the India-US nuclear deal, the Haripur nuclear power project might also be aborted. The frustration is valid. The chief minister has already assessed the political risk involved in becoming an ally of the present government in Delhi. His understanding was that once the Tata Motors project becomes operational, it would generate economic activities in the area. Also, major investments in chemical industries in and around Haldia and Jindal's steel plant in Salboni would change the industrial scenario of the state. By 2010, all these projects would be operational bringing optimism on the economic front and issues like Nandigram would become a thing of the past. By the time the state assembly election is held in April 2011, Bhattacharya's government would turn the tide in favour of the Left Front's political slogan — 'development of Bengal.'

However, the uncertainty at the Centre has shattered these dreams. The minor partners of the front, particularly the RSP and the Forward Bloc (FB), are unperturbed over the rupture of Left's relation with the UPA. Rather, they seem happy. Khsiti Goswami, a front-ranking leader of the RSP, says, "The alliance with the Congress has caused serious damage to Left politics. The demarcation line between the Left and the bourgeois parties is no more visible. If we don't distance ourselves from the Congress, it will affect the Left support base seriously. And that will be an irreparable loss.”

Whatever be the outcome in Delhi, the Left Front allies have a lot to cheer in Bengal. Of late, the inter-party relation in the front has soured to an extent. The local unit of the CPI has openly opposed the Nandigram project and condemned the massacre. The RSP and FB leaders have often had serious rifts with big brother CPM. On the land acquisition issue, the RSP and the FB tried to put a 'brake' on the administration, which was ignored by the CPM leaders as a 'minor irritant.' Now, with the 'brake' being pressed in Delhi, allies in the front are quietly enjoying the discomfort of Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and his ilk.