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Friday, Jan 04, 2008
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“No alternative to capitalism now”

Special Correspondent

This is being realistic, says Buddhadeb

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee

Kolkata: Its down-sides notwithstanding there was no better option under the present circumstances than pursuing the capitalist approach for greater industrial development, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said here on Thursday.

“We have to accept capitalism; where is State capital? This is being realistic in a situation where there is no alternative,” he said while addressing an audience on the occasion of the 42nd foundation day of Ganashakti, the Bengali daily and mouthpiece of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

“We have no model before us to emulate and have to pave our own way ahead,” Mr. Bhattacharjee said, underlining the need for an understanding of developments across the world and “our position in the State with a bourgeois set-up existing at the Centre” to be able “to forge a tactical line” that is relevant and responsive to the demands of the times.

The Chief Minister reiterated the need for greater industrial development while consolidating the successes achieved in the agricultural sector with the focus being on the improvement of the lot of the economically weaker sections. “This is the left alternative that is emerging in the State,” he said.

Dwelling on the debate raging on the issue of acquiring agricultural land for industry, Mr. Bhattacharjee said the existing land-use pattern “cannot be the end of history as is the view of the Opposition.”

“We have to progress with caution in a situation where the pressure of fresh investment flows is weighing heavily on us,” he said, adding that there was need for determining alternative rehabilitation packages for those whose lands were being acquired to set up new industries and infrastructure development.

Need to clear misgivings

The Chief Minister stressed the need for clearing the misunderstanding of “those who are genuinely confused” as well as the misgivings of some Left Front partners over the CPI(M)’s stand on the issue of greater industrialisation “whom we ought to reach out to with our political message.”

It was imperative that the contributions of the industrial sector to the State Domestic Product which stood at 24 per cent should be increased to surpass that of the agricultural sector [at present 26 per cent] if the benefits of development had to reach wider sections of society, Mr. Bhattacharjee said.

The Chief Minister emphasised the need to increase the earnings of agricultural families by setting up more industries, particularly agro-based, and suggested to those opposing the government’s position on the matter “to address themselves to the growing demand among the educated youth for industry, trade and commerce to which there is no alternative.”

Biman Bose, secretary of the State Committee of the CPI(M) and chairman of the Left Front Committee, decried “the conspiracy hatched against the Left Front and its government by a section of the media which is bent on pursuing its campaign of misinformation.” “This section is also trying to pit agriculture [development] against industry and create a rift within the Left Front,” he warned, adding that such designs would have to be resisted.

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