Devil's Advocate: Bardhan on Left's failure in Lalgarh

JUDGING HIS OWN: CPI veteran A B Bardhan asks Left leaders to keep ears to the ground.

          

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Does Lalgarh prove that the Left Front government in West Bengal is incompetent in handling insurgency? Karan Thapar asked the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India, A B Bardhan.

Karan Thapar: Mr Bardhan, let me start with a simple question. How do you respond to the view that Lalgarh wasn't taken by the Maoists, it was abandoned by your state government--that Lalgarh isn't a sign of Maoist strength but the incompetence of your state government.

A B Bardhan: Incompetence is a very harsh word to use in this context but I must say an element of neglect and not undertaking the work that should have been done, particularly in an area inhabited by tribal people. There is a need for paying special attention to the tribal people, development and all that.

Karan Thapar:So you accept that your government in Bengal is guilty of neglect?

A B Bardhan: They had undertaken the agrarian reforms. Seventy five per cent of the tribal people are beneficiaries of the agrarian reform but beyond that you have to do something more.

Karan Thapar:And they didn't do it?

A B Bardhan: They neglected it. Yes, I will say so.

Karan Thapar:Were you advising them to do something more? Did they in other words failed to listen to your advice?

A B Bardhan: At that time, there was no question of my giving advice. In fact, the government was being run as a one-party government more or less.

Karan Thapar:In other words, the arrogance of the CPM meant that they felt that they didn't need the advice of their allies?

A B Bardhan: I leave the words to you; I won't use these harsh words. After all we are working in the same government and we would like to be at peace with each other, at the same time advise each other.

Karan Thapar:You don't want to use the word arrogance, nonetheless you want to be consulted. And because you want to live in peace with each other you didn't want to make an issue of it.

A B Bardhan: I am not making an issue of it. Because now we are all settled with it.

Karan Thapar: But the government is guilty of neglect?

A B Bardhan: It was, in a sense.

Karan Thapar:And that neglect is because the CPM thought it knew how to handle the situation and it didn't look to others for advice?

A B Bardhan: I don't know if we were capable of giving advice but if they had consulted all the partners of the Left Front, I think they would have done better.

Karan Thapar:You weren't consulted at all?

A B Bardhan: No, I don't think we were consulted. That is one of the failings of the Left government in West Bengal, if I may say so. The amount of consultation that ought to be there is not there.

Karan Thapar:So, when at your national executive fairly recently at Kolkata, you said that Left leaders should shed their arrogance, you actually had the leaders of the CPM in mind?

A B Bardhan: Including my leaders also. Some of my leaders are also in positions of authority. In West Bengal and Kerala, the goverments are the local bodies, anybody who comes to power tends to become a bit arrogant.

Karan Thapar:So not only the CPI-M has failed to consult its allies but also members of the allies, who are in power in Bengal, have failed to keep in touch with their own parties?

A B Bardhan: I think so--failed to keep in touch with the people, with the masses.