INTERVIEW: FRONTLINE, May 20 - June 02, 2006

`We are happy

but not complacent'

Q:What are your feelings on the Left Front's huge victory in the Assembly elections?

JYOTI BASU :

I am extremely happy that we have got a two-thirds majority, with more votes and more seats. Before our State secretary Anil Biswas passed away... I was very happy to hear him say that we would win this time with more votes and more seats. I took up his statement in the meetings that I addressed... I told people that I wanted to see the seventh Left Front government and requested voters to make it happen... Seven times in a row - this has happened nowhere else in India before. ... But first of all, I am thankful to the people of West Bengal, and not just to those who voted for us, for making it such a peaceful election, like all elections since 1977, and we have been praised by the Election Commission.

But why five-phased elections, I haven't yet understood. I feel it was an insult to the people of West Bengal. And we maintained that they would give a fitting reply to the E.C. [Election Commission]. That has also happened.

I have also been saying in speeches that in parliamentary democracy, the Opposition is very important, whether big or small. But it should be a responsible Opposition. I have requested the Opposition in my speeches that we should get together to pass resolutions unitedly the Assembly. But being the Opposition of course it is their duty to oppose the policies they think are anti-people. We in our turn will go to the people to tell them of our programmes, and finally let the people be the ultimate judge. But of course, we don't have a responsible Opposition yet. With this huge mandate, our responsibility has grown.

We are happy and rejoicing, but we are not complacent. We were able to implement 90 per cent of the projects we undertook in the last government. The remaining 10 per cent, for one reason or another we could not achieve - maybe [the] Central government was responsible, maybe we were. That has to be seen to. You see, we never hide anything from the people, even our negative points. We ask our workers to listen to the criticism against us and if there is anything positive that can be done, then it has to be done. If not, then the people should be told so directly. This is the job of the people's representatives in the panchayats and municipalities...

After we won the election in 1977 a huge crowd had gathered to greet us. I told them then that we would not rule from Writers' Buildings [the main State Secretariat] alone but also with the people. The same policy is being pursued. When I decided to retire on grounds of my failing health we created the post of Deputy Chief Minister, which went to Buddhadeb [Bhattacharjee]. He has done well and has led the team properly. He has been accepted not only by the party, but also by the people.

Q: When neoliberal policies are being pursued at the Centre, what challenges will the CPI(M) face in both supporting the UPA government at the Centre, and protecting the interests of the working class, trade unions and the small farmers?

JYOTI BASU:

This is a peculiar political situation in India now. The Congress - we have been fighting it for 45 years. We are now supporting it at the Centre - but on condition of implementing of the Common Minimum Programme [CMP]. Unfortunately we are not happy with all their economic policies and foreign policies. We have always supported the Congress non-aligned foreign policy from [Jawaharlal] Nehru's time down to Indira Gandhi's. But we feel they have abandoned that way, and dependence on America is growing. We don't like it at all. We have said, for example, in profitable industries, foreigners must not get the majority share. [Prime Minister] Dr Manmohan Singh, earlier when he was the Union Finance Minister, started following the advice of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund [IMF]. That must not happen, for these organisations are not always correct in their assessments. Some of the Congress recent economic policies, such as the privatisation of airports and so on we find to be anti-people. Now that the elections are over, we will meet and review how much they have digressed from the CMP, both in economic policies and in foreign policy.

It is clearly written in the CMP that we will pursue an independent foreign policy, but they are leaning on the side of the U.S. [United States], the World Bank and the IMF, who are not always correct. As I have said, there are always conditionalities attached. While we want foreign investments, which will be of mutual interest, generate employment and spread knowledge, we will not accept any conditionalities.

To give you an example, when I was Chief Minister, we asked the World Bank to lend us Rs.900 crores for infrastructure and road development. At that time I went to Washington. They gave me a good lunch, spoke very well, and I thought that the project was happening. But after three months a World Bank team came and asked the Finance Minister to show them the finance budget. He said they were welcome to see the budget that has been passed, but it would be illegal to show them the State's future budget. So we didn't get that money, and had to borrow Rs.500 crores from the Asian Development Bank.

In 1994, when I was Chief Minister, I placed a statement on our industrial policy on the floor of the Assembly that was accepted by the Left parties, and we have been pursuing that. We emerged first in agriculture, fisheries and social forestry, but we were not progressing in industry, where we were the best among the States at one time. Now I think we are fourth. But we are not to be blamed for that. It was the Congress government's licensing policy and freight equalisation policy of iron, steel and coal, the foundation of all industries, that set us back.

Q: What are your views on the reformist agenda followed by the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government?

JYOTI BASU :

I don't know why newspapers go on writing that some of us are against reforms. We are not against reforms. Buddha, in the time of the last government went abroad a few times to get investments into the State; I went to Munich twice to get Siemens here; I went to Holland to [see] Philips for them to expand their activities here. Abroad too, I found, there was propaganda against us; industries should think twice before investing in West Bengal because they strike work all the time. This is very incorrect. It is true, we have given the right to strike not only to workers, but also to government employees, which is prevalent nowhere else in India. But there have been no major strikes in the last 30 years. We keep telling the workers that it is in their interest to look after the industry, if you have demands then place them in front of the management. If there is no agreement then come to the government. Our Labour Department will look into it. But if the management does not listen to legitimate demands, then you can go on strike. We shall never send the police to break up a justified strike.

As for reforms, what is the panchayat system? Is that not a major reform? More than 70 per cent of our people live in the countryside. Take the case of [the] Haldia Petrochemicals complex, a project worth over Rs.5,000 crores. I had to wait for 11 years to get permission from the Central government. That project is making huge profits now, and more than 70,000 people are getting employment in the downstream industries. I remember there was an electronic project that Indira Gandhi had promised to help us with. After keeping me waiting for one year she said that her officers, who had set up a committee to look into this matter, unanimously told her that no investment in electronics should be made in West Bengal, because it is a border State. Ridiculous!

But there is no denying the fact that poverty is still here. Quite some time ago there was a report by the World Bank, which said that 53 per cent of the people of West Bengal live below the poverty line. This was brought down to 23 per cent a few years ago. I don't know exactly what it is now. Unemployment is a very serious issue all over India. Our government has laid a lot of stress on dealing with this problem and the results are showing. The Salim Group has come from Indonesia, the Tatas will be manufacturing their Rs.1 lakh car here, Wipro is here. We are trying to promote small and medium industries to meet the unemployment situation. But our infrastructure is not that good. The seventh Left Front government will have to remedy this.

These are all reforms, and the whole process of reforms started from 1977. So I don't understand what the newpapers mean when they talk about us as anti-reformists.

Q: Soon after the victory you said that Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's role at the Centre should increase. Could you elaborate on that?

JYOTI BASU : We have won not only in West Bengal, but in Kerala also, and very convincingly. So the Left is strengthened, and the Congress-led government depends on the Left's support, because we are in a position to throw them out of power any time. But we don't want to do that, and we are having our Polit Bureau meeting [May 27 - 28] to discuss the situation. Personally, it is getting very difficult for me and I shall ask them to release me, but I know they won't do that. This time our meeting will be on our relationship with the Centre.

Q: You were the longest-serving Chief Minister in the country. Please tell us something of the changes that have occured in the CPI(M) and the Left Front since coming to power in 1977.

JYOTI BASU :

The Communist Party split in 1964, and our party, the CPI(M), came into being. Our policy was to unite Left forces. Earlier also we had formed coalitions to form governments with some leaders who had left the Congress and formed a new party called the Bangla Congress. That government lasted for nine months and then 13 months. In 1971, when the Bangladesh War was on, we put up a great performance, and that too at a time when Indira Gandhi's popularity was at its highest, and she was winning wherever elections were held. At that time we tried to unite the Left parties and that had a great effect on the people. There has been a change in our party constitution. We are working in a capitalist system in a parliamentary democracy and we should take whatever little advantage [there is] from that system to come closer to our goals, which is of course far away. I don't know whether it will take 50 years or 100 years for a classless society without exploitation to come into being.

We are also looking at what is happening in China. The Communist government was set up there one year after our Independence. What they are doing is Marxism-Leninism with Chinese characteristics. That is essentially Marxism, for nowhere has Marx said that the pattern should be the same everywhere. We are studying the Chinese system, we have been to China and met their leaders and we want China to come here too. In fact, China is setting up a power project in one of our districts, and the power [it will produce] is expected to be among the cheapest in the country. We want more trade between India and West Bengal and China.

The sixth government also laid a lot of stress on the diversification of agriculture and food processing. Though not much advance has been made in that field, the seventh Left government will complete that process.

Q: What is the future of the Left in Indian politics?

JYOTI BASU : In the last party congress held in New Delhi, we got reports from all the States. It is very unfortunate that though we are very strong in three States, in some of the other States, even though we have good mass organisations, the party is not strong. We took a decision that, from the position we occupy in Central politics now, we should strengthen our party and mass organisation, for strengthening only the party will not help. Unfortunately, mass organisations are not there in most parts of India, but of late there has been some growth, for example this time in Tamil Nadu we got nine seats. But that is not enough. We have to advance in for instance, places like Uttar Pradesh and Madhaya Pradesh, [where] we hardly have any base.

Q: So how long do you think it will be before there is a Left government at the Centre?

JYOTI BASU : I don't know if I will be alive to see that [smiles]. I don't think it will be possible in the immediate future, but an attempt has to be made to strengthen ourselves and also talk to other non-communal parties. The older generation has seen us in the Opposition here, they have also seen the amount of repression we had to suffer. Our party was declared illegal after Independence in 1948. Most leaders were jailed or went underground. Then, after the High Court gave us legal status, we contested the first elections in 1952, and, without practically any organisation, we got 28 seats. I think at that time there were 280 seats in the Assembly. Since then we have been growing. There was a time when we thought that no Left government would be allowed. In fact, E.M.S. Namboodirpad was removed from office in Kerala by Jawaharlal Nehru and President's Rule was imposed. Indira Gandhi was the president of the Congress. But we never gave up. But our one defect has been that the Marxism-Leninism we talk about [has] not spread among the younger generation. But all that has started [to] change. It is very important to raise their consciousness.

Interview taken by SUHRID SANKAR CHATTOPADHYAY

Published on FRONTLINE, Vol. 23 :: No. 10

May. 20 - Jun. 02, 2006

Looking Back on 55 Years of The Republic Day

By Jyoti Basu


Published in

“PEOPLES DEMOCRACY”,

January 29, 2006

THE Republic Day 26 January is replete with historic significance. It marked the adoption of the Constitution of India. The Constitution declared that India would be a democratic republic. The Constitution has been modelled on the Constitutions in force in several countries abroad including Great Britain, USA, and USSR as well as Switzerland. The crux of the Constitution is the set of principles known as the directive principles of state policy.

These principles include: adequate means of livelihood for every citizen and the right to work; an economic system which does not result in the concentration of wealth; right to education and provision for free and compulsory education for children; living wage for workers and equal work for equal pay for men and women.

As our Party Programme points out, none of these principles could be implemented thanks to the class-bias of the bourgeois-landlord system that has prevailed in the country. The gap between the pious intentions and the actuality of practice, stares us in the face, 55 years since the adoption of the Constitution.

The period since independence has been marked by a continuing crisis in the nation’s economy. India is principally an agrarian country with a superstructure of industries. After we gained freedom from British colonial rule, the Indian ruling classes refuse to go in for land reforms. Concentration of land and rural inequalities continue unabated. A central legislation on minimum wages in the rural stretches is yet a far cry.

The policy of liberalisation and the imperialism-driven globalisation have opened up the economy to the marauding forays of multi-national corporations. The bureaucracy, the education system, the media, and the realm of culture are now subject to the penetration of finance capital.

The advent of the BJP government at the centre and in some states, saw the beginning of a new form of anti-people oppression when religious fundamentalism was patronised officially. Already there was a concerted attempt by the bourgeoisie and the landlords to distort secular values as enshrined in the Indian Constitution.

The Congress is not a communal party but it does make compromises with religious fundamentalism. The BJP and its ideological patron the RSS have been engaged in the onerous task of communalising instruments of the state including the administration, the education system and the media.

Communal riots became a frequent feature. While we defend the religious freedom of every religious community, we stand firm against the intrusion of religion into the realms of the economy, education, polity, and administration. Caste oppression, and oppression on the tribal people (the Kalinganagar incident is the most recent example) has been allowed to continue.


CENTRE-STATE RELATIONS

The Indian Constitution is a federal instrument. However, right from its inception, the Indian ruling classes have been engaged in ensuring that a unitary structure is allowed to overwhelm the political scenario. This is evident in the realm of centre-state relations in particular. On our India-wide campaign and movement for correct centre-state relations, the H S Sarkaria Commission was set up by Mrs Indira Gandhi. Its recommendations were not fully satisfactory, but even so its views with regard to financial relations have not been implemented.

The Union list is bigger and exudes much more power than the concurrent list and the State list put together. Over the years, the power and the prestige of the states have been allowed to get eroded. Such has been the bias of the succession of union government that the states have suffered grievously because of lack of administrative and financial powers.

In the present capitalist set up, Left Front governance in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura, with limited powers, has been travelling along the path of alternative governance. In West Bengal, the Left Front government has been in office for six consecutive times. During this period, the succession of Congress-run and BJP-led union governments have been riding roughshod over the state’s rights, administrative and financial. We had formulated the case for providing more power to the states in the document of the Srinagar conference quite a few years ago.

Discrimination against the Left Front government had been manifest in the freight equalisation policy and the licensing system. Planning also favoured a few states and West Bengal was deliberately ignored, allowing the state to lose its leading position in the sphere of industrial production and expansion.

Under the freight equalisation policy, while the comparative advantage of the location of raw materials like coal and iron-ore in West Bengal was effectively nullified, there was no freight equalisation for the raw materials we needed. Under the licence-permit raj, the Congress governments would tell potential investors that industrial licence would only be issued if they chose to invest in states other than West Bengal.

An example of this frame of mind has been the Haldia Petro Chemical project. We had to wait for 11 years because of lack of cooperation of the union government, although we had repeatedly approached the union government for clearance of the project, clearance which was never forthcoming.

Then when Rajiv Gandhi became prime minister, he hurriedly organised a foundation stone laying ceremony with me for the project, more probably, with an eye to the ensuing elections. He, of course, lost the elections. There are many such examples like this. Only after internal and external pressure, the policy of freight equalisation and of licensing system was ended, which has been of great help both to West Bengal as well as other states.

There was also a sustained campaign against West Bengal that propogated that no work gets to be done here because of ‘labour troubles.’ This myth we had to counter not only here in India but also abroad. In the mid-1980s there was an RBI report wherein it was clearly stated that only 3-4 per cent of factory closures were due to the workers’ actions like strike’ and, in fact, the vast majority of the closures were due to the outlook and policy of the management.

A PRO-PEOPLE GOVERNMENT

In West Bengal under Left Front governance, a pro-people, especially pro-poor outlook, has permeated policies. Democracy has flourished and we have recognised even government employees’ right to strike, although emphasised that strike should be used as the weapon of last resort. We have called upon all workers to take an active interest in production and productivity.

Communal harmony has long been a part of the glorious heritage of this state. The rights of people belonging to the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, and the dalits have been well secured.

While a great conundrum of economic progress was chalked up in the country as a whole, we in West Bengal have managed to achieved outstanding figures in agricultural production, social forestry, pisciculture, and horticulture, topping all-India figures.

Fast progress has also been noted in the sphere of industries. Back in 1994 the Left Front government, on the floor of the Assembly enunciated its industrial policy on the demand of the Chambers of Commerce. Industrialisation is being pursued on with especial emphasis on the ‘sunrise industries’ of information technology, food processing, and electronics, generating a high level of employment, especially in downstream units. Attempts are being made to revive sick industries both in the joint sector and in the private sector.

We recall how several years ago, we had approached the then prime minister Mrs Indira Gandhi for investment in electronics in West Bengal. She set up a committee, and for a one full year the committee did nothing. Then she informed me that her officers had told her not to invest in West Bengal since it was a border state, and decided instead to invest in an electronics complex in north India. We told her that the security threat was from Pakistan and not Bangladesh, but she would not listen. We acted on our own and at present there is a flourishing electronics complex at Salt Lake.

ACHIEVEMENTS

To give a few examples of our achievements, the very first Left Front government not only initiated land reforms, but made education free up to the Higher Secondary level. Later 50 engineering colleges were set up from the three existing ones. The sixth Left Front government is determined to achieve a position of primacy in industry nationwide, based on the agricultural advancement already made.

However, we brook no complacency anywhere. We tell the people what we have achieved and what we have not. A great deal of work has been done, but plenty more is left which the seventh Left Front government, we are sure, will tackle as soon as it assumes office.

Politically, we have triumphed in elections at all levels, from the Panchayat and the Municipalities to the assembly and the Lok Sabha in West Bengal. We have no doubt that the people who reside trust in us, will again rally to make the Left Front win the assembly polls later this year, for the seventh time in succession. People create history, and as we always say, they have created history here in West Bengal. We deeply respect the heightened political consciousness of the people.

NEW POLITICAL SITUATION

There is a new political situation prevailing in the country at the present moment. Following the defeat of the anti-people and communal BJP-led forces of right reaction, a Congress-led UPA government took office with outside support from the Left. We chose to lend outside support to the Congress-led government, because we wanted to keep the evil BJP out of office.

However, our support is not unconditional. We are not quite satisfied with all the policies of the Congress-led UPA government and there are some policy matters that we do take exception to. We hope that the two committees the Left and the Congress committees, will sit down and sort matters out for the sake of the nation and the mass of the people. We have reserved the right to organise and build up struggles and movements on important issues in the interest of the people. We call upon the Union government to implement the Common Minimum Programme.

I would like to end this article on a rather personal note. I remember how many decades back, during the pre-independence years, every year there would be a great procession in London to Trafalgar Square and a meeting held there on 26 January, calling for independence. The London Majlis, an association of Indian students, of which I was the general secretary, organised the rally every year. Ignoring the bitter cold of London in January large numbers would congregate and participate in the march and the meeting, such was the enthusiasm.

STRENGTHEN THE PARTY AND THE MASS ORGANISATIONS

Looking back on the decades of independent India, I do believe that much remains to be done especially for the interests of the mass of the people. The strengthening of the Left parties and the mass organisations throughout India is essential for the task of advancing to our goals.

SOURCE: PEOPLES DEMOCRACY, January 29, 2006,
Republic Day Special Number